Thanks to the Pontificator!

Yesterday I was appointed as co-writer, along with Orthodox priest Steven Freeman, for the splendid theological blog Pontifications. Its owner and moderator, Fr. Al Kimel, recently resigned his position as a parish priest in ECUSA to join the Catholic Church, into which he was received a few weeks ago by Fr. Jay Scott Newman (note the serendipitous name) of St. Mary's, Greenville, SC. The blog is metamorphosing from a record of Kimel's struggles with and exodus from ECUSA into something of broader and still quite ecumenical interest.

In fact, I have found it to be the only place on the Internet where one can daily discuss real theology in a consistently civil manner with highly intelligent and committed adherents of “mere Christianity.” That is why I became a regular commentator there. Although it is confessional with a confession I favor, it is not a confessonal ghetto. It enables people to cross boundaries without blurring them. That does not merely please me but is important for all the churches. Discussions can get polemical at times—alas, like those of any online forum—but the polemics do not go over the top and certainly do not deflect the common search for truth. That alone makes Pontifications worth maintaining, and I'm proud to be an integral part of it.