A mini epiphany

I was having lunch with Fr. P yesterday and was talking about reading the Catachism of the Catholic Church and my bible study the other day and hearing my former minister on an AM Christian radio station trying to explain that he didn't take the bible literally, but definately took it seriously....

(and that is exactly how my conversations with Fr. P tend to go. Gushes of semi-connected thoughts that may or may not have have any real connection once they are out of my mouth. He is a patient man.)

Anyway, to break this down into smaller bites:

The CCC stresses that the ultimate authority for interpreting the revelation of Jesus Christ is the Magistaerium. (spell check, please!)

The Evangelicals on the AM radio station who were intereviewing my former UU minister stressed that the ultimate authority is the Bible itself.

My priest at Grace, at the bible study on Sunday, mentioned that in the Episcopal tradition, religious authority is gleaned from 4 sources: The bible, tradition (which I think of as sort of the equivalent to the Magistaerium), reason (those pesky intellectual Anglicans...) and experience. Yes. Experience.

Like, my experience of God is of pure love and joy and I can't really bring myself to believe that he personally ordered the slaughter of every man, woman, child and infant in the pagan towns of Judah.

So, by now, if you are still reading this, you are wondering what the heck the mini epiphany might be.

It is that I am thinking that I might actually be an Anglican. For real. Not by default. Not a Catholic wanna be. (Although that might still be true at some point!) But, right now, right here, I am an Episcopalian and, dare I say it, proud of it.

Whew.