Tag Archive for 'orthodox'

Nick Vujicic – Life Without Limbs

Published on March 8, 2010 in liturgy. 0 Comments Tags: hope, movie, orthodox.

Nick Vujicic was born 4 December 1982 in Melbourne, Australia, to a devout Serbian Orthodox family. He lacks both arms and legs, and has two small feet, one of which has two toes. Victoria state law forbade him from attending a mainstream school because of his physical disability. But he overcame this and then was bullied. He grew extremely depressed, and by the age of 8, started contemplating suicide. After begging God to grow arms and legs, Nick eventually began to realize that his accomplishments were inspirational to many, and began to thank God for being alive.

Now Nick is a preacher, a motivational speaker and the director of Life Without Limbs, an organization for the physically disabled. He regularly gives speeches on disability and hope. He holds a degree with a double major in Accounting and Financial Planning. He has spoken to over two million people so far, in twelve countries on four continents.

Greek Orthodox Music

Published on March 3, 2010 in liturgy. 0 Comments Tags: chant, monastery, movie, orthodox.

The post on balancing East and West in our Christian devotion was received with much enthusiasm. Here is a beautiful example of chanting by nuns in a Monastery of northern Greek Mainland (Hsuxastirio Timiou Prodromou Akritoxoriou Sidirokastrou Serron). The Hymn is an extract from a book called “Theotokario” and it is dedicated to the Theotokos, Mary. It is usually chanted in Greek monasteries during the afternoon (after Vespers). The pictures of the video come from a different monastery of Northern Greece (Giannitsa/Pella, Iera Moni Agiou Georgiou Anudrou).

predictable worship?

Published on February 23, 2010 in liturgy. 12 Comments Tags: anglicanism, episcopal church, evangelical, evangelism, orthodox, roman catholics, sermon, visitors, worship.

The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council has been looking at statistics of declining attendance. Peter Carrell and Episcopal Cafe are two places drawing attention to the report. My first degree is in Mathematics – my first comment is take the greatest of care in interpreting statistics, it is not for nothing that we speak of “Lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Secondly, from a missional perspective, there is a particular mindset that comes with focusing on church-centred statistics. We generally gather no statistics of the number of people we serve or care for. Certainly it is beneficial to have more people within the Christian community in order to help those outside it – but there is not necessarily a direct correlation between numbers in the worshipping community and numbers of people being cared for outside worship.

Mary Frances Schjonberg reports:

The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council heard here Feb. 21 that church membership and Sunday attendance continued to decline in 2008, but also heard a call for the church to promote knowledge of the characteristics of growing congregations.

During his statistic-laden hour-long report, Kirk Hadaway, the church’s program officer for congregational research, told the council that congregations grow when they are in growing communities; have a clear mission and purpose; follow up with visitors; have strong leadership; and are involved in outreach and evangelism.

Congregations decline, he said, when their membership is older and predominantly female; are in conflict, particularly over leadership and where worship is “rote, predictable and uninspiring.”

Those who put a particular spin on TEC’s declining numbers need to take note that “the most recent trend of declining membership began in 2000 and 2001, “long before the actions of General Convention 2003.”

I already see the response suggesting that women should stay home in order to help the church to grow! My own (clearly limited) personal experience is that when I visit a community the quality of attention paid to music, to the sermon, to welcoming, to the worship including the environment can often all be easily improved and doing so would be a significant step towards having visitors desire to return. Whatever draws someone to visit a worshipping community – that need has to be met. Hence, worship cannot be too tightly themed or we will exclude visitors. Sermons need to address our emotions, our minds, and have a point we are able to put into practice in our concrete, everyday lives. The regular congregation needs encouragement and possibly formation how to welcome newcomers and visitors and make them feel comfortable, welcomed, and with their desire to return nurtured. All this is not difficult. It is just too often not done, thought about, talked about.

My hackles were raised at blaming worship that is “rote, predictable and uninspiring.” The other side of seeing worship as “rote” is seeing it as “by heart”. Worship “by heart” has been the Judaeo-Christian tradition for at least 3,000 years. I would like to see the peer-reviewed statistical evidence that there is a correlation between “rote, predictable” worship and causality of decline. I have participated in plenty of “rote, predictable” worship, from Taize, through great cathedrals, to China, and the heart of Zaire, where there is clearly no correlation to declining numbers. The danger of linking “uninspiring” to “rote and predictable” is it feeds a prejudice that in order to grow numerically in our “new context” we need to abandon the liturgical tradition of Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, Orthodoxy, etc. Nothing, IMO, is further from the truth. In this context it is worth noting the recent announcement that the proportion of Roman Catholics worldwide has increased. IMO we need training and formation as leaders and communities to celebrate worship that is “by heart, common worship, and inspiring.”

It interests me that Peter Carrell suggests complaints that “TEC’s declining stats may, at times, be hidden from sight.” This from a province that has for nearly two decades collected no statistics provincially, and where decline is often in the most surprising places (eg. the self-described “Evangelical” diocese of Nelson). In a province which clearly suffers from the idolatory of incessant novelty (”We used ashes last year, what can we do differently for Ash Wednesday this year?”), about as far from “rote and predictable” worship as any Anglican province is able to get, it would certainly be fascinating if it could be demonstrated that we have the formula for numerical growth! I suspect, however, that we would find similar, if not more alarming decline in the NZ province highlighting my contention that there is no statistical link to liturgical worship but that the causes need to be sought elsewhere.

How Jewish is your Jesus?

Published on January 28, 2010 in liturgy. 10 Comments Tags: humor, humour, Jesus, movie, orthodox, worship.

Last week a flight from New York to Louisville was diverted to Philadelphia when the flight crew saw a 17-year-old Orthodox Jew wearing a pair of tefillin (phylacteries) while praying. The flight attendant asked for, and received an explanation. Nonetheless, fearing a terrorist attack, police, officials from the FBI, and Transportation Security Administration stormed the plane, at gunpoint ordered everyone to put their hands up, and handcuffed the lad.

Jesus, it seems had tassels on the four corners of his outer robe (Mt. 9:20; 14:36; Mk. 6:56; Lk. 8:44), Jesus most probably wore tefillin (phylacteries) while praying, and almost certainly the Pharisees who disputed with him would have worn them all the time. Is this your image of Jesus? And if not, why not? Do we make Jesus into our own image, forgetting that he would feel pretty much at home in contemporary Jewish or Eastern Orthodox worship, and might feel a bit out of place in the “non-liturgical” worship that maybe most of those on the plane are used to?

It fascinates me, that as I was looking on the web for an image of Jesus wearing tefillin to add to this post: I could not find a single one {other than this one by (the Jewish) Chagall}. I asked my 46,000 followers on twitter. Not one of them could find an image of Jesus wearing tefillin either. Reinforcing the point of my above paragraph.

And if (as Christians) we don’t recognise the tefillin (phylacteries) from our interest in Jesus (and at least our reading of Matthew’s Gospel), what about our knowledge, respect, and understanding of other great World Faiths, not least the Jewish religion? Jews regularly wear tefillin (phylacteries) on planes flying into New York from Israel. New York is well known for its large, significant Jewish population. Surely knowing about Jewish prayer practice is an essential part of well-educated general knowledge?

In this video, Shmuly Tennenhaus demonstrates how one might pray using tefillin on an aeroplane without frightening ignorant passengers and crew. As always, beneath good humour is a serious point. Enjoy.

Kippah/zuchetto/yarmulke tip to Seven whole days

homodoxy

Published on January 21, 2010 in liturgy. 31 Comments Tags: eucharist, last supper, lectionary, liturgy, orthodox, worship.

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll

I think the word “orthodox” might be in trouble. Let’s try and save it from losing its meaning.

I am seeing a lot of people calling themselves “orthodox” Christians and using the term to put down others as “unorthodox”, “heterodox”. But actually I don’t think these particular people should be allowed to use the term “orthodox” – as they are changing its meaning (and hence emptying its meaning IMO). They are perfectly welcome and free to start a new movement, start a number of new movements, but these particular people are not orthodox – there is a perfectly good word for them: they are homodox.

Orthodox, first of all, means “right worship” (ortho – right; dox – like doxology – worship). If you call yourself orthodox, at the very least it should mean that most Christians for the first 1500 years or so of Christian history should be able to walk into your worship and pretty much feel at home. Augustine, Teresa, Ambrose, Luther, Francis, Hildegard, Basil, Julian, Justin, etc. should be able to walk into your worship and recognise you are following a lectionary inherited from the Synagogue, have the basic shape of worship inherited from the earliest church, a Eucharistic Prayer, and responses that go back to the Last Supper and beyond, to a thousand years or so earlier…

Orthodox, would also mean, right beliefs. At the very least that would surely be affirming the important doctrines and disciplines of the seven ecumenical councils of the united church of the first thousand years or so. Should that not include the church’s structure that along with its liturgy and scriptures evolved fairly quickly in the earliest period of the church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. (Some might call themselves “orthodox” but could probably not name the councils, let alone state anything they teach, or justify why they reduce them to, for example, four, or claim to hold to them but would balk at, for example, calling Mary “Theotokos”)

Homodox means “having the same opinion”. Many people who are misusing, abusing the term “orthodox” are in fact not orthodox at all, they are homodox (let me preempt the comment now: it does not mean worshipping gays ) They want everyone to think exactly like them (yes, often particularly about gays). Orthodox can cope with diversity, do not need everyone to agree about everything, celebrate diversity, honour difference: In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas. (In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.)

So next time you see someone putting down others, and calling themselves “orthodox”, pause, check whether they really are orthodox or whether that word is being abused and emptied of its meaning. And then, if they pause momentarily from their tirade, and you have even an inkling they might be prepared to listen to someone else, take a deep breath and very politely tell them they aren’t orthodox but homodox. Of course if they listen to you, and are prepared to change their mind,… maybe they aren’t.

Are you saved?

Published on November 24, 2009 in liturgy. 4 Comments Tags: Jesus, movie, orthodox.

This is text is part of a larger piece written and read by Molly Sabourin, a freelance writer focusing on issues of family, faith, and community. She is an Orthodox Christian, a wife, and a mother of four. The whole piece is worth a read/listen to. I am grateful to Fr Michael Marsh for pointing me to this video. He writes, “Although it offers an Orthodox answer I think this video also represents The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion at our best – when we return to our patristic roots.” Molly Sabourin’s fuller text includes

Within seven to ten pages we were to document the details of our personal conversion, to narrate the story of our salvation. Not being a recovering drug addict, formally promiscuous or atheistic, I was clearly at a disadvantage from the start. It would be tricky, I knew, to contrive some sort of compelling chronicle out of, “Once when I was four, I invited Jesus into my heart. The end.” The truth of the matter was, I had no “before” and “after” just a perpetually seamless habit of belief. …

By the time I was my kids’ age I was convicted most wholeheartedly that the process of my salvation was complete. Parents looked on adoringly as my fellow Sunday school classmates and I recited with the stutters and stammers our scriptural promise:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Our roles now were that of “evangelizers”, telling others how to obtain what we, the believers, had already secured: a “get out of hell free” pass thanks to the sacrificial mercy of God and His only son. “My sins were pardoned and yours can be to, just repeat this simple prayer after me.” …I used to feel a lot of pressure to, upon every new introduction at school, at work, and at play. I could hardly absorb what a lost sinner was saying, so utterly and devotedly one tracked was my mind. How could I coolly, blithely, slip in a compelling reference to my savior? … What does one do when they are aching for more of Christ, yet their soul has been saved for good and now all they feel that is left is to procure the most relevant and effective means for outreach? What if you suspected that your “once saved, always saved” confidence was keeping you at arms length from the fullness of His presence?… I traveled centuries back in time to find the richness I’d hoped existed; I traded certainty for awe and perseverance. Salvation became as beginingless as God, Himself, as endless as infinity, as unlimited as His glory and as unownable as the firmament; I went from being finished to starting over.

Kontakion of the Departed – All Souls

Published on November 2, 2009 in liturgy. 2 Comments Tags: chant, contakion, monks, movie, orthodox, saints.

Images of the grave in darkness are contrasted with the eternal light of Christ and underscored with the ancient Kiev chant, the Kontakion of the Departed, and the chimes and chant of the Orthodox monks in Ukraine.

Give rest, O Christ, to thy servant with thy saints:
where sorrow and pain are no more;
neither sighing but life everlasting.
Thou only art immortal, the creator and maker of man:
and we are mortal formed from the dust of the earth,
and unto earth shall we return:
for so thou didst ordain,
when thou created me saying:
“Dust thou art und unto dust shalt thou return.”
All we go down to the dust;
and weeping o’er the grave we make our song:
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

Anglican Rite?

Published on October 28, 2009 in liturgy. 8 Comments Tags: anglican communion, anglicanism, Mass, new zealand, orthodox, roman catholics, vatican.

It is worth adding some further reflections to the Vatican’s recent announcement of Anglican Personal Ordinariates. You may wish to read my post the end of the Anglican Communion first.

Firstly I want to highlight that, in my opinion, denominational boundaries are far far less significant than previously. Increasingly, it appears to me, denominational boundaries are no longer the primary “partitioning”. If one visualises denominational boundaries, for example, as vertical lines, then it seems to me that the horizontal lines are far more significant – 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. The internet, of course, fits in with this “cafeteria style” spirituality.

Let us also not forget that, to most people on this planet, discussions about different denominations are as esoteric as debates about different perforation gauges on postage stamps. And we need to remember that these are people to whom we are called to bring the good news, and the way we live and model our unity and disunity will affect our ability to bring that good news.

Many have highlighted that some people genuinely will benefit from moving denominations. They will flourish, they will grow in holiness and be better suited in their new context to further God’s reign of love. We need to wish them Godspeed and encourage them. But there will be others who will essentially be as little suited in their new denomination as they were in their old – because of temperament or an inability to live within any constraints, be they Anglican on the one hand, or Roman Catholic on the other. [To be fair, those who encourage people to move denominations, with the understanding that some people suit one rather than another, tend to be of an Anglican perspective. To Roman Catholics, Anglicanism formally cannot even be categorised as a "church" but rather is referred to as an Ecclesial community]

Also let us not forget that the Anglican tradition has always been open to receiving members of the Roman Catholic denomination. In our own New Zealand Anglican binding liturgical formularies there is the allowance for communities to celebrate the whole Roman Catholic English (ICEL) Novus Ordo Mass as it is without alteration. The only concrete personal experience I have had since the Vatican announcement last week has been of a Roman Catholic priest seeking information on how to become a priest serving within Anglicanism (Note: Anglicans accept the validity of Roman Catholic orders and all other sacraments).

Ecclesiology

Anglican ecclesiology is essentially identical to Eastern Orthodox and Old Catholic ecclesiology in seeing the local Church centered on the bishop as “the catholic Church”, the full manifestation of the Body of Christ. This Episcopal or “Eucharistic Ecclesiology” (as it is often now termed) stands in contrast to Roman Catholic ecclesiology in which the local Church is a “particular Church” manifesting the universal, worldwide Church. In this Roman Catholic ecclesiology, such a local Church can only be considered “catholic” if it is a member, part, or portion of the universal Church, ie. in communion with Rome. Whereas the former approach sees each bishop as successor of Peter (where the bishop is there the catholic church is – Ignatius of Antioch et. al.), the latter has a universal bishop for the universal Church. It will be very interesting to see the document “The Role of the Bishop of Rome in the Communion of the Church in the First Millennium” when it is finally produced. (Please let me know when it does come out where one can find it online). One co-president of the commission, Metropolitan Ioannis Zizioulas of Pergamum, is well known for his exposition of “Eucharistic Ecclesiology.” The other, Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, was notable by his absence in the multiple press-conferences last week.

Many Roman Catholics are totally unaware that the Catholic Church has a great number of different rites (see here and here). In many of these rites priests are married. Since the 1980s there has been an “Anglican Use” within the Roman Rite. The pope granted some former Anglican and Episcopal clergy and their parishes the faculty of celebrating the sacramental rites according to slightly-altered Anglican forms. The new Apostolic Constitution, as I said, extends Anglican Use in an analogous way similar to what the Motu Proprio “Summorum Pontificum” did for the Latin Mass.

Within the Catholic Church anyone may attend any Catholic Church of any rite and receive the sacraments. It is no different than attending a different parish church in the same town. If you commit to a rite you can be married and ordained in that rite as a Catholic priest (if they have married priests). You would be “incardinated” in that rite. Eg. a Latin Catholic can join an Eastern rite, marry and be ordained. (Thanks for confirmation of this paragraph from Dr. William Ditewig).

The Vatican announcement came at the time the Church of England General Synod was working through issues about women bishops. It also came during the month-long meeting of Roman Catholic African bishops in Rome. Some Africans are seeking a relaxation of the Vatican’s celibacy rules. This is a no-go area for the current pope. While Anglican Use, with its non-celibate priests, is well-known in some countries, the African bishops were unaware of it. Its extension by the Apostolic Constitution caught them by surprise. Some suggest there was much muttering in the Vatican’s grand corridors. Others say that muttering is not only happening there.

It is my intention to continue this reflection in the future.

September 11 Cyprian

Published on September 11, 2009 in liturgy. 0 Comments Tags: anglican church, catholic, hope, orthodox, saints, September.

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.

twin-towers 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.

collect vandalism

Published on September 4, 2009 in liturgy. 7 Comments Tags: anglicans, collect, common prayer, eucharist, new zealand, opening prayer, orthodox, prayer book, roman catholics.

In my opinion, one of the great treasures of Western Christianity is the collect. We have a treasury of collects that goes back fifteen centuries and further. A collect, like a haiku or a sonnet, has a particular, tight literary structure. It is memorable, general, and regularly expresses a profound Christian truth in a short compass. Anglicans inherit Cranmer’s magnificent translations from the crisp Latin. Roman Catholics are working on new translations of the collects (opening prayers) which will make them look a lot more like their Anglican equivalents. Many will remember memorising the great collects in Sunday School. On many occasions Anglicans, Roman Catholics, and others pray the same collect. New Zealand Anglicans, with a culture of flexibility, choose a collect from any source they like. Each week this site has provided a commentary on at least one of the great collects. Recently all NZ Anglican clergy and worship leaders were sent a new resource cutting options to one collect provided for each celebration. Whilst I energetically agree with the principle of common prayer, I even more energetically protest the vandalism that this resource does to our wonderful inherited collect taonga (treasure).

Collects for Season and Sundays (PDF)
Collects for Other Feasts and Holy Days (PDF)

A collect concludes and completes the Gathering of the Community. Individuals gather, sing (one of the most unifying human experiences), and finally (1) are invited by the presider to (2) deep silent prayer which is (3) collected by the presider praying the collect which (4) is affirmed by the community’s Amen. After this we are gathered from being individuals to being a community ready together to hear what the Spirit is saying to us as the gathered church.

The collect (like haiku or sonnet) has its own particular, recognisable structure. In the five-fold structure, three parts are always present (marked *):

*You– Address
Who – Amplification (& motive)
*Do – Petition
To – Purpose (& motive)
*Through Jesus Christ…

An example of a collect that reaches back at least one and a half millennia and is prayed by Anglicans, Roman Catholics and others:

Let us pray (in silence) that we may love God in all things and above all things

pause for deep silent prayer

Merciful God,
you have prepared for those who love you
such good things as pass our understanding;
pour into our hearts such love towards you
that, loving you above all else,
we may obtain your promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ our Lord
who is alive with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever.
Amen.

Now compare this with the first “collect” in this new resource:

Praise to you, Christ our Redeemer
for you were circumcised this day
and given Jesus as your name.
Praise to you, Jesus, well are you named
for you save us from our sins.
Hear this prayer for your name’s sake.
Amen

This is not a collect. In this new resource, any person of the Trinity can be addressed at random rather than the great liturgical tradition of praying to the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Spirit. It is a lovely little prayer that so easily gets lost in the re-cluttered vestibule of the gathering rite of those who do not understand the grammar of liturgy.

The “collects” of this new resource were sent with the information that “The Common Life Liturgical Commission has been working on developing replacement pages for pages 550 – 723 of our Prayerbook.” Many leaders in our church, not being clear about our processes, have taken this at face value and now think that those pages have been formally replaced. But those pages of our Prayer Book are binding formularies of our church. They can only be replaced by (1) a vote resulting in agreement in all houses and tikanga of our General Synod, (2) assent by a majority of our diocesan synods and Hui Amorangi, (3) another vote in a newly elected General Synod, followed by (4) a year’s wait before they become such a replacement. This “collect” resource has not even been presented to General Synod (step 1). If and when it reaches stage 2 I will be voting against these becoming formularies, against their replacing our current pages. Those pages of course need replacing – but not in this manner. Those of us committed to orthodoxy (which means “right worship”) currently have a choice in which collect we use and can continue to use either a classic or more recent collect (in the style and usage given above).

Furthermore, the material is presented with the claim that “the endings are now consistent throughout” – this is clearly false. Sometimes each year is presented with the same collect at the expense of our inherited, shared collect (eg. Epiphany). Sometimes, it seems there has not even been the slightest attempt to read the collect aloud, eg. “… help us to see to see…” (Lent 3 Year B).

The typos in the text indicate this is not a quick drawing from a digital version, someone has put a lot of energy into typing up this text. Apologies to the person(s) who has(/have) put such effort into this resource that I am so under-whelmed by its usefulness and appropriateness.

Further reading on collects
If you are interested, there is more on this approach to the use of the collect in Chapter 6 of Celebrating Eucharist.

Br Roger photo

Published on August 21, 2009 in liturgy. 0 Comments Tags: anglicans, brother roger, calendar, justice, monastery, orthodox, roman catholics, silence, spirituality, Taizé.

Having described my visits to Taize, I dug out my own photo of Br. Roger from 1983 (above). For me it speaks volumes of who he was (for me and for others) – and how I encountered him.

Brother Roger of Taizé

Published on August 16, 2009 in liturgy and spirituality. 6 Comments Tags: anglicans, brother roger, calendar, justice, monastery, orthodox, roman catholics, silence, spirituality, Taizé.

Brother Roger was born in Provence in Switzerland in 1915 the ninth and youngest child of a Protestant minister’s family. He studied theology at Strasbourg and Lausanne. In 1940 he left Switzerland for his mother’s native France.

In 1940, he biked from Geneva to Taizé, a small village in Burgundy near Cluny. Taizé was at that time in unoccupied France, just beyond the line of demarcation to the zone occupied by German troops. For two years Brother Roger hid Jewish refugees before being forced to leave Taizé. In 1944, he returned to Taizé to found a monastery – a community of men vowing to live in poverty, chastity, and obedience. There was already something extraordinary in this venture – protestants don’t normally form monasteries.

After the war Brother Roger was joined by others, and on Easter Day 1949 the community was formally established. Brother Roger was deeply committed to the task of reconciliation – of having people of different viewpoints listen to one another respectfully and pray and work together without necessarily coming to agree with each other.

I have been fascinated by Brother Roger since I was a teenager. In the 1960s, to the surprise of this community of monks, young people started to camp around the monastery. These young people joined the monks at prayer but the complex monastic services the community had famously developed were too complicated for them.

Typical for the community – they abandoned the services they had worked years on to develop and which were internationally famous and developed a new, very simple style of service which could be easily picked up by young people with a lot of repetition, the use of many languages, and different parts and singing in rounds.

Brother Roger was a classically trained musician and understood the power of music as part of spirituality. It was Br Roger who introduced the meditative and reflective chants that are so strongly associated with the Taizé style of worship and that have had such an impact on contemporary spirituality.

About 150,000 young people visit Taize each year – normally staying for a week. Praying three times a day in the church which can hold thousands of people and spending the rest of the day in discussion and just enjoying being together.

I first went there in 1983 and stayed for two weeks – one in discussion and one week in silence. Each evening after the evening service Br Roger would have a huge crowd of young people around him – it always seemed impossible to get to him. One evening there was some translation happening, and I could see that the group of people closest to him could not speak French – this was my chance to go and speak to him. When he discovered I was from New Zealand he invited me to join the monks each day for their meal in the actual monastery. This was a great honor and special insight into the life of the 100 or so monks living quite separately from the young people. This community of monks is made up of Roman Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans, and Eastern Orthodox – forming a parable of reconciliation.

The monks receive nothing from the young people – all they live from they grow themselves, produce, or make things to sell. They do not accept gifts. They do not accept an inheritance. The do not take out any insurance. Although Brother Roger was awarded the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education in 1988 he shied away from the limelight. Once a year he would go and live and work with the poorest of the poor in some country and then write a letter which would become the basis for reflection for the young people. Other than that he was not one for preaching.

His primary idea was not to form a movement but that those who have visited Taizé should return to their own community and there seek to live out the insights and deeper spiritual awareness they have gained from their visit to the community.

In 2005 on study leave I was privileged again to spend a week in Taize and to meet up with the now-aging Brother Roger again. A month after that 2005 time there, during the evening service at Taizé on 16 August 2005, he was attacked and stabbed to death by a mentally disturbed woman.

As a protestant Br Roger received communion from the last two popes and a Roman Catholic Cardinal took his funeral Mass.

Br Roger and his community have been centrally influential in my life. Justice and prayer as being two sides of the same coin. The attitude of being non-judgemental, of listening to people where they are at, of realising that God is in people’s lives even if they express this differently to the way I do. Of respecting people – and not having the need to have everyone agree with me – or of trying to convert people to my particular way of expressing things.

In 2006 I moved a motion at our Diocesan Synod which has passed our General Synod and our church’s diocesan synods and Hui Amorangi to add to our church’s calendar:
16 August Brother Roger of Taizé, Prophet of unity, Encourager of youth, 2005

Choosing a church

Published on June 24, 2009 in liturgy. 3 Comments Tags: anglicans, baptism, ecumenism, episcopalians, eucharist, facebook, faith, justice, liturgy, orthodox, roman catholics, spirituality.

A follow up to What is a Christian?

The post “What is a Christian” got a huge response, in public comments, on the Facebook page, as well as in emailed observations. I undertook I would produce this follow-up post.

I certainly do not regard this post as in any way a definitive response – not even as my own final opinion. Hopefully this will be read as yet another contribution to an ongoing dialogue.

Many comments focus on the appalling experiences people have had in and through the church. We can all rattle off scandals, abuse, and hypocrisy of Christians, and of Christian communities. On the one hand such horrific evils highlight that church is a significant reality. It is not just the church that is the source of such scandals.

Money, sex, and power are significant realities in our human experience. They can be sources of great good when appropriately used, and sources of great evil when abused. The church is a similar reality – the church is a source of great good when appropriately used, a source of great evil when abused.

Furthermore, although there is some truth in church (the Christian community, the body of Christ) being a goal, that has to be balanced by the greater tradition that the church is a means – God and union with God being the goal. Getting means and ends (goals) confused always leads to confusion on the (spiritual) journey.

As well as responses from people who have been members of a church community that has hurt them significantly, or who look at the unattractive reality of abuse, there are others who have written to me expressing their struggle to find a church community that allows any discussion or dissent.

A different issue worthy of note was an example of a person coming to faith later in life, realising the significance of church/Christian community as part of that, but not having any opinions favouring one Christian tradition over another. This person is finding the experience one of “listening to all of the disparate he said she said voices shouting out like barkers at a carnival trying to tell you that their booth is the right one for you.”

I could easily list off my own list of things I would look for in a Christian community or tradition – but I would just degenerate to being merely another barker at the carnival.

We still mostly organise our communities of Christian communities “denominationally.” In my opinion, however, this increasingly reflects less and less the reality of people’s experience. Most Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, many Anglicans/Episcopalians, and possibly others may still exhibit denominational loyalties – so that they would look primarily for a church community within their denominational allegiance. But increasingly, if one images these denominational lines vertically – people find support and adherence in groupings that may be imaged horizontally. People will look for a community that has great programmes for young families, or that has a strong teaching and preaching ministry, or that has vibrant contemporary music, or that has a strong commitment to justice, contemplative prayer, and so on and so on (far more than the denominational flavour of the community). Some communities, of course, will have different combinations of these.

The divisions within Christianity clearly are a tragic scandal. Part of my perspective is that we need to learn to see that the differences being argued about are minor minor minor – in comparison to the unity at the heart, if we can just learn to listen to each other (that includes really learning to listen also between religions and to those who claim to have no faith). I think our unity needs to be found elsewhere than in lists of things we mentally agree on, and all the boxes needing to be filled in correctly.

In looking for a Christian community I am assuming you would seek one that you perceive to be orthodox, however you understand that (including in teaching and practice in relation to baptism and eucharist). But alongside this I would place some of the following, not necessarily in any order:

Is the community outward looking?

Does it care for people beyond its own faith-community (including poor people overseas) – and not just seeing such care as bait and switch to get them into the pews of the community (and contributing financially)?

Is there a primarily “Godward” focus – a community celebrating itself is wonderful – but is there a significant focus on God?

Is it inclusive? Of dissent – or is only one viewpoint permitted? Is there room to grow? Is the primary leadership at least stage 5 of Fowler’s Faith Development scale (having a strong personal position as well as being open to different ways of authentically being Christian)?

Is there appropriate oversight and accountability, and transparency – particularly about leadership and finances?

Is there a good variety ages and stages?

Is there support, in teaching and action, to support people through hard times - not just affirming solely our happy experiences?

Is there support, in teaching and action, to carry people through joyful times – not just presenting a burdensome spirituality?

Is the community open and welcoming to new people as well as healthy in retaining those who have been there a long time?
Does the community have a holistic spirituality – with a healthy positive attitude to God’s creation including sex, music, medicine,…

What do you think?

twiturgy – twitter prayers

Published on May 14, 2009 in liturgy. 3 Comments Tags: Easter, liturgy, orthodox, prayer, psalms, twitter.

Twitter is a fast-growing “micro-blogging” site. A person places a post, a “tweet”, of up to 140 characters in length. This is displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). This very simple idea has developed with a plethora of online tools and applications. After playing around with it a little, I soon realised it is ideal for sharing short quotes from the liturgy as well as pointing to liturgical resources as well as picking up some of the other interactive conversations that ensue – even non-liturgical

So you can follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/liturgy or in twitter parlance @liturgy

I am not alone in the realisation that twitter is ideal for “tweeting” short prayers and other church use. It has even been recommended by a cardinal. During Holy Week the Episcopalian church, Trinity Wall Street, realised the potential of twittering the passion from various twitter accounts.

One, fairly obvious, aside: within non-virtual communities there is always the danger of intercession degenerating into gossip. That is clearly magnified online.

There are a number of others who use twitter primarily for sharing liturgy or prayers. I note the following who fit this liturgical use of twitter, and if you are on twitter and fit this category or know others who do – please add this in a comment:

@liturgy
@TheUrbanAbbey
@TrinityWallSt
@twiturgy
@twitturgies
@prayinghours
@YourPrayerChain
@prayer4u
@chrysostominter
@prayingpsalms
@prayingpotp
@TrinityPrincetn
@EasternOrthodox
@kindlejoy

Finally, there is “Tweetgrid” of different twitter prayer feeds found at http://www.prayerontwitter.net this Prayer on Twitter is “where an ancient Christian practice meets a new technology.”