Tag Archive for 'anglicanism'

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Liturgy as language (part 2)

Published on July 8, 2009 in liturgy. 5 Comments Tags: Anglican, anglican communion, anglicanism, anglicans, book of common prayer, catholic, collect, common prayer, Creation, creativity, daily office, eucharist, justice, last supper, lectio, lectionary, liturgy, new zealand, prayer, presider, roman catholic, worship.

1984 25 years on

Liturgy of the Eucharist 1984

This is the second post in a series looking at how we can use fixed liturgical worship to form thriving, vibrant, growing communities. The series began from the contention of a well-informed New Zealand Anglican priest and his assertion 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). Furthermore, this, he sees as originating in decisions made in the 1980s.

This particular post will be part focusing on New Zealand’s Anglican liturgical history essentially over the last two and a half decades as I believe that this period’s history clarifies the situation we now find ourselves in. This will continue in a later post. And then the series will continue by exploring what, in my opinion, is the underlying dynamic that has been lost during these decades. This current post may be of particular interest more to Kiwis. So, if you have no interest in Kiwi Anglican liturgical history go and have a coffee with a friend, or go and watch a sunset, or pray the daily office…

It will become clear that in the last two and a half decades in NZ Anglicanism there has been a movement away from the concept of liturgy as common prayer. The 1984 Liturgy revision began the loss of knowing responses by heart. From this point NZ Anglicans inevitably become more book-bound (pew-sheet bound, or later projector-screen bound).

Kiwis – don’t look it up: what is the response to “The peace of God be always with you.”?

1964 to 1984

New Zealand Anglicans once had had a relatively conservative liturgical life, following the Book of Common Prayer and minor variants of that. In 1964 there began a revision process that resulted in a 1966 eucharistic rite and a further revision of this in 1970. So by 1984 there had been two decades of either the BCP or a well-received, single contemporary revision. In 1984 all that changed. Now, alongside the contemporary revision were new Eucharist rites that, though structurally relatively similar, had significantly innovative texts.

In these innovative eucharistic texts the traditional, ecumenical, internationally agreed English-language texts used throughout the Anglican Communion were replaced. The following are two examples replacing the sanctus/benedictus (”Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might…”) in 1984:

Holy God, holy and merciful, holy and just,
glory and goodness come from you.
Glory to you most high and gracious God.

and

Holy, holy, holy:
God of mercy, giver of life;
earth and sea and sky
and all that lives,
declare your presence and your glory.

One of the new rites intentionally had far more for the congregation to recite, again increasing the tendency to have more time with heads in books.

Every Sunday in the 1984 revision now no longer had a single collect usually drawn out of the great collect heritage shared throughout Anglicanism. Now each Sunday there was a choice of three collects – many of them not following a collect structure or style.

Kiwis – don’t look it up: what is the response to “The peace of God be with you all.”?

A completely new Order for Celebrating the Eucharist was produced and included in the 1984 Liturgy. In this order basically everything for a Eucharist (even responses) could be resourced from anywhere or created locally (excepting the Last Supper story and one paragraph were fixed in any constructed Eucharistic Prayer).

People were not all following the same readings either. As well as the BCP lectionary, New Zealand’s own creation (a two year thematic lectionary), the Australian Anglican revision of the Roman Catholic three-year lectionary was also authorised.

As well as music and singing being central to liturgy in my opinion, singing inevitably aids memorisation. With three completely different texts (for example) for the sanctus/benedictus (not interchangeable between rites) many communities no longer accessed good quality national ecumenical music or international Anglican and/or ecumenical musical settings.

In summary

From 1984 some wonderfully poetic, imaginative, creative, inclusive, and inculturated texts were being presented to regular worshipping Anglicans. It must be remembered, all this is within the context of a very small province of church-going Anglicans. The numbers in church (say about 35,000 in church on Sunday) are probably that of a reasonable size Church of England diocese. Moving from worshipping community to community there was no longer the expectation that the same readings would be followed, that the same collect would be used, that the same responses and texts would be used, that the same musical settings would be found. Even within a single parish, moving from one service time to another one might encounter completely unfamiliar material. Week by week turning up at the same time on Sunday one could be confronted with a different set of responses in rotation.

Creativity and flexibility became values now embodied in the official rites. Saying and singing things “by heart” (in the deepest sense of that phrase) was being lost. Common prayer – in the sense of celebrating Eucharist as the great shared worship action of Christ and his body, the church – was being lost in individualism and congregationalism. The measure of a “successful” service was shifting. The understanding of liturgy was shifting from community actions and celebration accompanied by words with a significant amount sung and by heart - to reciting beautiful poetic words at each other read from books and ever-changing pew sheets.

Answers:
The Peace of God be always with you.
Praise to Christ who is our peace.
and
The peace of God be with you all.
In God’s justice is our peace.

Next time you hear either of those particular responses check – is the person addressing you/the congregation or addressing the book (pamphlet) s/he is reading from? And are most in the congregation addressing the presider in return – or do they have their eyes fixed on the book/screen/pamphlet? If in your community you are actually addressing each other and there are no books/screens/pamphlets involved at this point give yourself a gold star liturgical WOF. If you got both the above responses correct from memory your application to lecture on liturgy at St John’s College has been accepted. For the rest of us… this series will be continued…

The next post in this series is found here

sacraments 101 (Or O Level)

Published on June 6, 2009 in liturgy. 7 Comments Tags: anglican church, anglicanism, anglicans, baptism, episcopal church, eucharist, liturgy, ordination, roman catholics, sacrament, vatican.

Fr Alberto Cutié

In the midst of the media frenzy over “Oprah-famous”, telegenic Father Alberto Cutié moving from the Roman Catholic Church to The (Anglican) Episcopal Church (TEC), there has been an interesting sub-story in the confusion of long-time (20 years?) Religion Correspondent of The Times Ruth Gledhill. In essence Ruth very surprisingly does not seem to understand the traditional sacramental teaching of Anglicans, Roman Catholics, and others that ordination, like baptism cannot be “undone”.

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.

church and swine flu

Published on May 1, 2009 in liturgy. 6 Comments Tags: Anglican, anglicanism, catholic, liturgy, Mass, new zealand, roman catholic, roman catholics, sign of peace.

Front page news in our local newspaper (which, by the way as far as I know has still not retracted the false, fabricated papal faux pas it wrote about) today is: “The Maori hongi and the traditional Catholic communion are among the centuries-old traditions being put on hold amid fears over a global swine flu pandemic.”

And yes, there is notification on the Roman Catholic diocesan website with a directive from the bishops: The following actions are to cease: Communion on the tongue; Communion from the chalice; shaking hands at the Sign of Peace. I will be particularly interested in the reaction of traditionalist Roman Catholics to the forbidding of communion on the tongue.

Looking at the New Zealand Anglican websites (General Synod, Taonga, diocesan) I cannot find any reaction within Anglicanism.

flying-disk-gun-hq9645 My e-friend Rev. Scott Gunn has 10 suggestions for liturgy to be adapted in this context. Some will have my not-so-high-church readers looking up their liturgical glossary for “lavabo” etc. My personal favourite is shooting communion wafers at congregants from great distance, to avoid contamination. I also like the suggestion to use incense — loads and loads of it — to fumigate the building. Add methyl bromide to the mix for good measure. And I appreciate the inclusion of the video clip of the botafumeiro, the huge thurible that swings across the transept of Santiago de Compostela’s cathedral (I am lucky enough to have attended such a mass there).

The Great Emergence – Phyllis Tickle

Published on April 27, 2009 in liturgy. 1 Comment Tags: Anglican, anglicanism, book review, catholic, catholics, faith, liturgy, Mass, movie, name, reformation, roman catholic, roman catholics, vatican, websites.

The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why (Hardcover)
by Phyllis Tickle (Author) 176 pages
Publisher: Baker Books (October 1, 2008)

This book is about a very significant development within Christianity – and hence the world. The first point about this book is that it is not large. At around 60,000 words it is a fast read. And fast-paced. Tickle brings together an enormous wealth of facts and concepts spanning the whole of Christian history. She interweaves Albert Einstein and physics, psychology, the automobile, Karl Marx, drugs, feminism, Alcoholics Anonymous, the effects of wars, and so on. She fits her points into simple metaphors and diagrams. One might argue with some of her details, but the overall generalisations certainly are strong.

It is some of the details that did take me by surprise. I was surprised by Tickle’s repeatedly referring, without apology, to the Christian Sunday as “the Sabbath”, particularly within her context, and her recurring attempts to include Judaism within her analysis. Similarly “the Dark Ages” was used repeatedly, again without apology – whereas many scholars would now use “Early Middle Ages”. Or her seeing Mormons as the fourth great Abrahamic faith alongside Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Or (as an Episcopalian herself) her appearing to lump Anglicanism in with continental Protestantism rather than a reformed catholic movement ante-dating and anticipating much in post-Vatican II Roman Catholicism.

The biggest weakness of the book, in my opinion, is that if a reader has no idea at the start of the book what emergent Christianity regularly refers to, what an emergent community might currently look like, they may very well still not have the slightest idea by the end of the book. When she does point to a form of emergent Christianity it is to the “signs and wonders” movement associated with John Wimber, an approach that again might surprise many who see themselves as emergent, but cannot identify with Wimber’s approach.

Tickle rightly highlights the significance of the internet in the changes occurring within Christianity. What she fails to mention is that it is often not “emergent Christianity” but regularly the more conservative to fundamentalist forms of Christianity, from pro-Tridentine Mass Roman Catholics to selectively biblically literalist protestants who have the better websites, higher ranking, and greatest number of hits on the internet.

I am not convinced, as Tickle makes so much of in her book, that of necessity there is a “Great” transforming event within Christianity and Judaism every 500 years. And I do not think that the book would have suffered if that theory was abandoned. I think far more strongly are the phases of pre-Constantinian Christianity, Constantinian “established” Christianity, and our movement now into a post-Constantinian situation. We can still learn from transformative events such as the sixteenth century Reformation, and also compare and contrast with pre-Constantinian Christianity.

She helpfully sees the more conservative parts of her four-sided current Christianity as providing ballast in our movement forward. We all need each other and can learn from each other. There is certainly much of value within this book, and I recommend it as a good read. But I cannot recommend it unreservedly as there is much in it that is open to debate. Hence, it may be a good book to engender such discussion within a group – including of church leaders. Members of such a group could decide how much to prepare from the book before a meeting highlighting what they found helpful, what they disagreed with, what they sought a group discussion on, and how they might apply what they have discussed to enhance their community in our new context.

Anglicans add Roman Catholic saints to calendar

Published on March 6, 2009 in liturgy and spirituality. 14 Comments Tags: Anglican, anglican church, anglicanism, anglicans, calendar, catholic, catholics, Christ's College, christchurch, eucharist, Lent, liturgies, liturgy, mary mackillop, name, new zealand, prayer, prayer book, reformation, roman catholic, saints, Taizé, webmaster.

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

Episcopalian solitary

Published on February 5, 2009 in liturgy. Closed Tags: Anglican, anglican communion, anglicanism, episcopal church, episcopalians, liturgy, monasticism, religious life.

Sr Mary Paul

I know there are a number of solitaries who are regular visitors to this site. A solitary takes religious vows not within an order or religious community, but directly to his or her bishop. Some run websites and our sites are linked, and you will find them in the links to this website.

I am delighted to have e-met Sr. Mary Paul. Her website is The Still Heart. After a long journey, Bishop Sergio Carranza, of the Diocese of Los Angeles consecrated her on October 30th 2008 as a Professed Episcopal Solitary. With Life Vows of Simplicity, Obedience, and Chastity. In Anglicanism Professed Solitaries are few and far between. There was one I knew in the Dunedin Diocese (NZ) but he has now passed away. One suggestion is that there are only six such Nuns and one Brother in the entire Anglican Communion.

Pray for Anglican Primates Meeting

Published on February 4, 2009 in liturgy. Closed Tags: Anglican, anglican communion, anglicanism, eucharist, evangelical, liturgy, spirituality.

The Anglican Primates are meeting in Alexandria. I urge your prayers for these church leaders. You can light a candle in the Virtual Chapel. [Eg. my candle, as yours, should stay lit for 48 hours there]. There will be plenty of reporting and discussing of the meeting on websites and blogs, probably to whatever level of acrimony you are comfortable with as a Christian. A search for the meeting, under news, blogs, or the web generally, should turn up plenty.

My liturgical interest lies around my understanding that last Primates Meeting, the Primates could not even muster up the mutual courtesy to be photographed together, let alone celebrate Eucharist together. I struggled to make sense of “Anglican Communion”, when our leaders have literally excommunicated each other. I would appreciate receiving information whether there has been any progression towards being able to celebrate Eucharist together, and be photographed together, or whether the situation is unchanged. [Update Feb 6: "Significantly, after several [Primates} refused to attend the summer's Lambeth Conference in protest at liberal developments in the US and Canada concerning homosexual ordination and same-sex blessings, no Archbishops are boycotting this meeting of the Primates. So far, none have refused to attend the morning Eucharist service which allows them to share communion with teach other." From Times Online]

I would also be interested in being informed if the Primates address Sydney’s revisionism.

Increasingly, it appears to me, denominational boundaries are no longer the primary “partitioning”. If one images denominational boundaries, for example, as vertical lines, then it seems to me far more significant are the horizontal lines where people receive support and encouragement from “evangelical”, or justice-focused, or environmentally-conscious, or contemplative, or liturgical – etc. And one finds those perspectives with which one resonates across denominations. Even across different World Religions. The internet, of course, fits in with this “cafeteria style” spirituality. You who visit this site may be Anglican, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Sikh, Jewish, atheist, agnostic… It is little wonder to me that the traditional hierarchical structures of our denominational divisions struggle with all that the internet opens up.

One of the treasures of Anglicanism, it appears to me, is the Elizabethan settlement which focused unity on shared spiritual discipline rather than agreed theological positions. At a time when I believe there is much appreciation of such a community in a spiritually hungry world, Anglicanism appears to be losing this insight with a concomitant clamour for a structurally Roman Catholicism lite on the one hand, and a protestant confessional position on the other. The Primates’ inability to break bread together is both a symbol and result of this newer tendency to be fully in agreement with each other first.

Roman Catholics move closer to Anglicanism

Published on December 15, 2008 in liturgy. Closed Tags: Anglican, anglicanism, ecumenism, eucharist, roman catholics, sign of peace, worship.

In the midst of Roman Catholics re-translating the Latin original into better, more Anglican-sounding English, comes pressure now, from the pope and others, to move the Sign of Peace from the Roman Catholic position, just prior to communion, to the Anglican position between the prayers and the preparation of the gifts (offertory). The move is being driven by the experience of irreverence. In the current RC practice, Christ is present on the altar and people turn to each other and greet each other with varying degree of enthusiasm. The Anglican practice is the way it was done in the early church and recorded in the earliest liturgies. See, for example, The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome

4:1 When he has been made bishop, everyone shall give him the kiss of peace, and salute him
respectfully, for he has been made worthy of this. 2Then the deacons shall present the oblation
to him, and he shall lay his hand upon it, and give thanks, with the entire council of elders, saying:
3The Lord be with you.
And all reply:
And with your spirit.
The bishop says:
Lift up your hearts.
The people respond:
We have them with the Lord.
The bishop says:
Let us give thanks to the Lord.
The people respond:
It is proper and just.
The bishop then continues:
4We give thanks to you God,
through your beloved son Jesus Christ,…

18:1 When the teacher finishes his instruction, the catechumens will pray by themselves,
separate from the faithful. 2The women will also pray in another place in the church, by
themselves, whether faithful women or catechumen women. 3After the catechumens have
finished praying, they do not give the kiss of peace, for their kiss is not yet pure. 4But the
faithful shall greet one another with a kiss, men with men, and women with women. Men
must not greet women with a kiss…

21:25 From then on they will pray together will all the people. Prior to this they may not pray
with the faithful until they have completed all. 26After they pray, let them give the kiss
of peace. 27Then the deacons shall immediately bring the oblation. The bishop shall bless the bread,
which is the symbol of the Body of Christ; and the bowl of mixed winec, which is the
symbol of the Blood which has been shed for all who believe in him;…

Wherever the peace is placed (and some confuse the liturgical sign of peace with a friendly greeting your neighbour and visitors in the pews at the start of a service) I still hold to what I wrote over a decade ago in Celebrating Eucharist:

Teaching which encourages sensitivity is appropriate. The Peace is part of worship, it is a liturgical action. To seek out our friends and ignore the stranger or visitor or the one with whom we really need to seek reconciliation is to miss the point of the Peace. The Peace anticipates the coming kingdom, it is not a foretaste of the morning tea after church! To put this in another way, it is the Peace which should shape the atmosphere of morning tea after church, rather than the atmosphere of an ordinary New Zealand morning tea being that which shapes the way we relate at the Peace.

Liturgical colour/color

Published on November 26, 2008 in liturgy. Closed Tags: anglicanism, christian worship, creativity, feast of christ the king, lectionary, liturgical color, liturgical colour.

Please can you scroll down the sidebar and answer what colour you/and or your community used last Sunday, November 23. (update 18 December: that poll has now been removed and has been written about here).

The liturgical colour suggested in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, like so much else here, is not mandatory. Whilst under the lectionary page on Liturgical Colours (p.95) White is suggested for Festivals of Our Lord, for last Sunday, November 23, Green is primarily suggested, with Red in square brackets. White, the normal colour for the Feast of Christ the King, is not even provided as an option!

This is the Anglican Church of Or. I was at a meeting of clergy and senior lay persons last Friday, when one suddenly blanched. He was a visiting preacher at the Sunday service – and he had prepared on the assumption that the Gospel reading would be from Matthew 25. The titles for the Sunday here (and I’m limiting it here to the English language ones) are 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Proper 29, Christ the King, the Reign of Christ, Sunday before Advent, Aotearoa Sunday, Feast of Christ in All Creation. The Gospel readings suggested were Matt 25:31-46, Mark 4:26-34, John 1:1-5,10-14,18, or Mark 16:14-20! [Not to mention BCP 1662: John 6:5-14, and the two year series NZPB p. 641: Matthew 24:32-44 - both of these are formularies of our church]. Take your pick!

Please can you quickly click on which colour/color you and/or your community used last Sunday, November 23. Thank you. This is the first survey on this site – a bit of a learning curve!

Sydney undermines catholicism

Published on November 8, 2008 in liturgy. Closed Tags: anglicanism, book of common prayer, chasuble, deacons, eucharist, sydney anglicans.

Sydney’s Anglican diocesan synod has affirmed that deacons may preside at the eucharist.

Sydney Anglicans, unsatisfied with being as protestant/neo-puritan as possible within Anglicanism’s wide spectrum, have decided to continue to be hell-bent to destroy catholicism. Without changing any legislation, they have used Orwellian newspeak to affirm that deacons may preside at the eucharist under current legislation and without further authorisation, and that lay people may do so with a bishop’s licence.

Bishop Alan Wilson (CofE) has said it well

The genius of Anglicanism, its missional crown jewels within the whole Kingdom of God, has been its ability to run essentially (but not exclusively) primitive Evangelical software on essentially (but not exclusively) primitive Catholic hardware.

Within Catholicism one could hardly find a more sensitive issue than to fool about with the Holy Eucharist and its celebration. The Church of England Newspaper, well known for its “conservative evangelical stance”, without explanation, has put the clearly Roman Catholic or Anglican Catholic photograph (above) on its front page article (31 October) with the heading “Sydney says deacons can now preside”. It knows (a picture is worth a thousand words) the measure is primarily anti-catholic. Sydney is cutting off its face to spite its nose.

Sydney anti-catholic

In a diocese in which celebrating the eucharist three or four times a year would not raise and eyebrow, claims that there is a shortage of priests, and that the measure is mission-focused are clearly cynical.

Sydney is well-known for anti-catholic measures. Priests there are forbidden from wearing a chasuble at the eucharist. Whilst vociferously quoting from the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) when it fits with its particular style of Calvinist Gnosticism, the Sydney diocese picks and chooses when to apply it. It does not merely breach the BCP’s requirement of a chasuble at the eucharist, but forbids its clergy from following that requirement!

The Book of Common Prayer has, since 1559, had the rubric “such ornaments of the Church, and of the ministers thereof, at all times of their ministration, shall be retained, and be in use, as were in this Church of England by the authority of Parliament, in the second year of the reign of King Edward the Sixth.” Clearly the chasuble is required by the Prayer Book (photo: example of the type worn during the second year of the reign of King Edward VI). Puritans regularly insisted on presiding in their street clothes, or peasant’s jacket. One priest wanted to make his point by wearing his hat during the service. The authorities made concessions, allowing the surplice to suffice, although the rubric was not changed.

Sydney diocese has for 25 years been advocating lay-presidency of the eucharist (which they term “administering the Lord’s Supper”). In 2003 the legal steps were begun by rescinding Section 10 of the 1662 Act of Uniformity as it applied in Sydney. Section 10 states “only episcopally ordained priests may consecrate the Holy Communion.”

Post-modern newspeak

Last year a request went from the Australian General Synod to the appellate tribunal asking whether the church’s constitution prevented a woman becoming a bishop. By the smallest of margins (4-3) they ruled that it was the actual wording, not the intention of legislation that was important. Under current legislation women could be bishops and no further debate was required at the General Synod level. Sydney’s theology of headship – that a woman could not have authority over a man – was clearly upset. But Sydney found a way to get the rest of the church back.

North Sydney’s Bishop Glenn Davies chaired a committee that argued from the appellate tribunal’s post-modern ruling that the intent of legislation is not primary and combined this with Sydney’s penchant for altering the word preside to “administer”. They concluded that references to deacons “administering the sacraments” in liturgies and statutes meant that, without any change of legislation, deacons are in fact already authorized to preside at the eucharist. At Sydney’s synod, Resolution 7.2 “Lay and diaconal administration” was resoundingly passed.

Let us hope that Sydney does not continue this post-modern hermeneutic into the scriptures…

FOCAs

Anyone familiar with the 1977 Affirmation of St. Louis and the rapid fragmentation of that confessional movement will not be surprised if the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON)’s Jerusalem Declaration and the resulting Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Foca) fragments. But few predicted that the source would have been one of the chief leading factions. The Focas federate unlikely bedfellows (anti-ordaining-women Anglo-catholics and anti-vestment Sydneyites!) around a single issue. The secretariat of Focas is based in the Diocesan Offices of Sydney. The Honorary Secretary of the Focas is the Archbishop of Sydney. The Jerusalem Declaration has “7. We recognise that God has called and gifted bishops, priests and deacons in historic succession to equip all the people of God for their ministry in the world. We uphold the classic Anglican Ordinal as an authoritative standard of clerical orders.”

Well known Anglican theologian and author, Dr Peter Toon, whilst very sympathetic to Sydney’s end of the Anglican spectrum now writes

My earnest suggestion to the leadership of GAFCON is this:

After appropriate warning, the Council of Primates of GAFCON should expel the Bishops and Diocese of Sydney immediately: by this action GAFCON will maintain its committed to the biblical, classic Anglican Way and will show that it does take discipline (a mark of the true church) seriously.

If GAFCON does nothing and allows the Diocese of Sydney, with its innovatory doctrine, and pride in that innovation, to remain as a full member, then GAFCON will become, and will be seen by thousands, as merely and only an international, Evangelical Anglican Group — with no serious claims to a serious catholic ecclesiology and historic Ministry, and no real opportunity or intention to set a godly example to the whole Anglican Communion of Churches.

Sydney is revisionist

Clearly it is the Sydney diocese that is revisionist. The Dean of Sydney, Phillip Jensen highlighted their confused inclusivism when he said “We want to turn the diaconate into a real diaconate… We don’t want to specialise the presbyters in administering the Lord’s Supper… but we want them to specialise in their incumbency.”

Rather than having a “real” diaconate, this makes different callings and ministries identical. I have long been distressed about the clericalisation of “lay ministry” in which lay ministry is perceived to be a reality not at home, at work, on the streets, at play, and in the shops, but what one does in the sanctuary! Here, clearly, is another occasion in which there has been no significant reflection on priesthood as the ordained ministry of leadership of the Christian community gathered in service, and diaconate is the ordained ministry of leadership of the Christian community dispersed for service in the world.

I leave the penultimate word to the wise comment from Bishop Alan Wilson

Back last century, John Shelby Spong led the charge for lay presidency in his book Why Christianity must Change or Die. It looks as though this issue has now reached what one might call the Jensen Spong Vanishing Point. The whole matter was considered very fully by the 1998 Lambeth conference, which decisively rejected it. So 98 Lambeth 1:10 is to die for, and 98 Lambeth 3:22 is to dynamite. Simultaneously. Illogical, Captain?

Part of Sydney’s argument included – deacons can baptise so they must be able to preside at the eucharist. But non-Christians can baptise! I’m waiting for the logic to kick in for the next headline: Sydney has non-Christians leading its Lord’s Supper services. Now that’s mission focused!

Richard Hooker

Published on November 3, 2008 in liturgy. Closed Tags: Anglican, anglicanism, ecclesiastical polity, episcopalians, queen elizabeth, richard hooker, sola scriptura, three legged stool, via media.

Richard Hooker (March 1554 – 3 November 1600) clearly articulated a via media (middle way) eschewing Roman additions and puritan, protestant subtractions. His strongly eirenic position and methodology is as relevant today as four centuries ago. In response to the catch-cry sola scriptura (the Bible alone – the absolute sufficiency of scripture), Hooker highlighted the importance of tradition and reason – forming the classic “three legged stool” (scripture, tradition, reason). One need only look around to see the ever-increasing fracturing that sola scriptura leads to. Sola scriptura is unsupported in the Early Church, clearly unworkable, and surprisingly (or not!) unknown in scripture!

Hooker’s reflections equally apply currently to church leadership and unity. The English puritans maintained that no church could claim to be Christian unless it followed Calvin’s construct of each congregation being governed by a group composed of two thirds laymen elected annually by the congregation and one third clergy serving for life.

Hooker responds using scripture, reason, tradition, and experience founded on a philosophical base which is Aristotelian with natural law eternally placed by God in creation. He has little sympathy with oversimplifications that pass for scholarship, commencing his The Laws Of Ecclesiastical Polity with “Those unto whom we shall seem tedious are in no wise injuried by us, seeing that it lies in their own hands to spare themselves the labor they are unwilling to endure.” Even Pope Clement VIII (his contemporary with whom he so strongly disagreed), said of The Laws Of Ecclesiastical Polity: “It has in it such seeds of eternity that it will abide until the last fire shall consume all learning.”

Hooker, furthermore, does not need all to agree mentally with everything on a list of assertions, as his understanding of God is not of a “captious sophister, eager to trip us up whenever we say amiss, but a courteous tutor, ready to amend what, in our weakness or our ignorance, we say ill, and to make the most of what we say aright.” In this Hooker expresses a similar thought to Queen Elizabeth I, who sought unity through shared spiritual practice and said, “I have no desire to make windows into men’s souls.”

Collects:

God of peace, the bond of all love,
who in your Son Jesus Christ have made the human race
your inseparable dwelling place:
after the example of your servant Richard Hooker,
give grace to us your servants ever to rejoice
in the true inheritance of your adopted children
and to show forth your praises now and ever;
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.

Common Worship (CofE)

O God of truth and peace,
who raised up your servant Richard Hooker in a day of bitter controversy
to defend with sound reasoning and great charity the catholic and reformed religion:
Grant that we may maintain that middle way,
not as a compromise for the sake of peace,
but as a comprehension for the sake of truth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

TEC (USA)

The Complete Works of Richard Hooker (2-Volume Set)

Online version of Richard Hooker’s works and another site

website quoted in newspaper

Published on October 18, 2008 in liturgy. Closed Tags: anglicanism, archbishop of canterbury, archbishop rowan williams, church of england newspaper, protestant truth society, roman catholics.

You can imagine my surprise when a friend of mine informed me that I am quoted in this week’s edition (17 October) of the Church of England Newspaper. The author of the article has read my reflection Roman Catholics accept Archbishop of Canterbury’s orders? and this is what s/he writes:

Lourdes questions for Dr Williams

Critics have lambasted Dr. Williams for departing from Anglican tradition and acceding to the Roman Catholic dogma of the immaculate conception of Mary. While the content of Dr. Williams’ sermon has aroused the ire of Protestants, the fact that his sermon took place during a Roman Catholic mass has intrigued liturgists, who note that Roman Catholic canon law only permits Catholic clergy to preach at a mass.

New Zealand liturgist, the Rev. Bosco Peters, observed that by allowing Dr. Williams to preach at Lourdes, “Roman Catholics appear to be accepting that the Archbishop of Canterbury is validly ordained.”

The Rt. Rev. Jacques Perrier, the Catholic bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes invited Dr. Williams to preach at the international mass, where Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, celebrated.

While Canon 766 permits Catholic bishops to authorize lay persons to preach in Catholic churches, canon 767 restricts preaching at masses to Catholic clergy. “Every Catholic seminarian would know this from seminary’s Liturgy 101. So in inviting the Archbishop of Canterbury to preach at such an internationally significant Roman Catholic Mass are they acknowledging that Archbishop Rowan Williams is validly ordained?” Mr. Peters asked.

The Rev. Jeremy Brooks, Director of Ministry of the Protestant Truth Society took umbrage at Dr Williams’ visit and homily at Lourdes, calling it a “wholesale compromise” and “complete denial of Protestant orthodoxy.”

In his Sept 26 homily Dr. Williams stated that “when Mary came to Bernadette, she came at first as an anonymous figure, a beautiful lady, a mysterious ‘thing’, not yet identified as the Lord’s spotless mother.” The archbishop further stated that in response to the apparition of Mary, “Bernadette – uneducated, uninstructed in doctrine – leapt with joy, recognising that here was life, here was healing.”

These assertions go against traditional Anglican formularies as found in the Articles of Religion, critics asserted. Identifying Mary as the “Lord’s spotless mother,” a reference to her immaculate conception and perpetual virginity, contradicts Article XV. “Of Christ alone without Sin.”

The statement that in Mary, “here was life, here was healing,” appears to contradict Article XVIII, that life and healing along come from Christ, which states “For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved.

“Lourdes represents everything about Roman Catholicism that the Protestant Reformation ejected, including apparitions, Mariolatry and the veneration of saints,” Mr. Brooks said.

“At a time when our country is crying out for clear Biblical leadership, it is nothing short of tragic that our supposedly Protestant archbishop is behaving as little more than a papal puppet,” he charged.

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s visit to Lourdes last month continues to be a source of controversy within the Anglican Communion and the wider Christian church.

WORSHIP FIRST

Published on October 16, 2008 in liturgy and spirituality. Closed Tags: anglicanism, blogging, common prayer, liturgy, webmaster, websites, worship.

Discussion has led to producing this WORSHIP FIRST badge to add to blogs and websites.

The HTML for adding this badge to your blog or website is:

I contend worship of God is primary and central to our Christian life and mission. Most of us, I think, understand that, and so Christian community mission statements (and individuals’ ones) normally include – and regularly lead off – with a commitment to worship.

Hence, my astonishment when significant mission statements do not. The Anglican mission statement, good as far as it goes, is one that immediately springs to mind as one that does not include worship in the mission of the church:

To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
To teach, baptise and nurture new believers
To respond to human need by loving service
To seek to transform unjust structures of society
To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth
(Bonds of Affection-1984 ACC-6 p49, Mission in a Broken World-1990 ACC-8 p101)

I understand that the Anglican Consultative Council has discussed incorporating worship into the mission statement, but has not come to any agreement. Worship, liturgy, was once regarded not only as central to the mission of the Anglican Church, but one could argue, that in Anglicanism, more than any other denomination, it was worship that was the glue that held it together. Worship within Anglicanism was a shared, agreed, common spiritual practice – common prayer, common worship – and one might have various interpretations held around the agreed common practice. In my opinion, the diminution of the focus on worship and the increasing fragmentation of Anglicanism are causally related.

In my own province of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, I understand it was Archbishop Brian Davies who encouraged the inclusion of worship in our province’s constitution with declarations that the church

is called to offer worship and service to God in the power of the Holy Spirit

and a reworking of the five-fold mission statement in the constitution to read

the mission of the church includes
teaching, baptising and nurturing believers within eucharistic communities of faith.

The Anglican Church of “or”

Published on August 9, 2008 in liturgy. Closed Tags: anglicanism, christian worship, creativity, lectionary.

I got an email from a worship leader whose community last Sunday used readings that included 2 Chronicles 24:20-22 and Matthew 23:34-39
This person was enquiring why my introductions referred to quite different readings.

The New Zealand Prayer Book provided kiwis the alternative opportunity for Good King Wenceslas to look out on August 3 as well as the normal December 26. The New Zealand Lectionary author has reversed this priority, and made August 3 the primary feast of St Stephen.

Or

So on Sunday it could have been red or green, and 2 Chron 24:20-22 or Acts 7:51-60 or Gal 2:16b-20 or Gen 23:22-32 or Isa 55: 1-5 or Jer 26:12-15 or Sg of Sol 5:2-16 or 1 Macc 3:1-12 or…

I count no less than 17 different readings provided for the morning options. And if you don’t like those – you choose your own. Anglican parishes within a couple of kilometers of where I live did not use any of the provided options: one used 1 Peter 1:1-2:3, the other used Luke 12:22-34.

Or

The New Zealand Prayer Book provides at least eight different morning greetings and responses, the NZ liturgical commission provides a resource of three and a half thousand collects to choose from – and if you don’t like one of those… you can write your own. The Prayer Book has six eucharistic prayers – all with different responses and acclamations, and General Synod is authorising another eight. The Form for Ordering the Eucharist in the Prayer Book provides a skeleton of essential elements for a eucharist “intended for particular occasions and (originally) not for the regular Sunday Celebration of the Eucharist”. Ten years ago General Synod decided that this could be used on Sundays – all that was left as fixed for a Sunday Anglican parish eucharist was three paragraphs of the eucharistic prayer framework. All else could be constructed locally or borrowed. That, apparently, was still not flexible enough! So General Synod passed “An Alternative Form for Ordering the Eucharist” in which any eucharistic prayer authorised anywhere in worldwide Anglicanism was acceptable here.

Or

But wait there’s more – General Synod authorised the Worship Template. Any service which has a beginning, a middle, and an end is thereby understood to be allowed.

Discuss:

Since 1984 the New Zealand Anglican Church has moved away from having one liturgy that unifies the church. In what sense is liturgy now the work of the (whole) church? That sense that wherever we are, from rural church, to school chapel, to cathedral, to hospital bedside – we are all praying the same, participating in the one worship. What are the advantages of allowing creativity? What are the restrictions to creativity? At which point are we in danger of being subjected to the current congregational leadership piety? Whereas once there was relative liturgical uniformity, is the current liturgical chaos at least in part the cause for a search for a confessional approach to Anglicanism around which to alternatively unite?

Addressing God “thee” out of respect?

Published on August 2, 2008 in liturgy. Closed Tags: anglicanism, hallowed be thy name, respect and reverence.

The New Zealand church was the first part of Anglicanism to officially address God as “you” in the Eucharistic liturgy (1966). Some see the move from “thee” (thou, thine) to “you” (yours) as a loss of respect. That is actually not the case – It is more complex than that.

Indo-European languages regularly use the plural as a polite form. French vous, Spanish Usted, Portuguese você, Italian Lei, German Sie. In the same way English in the past used “you”, the plural, to express politeness.

Thee, thou, thy, thine were used for friends, equals, those we were intimate with. “… hallowed be thy name…” was not an expression of distance or of God’s superiority. “Thee”, like Jesus’ use of “Abba”, in fact expressed a sense of intimacy.

“Thou” used to address a superior would have been regarded as an insulkt. In the mid seventeenth century everyone began using “you” for all. Quakers continued to use “thee” as a sign of egalitarianism. The German missal of 1863 “Meßbuch für das katholische Pfarrkind” uses the familiar (singular) “du” throughout for God and the saints.

New Zealand was correct in leading the world in this shift. Many bemoaned the shift from thee/thou/thine to “you” as a loss of respect and reverence for God. Respect and reverence for God is right. But “you” correctly translates the intimacy God invites us into – just as “thee” did in centuries when that was the way people addressed their closest friends.