People updates.

I was all set to get some banana bread, but somebody ate all but one of the bananas. Oh, snap! One might be enough, we're going to try tonight. So, I checked around, got some correspondence in and some chillin' wit' da homies. The former Jesuit wondered if I ever considered becoming a priest, he's the first and hopefully the last to ever wonder that; I attribute it to most of our interactions these days being epistolary in nature. I found out from Mr. M.'s sister that he is indeed gone to Ukraine for the next three years, which has me annoyed because he didn't mention he'd be leaving so soon at that wedding last month and that means he's effectively dead to me. Still no response from Mr. Troll, I presume he's abroad, too, but he's coming back soon enough. Mr. K. has okayed my visit on Thursday, and while there I will see everybody in the entire world, then I'm picking up my grandmother so she can see my mother's opera [Carmen]. For some reason, I've begun corresponding with one of the new pastors at the non-denominational church I grew up in about my departure from their horrible life-denying denials of Christian truth, Anglicanism and Orthodoxy, and also the penitential psalms. I should have mentioned that the Anglican groups which joined Orthodoxy en masse which I first referred to all did so between 1900 and 1940. He's a decent chap, engaging. Today we commemorate the holy and God-bearing Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, which is very appropriate, because that's what my next letter will be about.

Just for those wondering, the brash exterior complaining about "life-denying denials of Christian truth" and constant references to "heresies" is simply a front, in real discussions I have to be very careful and downright accepting of others [gag], these problems are more complex than that and while there are severe departures from Christian truth in all forms of Protestantism, "a contrite and humble heart God will not despise". God gives His grace wherever He will and is not bound to the visible structures of the Church, and we in our humility must not presume to judge those who have departed from the fulness of truth as they seek God. True, they would be better off in the sacramental unity of the Church, but who am I to say they are not saints now? And somebody who believes something which is per se heretical is not necessarily a heretic [in fact, is usually not, it's very hard to be a heretic].