The official announcement has come out so I’ll confirm it here…

My friends at the Society of Catholic Priests have asked if I would be willing to speak at the Second Annual Conference of the Society on addressing the whole Communion without Baptism debate from a catholic perspective. While I have written a bit on the subject at the Episcopal Cafe, I will go beyond what I wrote there and will fundamentally maintain that the grounds on which the debate is currently framed (inclusion vs. exclusion) represent a fundamental mischaracterization and misunderstanding of our sacramental imagination. As a result, when we even try to uphold a catholic position on these grounds, we’ve already started in the wrong place and conceded to a flawed description of the sacramental system.

More on this anon as it develops.

Needless to say, I’m humbled and honored by the request and am very much looking forward to going! I’d love to meet up with any of my readers who will be there, but I’ll warn you now that we may have a small window of opportunity; as the lovely M actually is a catholic priest she’ll be there for the whole conference meaning that I’ll be in charge of the catholic kiddies. Since I can’t leave them to fend for themselves too long, I’ll only be there for the day of my presentation. Again, more details as they become available…