“The Weekend Wanderer” is a weekly curated selection of news, stories, resources, and media on the intersection of faith and culture for you to explore through your weekend. Wander through these links however you like and in any order you like. Disclaimer: I do not necessarily agree with all the views expressed within these articles but have found them thought-provoking.
“Liberate Your Wealth: Two early Christian bishops weigh in on wealth and private property” – Basil the Great and Ambrose of Milan in Plough: “Fling wide your doors! Give your wealth free passage everywhere! As a great river flows by a thousand channels through fertile country, so let your wealth run through many conduits to the homes of the poor. Wells that are drawn from flow the better; left unused, they go foul.…Money kept standing idle is worthless, but moving and changing hands it benefits the community and brings increase.”
“Explained: Has Gafcon just split from the Anglican Communion?” – Tim Wyatt at Premier Christianity: “Is this the long-predicted schism? Divisions over sexuality have long plagued the Anglican Communion, but according to some commentators, a full separation is now taking place. Tim Wyatt takes a closer look at Gafcon’s latest statement, which includes the revelation this group of churches will elect their own chair to replace the Archbishop of Canterbury. ‘The future has arrived.’ So begins a momentous statement issued last week by a conservative Anglican network that claims they are ‘reordering’ the global Anglican Communion, returning it to biblical truth. Is this a schism, or an internal power struggle between church leaders? Or is something else entirely going on?”
“Should Christians Be Anarchists?”– Alan Jacobs at The Homebound Symphony: “I wrote in my anarchist notebook: “Jacques Ellul thinks that Christians should be anarchists because God, in Jesus Christ, has renounced Lordship. I think something almost the opposite: it is because Jesus is Lord (and every knee shall ultimately bow before him, and every tongue confess his Lordship) that Christians should be anarchists.” I hadn’t remembered writing that, but came across the post this morning, just after posting on Phil Christman’s book. Do I think that Christians should be anarchists in the way that Phil thinks we should be leftists? Am I ready to grasp that nettle? Maybe not yet, though I will say that the essential practices of anarchism — negotiation and collaboration among equals — are ones utterly neglected and desperately needed in a society in which the one and only strategy seems to be Get Management To Take My Side. And Christians are a part of that society and tend to follow that strategy.”
“The Overcrowded Garden” – Joshua Becker at Becoming Minimalist: “I love gardening. In fact, some of my fondest childhood memories are of helping both my grandfather and father in their backyard gardens while growing up in South Dakota. The smell of the soil, seeing the first little sprout, the fresh vegetables—it’s a pastime I have always enjoyed. But it’s also a hobby where I have learned some of my biggest life lessons. Imagine a gardener who began gardening with a simple, sunny plot of land. He planted a few tomato plants, some lettuce, and a row of sweet peas. Those were his favorite fresh vegetables and tending to them made him happy, and they flourished. But his love for growing things was strong. He saw a packet of carrot seeds at the store and thought, ‘I could grow these too.’ He discovered a variety of peppers and added them to his cart. A friend gave him a zucchini plant seedling, and he happily accepted. He added more and more. His garden grew. And at first, so did his pride. But soon, he noticed a change. The garden began to look less organized.”
“The ancient monastery hanging from the side of a cliff” – Joe Yogerst at CNN: “If its ancient walls could talk, Sümela Monastery in eastern Turkey would have quite a few stories to tell. Since its founding in the 4th century CE by some of the earliest Christians to arrive along the Black Sea coast, the shrine has witnessed the evolution of the Roman Empire into the Byzantine era, the rise of the Ottomans, the struggle for Turkish independence after World War I, decades of vandalism and neglect, and an almost miraculous resurrection in modern times. Even more alluring than Sümela’s tumultuous history is a location that seems generated by artificial intelligence or computer graphics rather than a real place — a complex of chapels, courtyards, library, living quarters, bell tower, aqueduct and a stone-enclosed sacred spring precariously perched on a rocky ledge nearly 1,000 feet (300 meters) above a wooded river valley in the Pontic Alps.”
“Plans to reopen Tolkien and Lewis pub approved” – Ethan Gudge at BBC News: “Plans to reopen a pub frequented by two of the 20th Century’s most well-known authors, JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, have been approved. Planning permission and listed building consent have both been granted to restore The Eagle and Child in Oxford, which was built in about 1840. The Grade II-listed site has been closed since 2020, and is owned by US tech billionaire Larry Ellison’s firm, the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT). Members of The Inklings group, including Tolkien and Lewis, would regularly meet with other academics at the pub. There is a plaque inside commemorating the writers’ get-togethers.”
Music: All Sons & Daughters, “Rest in You,” from Poets & Saints
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Matthew Erickson 