Tag Archive for 'roman catholics'

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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.

New Mass translation

Published on August 30, 2009 in liturgy. 9 Comments Tags: anglicans, collect, Mass, opening prayer, roman catholics, visitors.

The US Roman Catholic Bishop Conference has just launched a website to prepare English-speaking Roman Catholics for the dramatic changes to the Roman Catholic Mass. Currently Roman Catholics know their responses by heart. They don’t hand out sheets with responses when you arrive. They don’t use power point or overhead projectors to put responses up onto a screen. But in a few months time, this admirable chorus of perfectly synchronised voices will be disturbed. A new translation is almost ready and various texts said by the congregation will change.

I understand the collects/opening prayers will look a lot more like Anglican ones, whereas currently Roman Catholic and Anglican translations of the same Latin prayer are barely recognisable as having the same source. Unfortunately, texts agreed ecumenically are being abandoned by the Roman Catholic Church. With this also will go all the ecumenically shared music. Familiar musical settings will no longer fit with the new texts some of which have been changed a little, others have been changed dramatically.

My prediction: some Roman Catholics will welcome the new texts with enthusiasm – those who have looked with envy at Anglican English quality texts; regular Sunday Roman Catholics will faithfully accept changes, as they have all other changes handed down from above (with maybe a bit of occasional muttering); some occasional Mass attendees will continue to attend – occasionally. But for many occasional Mass attendees this will be the last straw. They will arrive at a Mass they can no longer participate in by rote, by heart. Mass attendance numbers will drop further. I have, for example, been present at Roman Catholic funeral Masses where, with a large number of nominal Roman Catholics present, as well as many not Roman Catholic, with the practice of assuming responses are known by heart, the responses have been embarrassingly dire. Unless Roman Catholics adapt by introducing some ways of helping people including visitors with responses, this deterioration will only accelerate.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have prepared a website they hope will lessen the disruption. It indicates familiar cues like “The Lord be with you” will no longer have as a response “And also with you.” The response will now become “And with your spirit.” The response to “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.” will become “It is right and just.” Words have been added and others removed in the penitential material, the Gloria has had a complete overhaul, the creed has had significant changes, the Sanctus, Memorial Acclamation, and Agnus Dei have had sufficient changes to trip one up.

Chart of changes
PDF of changes
More about liturgy by heart

August 30 Catholics & Anglicans share prayer

Published on August 27, 2009 in liturgy. 3 Comments Tags: anglicans, collect, episcopalians, lectionary, opening prayer, ordinary time, roman catholics, vatican.

Virtues and Vices - Cathedral of St. Lazarus - Burgundy

This coming Sunday (August 30) and the week following, Roman Catholics and Episcopalians (Anglicans) once again will be praying the same prayer at the Eucharist and at their Daily Offices.

This is the Roman Catholic version of the prayer:

Almighty God,
every good thing comes from you.
Fill our hearts with love for you,
increase our faith,
and by your constant care
protect the good you have given us.

This is the Episcopalian version of the prayer:

Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
Graft in our hearts the love of your Name;
increase in us true religion;
nourish us with all goodness;
and bring forth in us the fruit of good works;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever. Amen.

Both are translations of

Deus virtútum, cujus est totum quod est optimum : ínsere péctóribus nostris amórem tui nóminis, et præsta in nobis religiónis augméntum ; ut, quæ sunt bona, nutrias, ac pietátis studio, quæ sunt nutrita, custódias. Per Dóminum.

There is more about this prayer’s history and a reflection on it in the weekly reflection on the collect/opening prayer on this site.

Let us widen the circle that prays this prayer together this coming weekend and week.

As well as shared feasts (eg. of Epiphany, Palm Sunday, Christ the King), I have discovered other days (and the week following) that Anglicans and Catholics pray the same prayer:

October 26
October 12
October 5

No one has yet been able to come up with an authoritative explanation of how and why Roman Catholics and Episcopalians (Anglicans) are praying the same collects/opening prayers from time to time with a lectionary system that is now shared but is based on a significantly different way of organising the year to the inherited Western system. In my opinion either Episcopalians are drawing from post-Vatican II collect developments (there is no record of this that I am aware of), or both are drawing from an earlier source and system that I cannot get my head around. Whatever it is – it is cool that these prayers are shared and on the same day (week)!

Others are using different collects/opening prayers for this Sunday:

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time August 30 from the collect/opening prayer (NZPB)
12th Sunday after Trinity August 30 from the collect/opening prayer (CofE Common Worship)

Image:
One of the capitals in the Cathedral of St. Lazarus in Burgundy, France, depicts a triumphant image of (left) Charity defeating Greed and (right) Patience conquering Wrath.

Jesus dares to correct the Pharisees. His explanation of the commandments presents the audience with stricter guidelines for communal living. Though he does not use these terms, Jesus wants the Pharisees and the disciples to start thinking about vices and virtues. These vices and virtues, everyday emotions and actions, are what the commandments are concerned with because they are what can foster or breakdown communities.

Capital: Virtues and Vices, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54155 [retrieved August 26, 2009].

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

The Blessed Virgin Mary

Published on August 15, 2009 in liturgy. 2 Comments Tags: anglican communion, assumption, august 15, blessed virgin mary, dormition, roman catholics, vatican.

asuncion20

Click for my reflection on Mary’s feast day.

The origin of the feast day of the Blessed Virgin Mary on August 15 is unknown. It is possibly the date of the dedication of some church in her name.

Some quotes worthy of reflection from Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ – joint statement of the Anglican – Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC):

The dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption raise a special problem for those Anglicans who do not consider that the precise definitions given by these dogmas are sufficiently supported by Scripture….

In the East the feast was known as the ‘dormition’, which implied her death but did not exclude her being taken into heaven. In the West the term used was ‘assumption’,which emphasized her being taken into heaven but did not exclude the possibility of her dying….

One consequence of our separation has been a tendency for Anglicans and Roman Catholics alike to exaggerate the importance of the Marian dogmas in themselves at the expense of the other truths more closely related to the foundation of the Christian faith. Anglicans and Roman Catholics agree that the doctrines of the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception of Mary must be understood in the light of the more central truth of her identity as Theotókos, which itself depends on faith in the Incarnation. We recognize that, following the Second Vatican Council and the teaching of recent Popes, the Christological and ecclesiological context for the Church’s doctrine concerning Mary is being re-received within the Roman Catholic Church. We now suggest that the adoption of an eschatological perspective may deepen our shared understanding of the place of Mary in the economy of grace, and the tradition of the Church concerning Mary which both our communions receive. Our hope is that the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion will recognize a common faith in the agreement concerning Mary which we here offer. Such a re-reception would mean the Marian teaching and devotion within our respective communities, including differences of emphasis, would be seen to be authentic expressions of Christian belief….

As a result of our study, the Commission offers the following agreements, which we believe significantly advance our consensus regarding Mary. We affirm together

- the teaching that God has taken the Blessed Virgin Mary in the fullness of her person into his glory as consonant with Scripture, and only to be understood in the light of Scripture (paragraph 58);

- that in view of her vocation to be the mother of the Holy One, Christ’s redeeming work reached ‘back’ in Mary to the depths of her being and to her earliest beginnings (paragraph 59);

- that the teaching about Mary in the two definitions of the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception, understood within the biblical pattern of the economy of hope and grace, can be said to be consonant with the teaching of the Scriptures and the ancient common traditions (paragraph 60);

- that this agreement, when accepted by our two Communions, would place the questions about authority which arise from the two definitions of 1854 and 1950 in a new ecumenical context (paragraphs 61-63);

- that Mary has a continuing ministry which serves the ministry of Christ, our unique mediator, that Mary and the saints pray for the whole Church and that the practice of asking Mary and the saints to pray for us is not communion-dividing.

Almighty God,
who looked upon the lowliness of the Blessed Virgin Mary
and chose her to be the mother of your only Son:
grant that we who are redeemed by his blood
may share with her in the glory of your eternal kingdom;
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.

July 26 Catholics & Anglicans share prayer

Published on July 22, 2009 in liturgy. 8 Comments Tags: anglicans, collect, episcopalians, lectionary, opening prayer, ordinary time, roman catholics, vatican.

panes_y_peces_5 This Sunday Roman Catholics and Episcopalians (Anglicans) are once again praying essentially the same prayer. The source is from at least the eighth century:

Protector in te sperantium, Deus,
sine quo nihil est validum, nihil sanctum:
multiplica super nos misericordiam tuam;
ut, te rectore, te duce,
sic transeamus per bona temporalia,
ut non amittamus aeterna.

Which the BCP (TEC USA) has as

O God, the protector of all who trust in you,
without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy:
Increase and multiply upon us your mercy;
that, with you as our ruler and guide,
we may so pass through things temporal,
that we lose not the things eternal;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

In 1970 the Vatican revised this to:

Protector in te sperantium, Deus,
sine quo nihil est validum, nihil sanctum:
multiplica super nos misericordiam tuam;
ut, te rectore, te duce,
sic bonis transeuntibus nunc utamur,
ut iam possimus inhaerere mansuris.

ICEL has translated this as:

God our Father and protector,
without you nothing is holy,
nothing has value.
Guide us to everlasting life
by helping us to use wisely
the blessings you have given to the world.

There is more on this collect/opening prayer here

As well as shared feasts (eg. of Epiphany, Palm Sunday, Christ the King), I have discovered other days (and the week following) that Anglicans and Catholics pray the same prayer:

October 26
October 12
October 5
August 31

Others are using different collects/opening prayers for this Sunday:
17th Sunday in Ordinary Time July 26 from the collect/opening prayer (NZPB)
7th Sunday after Trinity July 26 from the collect/opening prayer – Common Worship (CofE)

The Lectionary (part 1)

Published on July 19, 2009 in lectionary and liturgy. 8 Comments Tags: anglicans, bible, calendar, cs lewis, ecumenism, episcopalians, lectionary, RCL, Revised Common Lectionary, roman catholics, vatican.

I consider the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) as a gift from the Holy Spirit to the church. Although at the grass-roots level relationships between people of different denominations are healthy, at the power levels of institutional Christianity ecumenism has pretty much, in spite of innumerable meetings and reports, come to …. nought. Yet, Sunday by Sunday, Presbyterians, Methodists, Anglicans/Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, etc., read essentially the same readings.

In the synagogue the Torah is read through completely Sabbath by Sabbath. Some scholars, in fact, see patterns in the Gospels that the stories (pericopes) may relate to a week by week connection to the appointed synagogue reading (The evangelists’ calendar: A lectionary explanation of the development of scripture). For centuries the church also had a one-year reading cycle. It is possible that many of these readings connected to the Jewish festivals and readings at the same or similar time, and I would be grateful to any readers who could point to either books or websites that explore the connection between the traditional lectionary and Jewish roots.

That one-year cycle had a reading from a gospel generally preceded by another New Testament reading. There was normally no reading from the Old Testament.

After Vatican II the Roman Catholic Church produced a three-year lectionary. “The treasures of the Bible are to be opened up more lavishly so that a richer fare may be provided for the faithful at the table of God’s word. In this way the more significant part of the Sacred Scriptures will be read to the people over a fixed number of years” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, #51). This new lectionary has three readings and a psalm. The Old Testament became a regular part of the lectionary’s fare.

During the decade that followed the 1969 introduction many churches adopted and adapted this wonderful new lectionary. The North American Consultation on Common Texts (CCT) and the International English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC) took up this interest producing an ecumenical revision in 1983. After nine years of trialling, the Revised Common Lectionary was published. It differs little from the 1969 Roman Catholic lectionary – the most significant difference being that in the Roman Catholic lectionary the Old Testament reading normally relates to the Gospel reading. That option is preserved in the RCL, but after Pentecost there is a second option, to read the Old Testament semi-continuously, just as the other books of scripture normally are.

A relevant quote from CS Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters in which a senior devil called Screwtape is writing to his nephew, a junior devil named Wormwood, giving him advice on how to entrap a human called “the Patient.”:

[The Vicar] has deserted both the lectionary and the appointed psalms and now, without noticing it, revolves endlessly round the little treadmill of his fifteen favourite psalms and twenty favourite lessons. We are thus safe from the danger that any truth not already familiar to him and to his flock should over reach them through Scripture. (letter XVI) The Screwtape Letters: How a Senior Devil Instructs a Junior Devil in the Art of Temptation

Part 2 of this Lectionary series

St Benedict

Published on July 11, 2009 in liturgy and spirituality. 3 Comments Tags: anglicanism, book of common prayer, daily office, jesuits, lectio divina, monastery, oblates, roman catholics, spirituality, st benedict, via media.

St Benedict

Today is the feast of St Benedict (480 – 547) famous for his Rule for a Christian community of monks. The Rule is followed by “Benedictines”, Cistercians, and many others. It is followed by many in adaptation in ordinary daily life beyond cloister walls. I am an Associate of Kopua monastery, the Cistercian monastery in New Zealand.

Benedict describes a “middle way”, via media, bringing together positive ends – not either/or, but both/and. Community and solitude. Prayer and work. And so forth. He has a stress on the daily office, and on reading the scriptures in such a way as to hear what the Spirit is saying to us through them (lectio divina).

Anglicanism/Episcopalianism is a denomination that can be seen as strongly “Benedictine” – probably because England had such a strong Benedictine presence. It regularly is seen as a via media – not a half-way-between, but a both/and denomination (a platypus which some struggle to understand – just as many did not believe the platypus when discovered was a real animal). Every Book of Common Prayer and its many contemporary revisions give significance to the daily office – a tradition not just understood as being the preserve of clergy, monks, and nuns, but of the whole people of God. Anglican church buildings regularly are laid out in Benedictine fashion, with choir stalls as in a monastery. [Compare that, for example, to Roman Catholics whose buildings and spirituality are regularly Ignatian - Jesuits being (one of) the first order(s) to abandon praying the office in community - so Jesuit/contemporary Roman Catholic church buildings do not have choir stalls].

Pray today for all Benedictines, Cistercians, oblates, associates, and all who try to follow the Rule of St Benedict.

Almighty and everlasting God,
whose precepts are the wisdom of a loving Father:
Give us grace, following the teaching and example of your servant Benedict,
to walk with loving and willing hearts in the school of the Lord’s service;
let your ears be open to our prayers;
and prosper with your blessing the work of our hands;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

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?

Liturgy as language (part 1)

Published on June 22, 2009 in liturgy. 11 Comments Tags: Anglican, anglican church, faith, liturgy, new zealand, roman catholic, roman catholics, worship.

Peter Carrell is an Anglican priest in New Zealand who usually has a very good grasp on what is happening within our province. He writes in an interesting post on Anglican Down Under that he cannot think of a single congregation that follows our official liturgy that is either growing, or thriving with a good mixture of ages (especially including younger people). This, of course, is a dire claim (Peter repeats it on his site Preaching and Worship). What is more, there has only been a single Kiwi disputing his claim in a comment. Whether I can think of a congregation that conflicts with Peter’s claim is not significant. What I want to do is attempt to analyse this situation and what we might be able to learn from this and move forward. I believe that this analysis and my proposals will be just as relevant beyond New Zealand – so please don’t tune out of this thread you non-Kiwis ☺

Peter’s strong assertion comes with little analysis. The conclusion that liturgy cannot sustain a thriving community within our culture he shows to be false through highlighting (in a comment) that Roman Catholics in this country would not dream of departing from liturgy in the way that Kiwi Anglican churches do, yet Roman Catholic communities are not only more than three times as committed in worship attendance, Peter highlights that Roman Catholic communities do not exhibit the problems with lack of flourishing whilst being liturgically faithful.

I contend that liturgy is integral to Anglican identity. The danger of Peter’s barely-hidden subtext is that a community can only thrive here by abandoning Anglican identity.

Peter maintains (again in a comment) that his observation has been perceptible for at least fifteen to twenty years. In that, already, I think, is a clue to analysis. In this series I will look at the way we learn and use language and from that develop a model that I believe is pertinent.

Update: part 2 is here

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.

Listen to the Word

Published on May 4, 2009 in liturgy. 0 Comments Tags: Anglican, anglicans, book review, collect, eucharist, liturgy, opening prayer, presider, roman catholic, roman catholics, silent prayer, spirituality.

185193 Listen to the Word
Author: Daniel McCathy
Hardback, 154 pages
Available from Redemptorist Publications

The highlight of my weekly reading of the Tablet in 2006-7 was the commentary on the Sunday collect/opening prayer by Daniel McCarthy OSB. Cutting-edge scholarship met healthy spirituality. I am hence delighted that these commentaries have been revised and collected together.

Opening prayers transform individuals in community

Liturgy gathers individuals into a community and transforms them. At the heart of this process, when understood and applied at its best, is the opening prayer/collect in the Introductory Rites/Gathering of the Community.

Too often, in my experience, the collect/opening prayer is another little prayer read by the whole community from the pew-sheet in the still “cluttered vestibule” of the start of our eucharist.

If only communities would attempt the dynamics of the opening prayer as outlined in this book (p. xv):
1) Invitation to pray: Oremus, “Let us pray”,
2) Silent prayer of the community,
3) The opening prayer or collect given by the presider, which the rest of the assembly makes their own in the hearing,
4) And the ratification of the assembly’s “Amen”.

Often, this prayer read together from the pew-sheet has none of the polish nor even the structure of the great Western collects which once were learnt “by heart”, at least by Anglicans, as a wealth of inner spiritual resources. There is much criticism of the ICEL versions of the current Roman Rite, and new translations increasingly are approaching the Anglican style inherited from Thomas Cranmer. It is, hence, excellent to see that the preface to this book is by an Anglican bishop, Bishop John Flack. Not only do Roman Catholics and Anglicans share a common treasure, generally unrecognised, of these Western gems, but I have discovered that a number of them (currently inexplicably) are being prayed on the same days.

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

For those who wish to grow more deeply into the wealth of the collect/opening prayer tradition and its scholarship, I can unreservedly recommend Appreciating the Collect: An Irenic Methodology by James G. Leachman (Editor), and the author of Listen to the Word, Daniel P. McCarthy (Editor)

Listen to the Word takes each prayer, gives its history, analyses its grammar and meaning, and then applies it to our spiritual life.

Listen to the Word is not a book to be read at one sitting, but to be savoured and lived week by week. In fact, if one reads more than one reflection at a time, one could quickly tire of the repeated, boilerplate introduction from one reflection to the next. Alongside the occasional typo, that would be the only criticism of this book, and I unconditionally recommend it to any who follow the Western liturgical tradition.

The websites mentioned in the book have impossible URLs:
http://web.mac.com/danielmccarthyosb/iWeb/DREI/Welcome.html
and
http://www.bsac.ac.uk/DREIseries/DREIindex.htm

As a gift to them, I have reduced these to
http://tinyurl.com/appreciatingliturgy
and
http://tinyurl.com/LiturgiamAestimare

(This website each week also provides a commentary to the week’s collect – current one normally found on the home page, and previous ones can be found by clicking the button top left “prayer reflections“)

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.