Mountains can be cold, dull, teeth.

I'm currently in the Adirondack Mountain State Park in New York. A lot a could say about that.

But I really want to share about this episcopal priest I've met named Father Cornelius. Hes a cross between Jerry Garcia from the Grateful Dead and Peter Griffin from family guy . . . in looks and personality. He was also, truly, a former Anarchist.

Here are some of the quotes he shared today. Irreverent, Crude, Insightful:

"Yeah, they got this drink at the pub down the street that I call the "Bloody Jesus", because the next morning you feel like you've been crucified . . . by the way, I can go to the pub because I'm episcopalian."

"My friend and I were seminary grads and one day we found ourselves shoveling all sorts of shit in this guys basement for work. My friend turned to me and said, 'We're theologians, what are we doing here?' I said to him, 'Are you kidding me?!?! This IS what we do'"

"I've been a priest for about 20 years, and I'm about done. I'm depressed. I'm actually going to go to a clinic in town to see someone after I leave the priesthood. The church (In reference to Episcopalians) is messed up. God gave us history as a gift, but we've become pharisees. We've made it a God in and of itself. We jacked it up. Thats why I became a priest, at first I wanted nothing to do with Episcopalians because of what I saw, but then I decided I wanted to change things. But what I found out instead is that Episcopalians are human. So is everyone in every denomination. But now you've got these post-moderns that would start a church in the middle of a field if you'd let them. They see what I saw, but instead of wanting to make these things right, they want to completely change things. They want to do away with 2000 years of church history. Are they really smarter than people like Augustine? Saint Benedict? Do they really think they've discovered a better way of doing things? They aren't any smarter. The church does not progress the same way as something like technology does. The church doesn't become obsolete, theologians don't need to come up with new doctrines and theologies . . . goodness . . . all I know is that if you're going to change things you better be damned sure of what the hell you're doing."

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I've had a lot of curiousity lately in more orthodox/liturgical/etc. types of faith. I'm not sure where I'm heading with it, but the last quote . . . and more of the conversation, were great things to put into the 'ol pot to stir around.