Some years ago, by the miracle of the internet, I got back in touch with a college friend from my years at Bob Jones University. David Gustafson was, by then, high up in the justice department in Washington, and I was a new convert to the Catholic faith….high up in the mercy department if you please.

We spent many hours tapping away at our keyboards in a transatlantic religious disucssion which evolved into a book called Mary-A Catholic Evangelical Debate. In this book David and I discuss just about everything there is to discuss, trying to solve a problem like Maria.

The book was boosted by J.I.Packer and Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, and many people have said wonderful things about this book. And then again, many more people don’t know that it exists. Alas…

Now, by the miracle of Divine Providence I find myself back in the old hometown, and with an airline ticket to visit David’s Evangelical Episcopal Church called The Falls Church in Arlington Virginia. I’ll be there tomorrow evening to do a talk and take questions on my conviction that the Catholic faith is better in touch with the living truth of the Incarnation because we have liturgy and the rosary. David thinks the whole thing might end in fisticuffs with one of the clergymen there…a particularly stout bruiser name Nicholas.

I am a little bit frightened, being a mild mannered keyboard tapper. I like being ferocious from the safety of my study (which used to be under an apple tree three thousand miles away in England) and hope that my comments do not bring out Raging Bull in a dog collar. If you’re anywhere in the area come and join us. We start at 7.00 pm.

We end with pistols on the pistols on the village green at dawn.