Typical Fort Worth Street Scene
The experts tell us that you can gauge the ethos and spirit of a culture by its civic architecture. What does that tell us about Fort Worth? That we're a massive, inhuman, concrete and asphalt tangle of roads.
Take that as deeply or not as you like, but I won't pretend to like it. Apparently the City Fathers didn't get the memo, spaghetti junctions went out with the '70s.
St. Vincent's Campanile
I thought all this as I drove into the metrosprawl from the country for a meeting at St. Vincent's Cathedral and it made me miss England, not that that's perfect either.
Someone once said that the English had destroyed more historical buildings after the War (#2) every year, than the Germans did throughout the entire Blitz. Good thing the National Socialists didn't have Lancasters and B17s.
Shoot It
Somber reflections on iconoclasm aside, it was good to be at the cathedral and meet with catholic-minded orthodox Anglicans. Good people working for a good cause, to assert catholicity for our part of the Church.
And that's a bold call, not least because the Anglo-Catholic movement's been pretty much defeated. Priestesses, liturgical dancers, tutu-endorsing Etonian Primates; throw a dart at the wall and hit a unicorn. You name it, they've captured the mainstream aspect of our church. But not at St. Vincent's.
A clergyman
No dancers, no unicorns, no tutus, no fireman's helmets, just the catholic faith seen through the eyes of Anglicanism. Some might argue that's myopic, others might say that Rome wasn't built in a day.
Your Friend,
LSP
Re: "just the catholic faith seen through the eyes of Anglicanism"
ReplyDeleteWe can haz a series on John Henry Newman's nine "Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England" when you're at a loss on what to post? (nonlibelous 1852 edition of course!).
Re: "just the catholic faith seen through the eyes of Anglicanism"
ReplyDeleteCan we get a series on John Henry Newman's nine "Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England" (non-libelous 1852 edition of course!) when you don't have something else to post? A self-examination of Protestant prejudices and canards might not hurt too much.
That's a very good idea, pschodave.
ReplyDeleteRe: "That's a very good idea, ps[y]chodave.
ReplyDeleteNot really. Take Melania Mondays. THAT is a very good idea.
I found Newman'a APOLOGIA too thick to finish, and would appreciate help digging out the Protestant Traditions, Heritage, Prejudices and (carefully nurtured)Mistruths about Rome's church from Newman's Lectures which, though shorter than the APOLOGIA, are equally heavy going.
As a member of the (Protestant) Episcopal Church, the exercise might could get me a nanometer closer to the only way. Besides, I probably owe Newman the attention. I'd have never known about the Anglican Church's Homilies, and the prodigious heavyweights who wrote them.
Alright there, psycho.
ReplyDeleteI've always liked the Apologia and find it strangely prescient/modern -- I remember thinking that his prose and analysis of modernism/liberalism was remarkably current. Bear in mind it was published in '64... Have a second look and see what you think.
I'll have a gaze at PTHPM.
Heavyweights? There were giants in those days and imagine the Homilist's schoolmen antecedents. Makes the world of today's theology seem pretty lightweight, at least from my perspective.
Glad you like Melania Mondays. Stay tuned.