Tag Archive for 'reformation'

listening to the Bible in church

Published on June 30, 2010 in liturgy. 8 Comments Tags: bible, gospel, reformation, sermon.

How much scripture was read in your church community last Sunday?

If you go to a synagogue, for thousands of years they have systematically read through the scriptures. Some part of the readings may form the basis of a sermon, but the readings do not have a narrow “theme” – those listening can allow God, through the scriptures, to address them individually in their own particular context and situation – which may be very different from that of their neighbour.

A significant Reformation principle was that each person had the right and obligation to listen to God through the scriptures without the need of an intermediary. That same insight has been picked up in the Roman Catholic Church through the Second Vatican Council.

How much scripture was read in your church community last Sunday? Recently I reminded readers here of the early church practice to “read from the scriptures and from the writings of the apostles for as long as possible.”

Nowadays, many Christian communities, who claim to stand in the Reformation tradition of a personal relationship with God through individuals being encouraged to have an “unfiltered” access to the scriptures actually in their services only use the scriptures as chosen by the preacher. The preacher chooses what is read. And only what is preached about is read. This encourages a culture, not of individual access to the scriptures, but the scriptures are to be mediated by another, by a preacher, or authorised teacher. The scriptures are reduced to illustration points for the sermon – and often they are verses chosen jumping around the Bible, rather than reading through the scriptures as written – in context, as part of a larger work.

Those who follow the lectionary, last Sunday read 2 Kings 5:1-14 or Isaiah 66:10-14; then Psalm 30 or Psalm 66; Galatians 6:1-16; and Luke 10:1-20. About 70 verses of scripture – give or take a few possible variants. Done well, that could be a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes of listening to the scriptures as individuals in community. Yes – with some effort you could make the Isaiah text connect to the Gospel text, but generally these are different texts read for their own sake. If God does not connect with you in your particular situation in one of these, there is the hope that God will make that connection in another. If God does not connect with your community in your particular situation in one of these, there is the hope that God will make that connection in another.

How does this compare to your experience last Sunday?

From the Documents of the Second Vatican Council:

“All Scripture (both Old and New Testament) is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproving, for correcting, for instruction in justice that the man of God may be perfect, equipped for every good work.”
Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Section 11 (2 Tim. 3: 16 & 17)

“The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord, since, especially in the sacred liturgy, she unceasingly receives and offers to the faithful the bread of life from the table both of God’s word and of Christ’s body. …For in the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven meets His children with great love and speaks with them; and the force and power in the word of God is so great that it stands as the support and energy of the Church, the strength of faith for her sons, the food of the soul, the pure and everlasting source of spiritual life. Consequently these words are perfectly applicable to Sacred Scripture: “For the word of God is living and active” (Heb. 4:12) and “it has power to build you up and give you your heritage among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32; see 1 Thess. 2:13). Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Section 21

“This sacred Synod earnestly and specifically urges all the Christian faithful… to learn by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures the excelling knowledge of Jesus Christ. For ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ…And let them remember that prayer should accompany the reading of sacred Scripture, so that God and man may talk together.”
Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Section 25

Anglican Covenant – strength of weak ties

Published on February 7, 2010 in liturgy. 17 Comments Tags: Anglican, anglican communion, anglicanism, anglicans, bible, divorce, hope, marriage, ordination, reformation, sola scriptura.

Bible Alone

It continues to intrigue me that those who hold to a Bible-Alone, sola scriptura position regularly continue to clamour in favour of the proposed Anglican Covenant. This more protestant, “reformed” end of the Anglican spectrum on the one hand claims the Bible Alone is totally sufficient for all our Christian needs, that the Bible is totally self-explanatory, and that the Bible does not need to be supplemented by any other documents. Yet on the other hand: these same people feel that Anglicanism cannot survive without the Anglican Covenant. Ie. the Bible alone is not sufficient. Make up your mind people: is the Bible alone sufficient or isn’t it?!

Completing the Reformation

Some pro-Anglican-Covenant people speak about the need to “complete the Reformation”. Certainly, many at the Reformation created confessional denominations increasingly dividing over disagreements over interpretations of their lists of beliefs. The Anglican Covenant will either include everyone currently Anglican (and so will alter nothing, have only delayed discussion about the real issue, and wasted jet-engine fuel). Or it will complete the Reformation’s tendency towards ever-increasing fragmentation by splintering the frail bonds that bind Anglicans together.

The Anglican Communion and the strength of weak ties

Without using theological-babble (or “Rowanspeak”) it is very hard to ascertain what those who are pro-the Covenant concretely want and expect from a “Communion”. Certainly we would hope a communicant anywhere is a communicant everywhere in the Communion. Even that principle has been stretched to breaking with some provinces communicating all the baptised, some needing a rite of “admission to communion” at an age of “understanding”, and some needing episcopal confirmation before receiving communion. I am sure that toddlers from the first option may have difficulty receiving communion in provinces with the last option. Another principle is the mutual recognition of ordination, so that clergy in one province can function as clergy in another province. That principle has long been broken with women clergy, and male clergy ordained by women bishops, from one province unable to function as clergy in other provinces. Attitudes to divorce and remarriage vary from province to province, affecting communicant status and acceptability of remarried clergy. All this will not change one iota should the Anglican Covenant be accepted.

Sociologist Mark Granovetter, in the highly influential 1973 paper on social networking “The Strength of Weak Ties”, argues our close friends will be quite similar to us. Acquaintances differ more from us and will have their own networks of close friends. We have strong ties to our friends, and weak ties to acquaintances. Granovetter argues persuasively for the value of having both strong and weak ties – they have different functions, enhancing both our flourishing and theirs.

Strong ties (friends) are like an Anglican province. Weak ties (acquaintances) are like our inter-provincial ties across the Anglican Communion. Many who are pro-Covenant appear unable to articulate a difference between a diocese, a province, and a communion – these appear to be seeking that the communion function essentially in the way that most of us understand a diocese to function (or possibly a province).

A previous post: the Anglican Covenant will not do what it is meant to do

A helpful site for deeper reflection is the World Anglicanism Forum run by Bruce Kaye, an Anglican theologian, Foundation editor of the Journal of Anglican Studies. Currently a Visiting Research Fellow in History at the University of New South Wales and a Professorial Associate in Theology at Charles Sturt University.

blessing or communion?

Published on January 15, 2010 in liturgy. 14 Comments Tags: anglicanism, baptism, deacons, Mass, reformation, roman catholics, sign of the cross.

Prior to the 1970s, NZ Anglicans had to be confirmed in order to be allowed to receive communion. Then in the 70s and 80s General Synod allowed those baptised who had been “Admitted to Communion” to receive communion. This followed the then RC model of “First Communion”. In 1990 General Synod restored the tradition of communion for all the baptised, whatever their age, whatever their denomination. Confirmation moved from a puberty rite, to an adult confirmation of faith in the presence of the community and our bishop. Roman Catholics, meanwhile, moved in the opposite direction age-wise, now offering confirmation as a completion of baptism and requiring it for communion (where Anglicans were prior to 1970). Roman Catholics also require that one be a Roman Catholic in good standing (eg. not divorced/remarried) and have made one’s “first communion” in order to receive communion at their Mass.

All this means that in a variety of circumstances there will be some going forward for communion, whilst others present in the congregation are not welcomed to receive. In many places these are invited to come forward for a “blessing”.

There are different forms and traditions within Christianity about “blessings” – and generally a weak theological reflection on this IMO. Bishops and priests regularly bless in different forms. Roman Catholic deacons bless. Anglican deacons do in some provinces (eg. marriages, baptismal water). NZ Anglicanism appears to not have reflected much on this (do any deacons bless the baptismal water in NZ? – I know of none that bless marriages here).

I am aware of abuses: I have seen clergy administer lollies (sweets) to children as “the body of Christ”! I have heard a child back in the pew say, “Mummy, mummy, I don’t want to go up there and get my head measured again”!

I have seen blessings (”replacing communion”) done with far more reverence, take longer, and with greater intensity than receiving communion – giving greater weight to blessing than communion. Similarly, I’m sure we’ve all seen a blessing at the end of the Eucharist (optional in the NZ Anglican rite) done so dramatically as to “compete” with communion [remembering that this concluding blessing grew historically as receiving communion diminished].

Roman Catholic lay people cannot formally bless in a liturgy. At the Eucharist when distributing communion, the priest is the “ordinary minister” and lay people are “extraordinary ministers”. This means often when there are large groups not receiving communion but seeking a blessing at a Roman Catholic Mass, the priest, the ordinary minister of communion, is giving the blessings, while the extraordinary minister is administering communion.

Some, of course, hold to the position that if something is not mentioned in the rubrics or appropriate documents, then it is forbidden – there being no mention of blessing as an option at communion time, they argue, it should not be offered.

Increasingly there are health issues around communion. Do we lay hands on people’s heads and then with the same hand administer bread – sometimes on people’s tongues?

Pastorally, do we refuse communion to any who come forward that we know are not welcome to receive in our tradition?

This reflection can be extended to blessings in the home: of meals, places, people, our children. Protestants often do not use the sign of the cross having lost touch with their Reformation heritage.

What are your own reflections as you read the above post? What are your own practices and practices in your community and why?

marriage and ordination

Published on October 24, 2009 in liturgy. 18 Comments Tags: Anglican, eastern orthodox, marriage, ordination, reformation, roman catholics.

Does the order matter?

In the Roman Catholic Church and in the Eastern Orthodox Church you can only get married before ordination. Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox can not get married after ordination. If the wife of a married Roman Catholic deacon dies, he cannot marry again. If the wife of an Anglican priest, re-ordained as a Roman Catholic priest, dies – he cannot marry again.

I have been involved in some discussions about this. The contention is that there is no evidence in the Tradition of marriage after ordination. None! There is, according to that position, not a single example of marriage after ordination until the Reformation. I find this an astonishing and fascinating claim. I would be fascinated if any reader could come up with a refutation. Or, of course, references to this being correct.

When I ask – what is the theology around this? What reflection do you have about this? What is the point of this? Why is it any different to be married before or after ordination? I get little more than, “Do they require post hoc justification? Is Sacred Tradition not enough?” Well I cannot quickly think of anything within Sacred Tradition that is not followed by some reflection, interpretation, theology, or explanation. Does anyone have such a reflection in this case – what is the difference between marriage before and marriage after ordination?

For reference I have been pointed to Celibacy in the Early Church: The Beginnings of Obligatory Continence for Clerics in East and West and Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy and am grateful to have been pointed to the Google preview. But (other than the preview section) I do not yet have these two books and would take some time to obtain them and then absorb them. Meanwhile – please share your wisdom.

Please also tell me if there is an ongoing tradition of abstaining from sexual relations 24 hours prior to presiding at the Eucharist. (And one has also mentioned a tradition of abstaining after presiding – but no indication for how long).

And don’t tell me that as in the case of baptism, confirmation, eucharist – marriage and ordination are in that order because they are so alphabetically LOL

Animal Blessing – St Francis

Published on October 1, 2009 in liturgy. 10 Comments Tags: Creation, Creation Season, liturgy, reformation, September.

elephant, camel, horse, etc. at St John's

In many places around the feast of Saint Francis (October 4) there is a Spring/Fall “blessing of animals”. September has, for many become a “Creation Season” that this concludes. My invitation is that in the comments section below you can describe your practice of blessing animals, what works well for you, what does not work well, you can place your/a prayer of blessing of animals, symbolic gestures, sprinkling practice there. We might comment (constructively) on each other’s prayers and practices.

Certainly in the midst of Anglican discussions (often now with far more heat than light) about who and what can or cannot be blessed and why, I have noticed a general confusion about what “blessing” actually is in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. At heart of the blessing tradition there is the Jewish Berrakah. We bless something/someone by blessing God. We bless by giving thanks. The composition of such a blessing (my copyrighted mnemonic) is:

Praise
Proclaim
Petition
Praise

You can see this configuration in the Eucharistic Prayer, in the prayer for blessing the water at baptism, in the blessing over a couple in a wedding,…

stjns2b The modern declaratory “blessing” at the end of a Eucharist is a much different construction, and a much more recent innovation. Communion of the people originally concluded the Eucharist. As numbers grew and formal buildings became more ornate, so did the conclusion with prayer being added. In the Middle Ages the bishop blessed the people as he walked through the congregation at the conclusion. By the Reformation the bishop in many places said this “blessing” prior to leaving the sanctuary. Some priests, especially in France and Germany, imitated this Episcopal “blessing”. As fewer in the congregation received God’s blessing in receiving communion, this verbal “blessing” made up for a non-communicating Mass. With the restoration of receiving communion as the norm at the Eucharist, many rites have made the declaratory “blessing” a the conclusion of the Eucharist optional.

Photo: This was a St Francis Day blessing of the animals service I participated in in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York. (Notice the elephant, camel, horse, pony,…! )

Invitation: Please add your practical help, experiences, and prayers about blessing of animals in the comment section below. What do you do? What have you done? What works well? What does not? What prayer do you use?…

Year for Priests – St John Vianney

Published on August 3, 2009 in liturgy. 4 Comments Tags: Anglican, anglican church, baptism, catholic, deacons, faith, franciscans, Jesus, liturgy, prayer, prayer book, reformation, religious life, roman catholic.

st-jean-vianney As well as the Roman Catholic Church, many Anglican churches celebrate St John Vianney on August 4. This year it is 150 years since the death of the priest who is known more commonly by his title “Curé d’Ars” (the parish priest of the village of Ars-sur-Formans). He is the patron saint of parish priests, and the Pope has announced this year as a Year for Priests in honour of “the 150th anniversary of the death of the Holy Curé d’Ars, Jean-Marie Vianney, a true example of a pastor at the service of Christ’s flock”.

Some points worth reflecting on:

the concept of vocation – so quickly (too quickly in my opinion) the word vocation is applied to priesthood and “religious life”. Should not vocation be primarily applied to our baptismal calling to holiness and after that to discernment of our particular way of living out our baptismal vocation to love?

the understanding of God’s will – the impression is too quickly given in my opinion that God has a particular pathway planned out for us and should we deviate from this in any way our present happiness, let alone our eternal salvation, is in jeopardy unless and until we return to where we branched off God’s determined pathway and get back onto the correct path. This would have God intending you to marry Sarah and should you marry Martha instead, then you will be unhappy in this life not to mention the next… God intended you to be a Franciscan, but you misheard the call and became a Dominican – not until you leave the Dominicans and join the Franciscans will you be following God’s will for this life (and the next)… Possibly God’s will is more general than that – possibly it is more about searching out the deepest God-given yearnings of our God-given heart?

Priesthood as primarily a call to enable the baptismal life of the Christian community. The NZ Prayer Book ordinal says it well, in my opinion,

By the Holy Spirit all who believe and are baptised
receive a ministry to proclaim Jesus as Saviour and Lord,
and to love and serve the people with whom they live and work.
In Christ they are to bring redemption,
to reconcile and to make whole
They are to be salt for the earth; they are to be light to the world.

After his resurrection and ascension
Christ gave gifts abundantly to the Church
Some he made apostles, some prophets. some evangelists.
some pastors and teachers; to equip God’s people
for their work of ministry and to build up the body of Christ.

We stand within a tradition
in which there are deacons priests and bishops
They are called and empowered to fulfil an ordained ministry
and to enable the whole mission of the Church.

This might also be a year in which we can discuss more deeply what priesthood means, what diaconate, and laity, and episcopate means, and whether people should be ordained directly to the order to which God calls them (per saltum)?

John Vianney lived and ministered in the aftermath of the French Revolution. He struggled with the academic formation required for priesthood. He greatly stressed the love and mercy of God and also the value of personal discipline. His popularity grew so that Lyons railway station had a separate booking office for trains to Ars. Close to 100,000 individuals came to hear him preach in the last year of his life.

Once, when he was arguing with a Protestant peasant woman in his village, he asked her, “Where was your Church before the Reformation?” She promptly replied, “In the hearts of people like you.”

Heavenly Father,
Shepherd of your people,
we thank you for your Servant John,
who was faithful in the care and nurture of your flock;
and we pray that,
following his example and the teaching of his holy life,
we may by your grace grow into the stature of the fullness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Everliving God,
you gave to your servant John Vianney  gifts of discernment and wise counsel;
grant to all pastors  a full measure of your wisdom and your love,
that through their ministry  your truth may be revealed;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Good shepherd,
yours was the strength which kept Jean, Curé d’Ars,
praying and reconciling year after year;
protect us too, we pray, from fatigue which shrivels up compassion;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Millinerianism

Published on June 17, 2009 in liturgy. 5 Comments Tags: Anglican, catholic, liturgy, reformation.

biretta

Biretta – a square cap sometimes surmounted by a tuft. It is also worn by those holding doctoral degrees from some universities, and occasionally used for caps worn by advocates in law courts.

zucchetto

The zucchetto (Italian for “small gourd”) is a small skullcap first adopted for practical reasons — to keep the clergy’s tonsured heads warm in cold, damp churches. Its appearance is almost identical to the Jewish Kippah, though its significance is quite different. Msgr. Georg Gänswein, the well-known, photogenic pope’s private secretary, is shown here wanting to play the well-known German back-street, illegal gambling game “under which zucchetto is the pope hidden?”

capello

The saturno takes its name from the rings of Saturn. The pope sometimes wears a red one. The Saturno or Capello Romano has many variations, including tassels to tie it on. G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown was depicted as having worn one.

mitre

A mitre, from the Greek μίτρα (’headband’ or ‘turban’), is the ceremonial head-dress of bishops and certain abbots. Here Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is obeying St Paul’s injunction that a woman should keep her head covered in church (1 Cor 10:11)

Canterbury cap

The Canterbury cap is Anglican head-covering, essentially the medieval birettum, descended from the ancient pileus headcovering. Make your own conclusions from the Anglican version being soft and foldable, whereas the biretta, its Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation equivalent, is rigid.

Hat tip to Bethany Twins
If you enjoyed this – you will find much more here.

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

Gutenberg’s Bible and The Machine That Made Us

Published on July 27, 2008 in liturgy. Closed Tags: bible, gutenberg press, reformation.

In this BBC Documentary Stephen Fry tells the story of one of the most important machines ever invented – the Gutenberg Press. Its fifteenth century invention changed us all and was central in making the modern world. Without it there would have been no Reformation as we know it.

The Machine that Made Us – Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.