Wow - it has been a month since I blogged. Eeck!!

I spent last week at the Anglican Mission Winter Conference. It was really good. Probably the best aspect, for me, was meeting other folks who are doing the same sort of stuff we are dreaming of here in Lexington -- dreaming of an Anglicanism poured into new wineskins.

To use another metaphor, a friend of mine likens changes that are emerging in the church to architecture. A new house can be created in a number of ways. One way is to restore the house - it looks like the original but all the infrastructure has been modernized. Another way is to build a brand new house from the ground up. Both are ways to prepare the church for the future.

I think of Saint Patrick's as a restoration job with some new additions added on. On one hand, we are serious about being rooted in our Anglican tradition - the middle way between catholicism and protestantism - but the house needs new wiring, insulation, etc. At the same time, we want to add missional rooms to our house because we are no longer in Christendom. Anglicanism was birthed at the height of Christendom so it needs some additions to meet the current missional moment.

Pax