As a strong advocate of and encourager to clergy and other Christians to bring mission and ministry into the 21st century and cyberspace, I am delighted to see that Rev. Howard Pilgrim is another Kiwi Anglican priest who has just started a new blog. The blog is called Hermeneutics Workshop. Howard describes himself as “a New Zealand, Anglican, liberal evangelical biblical scholar”. I try to eschew boxes and categories – but if we must have them: this orthodox charismatic evangelical catholic wishes Howard all the best in this new venture.
Tag Archive for 'Anglican'
I have not previously put a link from this site to this year’s online lectionary from the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.
Click here to download a PDF of this year’s lectionary (4 MB)
Bible Alone
It continues to intrigue me that those who hold to a Bible-Alone, sola scriptura position regularly continue to clamour in favour of the proposed Anglican Covenant. This more protestant, “reformed” end of the Anglican spectrum on the one hand claims the Bible Alone is totally sufficient for all our Christian needs, that the Bible is totally self-explanatory, and that the Bible does not need to be supplemented by any other documents. Yet on the other hand: these same people feel that Anglicanism cannot survive without the Anglican Covenant. Ie. the Bible alone is not sufficient. Make up your mind people: is the Bible alone sufficient or isn’t it?!
Completing the Reformation
Some pro-Anglican-Covenant people speak about the need to “complete the Reformation”. Certainly, many at the Reformation created confessional denominations increasingly dividing over disagreements over interpretations of their lists of beliefs. The Anglican Covenant will either include everyone currently Anglican (and so will alter nothing, have only delayed discussion about the real issue, and wasted jet-engine fuel). Or it will complete the Reformation’s tendency towards ever-increasing fragmentation by splintering the frail bonds that bind Anglicans together.
The Anglican Communion and the strength of weak ties
Without using theological-babble (or “Rowanspeak”) it is very hard to ascertain what those who are pro-the Covenant concretely want and expect from a “Communion”. Certainly we would hope a communicant anywhere is a communicant everywhere in the Communion. Even that principle has been stretched to breaking with some provinces communicating all the baptised, some needing a rite of “admission to communion” at an age of “understanding”, and some needing episcopal confirmation before receiving communion. I am sure that toddlers from the first option may have difficulty receiving communion in provinces with the last option. Another principle is the mutual recognition of ordination, so that clergy in one province can function as clergy in another province. That principle has long been broken with women clergy, and male clergy ordained by women bishops, from one province unable to function as clergy in other provinces. Attitudes to divorce and remarriage vary from province to province, affecting communicant status and acceptability of remarried clergy. All this will not change one iota should the Anglican Covenant be accepted.
Sociologist Mark Granovetter, in the highly influential 1973 paper on social networking “The Strength of Weak Ties”, argues our close friends will be quite similar to us. Acquaintances differ more from us and will have their own networks of close friends. We have strong ties to our friends, and weak ties to acquaintances. Granovetter argues persuasively for the value of having both strong and weak ties – they have different functions, enhancing both our flourishing and theirs.
Strong ties (friends) are like an Anglican province. Weak ties (acquaintances) are like our inter-provincial ties across the Anglican Communion. Many who are pro-Covenant appear unable to articulate a difference between a diocese, a province, and a communion – these appear to be seeking that the communion function essentially in the way that most of us understand a diocese to function (or possibly a province).
A previous post: the Anglican Covenant will not do what it is meant to do
A helpful site for deeper reflection is the World Anglicanism Forum run by Bruce Kaye, an Anglican theologian, Foundation editor of the Journal of Anglican Studies. Currently a Visiting Research Fellow in History at the University of New South Wales and a Professorial Associate in Theology at Charles Sturt University.
I intend to post reviews, from time to time, of different study bibles. Prior to commencing that series, I think it helpful if I write a little on the translation I would recommend if you do not read Hebrew and Greek. I recommend the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), with the extra comment that, those not agile in the original biblical languages need to keep one eye on the footnotes provided.
History
William Tyndale’s New Testament translation of 1525 and the King James Bible set a standard of biblical English leading to a “Revised Version” in the late nineteenth century. This led to the “American Standard Version (ASV – 1901)” of which the “Revised Standard Version (RSV)” was the authorised revision. This last work was completely revised by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches as well as Jewish representation to form the NRSV (1989).
The NRSV was able to take advantage of scholarly developments since the RSV including the availablility of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other manuscript discoveries.
Translation principles
Linguistically the NRSV stands intentionally in the Tyndale-King James tradition. The Hebrew text is primarily the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia with reference to the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint. The Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical texts are from the Septuagint with reference to the Vulgate. The New Testament is a translation of the Novum Testamentum Graece 27th edition. The principle of translation is formal equivalence (as much as possible “word for word” rather than dynamic equivalence – “idea for idea”). Where the original clearly is intended to refer to both genders the translation has attempted to do this as smoothly as possible, clearly noting this in the footnotes. God retains the masculine pronoun. No attempt is made to alter masculine concepts of God such as “Lord” etc. In fact the Divine Tetragrammaton is translated as “LORD”. The archaic second person familiar forms (”thee”, “thou”), often confused as actually being polite forms, have been standardised to “you”, “your” etc. Many translations betray their theological presuppositions in soteriology (theories of salvation) or in hiding apparent biblical inconsistencies. NRSV can be trusted not to do that.
There is an edition following the Protestant canon, another including the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books; there is a Catholic Edition containing the First Testament books in the order of the Vulgate, and an anglicized edition which alters the text slightly to fit to British spelling and grammar. Other translations have been assiduous in marketing their product with a large variety of different presentations (teenage bibles, women’s bibles, men’s bibles, 12 step bibles, etc). NRSV has been notably weak in the variety of options available. Thankfully that is slowly improving.
The Episcopal Church and many Anglican provinces have approved the NRSV for worship. Common Worship (CofE) uses it as a standard. It is approved for Roman Catholic use and is the primary translation used in Catechism of the Catholic Church (the other being the RSV).
Conclusion
If you are looking for one translation and you are not confident in the biblical languages, the New Revised Standard Version is the one I would recommend.
Resources
Please remember this site has a collection of the best free, online resources to enhance your study of the scriptures. Beyond this website there is also:
The NRSV online (an alternative site)
Direct ordination or not?
Priesthood is normally understood as church-facing/Christian-community-facing leadership. Priests gather and lead the Christian community gathering (breathing in).
Priests in the Church are called to build up Christ’s congregation,
to strengthen the baptised…
to be pastors…
to declare forgiveness through Jesus Christ,
to baptise,
to preside at the Eucharist,
to administer Christ’s holy sacraments.
NZ Anglican ordinal, Prayer Book pg 901
Deacons, on the other hand, are ordained to world-facing, sacrificial leadership. They lead the Christian community dispersed in service in the world (breathing out).
Deacons in the Church of God serve in the name of Christ,
and so remind the whole Church
that serving others is essential to all ministry.
NZ Anglican ordinal, Prayer Book pg 891
Currently, to be ordained a priest (church-facing leadership) you have to be ordained a deacon first (world-facing leadership). This is termed “sequential ordination”. If God is calling you to church-facing leadership rather than world-facing leadership – tough! So most people perceive deacons as apprentice priests. And those God calls to the diaconate (and not to priesthood) are regularly seen as people who haven’t made the grade and are stuck in their apprenticeship.
In the Latin Rite of Roman Catholicism (the majority of Roman Catholics), “permanent deacons” can marry (prior to ordination) and then regularly do priest-like ministry (church-facing, rather than world-facing) because of a shortage of celibate priests. [Other Roman Catholic rites allow for married priests and have a stronger tradition of a clearly differentiated diaconate]
(Unfortunately) I have regularly seen people who once said strongly they were called to the diaconate, after a period decide they were called to priesthood after all. I can only quickly think of one person, I know personally, called to the diaconate who has stayed a deacon.
[I am not in this post going to bring bishops into the discussion. There is an ongoing dispute about the nature of bishops:
Are bishops priests to whom we have delegated the authority to ordain (the position of St Jerome)?
Or are priests delegates of the bishop in the local congregation (so that when the bishop is present the priest ought not to function in that ministry - the position of Theodore of Mopsuestia)?]
As I wrote above, currently to become a priest one must be a deacon first. A different approach, “direct ordination” or “per saltum ordination” (literally “by a leap”) is the understanding that you be ordained directly to the order to which God calls you. If you are to be a deacon, you are ordained a deacon (the current practice); if you are to be a priest, you would be ordained a priest (not a deacon first). Some scholars argue that in the early church all ordinations were per saltum (see Hallenbeck ed. Orders of Ministry). St Ambrose’s direct ordination to the episcopate is probably the most celebrated story.
There seems a surprising amount of emotional energy invested in maintaining the status quo. We have probably all met bishops proudly (sic!) proclaiming “I am still a deacon!” Episcopal Cafe has presented two interesting posts about the emotional dimension against per saltum ordination (part 1; part 2).There is also a discussion about this in the discussion area of Sarah Dylan Breuer’s facebook page. Some theologians hold that per saltum ordinations would be invalid. What is your position? And in the comments area – why?
There will be a sequel to this post in the near future.
The pope has issued a proclamation challenging priests “to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.”
Internationally there are some Anglican blogging bishops (I try to keep up with these in the links section). Of the 31 bishops in our province, not one blogs as far as I know (the bishop-elect of Dunedin blogs – we shall see if that continues). Of the more than one and a half thousand Anglican priests in this province I’m aware of a couple that blog, and a few more on twitter. The official website of the province has not been updated in more than a year. Maybe there are Roman Catholic blogging bishops and priests in New Zealand. I am not aware of them. There are still parishes and ministry units without even a website – in spite of web-hosting and production being free and easy now, with advice and help provided on this site. Every parish can have a facebook page (and a twitter). Blogging has never been easier using wordpress or blogger. Such things are not, as those in the church often make them appear to be, things that require great planning and debate. These things take less than 10 minutes to set up. Nothing manifests the yawning gap between average young people and average churchgoers more than the unwillingness of most churchgoers to embrace late 20th century communication technology. The church can be so last millennium!
The pope is on youtube (his videos do not appear to be able to be embedded), and has an iPhone and facebook app, pope2you. Let’s urge him to take his own advice and start blogging. If he is reading this: “I’m very happy to swap links with you”. Some suggestions for the name of the papal blog? “Mass communication”? Maybe not “Papal Bull”. (Definitely not “Red Shoe Diaries”!)
Yesterday Pope Benedict XVI issued a papal decree setting Mary MacKillop well on the way to being the first Australian to be canonised as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. The decree also recognised the ”heroic virtues” of Popes John Paul II and Pious XII, along with seven others. Early next year a commission of cardinals will assess her case and the Pope then makes the final decision which now appears all but certain – with her canonisation probably occurring during 2010.
In 2006 I put a motion to our diocesan synod which led to Mary MacKillop being voted to be added to the NZ Anglican calendar for August 8. Although that is still to be passed again by a second meeting of General Synod (meeting in 2010) and then a year “lying on the table” for anyone to object, the church is so confident of her inclusion that she has already been included in the 2009 and 2010 lectionaries.
Together with Father Julian Tenison Woods, Mary MacKillop founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. She was for a while excommunicated, but now there are more than a thousand Sisters in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Peru. She is not present on the calendar of the Australian Anglican A Prayer Book for Australia, and I would be interested to know if there is movement there to add her to that calendar.
I have just purchased the Lectionary for the 2010 Church Year of The Anglican Church in Aotearoa (comma) New Zealand (no “Oxford/Harvard comma“) and Polynesia, better known as “The Anglican Church of Or”. (With a carefully thought-through official title one would think similar great care would be taken in the common prayer that holds it together as an Anglican province, but…)
This Lectionary states, “The colours suggested for each day… are not mandatory but reflect common practice in most parishes.” (page 4). So let’s take the example in the image above for Sunday November 14. The colour for the day is Green, or… ummm… Red, or…. White, or… ummm… Violet. The day before can be Green or Red. And the day before that can be Green or white or Red. Unless of course you wanted to use Violet on that day – remember colours are not mandatory. (You are starting to see why it is called the Anglican Church of Or). Page 104 expands the options (in case you don’t think there are enough) so that on our example of November 14 you might also use “Best” or Gold or Yellow or Blue or “Lenten colour” or unbleached linen, or a deep blood red.
Some senior clergy I’ve spoken to have suggested that Gw in their day meant a Green altar frontal but a white stole! That’s fine for Green and white, even Green and violet might go together, but what happens when the colours clash 
Yuck! And what does it mean a few days earlier November 8 where it is Gr[R]? … that must mean: Green or red or… ummmm… ummmm… Red! Of course – it’s obvious.
One suggestion: Why didn’t they save ink and just write the colour you shouldn’t use? Of course: far too prescriptive (you should never use the word should)!
What do we call that Sunday? (Let’s just stay with the English-language options currently) 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, or Proper 28, or 25th Sunday after Pentecost, or 2nd Sunday before Advent, or Remembrance Sunday, or the Feast of Christ in All Creation (unless, of course, you want to call it something else).
Now to the readings: Let’s stay with November 14 as our example. I count 18 readings you can choose from suggested for a morning service. Woops – I forgot to count the ones for the Feast of Christ in All Creation which is an option. The readings are not provided in the Lectionary (why not?!) For those you have to go to the church’s General Synod Website. The readings are provided under “C” as Wisdom 13:1-9 Or Isaiah 45:9-12 Romans 8:18-25 Or Colossians 1:15-20 John 1:1-5,10-14,18 Or Mark 16:14-20. OK – that brings the total number of suggested readings to choose from for the morning service to 24. This is a competition: if you can find more than 24 readings for any part of the day in the lectionary – please point that out in the comments. Don’t forget – in NZ if you don’t like the suggestion – you can choose your own.
This, remember is a relatively tiny province. There will probably be around 30,000 people in church on the Sunday using those readings. The second competition question is: is there any other province which has so much choice??!! My guess is that any province of any reasonable size is kept unified with a sense of common prayer by having quite a limited number of options. Most fix the readings, the colour, the collect, and give a choice of a few Eucharistic Prayers. In New Zealand you can choose the collect from a wide variety of sources (someone in the comments might like to give the number of collects provided on NZ’s digital Living Liturgy). And if you don’t like the collects provided, you can find another or produce your own.
As to Eucharistic Prayers – I have lost count how many Eucharistic Prayers NZ’s General Synod has authorised. It must be around a dozen. And if you don’t like any of those – General Synod has authorised that you can use any Eucharistic Prayer authorised anywhere in the Anglican Communion – anyone got a guess of the number (please add it in the comments)? Maybe a couple of hundred? And if you don’t like any of those you can write your own using any of the frameworks authorised anywhere in the Anglican Communion (I can think of three). And if you don’t like that, just use a reading from 1 Cor 11:23ff – we all know communities that do this and are they ever called to account?
(I have not taken into account that for the 2009 Church Year the lectionary provided online was significantly different to the hard-copy version, with different readings and different titles for Sundays – we await this year’s online version to see if even more options are provided).
30,000 in church that Sunday; at least 30,000 different combinations possible. Common Prayer?
It is nearly twenty years since the publication of A New Zealand Prayer Book, He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa. The three archbishops have issued the following statement.
Dear friends,
Grace and peace to you from God.
Sunday the 29th November this year sees the 20th anniversary of A New Zealand Prayer Book, He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa.
The prayer book has become a Taonga of this church but has also enriched the lives of Anglicans around the world. It is appropriate to give thanks for this treasure on the last Sunday in November this year. Valuing how many people have been supported, resourced and strengthened by over 900 pages of text, prose, poetry and theology. It is truly said that what we orate in prayer we believe, in what we believe we do (lex orandi, lex credendi, lex labore). This is the Anglican experience of common prayer shaped by widely shared liturgical texts and all the faith based words we use in prayer, contemplation, and Eucharist. On this anniversary, we can be reminded of the words at the beginning of the book
The Lord’s song has been sung in this twice-discovered land since before Samuel Marsden first preached the Gospel on that Christmas Day in 1814 in Oihi Bay.
With the publication of A New Zealand Prayer Book, He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa the song is continued, the task of the Provincial Commission on Prayer Book Revision is completed, and new voices begin to be heard.
It is our hope that the use of these services will enable us to worship God in our authentic voice, and to affirm our identity as the people of God in Aotearoa – New Zealand.
Please encourage the celebration of this treasure on the last Sunday in November in what ever way you feel moved to do so. The prayer book itself will be your inspiration.
++ David
++ Jabez
++Brown
This site already has much on this Prayer Book. I will put up another post soon. Meanwhile there was a series I wrote using the model of language to illustrate liturgy – this has
Kiwi Anglican liturgy history part 1 (= liturgy as language 2)
Kiwi Anglican liturgy history part 2 (= liturgy as language 3)
as well as liturgy as language 1; liturgy as language 4; liturgy as language 5
If you are hesitant about getting online, starting a blog, organising a parish or group website, setting up a twitter profile – let me encourage you not to hesitate. Any of these are now so simple to set up, free, and easy to run. They need not be time-consuming. You may not know the positive good you are spreading through a ripple effect. I receive many tweets, comments, and emails affirming the value of a cyber-presence. Here is one recent email as an example
You may be interested to learn of the ripple effect of your website. Some time ago I visited it after reading about your “Liturgy of the Notices” on the [...] list. After reading your recommendation I bought Benedictine Daily Prayer and began observing the Liturgy of the Hours. I put a brief note about this on the [...] Facebook page, a site I check into very infrequently. Another member contacted me about this after buying the book, asking for help in navigation, so I sent him the list of page numbers for a couple of offices and he figured it out after that. His life has become so enriched from observing the hours, as has mine, he is now becoming a Benedictine Oblate.
Thank you for all your good work. I’m sure there are many more blessings you’ve spread that you don’t even know about.
So if you have wondered whether to get online – I hope this post is the encouragement you need to give it a go.
Does the order matter?
In the Roman Catholic Church and in the Eastern Orthodox Church you can only get married before ordination. Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox can not get married after ordination. If the wife of a married Roman Catholic deacon dies, he cannot marry again. If the wife of an Anglican priest, re-ordained as a Roman Catholic priest, dies – he cannot marry again.
I have been involved in some discussions about this. The contention is that there is no evidence in the Tradition of marriage after ordination. None! There is, according to that position, not a single example of marriage after ordination until the Reformation. I find this an astonishing and fascinating claim. I would be fascinated if any reader could come up with a refutation. Or, of course, references to this being correct.
When I ask – what is the theology around this? What reflection do you have about this? What is the point of this? Why is it any different to be married before or after ordination? I get little more than, “Do they require post hoc justification? Is Sacred Tradition not enough?” Well I cannot quickly think of anything within Sacred Tradition that is not followed by some reflection, interpretation, theology, or explanation. Does anyone have such a reflection in this case – what is the difference between marriage before and marriage after ordination?
For reference I have been pointed to Celibacy in the Early Church: The Beginnings of Obligatory Continence for Clerics in East and West
Please also tell me if there is an ongoing tradition of abstaining from sexual relations 24 hours prior to presiding at the Eucharist. (And one has also mentioned a tradition of abstaining after presiding – but no indication for how long).
And don’t tell me that as in the case of baptism, confirmation, eucharist – marriage and ordination are in that order because they are so alphabetically LOL
I always love light-hearted approaches that still strongly make a serious point!
Congratulations to Valiance Weaver and Brandon Watson
Blog Action Day blog post
There is increasing realisation (or probably better said re-realisation) that the pendulum had swung too far towards bringing earth into heaven, and we are (thankfully) swinging back more towards drawing heaven into earth. From a tendency to be so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly use – or worse: devastating this planet in order to encourage Christ’s return (!) churches, and Christian individuals are increasingly realising our responsibility towards God’s creation. In this we can join in positive partnership with people of other faiths, and people of goodwill of no faith, and even anti-faith (an increasing, fascinating phenomenon, in my opinion).
Christians can understand the activity of God’s Spirit to be present in this movement. Christians can and need to repent of our neglect of our responsibility and our blindness to it. It was relatively late, only at the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in 1990 that a fifth mark of mission was added to the other four: “To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth.”
In the context of this being a liturgical site, I will list off some of the prayers in relation to creation from the New Zealand Prayer Book (1989). These highlight the shift I am talking about in the formally recognised prayers of NZ Anglicans (officially understood as binding formularies). You might like to add official prayers from your tradition in the comments section below.
Awaken in us a sense of wonder for the earth and all that is in it.
Teach us to care creatively for its resources.
We remember with gratitude your many gifts to us in creation and the rich heritage of these islands. Help us and people everywhere to share with justice and peace the resources of the earth. Give wisdom to those in authority among us and to all leaders of the nations.
Caring God,
we thank you for your gifts in creation:
for our world,
the heavens tell of your glory;
for our land, its beauty and its resources,
for the rich heritage we enjoy.
We pray:
for those who make decisions about the resources of the earth,
that we may use your gifts responsibly;
for those who work on the land and sea, in city and in industry,
that all may enjoy the fruits of their labours
and marvel at your creation;
for artists, scientists and visionaries,
that through their work we may see creation afresh.
1 O give thanks to our God who is good:
whose love endures for ever.
2 You sun and moon, you stars of the southern sky:
give to our God your thanks and praise.
3 Sunrise and sunset, night and day:
give to our God your thanks and praise.
4 All mountains and valleys, grassland and scree,
glacier, avalanche, mist and snow:
give to our God your thanks and praise.
5 You kauri and pine, rata and kowhai, mosses and ferns:
give to our God your thanks and praise.
6 Dolphins and kahawai, sealion and crab,
coral, anemone, pipi and shrimp:
give to our God your thanks and praise.
7 Rabbits and cattle, moths and dogs,
kiwi and sparrow and tui and hawk:
give to our God your thanks and praise.
8 You māori and pākehā, women and men,
all who inhabit the long white cloud:
give to our God your thanks and praise.
9 All you saints and martyrs of the South Pacific:
give to our God your thanks and praise.
[10 All prophets and priests, all cleaners and clerks,
professors, shop workers, typists and teachers,
job-seekers, invalids, ' drivers • and ' doctors:
give to our ' God your ' thanks and ' praise.
11 All sweepers and diplomats, writers and artists,
grocers, carpenters, students and stock-agents,
seafarers, farmers, ' bakers • and ' mystics:
give to our ' God your ' thanks and ' praise.
12 All children and infants, all ' people • who ' play:
give to our ' God your ' thanks and ' praise.]
Please feel free to add below other prayers and responses that relate to climate change and our ecological responsibility, particularly indicating if they are part of the formally agreed liturgy of your church.
Link to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s recent address on ecological responsibility
In 1998 statues of ten modern martyrs were unveiled on the West of the (Anglican) Westminster Abbey. Maximilian Kolbe, whose feast day is today (August 14), is one of them.
He grew up in Poland at the end of the nineteenth century. He decided to become a Franciscan. Fr. Kolbe set up what he called a spiritual Militia, an educational and spiritual organization attempting to combat the evils of the day. He had been studying in Rome and in 1919 Maximilian returned to Poland to become professor of church history at the Cracow seminary. He established a press to keep members of the Militia informed, and this publishing venture became a huge success. By 1927 membership in his spiritual Militia rose to 126,000 people and his printing presses moved to the capital, to Warsaw.
Father Kolbe developed a monthly magazine with a circulation of over 1 million, and a daily newspaper with a circulation of 230,000. He could be regarded as a patron of technology. He used the latest printing and administrative technologies to print and distribute his publications. Father Kolbe also started a radio station and planned to build a motion picture studio.
By 1936 he had expanded to Nagasaki in Japan and he spent some time there. But in 1936 he was called back from Nagasaki to Poland and became in charge of a friary with over 700 friars.
In 1939 Germany invaded Poland. As far as possible Maximilian dispersed the friary for safety reasons. They took in refugees. And then the German army closed the friary in September 1939 and detained some of the Franciscans including arresting Maximilian. They were released in December and again they took up helping the numerous refugees and the sick from the fall of Warsaw. Both Poles and Jews.
Maximilian began publishing again, and, given that some of the material published was critical of the Third Reich, it came as no surprise when he was arrested in February 1941. He was imprisoned in Warsaw. On May 28, 1941, Father Kolbe, in a group of 320 prisoners, was transferred to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.
He continued his caring of the other prisoners, always sharing his rations, and offered himself to be beaten in the place of others.
At the end of July 1941 a prisoner escaped from Auschwitz. The camp commandant instituted the usual reprisal: ten prisoners were to be starved to death in an underground bunker. One of the selected victims was a Polish Sergeant Francis Gajowniczek. He begged to be spared because he was worried about his family on the outside who would not survive without him when he finally got out.
Father Kolbe silently stepped forward and stood before Commandant Fritsch.
Father Kolbe pointed to the polish sergeant, saying, “I am a Catholic priest from Poland; I would like to take his place, because he has a wife and children.”
A Witness recalled “From astonishment, the commandant appeared unable to speak. After a moment he gave a sign with the hand. He spoke but one word: ‘Away!’”
In his last days Fr Kolbe prepared the others for death. Kolbe was one of the last of the ten to die, being finally killed with an injection of carbolic acid by a camp doctor on 14 August 1941.
In 1982 in the Vatican Maximilian Kolbe was declared a saint and Gajowniczek, whose place Kolbe had taken, was present at that celebration.
Jesus said: No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13
Marion Josiah Hatchett
1927 – 2009
No liturgical bookshelf would be complete without some work by Rev. Dr. Marion Hatchett who died August 7. He was central in the development of the 1979 Prayer book and the 1982 Hymnal for The Episcopal Church (USA).
His writings include:
Sanctifying Life, Time and Space: An Introduction to Liturgical Study (1976)
A Manual for Clergy and Church Musicians (1980)
Commentary on the American Prayer Book (1981), and
The Making of the First American Book of Common Prayer (1982).
About leading worship he regularly asked the question “Is that particular action edifying to the people?” Ask that question before you do something you like, or think is nice, or have seen someone else do. Look at the tradition and ask, “Will this edify the people?”
Here are a couple of quotes from Hatchett that I can really identify with (to be read aloud slowly with a Carolina drawl):
The prayer book committee had operated on the assumption, apparently mistaken, that clergy, lay leaders and church musicians could read italics.
The word ‘may’ indicates that something is not normative. I once attended a rite two liturgy where all three opening sentences were said, followed by the Collect for Purity, followed by the Gloria, followed by the Kyrie in English, followed by the Kyrie in Greek, followed by the Trisagian. I was just glad that all six forms of the prayers of the people were not printed in the same place as the eucharistic liturgy and that they did not opt for all four forms of the eucharistic prayer.
I had just been organising to contact him to ask if he could provide an explanation for the pattern of Episcopalians and Roman Catholics praying the same opening prayer/collect. More on Marion Hatchett here.
Most recently he was in the news for a speech he gave recently at General Theological Seminary:
The American Church jumped way out ahead of the Church of England and other sister churches in a number of respects. One was in giving voice to priests and deacons and to laity (as well as bishops and secular government officials) in the governance of the national church and of dioceses and of parishes. The early American Church revised the Prayer Book in a way that went far beyond revisions necessitated by the new independence of the states.
At its beginning the American Church legalized the use of hymnody along with metrical psalmody more than a generation before use of ‘hymns of human composure’ became legal in the Church of England. At an early stage the American Church gave recognition to critical biblical scholarship.
The American Church eventually gave a place to women in various aspects of the life of the church including its ordained ministry. The American Church began to speak out against discrimination against those of same-sex orientation, and the American Church began to make moves in establishing full communion with other branches of Christendom.
Historically the American Church has been the flag-ship in the Anglican armada. It has been first among the provinces of the Anglican Communion to take forward steps on issue after issue, and on some of those issues other provinces of Anglicanism have eventually fallen in line behind the American Church. My prayer is that the American Church will be able to retain its self-esteem and to stand firm and resist some current movements which seem to me to be contrary to the principles of historic Anglicanism and to the teachings of the Holy Scriptures.
Here is the full text which includes several chuckles.
Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Marion. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.
May his soul and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer (TEC) page 465
Thanks to @seanferrell for letting me know
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