Wednesday, February 22, 2006

on a whim...


I have changed the title of this blog from "Whitehall" to "Anglican Catholic." I think the latter makes more sense; and given that the address is anglicancatholic, &c, and so forth.

There was a brief moment of hesitation over whether it should be "Anglican Catholic" or "Catholic Anglican." But given that the my most fundamental desire is to be a catholic Christian, I went with the former. I.e. I would give up being Anglican, if I had to, for the sake of being catholic. But I would not give up being catholic for the sake of being Anglican. (It seems to me that the latter is what I am being asked to do by the New Episcopalianism. They seem to have decided that Episcopalianism is, in essence, Liberal Protestantism, and there is no room for Anglican Catholics or Angican Evangelicals anymore. Cf. previous posts on the incoherence / hypocrisy of "inclusivity" thus formulated.)

If anyone was wondering, the Blog was called "Whitehall" because St. Charles Stuart was martyred at the Banquetting House at Whitehall. I had some vague notion about the contemporary Anglican Situation being in the spiritual neighborhood of St. Charles' martyrdom. I.e. of Anglican Catholicism being left to little but gibbeting. I still think that. But perhaps the title is not the place for equivocation / obfuscation.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi WB,

I liked the old name because it forced me to do some research =). In case you didn't know, Whitehall is also a common place name in Pennsylvania, Whitehall Township, South Whitehall Township,and North Whitehall Township are all part of the greater Lehigh Valley metro area. The region was settled mostly by Germans so I'm not sure about the connection.

I think your new title makes sense and you've explained it well.

Texanglican (R.W. Foster+) said...

I like the new name very much. The old one simply made me think of the bureaucracy of the UK. Well done, sir.

Daniel Stoddart said...
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Daniel Stoddart said...
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Daniel Stoddart said...
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Daniel Stoddart said...

Ack! Blogger hates me tonight.

I liked the old name better for reasons that have nothing to do with me not being an A/C.

"Whitehall", the first time I saw it, grabbed my attention because of the Stuart reference. It's sort of an 'in-joke.' A few other reasons I liked "Whitehall":

* It's one word instead of two. Superior mnemonically.

* "Anglican Catholic" is more generic and less distinctive than "Whitehall." Check out Surely Not a Comprehensive List of Anglican Blogs. There are SCADS of blogs titled with variations of "Anglican Catholic" or "Anglo-Catholic" on the Web.

* There's a certain amount of ambiguity to "Whitehall": is it a Stuart thing or somewhere completely different and unrelated? Dual meanings are vastly more interesting.

Okay, I'll admit it; I hail from Pennsylvania. But Chris' point is a good one ;-)

P.S. I thought the multicoloured candles looked better as an image, too.

Gosh, I'm *so* opinionated! Sorry.

gwb said...

The experimentation continues. Perhaps "Anglican Catholic" in the subtitle....

Anonymous said...

Noster WB,

Okay, if you insist on breaking the 'if it ain't broke' rule, please allow me to offer my humble suggestions before you go and do anything crazy.

Let me just say for the record that I have always liked Whitehall, thought it had a nice ring to it. Frankhall might have been an improvement, but you clearly had other priorities. If you like denominationalism you could try, Franglo-Catholic, or Anglo-Franklic. OH! A great idea would be: Frankhall of the New Frapistolic Franglo-Franklics.

Then again, you seem into this whole brevity thing.

Whitefrank? Oxfrank? St. Frank Charles the VI? Frankbridge?

Take your pick. I submit them to you in the spirit of servanthood and humility.

~BFC

Anonymous said...

I vote for Whitehall. Makes people wonder. (Wasn't your Dad born in PA. anyway?) The "new" name is trite. Don't like it. If you are determined to change it, I vote for Frankhall of the New Frapistolic Franglo-Franklics. That has a nice ring!

DBW said...

Are you forgetting that there is an ECUSA break away denomination that calls itself Anglican Catholic. We have a parish in town. They use the 28 Prayer Book, and where it says "licensed for use in the Episcopal Church" there is a sticker over it saying "Anglican Catholic Church.