Liturgy worship spirituality

revise the marriage rite

Published on August 19, 2010 in liturgy. 10 Comments Tags: Anglican, divorce, marriage.

I attended a special non-church wedding recently. There was much that the church can learn from such occasions. One moment was particularly moving, important and significant. One of the spouses made a promise to the other spouse’s young child, and this child made a promise back. I have looked in vain to find such a feature in any official Christian marriage rite (even the most recent revisions)! There will be a number of situations where such promises would be appropriate and could be very significant: when a spouse has died, after a divorce, or in a marriage where one or both have been sole parents. It is astonishing that I cannot find such promises in any rite, and highlights again why many will look at the church as an out-of-touch institution.

Update: in checking the promises parents can make to the couple in response to a comment below, I noticed I am wrong. There is actually a promise in the Second Form of the NZ Anglican Marriage Rites. It is by far the least used rite. I have, in fact, never used it and although I always go through all the options – I have never been requested its use. I think there is legislation that allows us to use this promise within the other rites:

The priest may say to any children of the bride or groom

N, will you help N and N in their marriage?

Children: Yes, I will.

I note that there is no suggestion, as above, for a promise to be made from bride or groom to the child(ren).

Update 2: I have been asked to provide the actual text and have now received permission to place that here. Because this, you will understand, is special to this family, this was added to the wedding at their request and hence we will obviously treat these promises here with respect. I note that particular emphases, particular to their context are present, and other contexts and situations will not work with a simple replication of this. But it does give one suggestion. If you know of other vows with similar intent you are, of course, invited to add them in a comment below:

N and N you have come together…

That is not the only relationship which will be established by this ceremony. Today N will formally acknowledge some responsibility in the future care and concern for N (the child).

N I ask you if you will do your best to maintain the wonderful relationship you have already established with N (the child)? Will you stay aware of the important role you have to play and treat him/her with love, care, interest, and respect.

I will.

To the child:

Will you help dad/mum/N and dad/mum/N in their married life together?

Yes.

interfaith dialogue

Published on August 18, 2010 in liturgy. 6 Comments Tags: humor, humour.

Pastor Don Mackenzie, Rabbi Ted Falcon, and Sheikh Jamal Rahman are authors of Getting to the Heart of Interfaith: The Eye-Opening, Hope-Filled Friendship of a Pastor, a Rabbi & a Sheikh.

Week starting August 22

Published on August 17, 2010 in liturgy. 3 Comments Tags: collect, lectio, opening prayer, ordinary time.

There is a difference in the gospel reading this Sunday between the Roman Catholic and the Revised Common Lectionaries.

Textweek resources

collect/opening prayer reflection August 22 and week following [NZPB]
collect/opening prayer reflection August 22 and week following [Common Worship CofE]

BCP (TEC):

Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered
together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your
power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The above collect is the 1928 new collect for Tuesday in Whitsun Week. The preamble originates from a Gregorian collect for Friday after Pentecost (# 542). The petition is new.

You can share any comments as well as any resources, ideas, sermon-starters, children’s activities, hymns, prayers, etc. in the comments section below.

My own notes preparing for Sunday’s sermon around the concept of healing on the Sabbath:
Activities prohibited on Shabbat
Sabbath mode
My refrigerator has “Sabbath Mode”
The Geek Guide to Kosher Machines

Image: Christ healing the crippled woman who was bent over (mid fourth century sarcophagus).

Coma Cluster spiral galaxy

Published on August 16, 2010 in liturgy and spirituality. 3 Comments Tags: universe.

A spiral galaxy, unromantically named “NGC 4911”, deep in the Coma Cluster of galaxies. This photo is produced by the Hubble Telescope by combining 28 hours of exposure through three years. This galaxy is 320 million light-years away. It lies in the constellation Coma Berenices.

God of all power, Ruler of the Universe, you are worthy of
glory and praise.
Glory to you for ever and ever.

At your command all things came to be: the vast expanse of
interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses,
and this fragile earth, our island home.
By your will they were created and have their being.
(Eucharistic Prayer C, BCP, TEC)

Source and zoomable image

twitter… facebook… the movie

Published on August 15, 2010 in liturgy. 3 Comments Tags: facebook, humor, humour, movie, twitter.

The above made me laugh. OK, I’ve got about 75,000 people following me on Twitter, and I appear to be the second most followed person in my country – but, let’s not take it too, too seriously

Then, after a little poking around I found:

But, having seen the above two clips, I found they are parodies of an actual forthcoming movie about facebook (Yes, there’s a smaller liturgy presence on facebook):

worship or entertainment?

Published on August 14, 2010 in liturgy. 14 Comments Tags: gospel.

A week ago Rev. Jeffrey MacDonald, a minister in the United Church of Christ (author of “Thieves in the Temple: The Christian Church and the Selling of the American Soul”) sent a IMO very timely warning in the New York Times. He writes about the increasing demand for church services to be entertaining. Particularly, he is focusing on the effect of this on the vocation of church leaders.

I remember meeting a priest who had overhead projection during his services and sermons: photo images, words, video clips – there was always the expectation that each time there would be something different, something new. He was going around during the week making videos, editing, photo-shopping. When I met him he was up to more than 20 hours of his week working on his visual presentation. The community, when I joined them for “worship”, was passive, sitting in comfortable seating watching the presentation as if they were in a theatre. I advised/warned the priest. But he could see no way forward. Sadly, he had a breakdown and left. You can also imagine the issues as his successor took on the leadership of this community.

Commodification of the gospel and spirituality so often appears to happen surreptitiously, without the slightest reflection. People use selling, and particularly entertainment-selling, language and concepts in relation to church, services, and even denominations, without appearing to stop for a moment to reflect whether in doing so they are actually destroying the gospel they think they are presenting.

The focus can be on numbers, and not God. And if that isn’t idolatry, I don’t know what is. Alongside numbers there very quickly develops a focus on the leader, personality cult. Communities seek a particular “niche” market. Denominations are even presented as different styles for different preferences – as if they are alternative supermarket chains.

On a not-unrelated but slightly different tack, growing, vibrant communities can actually conceal the lack of real growth. A community can appear to be evangelising while, in fact, numbers are there because they just got bored in the other Christian community they were attending. Numbers are not of new Christians, but of Christians moving around. Their community of origin was maybe never helped to provide real nourishment for the long haul, or maybe they themselves never realised that constant excitement is not really what worship is about. One Pentecostal church I knew took the risk of analysing their large, vibrant, youthful congregation. They were shocked to discover their average congregant stayed for 18 months, and when they left they went nowhere else. I’ve been looking over some of our diocesan statistics sent to us in preparation for synod. One of our most “successful” communities has a weekly attendance of about 500. This past year they have only had one adult, and six infant baptisms.

Dominicans

Published on August 13, 2010 in liturgy. 3 Comments Tags: carthusians, cistercian, Mass, movie, religious life.

I cannot remember how I recently fell over this video. Sorry if I didn’t credit you. It is part of a 1964 vocations movie for the Dominicans.

I think there is much that is fascinating here – let alone how much has changed in four and a half decades.

People often think that the vows of Religious are poverty, chastity, and obedience. In fact these are purely Western – and the older Western vows, in any case, are obedience, stability, and conversion of life. I don’t think the Roman Catholic Church allows new orders to use those older vows? In this case, it is interesting that Dominicans only take one vow, you may have noticed: obedience. I guess that hasn’t changed?

You may have noticed the difference in the Dominican Rite of the Mass. Eg. they don’t prepare the chalice at the Offertory/Preparation of the Gifts. The chalice is prepared prior to Mass – and here you see them offering the bread and (already-prepared) wine together. Carthusians, similarly, prepare the chalice prior to Mass, not at the Offertory/Preparation of the Gifts. I have been told that Dominicans drew this tradition from Carthusians. I have seen Cistercians similarly use a chalice prepared prior to Mass – but have not been able to establish if this is part of the Cistercian “Rite”? Do Dominicans still follow their unique traditions, or have they all gone over to the Roman Rite? Carthusians? Cistercians?

Prayer of Abandonment Charles de Foucauld

Published on August 12, 2010 in liturgy. 8 Comments Tags: cistercian, prayer, religious life, silence.

Father,
I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.

Let only your will be done in me,
and in all your creatures -
I wish no more than this, O Lord.

Into your hands I commend my soul:
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father.

This wonderful Prayer of Abandonment is written by Charles de Foucauld. I have long had a fascination for him and his followers, including visiting his hermitages in the Sahara.

I am now trying to clarify details of this prayer in Blessed Charles’s life’s timeline.

One has it that Br Charles wrote this prayer while on retreat in Nazareth (November 1897)
Another has it that the Prayer of Abandonment is actually Br Charles’s reflection of Jesus’ prayer to his Father, written while he was a Cistercian in Akbès in Syria.
Does anyone have which one of these is correct, plus reference (especially web link)? Or maybe there’s even a different version of its history?

I also remember there was at least one individual who attempted to join Br Charles in his lifestyle, but left, having found it too austere. Can anyone tell me the name of this person (or persons) and any details? Thanks.

For readers here for whom Br Charles is new, here is a good summary from my e-friend Fr Michael:

Charles de Foucauld was born in Strasbourg on September 15, 1858. He grew up in an aristocratic family. He served as a French army officer in Algeria but left the army in 1882 and went as an explorer to Morocco.

In 1890 he joined the Trappist order, but left in 1897 to follow an as yet undefined religious vocation. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1901. Thereafter he left for the Sahara, living at first in Beni Abbès and later at Tamanrasset among the Tuaregs of the Hoggar. He wanted to be among those who were, “the furthest removed, the most abandoned.” He wanted all who drew close to him to find in him a brother, “a universal brother.” In a great respect for the culture and faith of those among whom he lived, his desire was to “shout the Gospel with his life”. “I would like to be sufficiently good that people would say, “If such is the servant, what must the Master be like?”

He wanted to establish a new religious order and wrote several rules for this religious life. This new order, the Little Brothers of Jesus, however, would not become a reality until after his death.

Charles de Foucauld was shot to death by rebels December 1, 1916. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on November 13, 2005 and is considered a martyr of the Roman Catholic Church.

Some sources: The Spiritual Autobiography of Charles De Foucauld and Charles De Foucauld: Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters Series)

icon: Br Charles and Jesus by a Little Sister of Jesus

the other friends of Jesus

Published on August 11, 2010 in liturgy and spirituality. 38 Comments Tags: benedict xvi, roman catholic, vatican.

Is the Pope serious?! Or has the Vatican PR machine merely given up being concerned about even attempting to prevent publicity gaffes in the current administration? Are the half a billion women Roman Catholics mostly silently compliant? How are the world’s three-quarters of a million nuns and religious sisters reacting?

Benedict XVI is, apparently, the first pope to ever publish a children’s book. His is called “Gli amici di Gesù -The friends of Jesus”. Here is the Pope’s list of Jesus’ 14 friends: Peter, Andrew, James the older, John, Thomas, Matthew, Philip, Bartholomew, James the younger, Simon, Judas Thaddeus, Judas Iscariot, Matthias, and Paul.

Yep! You got it… they are all males! No explanation. No apology!

The book went on sale on July 22, the Memorial of St. Mary Magdalene!
[As an aside, Mary Magdalene, the “apostle to the apostles”, surprisingly (or possibly not?) is only given a Memorial in the Roman Catholic Church, the lowest rank of liturgical days (Solemnity, Feast, Memorial). She does not even deserve a feast day!]

Now, yes, we are all reading Luke’s gospel together this year – including the Pope. Has he not noticed that in the Gospel according to Luke there are 24 times when Jesus meets a woman, talks about a woman, or has a woman in a parable? And for every single one of those mentions the image is a positive one.

So here is my book of “The friends of Jesus”:

Mary – mother of Jesus
Anna
Mary Magdalene – “apostle to the apostles”
Martha of Bethany
Mary of Bethany
Salome mother of James and John
Mary mother of James and Joses
Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza
Susanna
Lydia
Prisca/Priscilla (mentioned first on three out of five occasions)
Dorcas/Tabitha
Phoebe
Junia the apostle

Oops that’s my 14 used up!

I haven’t even got to Lois, Eunice, Pilate’s wife, Peter’s mother-in-law, the daughter of Jairus, the woman with the flow of blood, the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman, the woman accused of adultery, the Samaritan woman,…

Nothing actually very notable about Jesus in his day and culture having some male friends, what was revolutionary was Jesus’ relationship with women. Jesus’ disciples included women who travelled with him (and, take note, provided a lot of the funding!). It was to Martha that Jesus declared himself to be The Resurrection. Jesus let a woman of ill repute anoint him. In a culture where the testimony of women was not considered valid, Jesus sent Mary Magdalene as the first to proclaim his resurrection to men.

Ps. My list is copyright. If you get your book out before I do – please credit me. And that includes you, Benedict XVI, if you happen to be reading this, and are thinking about doing a “revision” or a “volume 2”.

Week starting August 15

Published on August 10, 2010 in liturgy. 0 Comments Tags: assumption, august 15, blessed virgin mary, collect, dormition, lectio, opening prayer, ordinary time.

The Readings for the Ordinary Sunday
Textweek resources
Assumption and Dormition of Mary Textweek resources

collect/opening prayer reflection August 15 and week following [NZPB]
collect/opening prayer reflection August 15 and week following [BCP TEC]
St Mary, the mother of Jesus/Dormition/Assumption

Collect from Common Worship

O God, you declare your almighty power
most chiefly in showing mercy and pity:
mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace,
that we, running the way of your commandments,
may receive your gracious promises,
and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The origin of the feast day of the Blessed Virgin Mary on August 15 is unknown. It is possibly the date of the dedication of some church in her name.

Some quotes worthy of reflection from Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ – joint statement of the Anglican – Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC):

The dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption raise a special problem for those Anglicans who do not consider that the precise definitions given by these dogmas are sufficiently supported by Scripture….

In the East the feast was known as the ‘dormition’, which implied her death but did not exclude her being taken into heaven. In the West the term used was ‘assumption’,which emphasized her being taken into heaven but did not exclude the possibility of her dying….

One consequence of our separation has been a tendency for Anglicans and Roman Catholics alike to exaggerate the importance of the Marian dogmas in themselves at the expense of the other truths more closely related to the foundation of the Christian faith. Anglicans and Roman Catholics agree that the doctrines of the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception of Mary must be understood in the light of the more central truth of her identity as Theotókos, which itself depends on faith in the Incarnation. We recognize that, following the Second Vatican Council and the teaching of recent Popes, the Christological and ecclesiological context for the Church’s doctrine concerning Mary is being re-received within the Roman Catholic Church. We now suggest that the adoption of an eschatological perspective may deepen our shared understanding of the place of Mary in the economy of grace, and the tradition of the Church concerning Mary which both our communions receive. Our hope is that the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion will recognize a common faith in the agreement concerning Mary which we here offer. Such a re-reception would mean the Marian teaching and devotion within our respective communities, including differences of emphasis, would be seen to be authentic expressions of Christian belief….

As a result of our study, the Commission offers the following agreements, which we believe significantly advance our consensus regarding Mary. We affirm together

- the teaching that God has taken the Blessed Virgin Mary in the fullness of her person into his glory as consonant with Scripture, and only to be understood in the light of Scripture (paragraph 58);

- that in view of her vocation to be the mother of the Holy One, Christ’s redeeming work reached ‘back’ in Mary to the depths of her being and to her earliest beginnings (paragraph 59);

- that the teaching about Mary in the two definitions of the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception, understood within the biblical pattern of the economy of hope and grace, can be said to be consonant with the teaching of the Scriptures and the ancient common traditions (paragraph 60);

- that this agreement, when accepted by our two Communions, would place the questions about authority which arise from the two definitions of 1854 and 1950 in a new ecumenical context (paragraphs 61-63);

- that Mary has a continuing ministry which serves the ministry of Christ, our unique mediator, that Mary and the saints pray for the whole Church and that the practice of asking Mary and the saints to pray for us is not communion-dividing.

Almighty God,
who looked upon the lowliness of the Blessed Virgin Mary
and chose her to be the mother of your only Son:
grant that we who are redeemed by his blood
may share with her in the glory of your eternal kingdom;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

You can share any comments as well as any resources, ideas, sermon-starters, children’s activities, hymns, prayers, etc. in the comments section below.

In New Zealand, General Synod has also assigned this to be Religious Vocation Sunday.

We are all atheists?

Published on August 7, 2010 in liturgy. 11 Comments

“We are all atheists about most gods. Some of us just go one god further.”

This is possibly one of the most interesting/intriguing of the three billboards that are currently up around New Zealand. Mathematically, the quote seems to argue for theism. In fact for polytheism! I could express it algebraically – but, for the non-mathematician (and the source of the billboard) I’ll use an example to illustrate:

Let’s say that the billboard recognises 437 gods. It then contends we are all atheists about most gods. ie. Jimmy, who denies the existence of 389 gods, certainly fits in with the criteria of being part of the billboard’s “all”; 389 gods is most of the 437 gods. This leaves 48 gods that Jimmy does not deny, is not an atheist about. “Some of us just go one god further” means that some of us deny 390 gods, and believe in 47 gods. Hmmm… very strange assertion for atheist organisations to be making…

Polytheists in our country will certainly not make much sense of this particular billboard…

I suspect that the billboard is (poorly) directed at monotheists, and intends to mean: “Monotheists are atheists about all gods except one. Some of us just go one god further.” This, of course, assumes an exclusivist Philosophy of Religion position.

Keeping things simple:

Exclusivists hold: we are right – you are wrong
Inclusivists hold: we are right – you are right when you agree with us
Pluralistshold : we are right – you are right (models: climbing the same mountain from different sides, blind people describing an elephant, multi-faceted jewel of reality,…)

Exclusivist Christians deny that Jews an Muslims and Sikhs worship the same god as them. So yes, my revised version of what it is possible that the author of the billboard intended, may apply in that context. But for the billboard to claim this, means they regard all kiwis as exclusivists. Now we know that’s not true!

Part of the issue with the billboard concept of “God” is that it treats “God” as an object, a countable object. Ie. according to this idea you can add or remove “God” from a set. “God” plus this laptop makes a set of two objects. Add “God” to to the laptop and the glass of wine sitting next to it and we now have three objects, and so on. This leads to the atheistic contention that belief in “God” is akin to believing in a teapot circling Pluto. Such a comparison with a teapot treats “God” as a countable object which we can add or remove from a set.

In fact the greater (apophatic) tradition would have us, as we grow in our spirituality, acknowledge that God is always far greater than, far different to, the image of God we currently hold. In this sense those along the spiritual journey are atheistic about our own images of “God”. C. S. Lewis said it well:

A Footnote to All Prayers

He whom I bow to only knows to whom I bow
When I attempt the ineffable Name, murmuring Thou,
And dream of Pheidian fancies and embrace in heart
Symbols (I know) which cannot be the thing Thou art.
Thus always, taken at their word, all prayers blaspheme
Worshiping with frail images a folk-lore dream,
And all men in their praying, self-deceived, address
The coinage of their own unquiet thoughts, unless
Thou in magnetic mercy to Thyself divert
Our arrows, aimed unskillfully, beyond desert;
And all men are idolaters, crying unheard
To a deaf idol, if Thou take them at their word.
Take not, O Lord, our literal sense. Lord, in thy great
Unbroken speech our limping metaphor translate.

Good without God?
man created God
There’s probably no God?
antitheist
NZ Atheist Campaign

Transfiguration – Hiroshima – Peace

Published on August 5, 2010 in lectionary and liturgy. 0 Comments Tags: hiroshima day, Jesus, lectio, transfiguration, world peace day.

On this day in 1945, someone climbed not a holy mountain, but into the cockpit of a plane – a machine of war. There had been a lull of a week in the fighting between America and Japan. The Americans had a new secret weapon and they wanted to use it with the maximum psychological effect. On August 6 an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

Here we have a new voice booming from heaven. Here too was brightness, brilliant as burning magnesium. Here too is a cloud that has come and has covered us all with shadow. Truly, under the shadow of this new cloud, we are right to feel afraid.

The shape of that cloud hangs now forever in our sky. Look at the shape of that cloud. It is the new tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We have eaten of its fruit and we shall never be the same again.

We today commemorate Hiroshima day, world peace day, by telling again the story of another climb, another light, another voice, another cloud. Jesus there was speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Jesus was speaking of his death, his destruction by another tree, the cross. And we meet today below that cross, to break bread and proclaim the victory of Christ’s death over every evil, even the total annihilation by human evil.

This is a reposting of an earlier reflection. The full reflection is here.

Other resources from textweek

image: JESUS MAFA is a response to the New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings were selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made, and these were then transcribed to paintings. See: www.jesusmafa.com and www.SocialTheology.com.

Week starting August 8

Published on August 3, 2010 in liturgy. 0 Comments Tags: collect, lectio, opening prayer, ordinary time.

Educating the Rich on the Globe

The Readings
Textweek resources

collect/opening prayer reflection August 8 and week following [NZPB]

BCP (TEC)

Grant to us, Lord, we pray,
the spirit to think and do always those things that are right,
that we, who cannot exist without you,
may by you be enabled to live according to your will;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Common Worship (CofE)

Let your merciful ears, O Lord,
be open to the prayers of your humble servants;
and that they may obtain their petitions
make them to ask such things as shall please you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

You can share any comments as well as any resources, ideas, sermon-starters, children’s activities, hymns, prayers, etc. in the comments section below.

Image: The New York sculptor, Tom Otterness, displayed a number of his works along upper Broadway near subway stops. A number of the pieces poked fun at the city’s drive to make money.

This piece, “Educating the Rich on the Globe” (1997) is well suited to be read along with today’s scripture selection from Luke, particularly verse 34: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”