Et voila!
I spent yesterday cleaning and straightening, the better to make room for the arrival of stryck and anher, who arrived safely yesterday evening. We played Spellfire with that_guy_zach last night. And, we indulged ourselves in the Guiness brownies that stryck brought. Mmmm.

Today, we went to Jack Quinn's Irish Ale Bar in Covington for lunch. The full throng included myself, stryck, anher, that_guy_zach, and yechezkiel. I ate fish and chips and bangers and indulged myself in potatoes (forbidden fruit for us Atkinsians, but "bread eaten in secret is sweet").

After that_guy_zach and yechezkiel went their way, we forced our way through gawdawful traffic in Cincinnati all the way up to Jungle Jim's, where we went shopping for our Yule Feast fixin's. I needed a nap during the evening news. The chilluns done went to bed, pooped from two days' exertions.

Sassy was happy to see the new arrivals (she will be ecstatic to see siege when he comes on Saturday!). Cuthbert took a long while to warm up to them, but he is now comfortable being petted and held by these no-longer-strangers.

Tomorrow, I have to go do a hospital (surgery) call, while the chilluns finish their Christmas shopping. We plan on making Fig Bars tomorrow night. Then on Friday, we're hoping to go out to Wilderstead and take some hot chocolate, perhaps bring Sassy along.

Life is very, very good.

Slainte! Ariston, That Guy Zach, Anher, Stryck (aka Kyle, Zach, Brian, and Anna) at Jack Quinn's in Covington

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Doctrine and the unity of the church
That's the title of a very good article in the Jan/Feb issue of Good News magazine. It's written by David Mills. I'm sorry that this issue isn't posted on-line yet, or I'd have put a link to it in here.

Mills points out, "The mainline churches have all tried four alternatives [to doctrine] in the last three decades, to no avail." Those alternatives are,

1. A Common Ethical Standard
2. A Common Experience
3. A Common Process
4. A Common Institution or Heritage.

In the end, says Mills, all of these have failed to maintain unity. "The church cannot proclaim a word of judgment or speak a word of healing unless it can speak dogmatically, unless it can say with confidence, 'Thus saith the Lord.'"

Yep.

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