@oblatenate Widows and orphans lack a man: husband or father. The Church as the true/restored Temple/Israel/covenant people sets apart a pastoral office to tend to this often-ignored group (and, whenever that neglect occurred, it incurred prophetic rebuke). @oblatenate Every deacon, when he sees a widow in the Church, ought to hear our Savior's words from the cross: "Son, behold thy mother." This is a cornerstone of the office.

A lot of the "idolatry of marriage and family" talk is a blindness in the face of reality. christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/august… The long and short of it is that, in terms of the broad trends, there are a lot of people that aren't married that could/should be, but our culture is an anti-marriage, anti-child culture.

Some great stuff in the Presiding Bishop's report at #RECGC56. A couple of highlights: 1. Unification of Theological Education, one of the hopes being that students at all 3 REC seminaries could benefit from an accredited degree from RES

I don't hang my paedobaptist hat on the position outlined here, known by the fancy term fides infantium.

HOWEVER, I do think this is a correct observation, and it has a lot of influence on political theology. This is from @PLeithart : "Protestants have always emphasized that salvation comes through faith, yet most Protestants have baptized babies. How can these two things hold together?

Pastor of the church the suspect attended speaks out
cnn.com/us/live-news/c…

This event is made all the more frightful by the fact that the shooter didn't even seem to be on the fringes of the congregation--apparently he was the son of an elder. I say frightful because it makes you worry, as a pastor, what kind of corrupted, perverse views congregants may hold unknown to you--especially if they keep them secreted away in some form or fashion.