Do you know who the first Anglican saint was? Here’s a hint: it wasn’t Henry VIII. The title of this article says it all, but don’t feel embarrassed if you are unaware of King Charles the Martyr. Since the founding of the Episcopal Church (USA), Anglicanism’s first and longest-loved saint has been curiously absent from our province’s liturgical calendar — and this despite repeated and growing calls for his reinstatement.


Sadly, the American case is not unique. Anglicans today pay scandalously little attention to the saint whose cult fueled the Anglican imagination for centuries. Yet King Charles the Martyr witnesses to important facets of the Anglican heritage, especially the Anglican Counter-Reformation and the importance of martyrs, miracles, and relics. If it is true, as many now claim, that Anglicans are out of touch with their history and tradition, then the life and legacy…

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is the latest to make news in the sexuality wars, and I am quite happy to let them have the limelight for a while. It was a little eerie to follow the story, as they were meeting at the Minneapolis Convention Center, where General Convention pulled the switch on Anglicanland's ongoing roller-coaster ride in 2003. I was there then, so I could picture the environment in my mind's eye. It is also eerie to read first reports of how the ELCA's decision is playing among those Lutherans who dissent from the majority position of their Churchwide Assembly. The refrains are all too familiar.


We are at an impasse. At certain levels, of course, the majority has spoken clearly and, as they say, "elections have consequences." But if we either zoom in or zoom out from either the Churhwide Assembly…

The following sermon, on Ephesians 4:25-5:2, was preached on 9 August 2009 (Year B, 10 Pentecost, Proper 14, RCL) at St. Paul’s Parish, K St., Washington, D.C. by N.J.A. Humphrey.

For five Sundays in a row now, we’ve been hearing snippets from the epistle to the Ephesians. We will hear seven weeks’ worth of the “greatest hits” from Ephesians in all, and today’s verses are central to Paul’s message.

Before getting into this morning’s reading, however, let me begin by summarizing what the letter is all about. Ephesians is concerned with the issue of the inclusion of Gentile converts into a largely Jewish Christian Church, about what accommodations Jewish Christians are called to make on the one hand, and what amendments of life Gentile converts are called to make on the other hand. In other words, it’s about a big ol’ conflict, the resolution…