145 Reasons Why

Some of you have asked me why I am a liberal Anglo-Catholic, let alone a priest at that.  Therefore, I have compiled a list of reasons and some you will find quite funny.

1. No snake handling (a real sales feature in Kentucky).
2. You CAN believe in dinosaurs.
3. Male and female God created them, male and female we ordain them.
4. You don't have to check your brains at the door.
5. Even boxer shorts with crosses or religious icons aren't a tacky Christmas gift for the clergy.
6. The church year is color-coded to make it easier to follow.
7. You don't have to know how to swim to get baptized.
8. The church doesn't tell me what to think, but expects me to think about what I think.
9. I love the Church: good liturgy, good sermons, great music, continuing adult spiritual formation, and because worshipping together is more important than agreeing with doctrine.
10. Because we know about LOVE
11. We don't need to see eye to eye, to walk hand in hand.
12. I wasn't told to set aside my pride if I had trouble accepting a doctrine.
13. We do not have a 'party line' - we do not claim to know it all, thus leaving room to whereever the Holy Spirit may guide us.
14. I came in unsure and unchurched. It has been a long journey that had brought me to the joy of being surrounded by unconditional love of the Body of Christ.
15. We have processions instead of standing in line.
16. We are like golfers - we find debating on the rules a lot more interesting and fun than the rules themselves.
17. People can disagree AGREEABLY and still celebrate at God's table with whom you disagree.  Everyone is welcome.
18. You don't feel weird if you do (or don't) pray to Mary and/or any of the other saints.  The church leaves up to individual piety the application of 'encouraged by their examples, aided by their prayers, and strengthened by their fellowship' (Book of Common Prayer, page 504)
19. Leadership opportunities are out there for young people. They just need to be proactive instead of reactive.
20. The church is my 'Amazing Grace'. It has transformed me in many ways and to say 'I will with God's help'.
21. The Archbishop of Canterbury doesn't fall under the pretense of 'infallibility.'
22. The church is a home where you are loved unconditionally, both during your greatest joys and most desperate sorrow.
23. The first time I visited, the priest said 'Welcome Home' and meant it.
24. I can bring anyone I wish to church, and I am certained they will be welcome.
25. Here, God does not call us to agree, he calls us to Communion!
26. We have the best hymns, hands down... even if your hands are up while singing them.
27. The church is the perfect paradox: firmly based in tradition, but never afraid to change; deep and meaningful theology without the headaches; and a strong community of believers who don't all believe exactly the same thing, but love each other anyway.
28. Our theological method is like Baked Alaska which is at once ice and flame, soft and hard.  We dare to keep extremes in a creative (and delicious) tension.
29. The perfect church for imperfect people.
30. The church focuses on love, not sin.
31. We don't just talk about the Bible... we actually read it!
32. Instead of Bible thumpers, one finds Bible thinkers.  Thinking being the operative word, I am grateful the church accepts humans who think and say "Yeah, but have you ever thought it could be..."
33. A safe place for sinners, like the rest of us...
34. All of the pagentry, half the guilt.
35. All this is from God, who reconciled himself to us through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespass against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
36. It's an embracing church for the hurting world.
37. I'm free to think on my own.  That doesn't mean I can believe whatever I want, but we respect the gift that God has given us of intelligence.
38. I discovered the church was already there to greet me.
39. Because God loves you.  ALL of you.  Period. Class dismissed!
40. We become one with the One we receive.
41. We're a church that believes in preserving tradition but does not mummify it.
42. You come and discover why 'Holy! Holy! Holy!' is one of our most popular hymns.
43. Here, enthusiatical doubt is better than judmental certainty.
44. God made the funny bone.  Let him repair yours here.
45. We honor the forgotten first commandment: Love God with your mind.
46. I am gay, and here, I am least likely to be attacked with baseball bats in the name of Jesus.
47. I can choose to read or not read whichever translation of the Bible I wish.
48. You don't have to be ordained to give a sermon in church.
49. I felt right at home here because the church is crawling with Missouri-Synod Lutherans who asked too many questions.
50. I love being an Anglo-Catholic because our Church has a glorious, age-old authoritative Tradition, free from authoritarianism, clerical despotism or brutish fundamentalisms.
51. We have intelligent, loving spirituality.
52. It is God's table, not our own.  If you don't come, we many not be the Church...
53. My parish is the most functional family I have found.
54. No minimum age for full benefits!
55. Protestant and Catholic... no waiting!
56. We stand,s it, and kneel in awe of God.
57. The Calendar here is filled with heroes of every era, from Saints Peter and Paul to Saint Martin Luther King, Jr.
58. Here, it is important *that* we worship, not what we *believe* about the one we worship.
59. This wonderful, crazy Church of ours is a place where I know I am called to work out my salvation 'with fear and trembling' (Philippians 2:12) and to take my place in helping to build up the Kingdom of God.
60. We are a haven for the spiritually wondering and wounded.
61. We have the best preaching this side of Heaven: Guaranteed guilt-free!
62. We're not 'either/or' people, we are 'both/and' people.
63. Whatever you believe, here, there is at least one who agrees with you.
64. This is where Diversity is a blessing and celelebrated.
65. Where God welcomes you, you, me, and... everyone else!
66. Where the Bible is taken seriously, not literally.
67. Where the Holy Spirit is alive and well, daring to say anything new!
68. (This one is from a parishioner, and I'm the priest mentioned here) "Years ago in Adult Inquirors' Class, the priest asked me if I was ready to be confirmed. I answered, 'I don't know if I agree with everything.' 'Heck,' he said. 'I'm a priest and I don't agree with everything. You will never agree with everything.'"
69. You will almost always find good coffee in the fellowship halls of our Church.  It is consumed reverently before and after services and is almost considered a Sacrament by us.
70. Any church that can contain both Bishop Spong and Bishop Stanton must be doing something right.
71. We respectfully disagree about a great many things, and can still break bread together.
72. Here, everyone loves a parade!
73. Because small-minded people can't spell 'Episcopalian'!
74. If you're a newcomer, we don't freak out or get holier-than-thou if you don't quite 'get it right' the first few times.
75. We recognize that God doesn't make junk and all people are valuable.
76. We have the Bell, Book, and Candle...
77. Catholic with your mind turned on!
78. Catholic, without the pope; and with the women; Protestant without the gloom.
79. Christ wasn't picky, and neither are we.
80. 'Episcopal' is an anagram of 'Pepsi Cola'... both are the real thing.
81. We believe in moderation of all things, including moderation.
82. We don't tend to be demonstrative, we don't expect you to shout 'Amen!' or 'Hallelujah!'... on the other hand, it's okay if you do!
83. We may spend a lot of time arguing with each other about important matters inside and outside the church.  Often the arguments are very public.  Sometimes they go on for years and seem to reach no definite resolution.  But we're confident that through and in this kind of engagement with each other, we will become closer to understanding what God is up to and who God wants us, as a church, to be.
84. We spend less time beating on the Bible and spend more time reading it!
85. We try to love with the heart of Christ, think with the mind of Christ, and act as if we were the body of Christ.
86. Expect to see God here, often in the face of another person you'd never chose.
87. Hate is not a family value here.
88. Hearts and lives are transformed.  Brains are left intact.
89. I can walk to church, hand-in-hand with my boyfriend, and no one thinks twice about it.
90. Because unity doesn't mean conformity.
91. We don't believe in organized religion.  Here, chaos lurks in the narthex, the nave, the chancel, the sanctuary, the sacristy, the  halls... just waiting for a chance to mess things up.  Sometimes chaos gets through, but no one seems to mind greatly.  We take our liturgy seriously, but no solemnly.
92. Here, I may not get the answers to all my questions about the Holy Spirit.  Instead, I get enough answers to ask more questions!
93. We believe Christ died to save us from our sins, not our minds.
94. I participate, I enjoy, I laugh, I am not damned to hell.  I say 'The peace of God be with you.' and it is reciprocated.  Thanks be to God.
95. One is expected to ask all of those annoying questions and use his/her brain.
96. Here, doubt is so okay that we have even named some of our parishes "St. Thomas"
97. It takes three of us to screw in a light bulb: one to make the martinis, another to screw in the bulb, and the third to talk about how much prettier the old bulb was.
98. It's the one place I know where you go out for a beer after Bible study, and even talk about Bible study while in the bar.
99. It's okay to cross yourself, your fingers, your knees, or any combination of the three!
100. We're more real than any other churches... we're diverse, just like reality.
101. This place makes us want to do right rather than be right.
102. Many of our priests give birth, all do re-birth!
103. We fight like hell from 9am to 5pm but at the end of the day, we put our arms around each other and say "Oh nuts! Let's go have a drink."
104. Other churches saw the sinner, we saw as another child of God.
105. Our theology is an art form, not a law book.
106. Pope Gregory was right: not angles, but Angels!  You'll find such angelic spirit here that's lacking elsewhere.
107. Religion on tap!  Where discussing theology with a priest doesn't warrant a second thought.
108. Saved by faith, grace, and good taste!
109. Sermons are more about grace than guilt.
110. The calling of an Anglican is not to fill the church but to fill heaven.
111. The Church and Science comfortably co-exist.
112. The clergy here is not only smart, gifted, and spiritual, we're fun!
113. Where we continue to learn in scripture and experience in sacrament that God loves us unconditionally.  Even though we will never deserve one drop of His bloody grace, He continues to drown us in his endless red sea.
114. Where we 'Seek the Truth, Come What May'
115. Where we're taught that Jesus came to challenge, not just comfort; to overturn, not maintain; to love, not judge; to include, not cast aside.
116. The 'fashion police' don't come to our church, the Holy Spirit does.
117. The only church besides the MCC that can direct God to the antique store with a sapphire throne!
118. Where The Book Of Common Prayer bids us to come to God's table for strength and renewal, not just solace and pardon only.
119. The world is beautiful, so we worship the God that created beauty.
120. There will be NO outcasts in this church!
121. This is a church that tries to open its arms to all the diversity of God's creation.  Although it fails miserably at times, it never stops trying.
122. This is the only church that's as lovingly loony as your family.
123. Try us.  You'll like us and we'll love you.
124. Tired of hell fire and brimstone?  Try incense.
125. We believe that love without justice is cheap sentimentality.
126. Where we belong before we believe.
127. We change and transform lives in Christ without the 'turn-or-burn'.
128. We don't claim an exclusive franchise on God.
129. Wed don't get rid of our enemies, we love them as our friends.
130. We don't say 'We're right and others are wrong', we say 'Peace be with you.'
131. We have a faith not ashamed to reason and reason not ashamed to adore.
132. We partake of the wine too, not just the host.  All one body are we.
133. We tackle issues that other denominations neither have the courage to face nor the theology to deal with.
134. We view the Bible as a 'Why to' and not a 'How to' manual.
135. We may not have all the answers, but we have all the questions.
136. We welcome the faithful, the seeker, and the doubter.
137. We're here for you.  You can be truly you, and you will have space, and permission to grow.
138. What other church will let a priest like me walk around in wrist cuffs, jeans, boots, leather jacket, a metal band t-shirt, and black nail polish on with a rosary in my pocket?
139. Regarding confession to a priest, where all may, some should, none must.
140. Where evolution is not only taught, it also happens!
141. Where flesh is not something dirty, but something God became!
142. Where God is the only judge.
143. Where our mind, soul, and body unite with the God who created them.
144. Where the word of God is a person, not a book.
145. You know you are an Anglo-Catholic when you watch a Star Wars movie and they say 'May the force be with you' and you respond 'And also with you.'

I hope you enjoyed these reasons as to why I am an Anglo-Catholic.  I got a few words to say to you when you visit the church: "Hello.  Welcome to loony bin. May the peace of God be with you."