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)
Tag Archive for 'anglican church'
Mary MacKillop
Pope Benedict XVI announced on Friday that Mother Mary MacKillop would be one of six canonised at a Vatican ceremony on October 17.
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.
This Australian has strong associations with New Zealand. She visited here on several occasions. The first school run by her sisters in New Zealand was opened in Temuka in 1883. Other schools and institutions followed and the work continues into the present. While in Rotorua on a visit to New Zealand in 1901 Mother Mary was partially paralysed by a stroke.
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. This has passed a majority of diocesan synods and will this year be presented to a second meeting of General Synod. After this there is 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. It does mean, however, that her official inclusion in our NZ Anglican calendar will now be after that of the Roman Catholic Church. I would be interested if there is any movement to add her to the calendar by the Australian Anglican church.
Gracious God,
you gave to your servant Mary MacKillop
a heart to teach and care for children.
We thank you for the good she and her order have done.
By your grace give us a like compassion for the poor
and a concern for the education of the young
that we all may learn to praise you with joyful hearts;
through Jesus Christ our Lord
who is alive with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
St Cyprian
Cyprian was martyred on 14 September 258. (September 14 is Holy Cross Day, so he is usually commemorated on a nearby open day – in USA RC that is today.)
Cyprian was born around 200 AD in North Africa. He was a prominent trial lawyer and teacher of rhetoric. Around 246 he became a Christian, and in 248 was chosen Bishop of Carthage. Early in the year 250 the Emperor Decius began strong measures against Christians. The first demand was that the bishops and officers of the church sacrifice to the emperor. The proconsul traveled to check the order was being carried out. Five commissioners for each town administered the edict. When the proconsul reached Carthage he discovered that Bishop Cyprian had fled and gone into hiding.
The church was very divided about how to react to the persecution. Some Christians stood firm in civil disobedience – refusing to sacrifice. Others gave in, submitting in word or in deed to the order of sacrifice and receiving a certificate called a “libellus”. We still have some of these certificates.
Those who did not like or approve of Cyprian said that his secret fleeing from Carthage showed he was a coward and unfaithful. Cyprian replied that he thought fleeing in this case was God’s will for him and that he could lead the church from his hiding place.
Persecution was extremely severe in Carthage, and many Christians gave in and sacrificed to the emperor. These were called lapsi. When the persecution died down the church now had a new problem: how to deal with the lapsi – those who had given in and sacrificed – when these lapsi now wanted to come and be members of the church again.
One Christian leader, called Novatus, allowed these lapsi who had sacrificed back into the church without any disciplining whatsoever. Another Christian leader called Novatian did the opposite. He would not allow them back into the church community at all.
A libellus
Cyprian held to a middle way – but you can see the Christian community was deeply divided again. Cyprian allowed the lapsi back into the Christian community, the church, after a suitable period of probation and penance, depending on the gravity of the denial. The story of the divisions gets even more complicated – but you get the basic idea.
Later there were other Christian divisions. Jesus didn’t leave behind a rule book and each time that new issues arose Christians weren’t really sure – they disagreed about what the appropriate response should be. The next big issue for Cyprian was whether the baptism in heretical groups was valid or not. Should people from those heretical groups be rebaptised or not.
During the reign of the Emperor Valerian, Carthage suffered a severe plague epidemic. Cyprian organized a program of medical relief and nursing of the sick, available to all residents. But the majority of Carthage’s citizens were convinced that the epidemic was the result of the wrath of the gods at the spread of Christianity. So another persecution against Christians arose. This time Cyprian did not flee. He was arrested, tried, and finally beheaded on 14 September 258.
Cyprian was an extensive writer. We still have many of his writings. In his book called On the Unity of the Catholic Church Cyprian stresses the importance of visible, concrete unity among Christians. He argued for a position that the fullness of the church – what he and others called the catholic church, the universal church – is present in the people gathered around their local bishop. That position has stayed the approach to church of the Eastern Orthodox church and of the Anglican Church. The fullness of the church, the church catholic, is present in the people led by the bishop.
We live in divided times. Churches are divided one from another – within denominations there is division. There is disagreement between Christians. Some would have us attempt to agree on every last detail before we can see ourselves as a community – a common unity. Listing off a catalogue of agreed beliefs rather than unity in God. The opposite is those who say that none of our beliefs matter at all. Can we find a middle way? Can we learn to respect difference, learn from difference AND at the same time hold to our primary convictions. Being too rigid we will snap under pressure, being too loose and supple we will be no support.
This is not only true within Christianity – but also beyond it. We live in a multi-faith, multi-cultural community and world. The date, September 11, is itself a reminder that the need to respectfully listen to each other is one of the world’s greatest needs – as is the need to be sure of our own convictions. Reflecting on the times of Cyprian still, IMO, has much to teach us.
Almighty God, who gave to your servant Cyprian boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
As well as the Roman Catholic Church, many Anglican churches celebrate St John Vianney on August 4. This year it is 150 years since the death of the priest who is known more commonly by his title “Curé d’Ars” (the parish priest of the village of Ars-sur-Formans). He is the patron saint of parish priests, and the Pope has announced this year as a Year for Priests in honour of “the 150th anniversary of the death of the Holy Curé d’Ars, Jean-Marie Vianney, a true example of a pastor at the service of Christ’s flock”.
Some points worth reflecting on:
- the concept of vocation – so quickly (too quickly in my opinion) the word vocation is applied to priesthood and “religious life”. Should not vocation be primarily applied to our baptismal calling to holiness and after that to discernment of our particular way of living out our baptismal vocation to love?
- the understanding of God’s will – the impression is too quickly given in my opinion that God has a particular pathway planned out for us and should we deviate from this in any way our present happiness, let alone our eternal salvation, is in jeopardy unless and until we return to where we branched off God’s determined pathway and get back onto the correct path. This would have God intending you to marry Sarah and should you marry Martha instead, then you will be unhappy in this life not to mention the next… God intended you to be a Franciscan, but you misheard the call and became a Dominican – not until you leave the Dominicans and join the Franciscans will you be following God’s will for this life (and the next)… Possibly God’s will is more general than that – possibly it is more about searching out the deepest God-given yearnings of our God-given heart?
- Priesthood as primarily a call to enable the baptismal life of the Christian community. The NZ Prayer Book ordinal says it well, in my opinion,
By the Holy Spirit all who believe and are baptised
receive a ministry to proclaim Jesus as Saviour and Lord,
and to love and serve the people with whom they live and work.
In Christ they are to bring redemption,
to reconcile and to make whole
They are to be salt for the earth; they are to be light to the world.After his resurrection and ascension
Christ gave gifts abundantly to the Church
Some he made apostles, some prophets. some evangelists.
some pastors and teachers; to equip God’s people
for their work of ministry and to build up the body of Christ.We stand within a tradition
in which there are deacons priests and bishops
They are called and empowered to fulfil an ordained ministry
and to enable the whole mission of the Church.
- This might also be a year in which we can discuss more deeply what priesthood means, what diaconate, and laity, and episcopate means, and whether people should be ordained directly to the order to which God calls them (per saltum)?
John Vianney lived and ministered in the aftermath of the French Revolution. He struggled with the academic formation required for priesthood. He greatly stressed the love and mercy of God and also the value of personal discipline. His popularity grew so that Lyons railway station had a separate booking office for trains to Ars. Close to 100,000 individuals came to hear him preach in the last year of his life.
Once, when he was arguing with a Protestant peasant woman in his village, he asked her, “Where was your Church before the Reformation?” She promptly replied, “In the hearts of people like you.”
Heavenly Father,
Shepherd of your people,
we thank you for your Servant John,
who was faithful in the care and nurture of your flock;
and we pray that,
following his example and the teaching of his holy life,
we may by your grace grow into the stature of the fullness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Everliving God,
you gave to your servant John Vianney
gifts of discernment and wise counsel;
grant to all pastors
a full measure of your wisdom and your love,
that through their ministry
your truth may be revealed;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Good shepherd,
yours was the strength which kept Jean, Curé d’Ars,
praying and reconciling year after year;
protect us too, we pray,
from fatigue which shrivels up compassion;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
In the last post on the lectionary I gave background to the RCL (Revised Common Lectionary) and highlighted that a community discipline of following the lectionary frees us from the vagaries and some of the eccentricities of allowing pastors total discretion to pick their own favourite Bible passages.
I think there is always a danger from some to turn liturgy into rubrical fundamentalism – always following the instructions of our liturgies to the letter solely because these instructions are there. I am far more interested in understanding the reasoning and principles underneath our rubrics (liturgical instructions). This post, hence, will look at some of the advantages of following the lectionary as well as examining some alternatives.
The Lectionary is part of Common Prayer
- The lectionary is a whole church or denomination sharing a unified, common pattern of biblical proclamation. For example: the gospel book we are all focusing on together this year is Mark. This is the experience of over half the world’s Christians – a remarkable movement of the Holy Spirit in our own time.
- The lectionary means that all in a community can prepare ahead: clergy, preachers, those worshipping in the congregation, musicians, Sunday School teachers, and so on.
- Clergy, worship leaders, and preachers meet, discuss, and pray together, share resources and ideas around the lectionary. Because the lectionary is shared ecumenically, such meetings can happen locally between many churches and denominations, and even virtually online.
- There are wonderful shared resources around the lectionary, ecumenically, internationally, and including online. These include preaching resources, commentaries, Sunday School material, and devotional resources.
- Individuals and groups reflect prayerfully on the following Sunday readings in the style of Lectio Divina or systematic Bible study or other methods.
- The lectionary provides a dynamic direction with a carefully thought out pathway and flow in the church’s seasons as well as in Ordinary Time.
The alternative
In my experience, the strongest criticism of RCL comes from those who claim they want to “preach through the whole Bible systematically.” For some time I have been involved with online and offline discussion and critique of RCL. One ordained minister criticised RCL for skipping gospel passages from one week to the next. I am sympathetic to this critique. But what interests me is that when I check that ordained minister’s community website it is noticeable that when the lectionary is abandoned 2 Peter 1:20-21 is followed the next week by John 14:1-6 then Luke 10:25-28 then Isaiah 53:5 then Matthew 23:1-37 then Hebrews 10:24-25! My point is that those who abandon the lectionary appear to have scripture-reading systems that are inestimably impoverished in comparison to the RCL which they criticise.
Another supposedly “systematic-Bible-preaching” site I examined, in a year apparently dedicated to preaching systematically through the book of Jeremiah, there were actually only 14 sermons and Sundays devoted to the Book of Jeremiah. That is, in fact, about the same number of Sundays that RCL devotes to Jeremiah. With a bit of planning, that community could have used the RCL AND had as good a preaching series on Jeremiah! Another similar style of site I visited had five Sundays devoted to Romans 1, another to Romans 2:1-16, nothing for Romans 2:17-3:8, a Sunday for Romans 3:9-31, and then… no more on Romans!
My challenge to those who abandon the lectionary is: show us how your community is doing something so stunning that the negatives of abandoning common prayer are outweighed by your own system.
The Protestant Bible has 1189 chapters. Read and preached on a chapter a week (the systematic manner that many RCL-criticisers mostly suggest) – this results in…. 23 years of preaching to get through the Bible! I can just visualise the Christian formation being provided to the University student attending your church for the three years of her degree when those years just happen to coincide with the systematic preaching through Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy!
The RCL as a preaching tool
Each Sunday the RCL provides a Gospel reading, another New Testament reading, a psalm, and normally two tracks for the Old Testament. One track of the Old Testament links it with the Gospel reading, the other follows the Old Testament semi-continuously in the same manner that the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament are read. [Consistency demands that once a community starts following one track, that is what is used at least for that liturgical year]. Those so inclined can see that these five biblical readings for three years provide fifteen years of exposition before one even needs to return to examine a text for a second time!
It may very well have been possible to have produced something better than this three year cycle we share with more than half the world’s Christians, but that opportunity has now passed. Whatever we alter in this treasure will lead to greater losses than gains in my opinion.
Whilst I rejoice at the liturgical renewal that has put the Eucharist back at the heart of the Christian community, this has not happened without some loss. The Eucharist is the jewel in the crown of Christian worship. For some (many?) that is all they experience – the jewel, no crown. The Eucharist, hence, becomes the sole place for worship, prayer, contemplation, education, fellowship, and so forth. This is a weight too much for the Eucharist to bear.
The Sunday Eucharist ought not to be the only encounter that Christians have with the scriptures. Christians ought regularly to be encouraged to read a book as a whole, for example. Mark’s gospel, our focus this year for example, takes only little more than an hour to read. A Christian community can provide other opportunities for encountering the scriptures in a deeper way – not just individually or in small groups, but online. I am amazed when communities are not providing online resources and discussions to facilitate the deeper, ongoing, systematic, continual working through the scriptures to complement what is provided Sunday by Sunday in their common worship.
RCL, then, is not merely one cool resource alongside others that people might choose from or create their own. Just to take the example of the NZ Anglican Church: the RCL was brought to General Synod where it was passed without amendment, then all the diocesan synods and Hui Amorangi unanimously passed it, then General Synod passed it for a second time, and then a year had to go by allowing for anyone to appeal this new formulary – plenty of opportunities for the sort of discussion and amending by the sort of people who now do not use it. Everything passed unanimously. Clergy promise and sign at their ordination that they will use only authorised material in leading services, and sign again each time they get a new position and licence. Our church’s pledging not to depart from formularies like this is even binding on us as a church by Act of Parliament.
The next post on the lectionary will provide links to some of the best online resources connected to the RCL.
Peter Carrell is an Anglican priest in New Zealand who usually has a very good grasp on what is happening within our province. He writes in an interesting post on Anglican Down Under that he cannot think of a single congregation that follows our official liturgy that is either growing, or thriving with a good mixture of ages (especially including younger people). This, of course, is a dire claim (Peter repeats it on his site Preaching and Worship). What is more, there has only been a single Kiwi disputing his claim in a comment. Whether I can think of a congregation that conflicts with Peter’s claim is not significant. What I want to do is attempt to analyse this situation and what we might be able to learn from this and move forward. I believe that this analysis and my proposals will be just as relevant beyond New Zealand – so please don’t tune out of this thread you non-Kiwis ☺
Peter’s strong assertion comes with little analysis. The conclusion that liturgy cannot sustain a thriving community within our culture he shows to be false through highlighting (in a comment) that Roman Catholics in this country would not dream of departing from liturgy in the way that Kiwi Anglican churches do, yet Roman Catholic communities are not only more than three times as committed in worship attendance, Peter highlights that Roman Catholic communities do not exhibit the problems with lack of flourishing whilst being liturgically faithful.
I contend that liturgy is integral to Anglican identity. The danger of Peter’s barely-hidden subtext is that a community can only thrive here by abandoning Anglican identity.
Peter maintains (again in a comment) that his observation has been perceptible for at least fifteen to twenty years. In that, already, I think, is a clue to analysis. In this series I will look at the way we learn and use language and from that develop a model that I believe is pertinent.
Update: part 2 is here
Traditionally the Thursday after Trinity Sunday (this year June 11) is celebrated as Corpus Christi. Some translate this celebration to next Sunday. In the Anglican Church in New Zealand the coming Sunday is designated as Te Pouhere Sunday to “celebrate our life as a three Tikanga Church”. This site is firmly committed to the ecumenical, international Revised Common Lectionary and will leave it to others to advocate elsewhere for departing from this to celebrate a cultural constitutional arrangement with its own readings and other propers. I merely note that in the NZ Lectionary the readings for the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time are provided as an acceptable alternative to the proper of Te Pouhere Sunday.
A reflection for Corpus Christi is found in this link.
Fr Alberto Cutié
Initially Ruth wrote a startling paragraph which she later deleted:
If Father Cutié is not eventually dismissed from his orders, but even if he is, and then goes on to become an Episcopal priest, will he need to be ordained again? And whether re-ordained or not, will the Catholic Church then view his orders as ‘absolutely null and utterly void’ or not? If not, could this apparent tool of ecumenical discord have the potential to bring about eventual healing between our two churches, beginning a line of succession that the Holy See could recognise as Apostolic? Forgive me please for the betrayal of ignorance in these questions, but if any readers have the answers, I would be most interested to know.
This paragraph appears not to understand the Vatican cannot undo his orders, Anglicans accept Roman Catholic orders and do not “re-ordain” them, and a priest cannot start a “line of succession” – only bishops can.
After some coffee Ruth must have realised some of her confusion, but she replaces the paragraph with one that is still startlingly befuddled:
I’ve deleted an earlier paragraph and am substituting this. To paraphrase Socrates it is a wise woman who knows she knows nothing, but I perhaps did not phrase my original question very well in my haste to finish the blog and get back to the poolside. ‘Speaking in thongs,’ as one wit has observed. I know of course that in the normal course of events, Catholic priests going the Anglican way do not need re-ordination and that Anglicans recognise Catholic orders and that once a priest in the Catholic Church, always a priest. What I was trying to ask, perhaps rather incompetently, was, in the event that no proper procedures, not even notification to the bishop, have been followed and Rome exacts revenge by deprivation of orders or whatever the ultimate penalty is what then? Anglicans probably would think it made no difference but what would the correct position be? That was what I was hoping to discover from readers.
Ruth continues to think that the Vatican can “exact revenge” and deprive someone of their orders. Let’s just put traditional sacramental theology on this issue as simply as one can: no one, not even the Vatican, can unbaptise someone, unconsecrate the Eucharist, or un-ordain a validly ordained deacon, priest, or bishop.
Plenty of Roman Catholic priests have joined the Anglican church. To ordain them again would be a sacrilege as it would be denying God’s action in what are clearly valid sacraments. All that the Anglican diocesan bishop does is check the documentation of ordination and can then decide, if appropriate, to give him a position by licensing him to the priestly role in the diocese.
Further internet discussion on Father Alberto Cutié has strayed into discussions on the 1896 papal bull, Apostolicae Curae, which pronounced Anglican orders “absolutely null and utterly void”. These discussions appear unaware that since then Roman Catholics have also reformed ordination rites making them highly similar to Anglican ones. Furthermore, as well as Roman Catholic lines of succession within Anglicanism, since 1931 Anglicans and Old Catholics have been in full communion. Old Catholic orders are accepted as valid by the Vatican, and Old Catholics have, since 1931, been fully involved in Anglican ordinations, restoring continuity in the minds of those who considered there had been some sort of “break”.
Finally, there has been outrage by some against TEC for accepting Father Alberto Cutié’s request to join them – to the point of seeing it as further proof that TEC is not part of the Christian religion. There are plenty of websites where people can add their diatribes about TEC or the invalidity of certain orders. Comments below are about the sacramental theology addressed in this post and follow this site’s comments policy.
There are a lot of notices going around about services on 24 May celebrating the signing of the Anglican Methodist Covenant in Aotearoa New Zealand. But it appears relatively difficult for people to actually get hold of the covenant being signed.
Here you can download a pdf of the Anglican Methodist Covenant.
Here is a not dissimilar covenant made in England in 2003.
We, the Methodist Church of New Zealand (Te Hahi Weteriana o Aotearoa), and the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia (Te Hahi Mihinare ki Aotearoa ki Niu Tireni, ki Nga Moutere o Te Moana Nui a Kiwa), on the basis of our shared history, our agreement on the apostolic faith, our shared theological understandings of the nature and mission of the church and of its ministry and oversight, and our agreed vision of a greater practical expression of the unity in Christ of our two churches, hereby make the following covenant.
I recently attended a suburban Anglican church. It shall remain nameless – as its location etc. is not important. I’ll call it St. Alban for convenience. At most the church building could probably hold 130, maybe 150 people. The community who built it probably never anticipated more than a couple of hundred attending on a Sunday – with a couple of morning services and an evening service. Next door they built a vicarage. St Alban has an entrance foyer and a large hall where you can play basketball or do any number of other activities. There are a couple of smaller meeting rooms – easily usable for Sunday School. There is an area where refreshments can be prepared and placed. Then a couple of small offices – one intended for the vicar/parish priest.
In an age of bigger-is-better, mega-churches, even internet churches, St Alban and its architecture speaks of a different approach. It speaks of a local community worshipping and serving where they live. A vision of young families who generally send their children to the local kindergarten, primary school, and secondary school. The church encourages neighbourly care. I recently read of three very successful businesses where the people worked near where they live.
Yes, there will be some travelling to supermarket, even shopping mall, and cinema. Many will travel out of the suburb to work.
I regularly read about and encounter the enormous energy directed towards creating “Christian communities” of like-minded, same-age congregations. Imagine our multi-faceted society as a gateaux or layer cake. These people want to slice the gateaux, the layer cake of society, horizontally – so that you look around the congregation at slightly-varying clones of yourself – people who think the same, believe the same, dress similarly, like similar music, are a similar age, income-group, culture etc. There is no stress or challenge. And maybe little transformation?
The vision that the architecture of St Alban speaks of to me is quite different. It slices the gateaux, the layer cake, vertically. Sure, not every possibility will be included in the slice – the community just isn’t big enough. But there is a variety of ages and stages, opinions and positions – rubbing shoulders, rubbing the sharp edges off, being the grit that produces the pearl.
There may be a warning in the cake-slicing metaphor. If you attempt to slice a gateaux horizontally, normally you will be very unsuccessful, ending up merely with a lot crumbs and sticky cream.
St Alban’s doesn’t just meet for worship and mutual support. The small number that meet there (relative to the population of the suburb in which it sits) serve and care in the local community. The hall is used for young people to be active together. There are visits to the local retirement homes. The vicar/parish priest is not just there to care for the worshipping community, but is understood by that community to be available for anyone in the suburb. The vicar is a general practitioner, helping people find the resources they need. The vicar is in touch with what is happening in the worshipping community and the wider local community, presiding at the eucharist and other worship as pastor of the community, preaching sermons that connect the timeless message to the actual, known, lived experiences and issues of those in the pews.
Some people want to slice the gateaux, the layer cake of society, horizontally – so that you look around the congregation at slightly-varying clones of yourself – people who think the same, believe the same, dress similarly, like similar music, are a similar age, income-group, culture etc. There may be a warning in the cake-slicing metaphor. If you attempt to slice a gateaux horizontally, normally you will be very unsuccessful, ending up merely with a lot crumbs and sticky cream.
Some groups proudly boast that ten tithing average-income families can support one average-income pastor’s family. Anglicans have never generally got such a ratio, however I posit that a community with an average weekly attendance of a hundred or more can generally support a parish with a vicar.
This post is not even beginning to explore the possible imperative to alter our lifestyle to a more local expression for the sake of the planet and our future. This post is not a denigration of larger churches, nor of the church’s use of the internet. Far from it (clearly) for the latter – it is not a romanticised yearning for a bygone, pre-internet age. The internet complements such a real world small community. This is an attempt to look again at the too-regularly forgotten value of small, local Christian communities where the pastor IS pastor to the faith community, leads, teaches, and preaches to their actual context. And the Christian community not only worships God in and prays for the local community, and really supports each other, it also serves the local community (and beyond) in a multiplicity of ways. They act locally and truly are Christ locally.
The latest edition of the newspaper The New Zealand Catholic has the following story:
CHRISTCHURCH – Blessed Mary MacKillop and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta could soon feature in Anglican liturgies in New Zealand.
In 2006, the Rev. Bosco Peters, Christ’s College chaplain and webmaster of the ecumenical liturgy site www.liturgy.co.nz, proposed a motion to that end at the Christchurch diocesan synod.
If the formal approval process is completed, these names would join other post-reformation Catholics in New Zealand’s Anglican calendar.
A New Zealand Prayer Book – He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa, published in 1989, has Sts John Vianney, Maximillian Kolbe, Rose of Lima, Teresa of Avila, Martin de Porres and Francis Xavier in its calendar, as well as Mother Suzanne Aubert, founder of New Zealand’s only religious order – the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion.
“There is no thought that holiness is limited to Anglicanism,” Rev. Peters said.
He also proposed C.S. Lewis and Taizé’s Br Roger be added to the calendar.
New Zealand’s Anglican church produced its first revised calendar in 1972, including post-Reformation Catholics.
Before then it used material from older Church of England calendars, which included pre-Reformation saints, but not the later Catholic figures.
The formal process for approval requires passing a bill at General Synod, positive votes at diocesan synods and equivalents, a confirmation by a newly-elected General Synod and a year’s wait to see if there are any appeals.
“After this is becomes part of our binding shared liturgical life,” he said.
The move has yet to go through General Synod a second time, but Rev. Peters said it is uncontroversial.
Readings and prayers for the relevant days are being prepared for the celebration of the Eucharist, he said.
by MICHAEL OTTO
There has been much internet speculation that the Vatican will establish an Anglican personal prelature for unhappy Anglicans. Opus Dei is currently the only personal prelature. Unlike most church governance, which oversees a geographic territory, a personal prelature has a prelate, appointed by the pope, who oversees those linked by a particular agreement rather than living in a particular location.
Within the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church there is a pastoral provision since 1980 of the option of incorporating certain Anglican liturgical traditions within the Roman Rite. This is set out in the Book of Divine Worship. About seventy priests from The Episcopal Church have had their orders regularised and can now function as Roman Catholic priests. Seven parishes follow the Book of Divine Worship.
Internet speculation and newspaper Chinese whispers has the Traditional Anglican Communion, a body claiming about 400,000 faithful, on the threshold of being accepted as a Roman Catholic personal prelature. Ruth Gledhill, the influential Times Religion Correspondent, has repeatedly promoted this rumour (another example). The Traditional Anglican Communion parted company with the Anglican Communion over the ordination of women, liturgical revisions, and homosexuality.
Archbishop John Hepworth
Let’s put this rumour out of its misery once and for all. The Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, John Hepworth, was a Roman Catholic priest who left his celibacy vows and the Roman Catholic Church, joined the Anglican Church of Australia and got married, then divorced, then married again, also leaving his commitment to the Anglican Church of Australia. And the Vatican is on the threshold of accepting this Traditional Anglican Communion as a personal prelature! Yeah right! Furthermore, the Vatican officially still holds to Anglican orders being invalid. And not one of the – is it 27? – different rites of the Roman Catholic Church has married bishops. Nor do Eastern Orthodox.
As a footnote: Isn’t it fascinating that those who hold to biblical literalism on the few, disputed texts about homosexuality, and/or women in leadership (”them“) – appear to be so selective in their stance when it comes to divorce (which so quickly is about “us”), with Jesus having said nothing about the former, and being quite clear about the latter. I have seen little (no?) disquiet about Anglican/Episcopalian twice or thrice married bishops. Just one example: Bishop Walter C. Righter was put on a heresy trial not for being married thrice, but for ordaining a gay man in Newark. [Ps. The charges were dismissed 7-1]
Update February 13: Those readers who take seriously the prophetic powers of Herbert W. Armstrong of The Plain Truth and his ascertaining that these are the end-times will be interested to note the eagerness with which their website reports these Chinese whispers:
The Trumpet has followed this subject closely because of its prophetic significance. For half a century, Herbert W. Armstrong and his Plain Truth magazine expounded on biblical prophecies foretelling the unification of Protestants with their Roman Catholic mother church. The October 1961 Plain Truth, for example, said this: “The pope will step in as the supreme unifying authority—the only one that can finally unite the differing nations of Europe. … Europe will go Roman Catholic! Protestantism will be absorbed into the ‘mother’ church—and totally abolished.” This prophecy is in process of being fulfilled right now. The Vatican may announce its decision to absorb the Traditional Anglican Communion around April this year. (Source here)
Furthermore, one might be helped to ascertain the significance of a “communion” that claims “400,000″ faithful by their international URL: http://acahomeorg0.web701.discountasp.net/tac/tac_index.aspx
I have been asked to provide suggestions towards revising our church calendar. The Common Life Liturgical Commission of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia received my motion to review the calendar. They set in motion adding five names to the calendar:
August 8 Mary MacKillop, Teacher, 1909
August 16 Brother Roger of Taize: Encourager of Youth, 2005
September 5 Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Missonary of Charity, 1997
November 22 C.S. Lewis, Apologist, 1963
December 10 Thomas Merton, Spiritual Writer, 1968
Now they have asked that I present a revision of the calendar. I suggest starting this month by month in consultation, starting, as the motion suggests, from our current calendar, and holding alongside that the Celebrating Eucharist additions (added a decade later), as well as the more recent Common Worship calendar (another decade later). Please send me any further additions and suggestions – they can be put in the comments box below. I will choose to publish from what is sent here. Do not send anonymous comments. You can follow comments (and posts) by the Entries Feed and Comments Feed at the bottom of the page. Clearly I am interested in any material, particularly Maori and Polynesian enrichment. Please add some information, dates, a possible “title” (eg. “Marty of Uganda”, 1977), and even some reason why you are submitting this name.
The Calendar for February in the New Zealand Prayer Book – He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa
1 Brigid of Ireland, Abbess, c.525
2 The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
3 Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary to Denmark and Sweden, 865
4
5 The Martyrs of Japan, 1597
6 Waitangi Day
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14 Cyril, 869, and Methodius, 885, Missionaries to the Slavs
15
16 Alternative date for The Holy Innocents (28 December)
17 Janani Luwum, Archbishop, Martyr of Uganda, 1977
18 Martin Luther, 1546, and other Reformers of the Church
19
20 The Saints and Martyrs of Africa
21
22 The Confession of St Peter
23 Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Martyr, c.156
24 St Matthias the Apostle
25
26
27 George Herbert, 1633, and all saintly Parish Priests
28
29
The Calendar in Celebrating Eucharist has the following suggested additions for February:
4 Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189
10 Scholastica, Religious, Italy, 534
14 Valentine, Martyr at Rome, 269
The February Common Worship Calendar is:
(Principal Feasts and other Principal Holy Days are printed in bold; Festivals are printed in roman typeface; other Sundays and Lesser Festivals are printed in ordinary roman typeface, in black. Commemorations are printed in italics.)
1 Brigid, Abbess of Kildare, c.525
2 The Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Candlemas)
3 Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary in Denmark and Sweden, 865
4 Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189
6 The Martyrs of Japan, 1597
10 Scholastica, sister of Benedict, Abbess of Plombariola, c.543
14 Cyril and Methodius, Missionaries to the Slavs, 869 and 885
14 Valentine, Martyr at Rome, c.269
15 Sigfrid, Bishop, Apostle of Sweden, 1045
15 Thomas Bray, Priest, Founder of the SPCK and the SPG, 1730
17 Janani Luwum, Archbishop of Uganda, Martyr, 1977
23 Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Martyr, c.155
27 George Herbert, Priest, Poet, 1633
Two months into the liturgical year, the PDF of the lectionary for the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia is now available. Thanks to Anglican Taonga online.
You can download the 1.32MB PDF here.
The New Zealand Anglican Lectionary gives one of the four English-language titles for today to be “Proper 3″. There is no explanation, nor introduction.
Reader further: Improper Sundays
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