<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Re: Saw Blessing of Animals / Episcopal Church</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<BLOCKQUOTE>Christopher and all,<BR>
<BR>
I could offer some significant nuance to the likenesses and distinctions you identify between Roman Catholics and Episcopalians, and will gladly do so off list in personal e-mail for any who are genuinely interested. For this conversation about the Camino, however, I want only to suggest that the Camino itself offers a very perspective on this:<BR>
<BR>
</BLOCKQUOTE>> <TT>If a church's true identity derives from its teachings and its interpretations <BR>
> of Scripture, then the Episcopal and Catholic Churches are not as close as <BR>
> their surface similarities might make it appear.<BR>
<BR>
</TT><BLOCKQUOTE>Your 'if' proposes that we test a standard of unity, likeness, or communion. The Episcopal Church since the time of Elizabeth I has claimed to find its true identity in shared practice of corporate prayer rather than doctrinal formulations, teachings or interpretations. (I do think we could find more common ground in the teachings and interpretations than you suggest, but for Camino purposes, I want instead to point to shared practice.) A church that defines itself by shared prayer and expects to accommodate significant differences of belief and opinion beyond that practice seems somewhat like our wide community of pilgrims - don't we as pilgrims come to recognize the clearest and simplest description of fellow pilgrims "as those who have also walked the path," the ones like us who have journeyed to Santiago? <BR>
<BR>
I certainly heard this from Catholic priests preaching at various pilgrim masses each of the three times I have walked on the Camino: the simple sharing of walking and prayer takes us to the place where Christians (and all humanity) can discover our unity. <BR>
<BR>
love,<BR>
<BR>
donald<BR>
<BR>
(The Rev. Donald Schell<BR>
St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church<BR>
San Francisco, California)<BR>
<BR>
donaldschellasaintgregorys.org<BR>
www.saintgregorys.org </BLOCKQUOTE>
</BODY>
</HTML>