I agree that things are changing, but I have always been careful to assume that nothing whatsoever that I post online is truly 'private' or 'confidential', and have advised others to do the same. Even if we have full control of information that we post now, imagine how much has changed in the last 10 years of the internet. We have no idea what it will look like 10 years from now.

I recall reading an article that President Clinton took a nap every afternoon to help recharge. You have a couch in your office, don't you? ;-)

Wow, Nick, that was really quite something. Definitely puts Advent front and center. Thanks.

My understanding of eastern theology would seem to imply that that fall was a universal fall in the sense that all of the created order is fallen and the incarnation redeems the whole universe. What that means in terms of the incarnation of Jesus on Earth, I could not say.

I cannot wait for this to be available! I see that I can get it from amazon.co.uk and am very tempted to order it now.

OK, I have been skimming though the report and it is fascinating. Clearly a lot of work has gone in to it, and it resonates with me in many ways as an Episcopalian. The identity that it begins to describe is definitely something that I can be at one with. However, it is interesting for me to note that out of 2,483 participants there are 317 who are 45 and under (13%) and 93 who are 35 and under (4%). The report notes that the demographics at all levels of those who participated in the process are representative of the Episcopal Church as a whole. So, it should be clear that we are not a young church...everyone knows this. However, I was fascinated to do some searching in the body of the report and find that children are only mentioned once to say that they could not fill out the survey -- which appears to only include those 18 and older. Youth are mentioned once in the context of how confirmation has changed in many congregations. There is one brief mention of raising children in the faith in a quote. There was nothing I could find about youth development, youth ministry, or higher education ministry. I am aware that talking about these kinds of ministries was not really the purpose of the report. However, it seems to me that if the report presents an accurate picture of where the Episcopal Church is now in terms of how its current members see its identity, we have some real questions to address as to how we can transmit this identity to a new generation, and how quickly. 64% of participants are age 55 and older, and based on current life expectancy in the US, they will not be around in 25 years' time. I hope that this report can help us to begin the conversation!

Well it is a good-looking website at least, and I will certainly spend some time exploring. I was interested to note that the opening video "Who We Are" is almost completely about mission activities, other than a brief mention of the BCP and sacraments in a list of things, there is almost nothing to indicate that we ever even go to church or pray. I shall keep looking...

Something I heard recently about this whole issue has gotten me thinking. A friend posited that one of the things that is so good about the Anglican Communion is that we are able to have this debate about human sexuality openly and in the public forum. Of course, on a practical level it has caused enormous damage to all concerned. However, it is ridiculous to say that either the Roman Catholic Church or the Eastern Orthodox churches do not have significant internal problems to deal with regarding sexuality. Perhaps some of the reason that they are speaking so harshly about our discourse is that they are a bit jealous that we can even have this debate in the first place.

I read somewhere else (T19 perhaps?) that the metrics of the text and the tune really do not match up. So it would be pretty challenging to sing. I really like your phrase 'dogma in doggerel'.

I saw something else about this book recently, and am looking forward to reading it. However, I would add the caveat that the book of Eagleton's I read in college, The Idea of Culture, was the worst kind of useless academic socio-cultural-literary babble. In fact, I read it in a comparative literature class, and the professor was using it as an example of poor critical methodology. That being said, I am very pleased to see a formal academic response to Hitchens (and Dawkins).