Thursday, October 14, 2010

This weekend, check out the Northern Plains Anglicans Facebook page, because...

I am welcoming a group of new group of fly-over-country-Anglican contributors.

When I started this blog in 2007, I wrote

Northern Plains Anglicans seeks to connect treasure hunters. Back in the late 1800s, William Hobart Hare travelled about by horse and buggy sharing the treasure of Anglican Christianity:

+ God's good news in Jesus Christ, carried in the Holy Bible and ancient forms of Christian worship and ministry
+ Faith that does not reject reason, but blesses and completes it
+ God's love for all "races, tribes, languages and nations"
+ The Book of Common Prayer as a great spiritual resource, helping people gather in prayer with or without clergy

My hope is that the Facebook page will gather a community of treasure hunters, and get others to start exploring our spiritual riches.

The page won't be the place to hash out all the "issues" and controversies - there are all kinds of blogs 'n' such for that. The folks I'm inviting in as Admins won't agree on everything, but all have found treasure worth sharing by practicing their Christian faith in the Anglican tradition.

Coming up:

Fr. Ryan Hall is the Rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Brookings, South Dakota, home of the annual Wild Game Feed. A new dad as well as a new Rector, he is the host of the blog Costly Grace.

Kim Larsen is a true Midwestern woman: born in South Dakota, schooled in Minnesota and now a lay leader in an Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) church plant in Wisconsin. Amidst all the uncertainties of a church start up, she says "This is the fullest, busiest, happiest, most fulfilling time of my life thus far. I am very blessed."

Edmund Kopietz was warned that he would be my token "Young Person." He's decades younger than me, a denizen of Minneapolis, interested in "Anglo-Catholicism, World Domination, Historical Preservation, Anglican History, Gardening," and his TV watching includes American Experience, South Park, Bizarre Foods, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, The Daily Show, The Office, Seinfeld, The Shield, Family Guy, The Simpsons.

I am also in the process of recruiting Native American and Sudanese Episcopalian contributors (they were not an afterthought - I've been at it for awhile but other cultures do not sit obsessively at their computers like the White man. Cross cultural messaging takes more time - I'm just glad to have the friendships in place!).

I have a high view of the church. I don't accept calls to make it a "middle school" in which I can't be your friend if I hang out with that other kid. You will see Episcopalians-in-good-standing and Anglicans who've left TEC on the same page. You will hear from clergy and lay people, men and women, and God willing people of different cultures.

So check out the page this weekend - enjoy the blasting as treasure gets uncovered!

4 comments:

Matt said...

Hey Fr. Fountain, your line up of bloggers looks very interesting and I'll look forward to reading what they have to say.

Steve Wood said...

Look like a good line-up. Looking forward to their articles.

TLF+ said...

Glad to have you all looking in! Just remember, the full posts will be at the FB page. I will probably post a teaser/summary type thingy here at the blog.

The Archer of the Forest said...

I'm not that old...I just act old.