Palm Sunday

Wow! It's been almost two months since I posted anything!

This morning I read the role of the Evangelist in Matthew's passion narrative at St. Mary's (Manhattanville) and then cut out to head down to Cooper Union for the final afternoon of the Left Forum. In the nearly 20 years I have been attending Left Forum and its predecessor the Socialist Scholars Conference, this is the second time, I think, that it has coincided with Palm Sunday. (Once it began on Good Friday and concluded on Easter!) But this is also the first time there were three panels dealing with religion in a serious manner. I attended all three and I hope to write about them in the coming days.

There are a number of reasons I haven't written. First, I have been amazingly busy. A few days before my last post (which was January 26, 2008) I both agreed to run once adain for the Board of Directors of Morningside gardens (my housing coop) and to serve as chair of the Open Market Design Committee. I want to say more about both of these matters later.

Second, while there have been significant developments in Anglicanland during the past seven weeks, I have been to busy to make timely intelligent comments on them.

Third, Liz and I went to Binghamton and Heart Lake for an overnight trip which took more time and energy than the actual trip would suggest was likely. (That trip, by the way, meant that we were not able to meet with Mimi (who we have recently joined in the grandparent business) during her recent trip to New York -- I'm so jealous of those who got to spend time with her -- Tobias, QFC, Rev Boy, and all. Goddammit, I'm gay too!!!

Fourth, Liz and I spent a week in Vermont with our daughter Jane, son-in-law Scott, and granddaughter the adorable Amanda.

And then I was reading. I read the blogs and even some of the comment threads pretty faithfully. (I mean on our side.) And I am embarked on a serious reading of John Dominic Crossan. I'm almost finished with Who Killed Jesus?, the last book of his Jesus trilogy. I'm in the middle of The Birth of Christianity. Without Crossan, I would just go through the motions of affirming the tenets of the Christian faith. Crossan, who seems more orthodox than, say, Matt Kennedy or any other in that camp, provides a way that I can square the parabolic truths of faith with the fruits of a 1950's liberal education. I had to wait until I was almost 72 years old before I could resolve some of the issues. But that could become another digression. I do want to acknowledge, however, that I am just a little obsessed with Matt Kennedy. By chance, about three weeks ago I drove past the church he has wrested from the Diocese of Central New York. Good Shepherd was once a truly Anglo Catholic parish, an oddity in those parts, but in a genuine part of Anglicanism. When my father was warden of Christ Church, I heard a bit about Good Shepherd. There are plenty of solidly evangelical churches around Binghamton -- some more conservative than others. My brother Curtis attended the Community Baptist Church in Port Dickinson -- my sister-in-law and my nephew still go there -- my maternal grandparents were married there -- I went there as a child. The cottage next ours at Heart Lake was bought about six years ago by James Baker, the music director at WPEL, a Christian radio station in Montrose, PA. (After the confirmation by General Convention of the election of Gene Robinson, Liz and I gave Jim a wonderful book for evangelicals by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott and Letha Scanzoni, Is the Homosexual My Neighbor? I don't know what he made of it.) But let that topic lie for the moment.

Anyway, I'm back and I hope I can keep in touch.

NOTE: I'll upload this tonight, while it's still Palm Sunday, but I'll add some links tomorrow.
FURTHER NOTE: Here it is Tuesday, and I haven't added links. I'll let it go and not add them.