Our Solitary Boast

For all the faithful in Christ as we celebrate the Dormition of the Mother of God in August…

OUR SOLITARY BOAST

Why Christians honour our Lord's Mother

Honour to whom honour is due

By Father Colin Stephenson
Edited by Bishop CH Jones

God has so ordered his creation that where there is a child there must be a mother. When he took flesh there are many ways in which this miracle might have been accomplished. In fact, he entered this world as his creatures do. Having been conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of a woman, and maturing for nine months, he was born in a stable at Bethlehem.

When we wish to give a visible demonstration of this mystery of the Incarnation, or the fleshtaking of God, it is by the figure of a woman with a child in her arms. And when we confess our belief that the Child of Bethlehem was 'God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God', we do not have to be great theologians to realise that the woman from whom he took flesh, as we have taken flesh from our mothers, must occupy a very special place in the story of man's redemption. In fact, devotion to the Mother of our Lord is as old as Christianity itself, for what she was physically, the mother of the Body of Christ, she remains spiritually, the mother of that Body of Christ of which all we baptised are members. Thus there are two aspects under which Christians have honoured Mary - one as the simple Jewish maiden, 'the handmaid of the Lord', who was close to Jesus during his earthly life, the other as 'the woman in heaven' exalted as the mother of Christ the King, having a tender love and care for all those who belong to him. She loves us because he loves us; we belong to her because we belong to him.

The place of Mary in the Christian Church has been the subject of bitter controversy and, like all things which have been the subject of controversy, it has got out of focus and has become exaggerated by both sides, until the simple biblical and historical facts have become distorted. The Church of England has suffered in this way, but respect and honour for Christ's Mother have always been implicit in her faith and in her formularies, and during the past hundred years much has been done to rectify the suspicion and neglect to which the Blessed Virgin had been subject as a result of unorthodox teaching. It was the notion that to honour Mary and to ask for her prayers was to detract from the One Mediator, which was, and is, the basis of protestant objection to the veneration of our Lady; but it would seem an odd way of honouring our Lord to be indifferent, or even hostile, to the mother who bore and nurtured him.

It is sometimes suggested that the honour due to Mary is an 'extra', which was added to Christianity in the middle ages, but the fact is that from the very beginning Christians had a devotion to the Mother of Jesus, and some of the earliest Christian paintings in the catacombs show a figure of our Lady with small, orante figures asking for her prayers. The ways in which this devotion has been expressed have differed from age to age and from country to country, but those in the main stream of historic Christianity have passed on the profound love and veneration for Mary which arises from her unique position as Mother of God, and have given honour where honour is due.

What the Bible says

In a mystical reading of the Old Testament there are many types which are fulfilled in Mary. This approach to the Scriptures, which is sometimes called typology by theologians, sees in the recorded persons and events of the Old Testament symbols which point us forward to their fulfilment in the New Testament. Perhaps the most obvious example is the way in which the themes of sacrifice, which appear in such variety throughout the Old Testament, are all fulfilled in our Lord's death upon the cross. In the same way, if we read with the eye of faith, we shall see our Lady foreshadowed in the unfolding of the Old Covenant. She is the new Eve, the Mother of All Living, whose obedience is in direct contrast to the disobedience of the first Eve.

She is the burning bush, burned but not consumed, for her virginity was not altered by her maternity. She is the Ark of the Covenant, the dwelling place of God. She is Esther, the queen who intercedes for her people. These are but a few of the Old Testament types of the Blessed Virgin, but there are many passages and texts which have been used to point to her, such as the well-known 'Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son' (Isaiah 7.14). When we come to the New Testament it has often been objected that there is little said explicitly about our Lady, and that some of the words addressed to her by our Lord seem cold and rather forbidding. A careful study of the Gospels shows that this is not so. The word 'woman' sounds rather rude and brusque in English, but the word translated in this way is not so in the original, and one could hardly in any case believe that our Lord was the sort of boor who would be rude to his mother in public.

Once we have read the stories of Christ's birth in Saint Luke's Gospel, we realise that our Lady herself must have been the main source of the information, and we can imagine that having revealed her relationship to Christ she then, of her own choice, steps aside and leaves us to ponder these things in our hearts, as she has done before us. Even if our Lord does sometimes seem to be correcting her, this was something he always did to those he loved, and his tone of voice and the expression of his face must have blotted out any idea of coldness. When on the cross he commends her to the beloved disciple, it has always been considered that Saint John represents the Church to whom is said, 'Behold your Mother'. It is the transition of our Lady of Nazareth to our Lady of the Apostles, and so of the catholic Church. Saint Paul for one moment dwells on the identification of our Lady with the Church when he associates Christ's human Sonship with the divine Sonship which it guarantees to us (Galatians 4.4). Saint John in his Revelation portrays the same mystery when he tells of the woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars (Revelation 12.1). She whom we honour at the manger as Mother of God is she whom we honour as Mother of the Church. The heart of the Gospel is that 'the Word was made flesh', and we can never forget for one moment that he was not only the Son of God, but also the Son of Mary.

What tradition says 

The Fathers are the Christian writers of the early centuries who expounded the Scriptures in the light of the Traditions handed down to them, and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They all speak of our Lady with the deepest reverence and honour: of her virginity, of her divine maternity, of her place of privilege and her uniqueness. It would be impossible to try and give quotations for they are so many, but to mention such names as Saint Irenaeus, Saint Justin Martyr, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Saint Ephrem of Syria, Saint Jerome, Saint Ambrose, and Saint Augustine, is to give only a few of those who have expressed and elaborated everything about Mary we have already mentioned. 

As theologians have pondered upon the privileged position of Mary, they have gradually drawn out from the Scriptures and the Fathers certain aspects of this mystery which they think implicit in them. One of these has been her 'all-holiness', and they have considered that because of her vocation to give flesh to God, she was never touched by actual sin. Likewise there has grown up within the Church the Tradition that Mary's body did not corrupt in the grave, but was translated after her death to heaven, having assumed the glorious body which is promised to all those who fall asleep in the Lord, at the Last Judgement. The inference is that Mary, through the finger of God, is one step ahead of the ordinary man or woman.

One cannot claim that these graces are unique, for Holy Scripture tells us that John the Baptist was sanctified from his mother's womb, and Enoch and Elijah were both assumed into heaven. Nor can we really believe that these things are essential to the main tenets of the Catholic Faith, although the Roman Church in recent times has mistakenly made them matters of faith on the same level as the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection of our Lord. Yet they are ancient and honoured traditions which contain nothing contrary to reason or Holy Scripture, and are in line with the great honour and love of Mary which has been handed down to us from early times. 

What the Anglican Church says

The Council of Ephesus, which met in AD 431, said that Mary might rightly be called 'Mother of God'. The Church of England is committed by the Thirty-Nine Articles to whole-hearted acceptance of the findings of this Council. The puritans had a great animus against our Lord's Mother, and in the spree of iconoclasm which accompanied the puritan domination of England, few images of Mary were allowed to escape destruction. However, the Book of Common Prayer retained her main feasts, such as the Annunciation, the Conception, and the Purification. The calendars of Oxford University and the Law Courts of the Realm retained the Assumption. The Prayer Book collect for Christmas Day speaks of our Lord being born of a 'pure' virgin, and each day at evening prayer her hymn Magnificat is said. It would be impossible to quote here the many expressions of devotion and reverence for Mary in the writings of the Anglican divines, but perhaps it is in hymns that one gets the clearest expression of Anglican devotion to our Lady.

Such well-known hymns as 'Her virgin eyes saw God incarnate born' and 'Shall we not love thee, Mother dear,' representing different generations, express the deep and sober piety which is the true inheritance of Anglicans. In the past hundred years of the catholic Revival, much has been done to repair the indifference of the past, and now there are few Churches which do not have some representation of our Lord's Mother, either in wood, stone, painting, or stained glass. Some of the ancient shrines of Mary have been restored and are again frequented by pilgrims. Perhaps the most remarkable restoration has been the shrine of our Lady at Walsingham in Norfolk, England where a complete shrine church has been built, and where Anglicans throng from all over the world.

Ways of honouring Mary 

The classic prayer to our Lady is the 'Hail Mary':

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. 

Although this prayer is addressed to our Lady, it is primarily in honour of our Lord's Incarnation, of which she is the symbol. In this way it is used in the devotion known as 'The Angelus', which is said three times a day - morning, noon, and evening - and in many places a bell is rung to remind the faithful of the prayer time.

The 'Hail Mary' is also used in the Rosary, which is a method of prayer to encourage meditation on the main mysteries of our religion. 

There are many other prayers and devotions for the use of those who wish to foster in their spiritual life a devotion to our Lord's Mother.

It is perhaps hard to put into words the value of this in the devotional life of the Christian, but when one becomes conscious of the family nature of the Church, an easy familiarity with our Lady and the saints will be found to give our prayer life balance which is lacking when this is absent. 

In the same way, we should do well to observe devoutly the feasts in our Lady's honour, and to member that these are like the birthdays of the mother of a human family; and we can show no greater piety towards her than in going to the 'family table' and attending Mass and receiving Holy Comunion. 

There are many other Marian devotions such as visiting her shrines and going on pilgrimages, joining in processions in her honour and lighting candles, and putting flowers around her image in church or in our own home. There are some people who object to these practices and to some of the expressions used about our Lady, which they find offensive or sentimental; but in a family, different members have different ways of expressing themselves, and perhaps if outsiders could hear us talking to our human mothers at moments of affection, they would say the same things.

Devotion to our Lady as the Mother of Christians is essentially a family devotion. Mary herself said 'all generations shall call me blessed', but all generations have done better than this, and they have called her every 'pet' name imaginable. She is our Lady of Good Counsel, the Mystic Rose, the Star of the Sea, our Lady of Walsingham, and of a thousand places where she is particularly honoured. Those who do not understand the family, personal nature of these titles sometimes accuse us of thinking of her as different people when we invoke her by different names. If they did but know, the truth is even more astonishing than they suspect, for each of us has our own 'our Lady', because she is your mother and my mother, and it is to you that Jesus is saying now:

'Behold your Mother'. 

The American Prayer Book Eucharistic Rite

An excellent synopsis of the 1928 American Prayer Book Eucharistic Rite by Father Victor E. Novak...

THE 1928 BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER

The Book of Common Prayer has a history of more than four and a half centuries of daily liturgical use, and is in direct and organic continuity with the beliefs, practices and liturgies of the undivided Church in the West. It is now time to take an in-depth look at this Liturgy. 

The Eucharistic Liturgy of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer opens with the Collect for Purity. This Collect was part of the celebrant's preparation in the Sarum Sacramentary (c. 1085), but its use dates back to at least AD 804. In the Sarum Sacramentary it appears in Latin: "Deus Cui omne cor patet, et omnis voluntas loquitur, et Quem nullum latet secretum, purifica per infusionem Sancti Spiritus cogitationes cordis nostri; ut Te perfecte diligirere, et digne laudare mereamur. Per Chrustum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

The Collect is found in the sacramentary of Alcuin (c. 735-804), the prime minister of Charlemagne, and the reviser of the Roman Rite in the Frankish kingdom. It is unknown whether Alcuin composed the Collect himself or took it from an earlier Service book that is no longer extant, but we know that it has been used for more than twelve hundred years. The Collect for Purity continues to be a prayer of preparation in the Book of Common Prayer. It remains as part of the preparation for the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries and is said before the altar.

The Decalogue entered the Book of Common Prayer in 1552, and has remained in the Anglican Rite ever since. However, as we have seen, its use was no innovation. The Ten Commandments were used liturgically in the early Church in general and in the British Isles in particular, so there is precedent for its use. "It is certain that Cranmer accepted the Medieval view that the Kyrie was penitential... It may be that he was desirous of including in the liturgy the regular recitation of the commandments, along with the Creed and the Lord's Prayer, as one of the three things Christians ought especially 'to know and believe to their souls health.'"21

Blessed Charles Grafton (AD 1830-1912), bishop of Fon du Lac, Wisconsin wrote, "The recitation of the Decalogue in this place is a peculiarity of the Anglican rite. Let us not therefore disparage it, but rather glorify it; for may we not humbly believe that in the development of the Liturgy each portion of Christendom bears its own witness to the faith and has its own special liturgical glories? Our Liturgy, beginning with the Decalogue and omitting the Gloria in Excelsis, is in striking contrast with the Roman... and there is something very beautiful in beginning the drama of Christ's life and death with the angel's song in Bethlehem. But yet it is a grand idea - a grander one, we venture to think - to throw the mind first of all back behind the scene of Bethlehem into the eternal counsels themselves and into the presence of the ever-blessed Trinity. The Decalogue does this. It places us before the awful grandeur of God Himself, and enshrines us in the splendour of His glory" (The Mystical Meaning of the Liturgy).

The Summary of the Law is taken from Holy Scripture, and was first used in the Non-Jurors Prayer Book of 1718. It is found in the Scottish Liturgy of 1764, was part of the first American Prayer Book in 1789, and remains in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. It is also found in the English 1928 Proposed Book and in the Scottish 1929 Book of Common Prayer, among others. The Summary of the Law may be used in addition to the Decalogue or as a substitute for it, provided that the Decalogue is used at least one Sunday in each month.

The Kyries may be used in the three-fold form as found in the Book of Common Prayer or in the nine-fold form as found in the 1940 Hymnal, which is also an authorized liturgical book of the American Church. "The number of repetitions of the Kyrie [in the early Church] was not constant, though three seems always to have been the most usual, and the ninefold Kyrie now familiar in the west was a natural and obviously symbolic number."22 

The Gloria in excelsis had only come into use by priests on Sundays in the twelfth century, and with the understanding of the Kyries as being penitential, it broke up the natural progression of the Liturgy. The ancient Roman Rite did not include the Gloria in excelsis, and when the Gloria first made its appearance in the Roman Rite it was used only in pontifical celebrations by bishops at Christmas. To avoid breaking up the natural progression of the Liturgy, and in order to return to primitive liturgical practice, the Gloria was removed from the ante-communion (Liturgy of the Word). Not wanting to eliminate this ancient hymn of praise that had come into the West from the Eastern Liturgy of the Hours, the Anglican Church moved it toward the end of the Liturgy where it serves beautifully as a fixed Post Communion Anthem. 

The Collect of the Day, along with other Collects, and the Epistle and Gospel lessons follow the Kyries. The term "Collect" is a survival in the Anglican Liturgy from the ancient Gallican Rites. In the Roman Rite the word used is simply Oratio: the Prayer. "The collect is therefore the first variable prayer of the mass. It is strictly a western feature, and in its pure form is direct and brief, consisting of an address, a petition and an adjuration."23 

"This section of variable prayers [collects] and lessons used at the Holy Communion on the several Sundays and holy days of the Church Year is called the 'Propers' of the Eucharist; and, with the few Proper Prefaces..., they carry on in our Prayer Book the tradition of the Western Church, developed in the fourth century, of relating significant portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to the seasonal themes of the movable and immovable feasts and fasts."24 They are for the most part identical to what is found in Sacramentaries and Missals that had been in use throughout the Western Church for centuries, and were still being used at the time of the Reformation. "In the case of the Collects the Prayer Book substitutions were all designed to eliminate from the liturgy certain offensive doctrines of the medieval Church - notably those enshrined in the Saints' Days Collects respecting the 'works of supererogation' of the saints whose merits might be applied to our benefit by their intercession."25 

The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed follows the reading of the Gospel. After hearing the readings from the Scriptures the people of God confess their faith. "Our earliest record of the creed said during the liturgy tells that it was introduced by the Patriarchs Peter the Dyer at Antioch (470-488) and Timothy I of Constantinople (511-518)... In the west the creed first appeared in Spain as a protest against the Arians. It was said after the consecration, before the Our Father, where it remains in the Mozarabic rite. Rome, ever as conservative in liturgical matters as radical in matters of polity, received it cautiously. Leo III (795-816) permitted it to be used in Gaul where it had been imported from the east; but he forbad the addition of the filioque... In 1014 when Henry II was crowned in Rome he noted the absence of the creed and persuaded the pope, Benedict VIII, to impose it upon his church. Now the creed is found in all rites, in the liturgy of the faithful, but at varying places."26 

After the Creed, the 1928 Book of Common Prayer has a rubric that says, "Then followeth the Sermon." The Liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer restores the ancient balance of Law and Gospel, and of Word and Sacrament. The sermon was restored as an important part of the Christian Synaxis.

The Offertory follows the sermon. In the primitive Roman Rite the Bread and Wine were offered together with one short prayer called the Secret. The practice of offering the bread and wine separately and the use of the Offertory Prayers found in the Tridentine Roman Rite are all much later. The Offertory of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer restores ancient Western liturgical practice.

Next follows the restoration of the Prayers of the Faithful or Intercessions, called in the Prayer Book, "The Prayer for the Whole [healthy] State of Christ's Church." The Prayers of the Faithful had been found early in the Liturgy of the Faithful in the primitive Roman Rite, but had later been moved to the Canon, leaving only the Oremus, but no Intercessions. In the Mozarabic Rite the Intercessions are also separate from the Canon and placed near the Offertory. The Liturgy of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer restores the Intercessions to their ancient place in the Western Liturgy.

After the Prayer for the Whole State of Christ Church comes the Exhortation (used thrice each year), the Invitation, General Confession, Absolution and Comfortable Words. These devotions in preparation for receiving the sacrament of Holy Communion are an English version of the French and German vernacular preparation called Prone that had long been inserted in the Latin Mass on Sundays and holy days. References to Prone can be found in documents of the ninth century, long before the Great Schism.

With the General Confession and Absolution, the faithful are now prepared for the Consecration of the elements and the reception of the sacrament Holy Communion. The Prayer of Consecration (Anaphora or Canon) is introduced by the Sursum Corda. The 1928 Book of Common Prayer has Proper Prefaces for ten holy days: Christmas, Epiphany, Purification, Annunciation, Transfiguration, Easter, Ascension, Whitsunday (Pentecost), Trinity Sunday and All Saints Day. The Gregorian Sacramentary (c. seventh century) also had ten.

The Sanctus varies in wording, but is found in all living liturgies. The Liber Pontificalis ascribes its use in the liturgy to Pope Sixtus I (AD 119-128). The Bendictus is a hymn found in the 1940 Hymnal, an authorized liturgical book of the Church, and is commonly used in both High and Low Masses immediately following the Sanctus.

Following the Sanctus and Benedictus, the Prayer of Consecration continues: "All glory be to thee, Almighty God, our heavenly Father, for that thou of thy tender mercy, didst give thine only Son..." (1928 BCP, p. 80). The Eucharistic Liturgy is offered to the Father through the Son, and the gifts are offered as an Oblation to the Father: "we, thy humble servants, do celebrate and make here before thy Divine Majesty, with these thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto thee..." (1928 BCP, p. 80).

"The first paragraph [of the Prayer of Consecration] takes up the theme of 'glory' from the Sanctus, in thanksgiving for the supreme gift of God's mercy in the perfect and all sufficient sacrifice of His Son upon the Cross for the redemption of the whole world from sin... These words do not commit our Church to any one of the various theories about the Atonement wrought by Christ, but simply safeguard the doctrine that He alone is the 'Propitiation for our sins' (I John ii. 1-2). The Eucharist is the perpetual memorial in the Church of that redemption made once for all, and the continual presentation and pleading by the Church before God of its 'full, perfect, and sufficient' accomplishment... Cranmer had both the Eastern and Western forms [of Prayers of Consecration] before him. He followed the order of the Latin Canon and the phrasing of the Greek prayers... Moreover the Non-Jurors removed the Invocation to its present (Eastern) position, immediately following the Oblation."27 

Early editions of the Book of Common Prayer accepted the then generally held Western view that the Consecration was effected by the Words of Institution, and there is patristic support for this view. In De Sacramentis, St. Ambrose of Milan (d. 397) discussed the Consecration which he attributed to the Words of Institution: "Thus the word of Christ consecrates this sacrament." And St. Augustine of Hippo taught, "Accedat verbum ad elementum, et fit sacramentum" - "If the word be joined to the element, it becomes a sacrament." 

However, as the Anglican Reformation (really Restoration) continued, the Church embraced the practice of the Eastern Churches. The 1928 Book of Common Prayer follows the Scottish Order with the Invocation (Epiclesis) after the Words of Institution and the Oblation. The English Proposed book of 1928 and the Scottish 1929 Book of Common Prayer have also followed this Eastern liturgical practice. Apostolic Tradition by St. Hippolytus demonstrates that the use of an Epiclesis after the Words of Institution was the ancient Roman practice as well. Scholars are unsure when or why the use of an Epiclesis was discontinued in the Roman Canon. It has been said that Tradition is the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church, and the Holy Spirit has been constantly leading the Anglican Church (in the days of its orthodoxy) in the direction of patristic Christianity.

Where the 1928 Book of Common Prayer is somewhat unique is in its use of "Word and Holy Spirit" rather than just "Holy Spirit" in the Invocation (Epiclesis). However, once again this was no unhistorical innovation. The Invocation of the Word, Christ Himself, was sometimes used in the primitive Church in the Eucharistic Liturgy. For instance, Bishop Serapion of Thumis in Egypt (c. 339-363), an important mid-fourth century source, prays in his Liturgy that the Word come upon the elements that they become the Body and Blood of Christ: "O God of truth, let your holy Word come upon this bread, that the bread may become the body of the Word, and upon this cup, that the cup may become the blood of Truth." "Again, after its first edition, the American Prayer Book capitalized 'Word' as well as 'Holy Spirit,' to prevent any misunderstanding that the 'Word' referred to is the Words of Institution rather than Christ the Word Himself."28 

The Words of Institution in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer follows the Eastern pattern rather than the Western. "The Gallican and Roman [Rites] introduce the words of institution with the phrase 'Who, the day before he suffered' instead of the eastern (and Mozarabic) formula 'Who, the night in which he was betrayed...'"29 The 1928 Book of Common Prayer has, "For in the night in which he was betrayed." 

A comparison of the Prayer of Consecration of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer with that of the primitive Roman Rite as given by St. Hippolytus (c. 215) of Rome, in his Apostolic Tradition, will demonstrate that the similarities are striking. Both are offered to God the Father through the Son, both begin with with a Thanksgiving for redemption, then pass to a narrative of the Institution, followed by an Oblation and Invocation (Epiclesis), and end with a Doxology. The Canon of St. Hippolytus is actually shorter than that in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Neither of these Canons have any intercessions for the living or the dead because the Prayers of the Faithful (Intercessions), as we have seen, are offered earlier in the Liturgy; and neither Prayer contains commemorations of the saints as they did not begin to enter the Liturgy until the end of the fifth century. It is interesting to note that St. Hippolytus of Rome wrote in Greek and lived at a time before Latin became the liturgical language of the Roman Church.

Following the Prayer of Consecration is the Lord's Prayer, exactly where it was fixed in the Roman Rite by St. Gregory the Great. Next follows the Prayer of Humble Access. The rubrics call for the celebrant to pray this prayer in behalf of the congregation, but it is common practice today for the entire congregation to say it together. The rubrics originally called for the celebrant to say this prayer alone in order to avoid having the Liturgy disrupted by the silence of those in the congregation influenced by the more radical "Reformation" on the Continent, and later by the Puritans. 

The Prayer of Humble access is an Anglican counterpart to the prayers said just before Communion in the Byzantine Rite that begin, "I believe O Lord and Confess..." and "Of thy Mystic Supper..."

The Prayer of Humble Access is normally followed by the Agnus Dei. This hymn was introduced into the Roman Rite by a Syrian pope, Sergius I (687-701), and is found in the 1940 Hymnal.

Following the administration of the sacrament of Holy Communion, the Liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer has a fixed Post-Communion Collect, the Prayer of Thanksgiving. Both variable and fixed post-communion prayers are common in the liturgies of Christendom, with the Anglican Rite having a fixed prayer. Other liturgies with a fixed prayer corresponding to the Anglican Prayer of Thanksgiving would be the Liturgy of St. James and the Celtic liturgy of the Lorrha (Stowe) Missal (c. 750).

The Liturgy of St. James has this prayer: "We give thee thanks, Christ our God, that thou hast vouchsafed to make us partakers of thy Body and Blood, for the remission of sins, and eternal life. Keep us, we beseech thee, without condemnation, because thou art good, and the lover of men. We thank thee, God and Saviour of all, for all the good things which thou hast bestowed on us; and for the participation of thy holy and spotless Mysteries... "

The Celtic Liturgy of the Lorrha (Stowe) Missal has this prayer: "We give thanks unto thee, O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty eternal God, who hast fed us with the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ thy Son; and we humbly implore thy mercy, O Lord, that this sacrament may not be to us for judgement to condemnation, but for pardon through the intercession of the Saviour, May it be a cleansing of sins, a strengthening of the weak, a support against the perils of the world; May this Communion purge us from sin, and make us partakers of the heavenly joys it gives. Through..."

The similarity of these prayers with the Prayer of Thanksgiving in the Anglican Liturgy is self-evident. After the Prayer of Thanksgiving comes the Gloria in excelsis as a Post-Communion Anthem, corresponding to Matthew 26:30. The Last Supper had just ended, "And when they had sung an hymn they went out..." The celebrant then dismisses the congregation with a Blessing. 

Bishop-Elect Robert Giffin

From the Diocese of Mid-America of the Anglican Province of America...

On Thursday, July 19, at the 3rd Synod of the Diocese of Mid-America, Anglican Province of America, The Rev. Robert Todd Giffin, Vicar of All Saints Anglican Church in Newburgh, Indiana, was elected by unanimous vote and acclamation by both houses to the office of Bishop Suffragan with Presiding Bishop Grundorf in attendance.  Bishop-Elect Giffin's Certificate of Election and Letters Testimonial will now be forwarded to the Standing Committee's of the DOW and DEUS for action, as well as the House of Bishops.  It is hoped that the consecration of the Bishop-Elect will occur sometime before Advent 2012.

 

We are thankful for the continued ministry of Bishop-Elect Giffin and the dedicated work put forth by his devoted wife Norma Jean.  We wish them and their family every success and blessing in a moment of joy both for me as Bishop Ordinary and the Diocese of Mid-America.  They will offer our Diocese and the wider Province much during the coming years.

Synod 2012

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who by thy Holy Spirit didst preside in the Council of the blessed Apostles, and hast promised, through thy Son Jesus Christ, to be with thy Church to the end of the world; We beseech thee to be with the Council of thy Church here assembled in thy Name and Presence. Save us from all error, ignorance, pride, and prejudice; and of thy great mercy vouchsafe, we beseech thee, so to direct, sanctify, and govern us in our work, by the mighty power of the Holy Ghost, that the comfortable Gospel of Christ may be truly preached, truly received, and truly followed, in all places, to the breaking down the kingdom of sin, Satan, and death; till at length the whole of thy dispersed sheep, being gathered into one fold, shall become partakers of everlasting life; through the merits and death of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.

The Synod of the Diocese of the Eastern United States of the Anglican Province of America will be held from Monday 9th July until Friday 13th July 2012. This year, it is sponsored by Saint Paul's Church, Melbourne, Florida. Of your Christian charity, please pray earnestly for the impending Synod and for its ministry and work, as it seeks to conduct the administrative business of the Church according to the mind of Christ and His Gospel and to advance the mission, governing, formation, preaching, teaching and evangelistic outreach of our unique branch of Christ’s Holy Church. 

The word Synod, which term may be new or unfamiliar to many, is taken from the Greek word σύνοδος (sunodos) meaning ‘assembly’ or ‘meeting,’ and it is synonymous with the Latin word concilium, meaning ‘council.’ Synod literally means ‘to journey with’ or ‘the way together.’ No better description of the annual meeting of the Church’s authorised representatives, lay and clergy, could possibly be offered! Synod is not merely a business meeting, an ecclesiastical legislative body or a social event, although it is all of these things; it is the Church herself gathered, the Church at worship, in communion, in service and ministry, the Church in movement together. Synod powerfully and tangibly demonstrates the unity of the Body of Christ, the catholicity and universality of the Church, what is called in the Russian language sobornost, from the root word meaning ‘to gather,’ wholeness and inner completeness, wherein the many are brought together into free and organic unity by the power of love, a perceptible manifestation of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in Whom there is both unity and diversity in communion of love.

In short, Synod is the Church, one in heart, mind, and soul, on pilgrimage. All of the Christian life is described in Apostolic Tradition as being a pilgrimage: we are on a pilgrimage through this mortal world to our true heavenly homeland. We are the Pilgrim People of God, the Church, making our way as God’s ecclesia, His ‘called-out ones’, through this world to the next. Everything we do, pray, say and think as Christians should orientate us towards the ultimate, final goal, the final reward and promise, which is eternal life in Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the heavenly Jerusalem. If the vocation of the Christian in this life is pilgrimage, the wayfaring journey through this vale of tears to heaven, then the gathering of the Church in Synod, journeying together, should be seen as a microcosm of what the whole of the Christian life genuinely entails.

Synod is also the Church dynamically revealed as communion. The historic ecclesiology of the Great Church is a eucharistic ecclesiology based on the Holy Communion as the source and summit of the Church's life and on the episcopate as the continuation of the apostolic ministry. Holy Altar, Holy Sacrament, Holy People and Holy Order are inseparable. 'The Sacraments for the Saints.' 'Holy Things for the Holy People.' The Body of Christ in heaven and the Body of Christ in the Eucharist are one with the Body of Christ, the Church. That ecclesiology as espoused in the second and third centuries has been generally received by Anglicanism: a true 'Church' is a bishop in the historic succession, designated for a geographical area, presiding in love at the eucharistic altar with his presbyterate, diaconate and faithful people gathered with him in sacramental communion. A true Church, according to the Tradition of the Church as a whole, requires a true bishop, a geographical jurisdiction, and the People of God established incommunicatio in sacris. Any local particular Church with these characteristics is rendered a true Church, according the model universally held since the time of Saint Ignatius of Antioch and Saint Clement of Rome, the age of the Apostolic Fathers of the second-century. The Church universal is the worldwide communion, the oecumene, of local particular eucharistic assemblies - the One Church is by definition a Communion of Communions. The unity and catholicity of the Church inheres in the communion of the People of God with their local bishops and the communion of the bishops with one another, what Saint Cyprian of Carthage calls the 'undivided episcopate.' Synod is the ideal expression of this principle, a visible manifestation of the Church as Church, as communion.

We invite everyone to enter into the spirit, significance and purpose of Synod by prayer. Thank you all so very much for your support and encouragement during this special time in our corporate life together.

An ACNA Video on Women's 'Ordination'

Progressive revelation, hermeneutical evolution, process theology and development of doctrine... and this not from TEC.

The spectre of Montanus rises...

'The Quintillianists, in their turn, who are also called Pepuzians and known as Artotyrites and Priscillianists are the same as the Phrygians (Montanists) and derive from them... they use the Old and New Testaments, and likewise affirm the resurrection of the dead. They cite many texts which have no relevance... They have woman bishops, presbyters, and the rest; they say that none of this makes any difference, because "in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female." ... they do not cling to the anchor of the truth but entrust themselves to their own reason... and they have overlooked the commandment of the Apostle, "I suffer not a woman to speak, or to have authority over a man" (I Corinthians 14.34-38) ... What prolific error there is in this world!'

- Saint Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion 49, AD 377.

'Ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.' (Saint Jude 1.3)

An English Reformer on the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist

'Moreover, we allow the Sacraments of the Church, that is to say, certain holy signs and ceremonies, which Christ would we should use, that by them He might set before our eyes the mysteries of our salvation, and might more strongly confirm our faith which we have in His blood, and might seal His grace in our hearts. And these Sacraments, together with Tertullian, Origen, Ambrose, Hierom, Chrysostom, Basil, Dionysius, and other Catholic fathers, do we call figures, signs, marks or badges, prints, copies, forms, seals, signets, similitudes, patterns, representations, remembrances and memories. And we make no doubt, together with the same doctors, to say, that these be certain visible words, seals of righteousness, tokens of grace: and do expressly pronounce, that in the Lord's Supper there is truly given unto the believing the body and blood of the Lord, the flesh of the Son of God, which quickeneth our souls, the meat that cometh from above, the food of immortality, grace, truth, and life, and the Supper to be the communion of the body and blood of Christ; by the partaking whereof we be revived, we be strengthened, and be fed unto immortality; and whereby we are joined, united, and incorporate unto Christ, that we may abide in Him, and He in us.

We say, that Eucharistia, that is to say the Supper of the Lord, is a Sacrament; that is to wit, an evident token of the body and blood of Christ, wherein is set, as it were, before our eyes, the death of Christ and His resurrection, and what act soever He did whilst He was in His mortal body: to the end we may give Him thanks for His death, and for our deliverance: and that, by the often receiving of this Sacrament, we may daily renew the remembrance of that matter, to the intent we, being fed with the true body and blood of Christ, may be brought into the hope of the resurrection and of everlasting life, and may most assuredly believe that the body and blood of Christ doth in like manner feed our souls, as bread and wine doth feed our bodies. To this banquet we think the people of God ought to be earnestly bidden, that they may all communicate among themselves, and openly declare and testify both the godly society which is among them, and also the hope which they have in Christ Jesu. For this cause if there had been any which would be but a looker-on, and abstain from the Holy Communion, him did the old fathers and bishops of Rome in the primitive Church, before private mass came up, excommunicate as a wicked person and as a pagan. Neither was there any Christian at that time which did communicate alone, whiles other looked on. For so did Calixtus in times past decree, "that after the consecration was finished, all should communicate, except they had rather stand without the church-doors; because thus (saith he) did the Apostles appoint, and the same the holy Church of Rome keepeth still."

Moreover, when the people cometh to the Holy Communion, the Sacrament ought to be given them in both kinds: for so both Christ hath commanded, and the Apostles in every place have ordained, and all the ancient fathers and Catholic bishops have followed the same. And whoso doth contrary to this, he (as Gelasius saith) committeth sacrilege. And therefore we say, that our adversaries at this day, who having violently thrust out, and quite forbidden the Holy Communion, do, without the word of God, without the authority of any ancient council, without any Catholic father, without any example of the primitive Church, yea, and without reason also, defend and maintain their private masses, and the mangling of the Sacraments, and do this not only against the plain express commandment and bidding of Christ, but also against all antiquity, do wickedly therein, and are very Church robbers.

We affirm that bread and wine are holy and heavenly mysteries of the body and blood of Christ, and that by them Christ Himself, being the true bread of eternal life, is so presently given unto us as that by faith we verily receive his body and his blood...' 

-Bishop John Jewel, The Apology of the Church of England, Part II

The Church as Apostolic

In the month of June, our beloved parish celebrates our 33^rd birthday and simultaneously our patronal feast day in honour of Saint Barnabas the Apostle! As we do so, and render thanks to Almighty God for His manifold blessings upon our parish family, let us consider the questions, ‘What exactly is an Apostle?’ and ‘How is the Church Apostolic?’ and ‘Why is the Church called Apostolic in the Creed?’

The Second Office of Instruction in the Book of Common Prayer deftly tells us the Church is ‘Apostolic; because it continues stedfastly in the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship’ (page 291, Acts of the Apostles 2.42). The Church, in her historical character and in her spiritual constitution, was founded upon the Twelve and their successors, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2.20). Holy Scripture declares that the Church of the living God, the House of God, with her Apostolic foundation, is the pillar and ground of the truth (I Timothy 3.15). The Church is called Apostolic because the Holy Apostles set the historical beginning of the Church. They spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth; almost all of them sealed their proclamation of the Saviour with the death of the martyrs. The seeds of the Faith were sown throughout the world by their word, and watered with their blood. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church (Tertullian, Apologeticus, Chapter 50). The appellation Apostolic also indicates that the Church of Christ was not established upon a single Apostle, as the papal error maintains, but upon the Apostolic College of the Twelve - a body, a collective, a unity in diversity, the Twelve Patriarchs of the Twelve Tribes of the New Israel, the universal Church.

The Apostles, apostoloi, literally ‘the sent ones,’ ‘God-sends,’ fired the flame of faith in Jesus Christ by the power of their personal belief and example. The Apostles, the first bishops of the Church and eye-witnesses of the Resurrection, consecrated and ordained by Our Lord, preserved for and transmitted to the Church the teaching of the Christian Faith in that very form in which they received it from their Lord and Master (II Timothy 2.13). They handed on, ‘traditioned’, to the faithful the teaching and instruction of Our Lord by word of mouth and in the Holy Scriptures, so that the deposit of faith, the Revelation of Christ, might be confessed, preserved, and most importantly, lived out (II Thessalonians 2.15). We call the work and ministry of the Apostles, in this respect, the Holy, Great and Apostolic Tradition, for traditionmeans ‘to deliver, to hand-down, to pass-on.’ According to the direction and commandments of the Lord, the Apostles established the structure of the Church’s sacred liturgy; they set the pattern for the celebration of Holy Baptism, Holy Orders and the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ, the Eucharist.  The Apostles conveyed in and to the Church the grace of the episcopal succession, the episcopate, and, through that Order of Bishops, the entire threefold ministry of the ordained called to be stewards of the mysteries of God and organs of the Church’s body (I Corinthians 4.1, Collects, BCP page 572, Preface to the Ordinal, BCP page 529). Concerned that all things might be done decently and in order, the Apostles provided what was necessary for the internal order of the primitive Church (I Corinthians 14).

The Holy Apostles are not dead historical figures of a long-ago past; they were not solely part of the Church in a previous age. They still belong to the Church and remain in the Church now, in the Communion of Saints. Once in the Church Militant, now they belong to the Church Triumphant; they are in communion with earthly believers today. They continue forever the spiritual nucleus of the Church, as once they were the historical centre of it. The Church is eternal. The Church in time and space is urged to remain in communion with her shepherds and teachers, the Apostles, to persevere in communion with the doctrine, fellowship, liturgical forms and prayers of the Apostles, and with their saintly persons in heavenly glory. The wall of the city has twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb (Revelation 21.14).

The Church on earth is one with the Church in heaven, for the Church is the one Body of Christ. The Church’s unity is both earthly and heavenly; the Church is holy with a sanctity that comes from the heavenly Spirit of God; and the Church is Catholic and Apostolic because she possesses an unbroken connection, an inseverable link, with the Apostles and Saints in heaven. We are the Church insofar as we remain true to the Apostles and faithful to what they have taught and done. The Four Marks of the Church identified in the Creed are real, and, although they may be as yet imperfect in our expression of the Church on earth, they point us to their eschatological fulness and fulfilment in the Life of the World to Come, where, in Christ, the Apostles reign victoriously over sin and death in glory of the Blessed Trinity. The Apostolicity of the Church is first and foremost a gift that God has generously bestowed upon us on earth, that we should offer our everlasting gratitude for a wonderful tie that binds us to all orthodox Christians, in heaven and earth. May we, in the words of the Prayer Book, ‘with one heart desire the prosperity of God’s holy Apostolic Church and with one mouth profess the faith once delivered to the Saints.’

God bless you!

+Chad

A Pastoral Letter from the Catholic Bishops of the Church of England

8th June 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Jesus prayed: ‘May they be completely one, so that the world may know that you
have sent me.’

As Bishops standing in the Catholic tradition of the Church of England, we write to
encourage and support all those who stand in that tradition.
The celebrations of the Queen’s diamond jubilee have reminded us of the important
bonds that exist within our nation between the monarch, the Church, and the people
of this land. The celebrations have also underlined the value of tradition as
something that is always alive and dynamic, while remaining true to its character and
inheritance.

A sense of the dynamism of Christian tradition is familiar to us from other
celebrations and texts.   We speak of our inheritance of faith as one which “the
Church is called upon to proclaim afresh in each generation.”   These words are
declared before every bishop, priest and deacon and congregation at ordinations
and when new ministry is authorised by the bishop’s licence.

Remaining faithful and obedient to this commission is a challenging task.   The
ordination of women has opened up divisions over what is and what is not a
legitimate development of our inheritance.  We shall see those divisions played out
again at the General Synod in July.  We believe that the Church of England must keep
its pledge to recognise that many in the Catholic tradition cannot in conscience
receive the sacramental ministry of women priests and bishops.

How are we to face the tensions of that debate?  What positive message do we as
Anglo‐Catholics have to give to the Church and to our nation about our distinctive
contribution to the dynamics of our Church, and particularly the call to holiness, a
growing into the likeness of Christ, which has been so much part of the tradition of
catholic spirituality?

Firstly, we must say something about diversity.   At the heart of our theological
tradition is an acceptance that the Church of England is enriched by the range of
viewpoints within its spectrum.   We are committed to the recognition of this
diversity and to the liberty that protects it.  Of course, the defence of liberty is one of
the functions of justice and law, of which the monarch is guardian and symbol.

Secondly, we assert that respect for this diversity needs to find expression in unity as
the foundation for our mission, not only as Anglicans, but also with other Christians.
We have the task of patient reiteration that truth, not personal preference, commits
us to referencing the inherited wisdom of Catholicism in the great traditions of East
and West.   Arising from this, our search for unity will commit us to continuing
engagement with the ARCIC process and dialogue with the Orthodox Churches.

Thirdly, we must commit ourselves to the recovery of a vision for mission that
interacts confidently with present and future realities.   Recovery of confidence
begins with realistic and humble engagement in the experiences and spiritual hunger
of today’s increasingly diverse and un‐Churched society.  In this, we may also have to
acquire the humility to learn from the wisdom of others about how to interpret and
use our distinctive inheritance of faith and practice.

We have a future; the seeds of renewal are sown within us.

The tensions of the next few weeks must not distract us from the task that lies
beyond the General Synod vote on women bishops.  Here is a call to action, to build
afresh.   The issue is simply one of vocation – new Christians entering our
congregations, the confident nurturing of young people to train for priesthood and
lay ministry.

As bishops we commit ourselves to work with you and for you in the months and
years ahead to meet these challenges.  Let us form a future in the Church of England
that is better together in its defence of freedom, respect, diversity and unity, in
order to be effective in our worship of almighty God, service of others, and
converting articulation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Yours in Christ,

+Jonathan Baker Bishop of Ebbsfleet
+Norman Banks Bishop of Richborough
+John Ford Bishop of Plymouth
+John Goddard Bishop of Burnley
+Martyn Jarrett Bishop of Beverley
+Nicholas Reade Bishop of Blackburn
+Tony Robinson Bishop of Pontefract
+Geoffrey Rowell Bishop in Europe
+Mark Sowerby Bishop of Horsham
+Martin Warner Bishop of Whitby (Chichester designate)
+Peter Wheatley Bishop of Edmonton
+Lindsay Urwin

Women clergy and doctrine dividing ACNA from the Orthodox

Metropolitan Jonah offers terms for reconciliation to the ACNA

BY GEORGE CONGER

The Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in America, His Beatitude Jonah has called upon the Anglican Church of North America to ditch women clergy, Calvinism and the filioque in the name of Christian unity.

This is an “opportunity to return your church to its original catholic heritage” Jonah told delegates attending the ACNA’s 2nd Assembly at the Lifeway Conference Center in Ridgecrest, NC on 8 June 2012.

The ACNA can “overcome generations of schism, a schism forced upon the English church” by Rome if it eliminates the filioque from the Nicene Creed, the Orthodox leader said. The Filioque – the phrase “and from the Son” is a clause found in the Western Christian Church but not in the Eastern Churches.

The Catholic Church began to add the phrase ”from the Son” to the  traditional language of the Nicene Creed between the 8th and 11th centuries, eventually formalizing the creed to state the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son”.  The Orthodox have long objected to the addition of “and the Son” to the language of the creed and it has been a long standing theological dispute between the Eastern and Western Churches.

In his address, Jonah said the “ecumenical hope is to overcome the schisms of the West.”

“Removing the filioque is not a gesture of ecumenical theology, but a restatement of the orthodox catholic faith,” the Orthodox leader said.

Discussions of the propriety of removing the filioque have been part of the dialogue between the ACNA and the Orthodox Church, members of the ACNA’s theological dialogue commission with the Orthodox tell Anglican Ink. The ACNA’s liturgical commission’s revision of Rite I of the Holy Communion service used in the worship of the Assembly takes note of this issue, placing brackets around the phrase “who proceeds from the Father and the Son”.

However two members of the liturgical commission stated this was a printer’s error, as the brackets should have been only around “and the Son” as there was no question the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father.

In a hard hitting address to the delegates, Jonah cited the common moral vision of the Orthodox and the ACNA and the Protestant confessing churches.  While the churches were divided amongst themselves over issues of doctrine and discipline – including the propriety of women clergy – the more pressing split was “between those who hold traditional biblical faith” and show who hold a “secularized faith according to contemporary” mores and “who dismiss the moral teachings of the Scriptures and the Fathers as culturally irrelevant.”

“This realignment is not the protestant/catholic, evangelical-charismatic/mainline divide, it effects all churches,” Jonah said.

“As faithful Anglicans you are no stranger to this,” he said. “It is creating a massive realignment” between the true faith and “those who reject it, criticize it and persecute it.”

“This is a radical shift away from traditional Christianity,” where the “secularists reject the virgin birth, often the resurrection, even the divinity of Christ.  They reject that his words as recorded in the scriptures “ and see them as being “irrelevant.”

Bishop Jack Spong declared “that ‘Christianity must either change or die,’ referring to orthodox traditional Christianity.  But it is not the orthodox Christianity will die,” Jonah said.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn said that “what the Soviet death camps could not do, western secularism can do more effectively -- whether you call it Soviet atheism or western secularism it is the same enemy.  Do not be confused” about the enemy facing all true believers, he charged the delegates.

The Pope has “called for us to stand against this enemy.  Without alteration, without change, without revision” we must stand together “against those who would subject their faith to the wisdom of the current age.  We must stand together because we cannot stand alone.”

The meetings other ecumenical speakers from the North American Lutheran Church, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, confessing Presbyterian groups and the Polish National Catholic Church endorsed the message of taking a common stand against the secularist culture of the West.

The affirmation of the mission and ministry of the ACNA by its ecumenical guests was a source of great excitement for some delegates to the convention.  Bishop Keith Ackerman told Anglican Ink he was especially pleased to hear the Polish National Catholic Church was considering returning to a state of intercommunion.  In 1978 the PNCC ended its concordat of intercommunion with the Episcopal Church after the General Convention approved the ordination of women clergy.

If the question of women clergy could be resolved to its satisfaction, the PNCC would welcome formal links with the ACNA, the assembly learned.

The text of the address: There is one Body and one Spirit, just as there is one hope in God's call to us: One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God and Father of all. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, It is good to be here with you again, three years after I first was with you in Bedford, Texas. I bring you greetings and, I hope, encouragement, from the Orthodox Church in America.


Over the past three years our churches have conducted a theological dialog, discussing the issues that separate us, issues that are not so much OCA vs. ACNA, but issues that separate Anglicanism from Orthodoxy. This has focused on the issue of the filioque, the addition by the Roman Church to the Nicene Creed, forced on the entire Western Church in the 11th century, and this, disrupting the unity of the confession of the Catholic Faith.


I would remind you that the root and foundation of the Church of England is not "Roman" but rather, the broader Orthodox Catholicism that prevailed until the Roman Church began massive changes in the Second Millennium. The English Church was a local Orthodox Catholic Church in communion with Rome and the rest of the Churches for most of the first millennium. Part of the English, and even continental, Reformation was intended to bring the Church back to its original roots, free from the changes that occurred during the isolation of the Western Church in the Dark Ages and Middle Ages. The Orthodox see the Reformation as having gone awry, and reinforced the very elements that made the Western Churches' theological positions idiosyncratic, thus isolating it even more from Orthodoxy.


My hope is that we can roll this back. You have the opportunity to return your Church to its original heritage, and thus actualize the rich inheritance of English Orthodox Catholicism, in communion with its root tradition. This means the overcoming of generations of schism, a schism which was forced on the English Church, and then a perpetual state of schism for itself and the churches established by it in its colonies and missions. This needs to be healed.


The ecumenical hope is to overcome the schisms of the West, so that the English and Roman Churches can again take their place within the communion of the One Orthodox Catholic Church. You have an immense role and opportunity within this. Removing the filioque is not simply a nice gesture of ecumenical solidarity; it is, rather, an affirmation of the ancient faith of the Undivided Church. 


Realignment


There is another element in this which is of immediate importance, and directly follows on the above. As was written about by Robert Terwilliger, a great Anglican divine of the 20th century, there is a coming realignment within Christianity, one which we can already see the strains of. Whenever schisms happen within the Church, they are generally because certain individuals lead a group out of the Church, being disobedient to the Faith and Doctrine, and refusing to submit to the authority of the hierarchy, which is trying to discipline them and call them to repentance.


What is happening now is somewhat different: a split between those who hold to traditional, biblical faith as interpreted by the Fathers of the Church and the ecumenical councils; and those who espouse a secularized belief, subject to the rationalizations of the scholars according to contemporary philosophy, who dismiss the Fathers and the Councils as no longer relevant, who dismiss the moral teachings of the Scriptures and Fathers as culturally relative. This could be called, by one side, a break between traditional Christianity and post-modern worldly philosophy. Or it might be labeled as the freeing of people from fundamentalist oppression to the light of their own reason.


This is not the protestant/catholic divide; it is not the evangelical-charismatic vs. mainline divide. It cuts across all communities in the West, even affecting the Orthodox and Roman Churches in some degree. As Anglicans, you are no strangers to this: it is the reason you are here, and not in TEC. It is creating a massive realignment within Christianity; those who hold to the traditional Scriptural and patristic Faith and discipline of Orthodox Catholicism; and those who reject it, criticize it, and I will add, as you well know, persecute it. You and the ACNA are part of that realignment.


There is a radical cultural shift away from traditional Christianity, toward something unrecognizable. The "Secularists" (for lack of a better, non-pejorative term) reject the virgin birth of Christ, the resurrection, even His Divinity; that His words are recorded in the Scriptures and that the Scriptures are even relevant to our days; rather they are oppressive and keep humans in darkness. Another Episcopalian bishop, a certain Mr. Spong, wrote that "Christianity must change or die," referring to traditional orthodoxy, espousing the radical secularization of the Episcopal Church and all Christianity. It is my prediction that it is not the Orthodox Churches that will die.


Solzhenitsyn said that "what the Soviet death camps could not do, Western secularism is doing more effectively. In Russia, 20 million died in the last century as martyrs for the Orthodox Faith, and countless millions of others were thrown in the gulag, for standing up against militant secularism. Many perished because they resisted the Renovationists whose schism distorted the Orthodox Faith. Whether you call it Soviet atheism, or Western secularism, it is the same enemy.


Our battle is against secularism. His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, has called for us to stand together against this enemy. This is the realignment: to stand together for the faith once delivered by Christ to the Apostles, and thence to the Bishops, without alteration, without change, without revisions; against those who would submit their faith to the current of the age, the wisdom of this world. We must stand together, and we cannot stand alone. Even the immense Roman Church is buffeted by the militant secularists, who defy authority and criticize that which they know not, and we can see in this country how increasingly fragile their unity is.


Brothers and sisters, we must embrace the Cross of Jesus Christ, the foolishness of the Gospel, the wisdom that is not of this world. We must rejoice in the salvation that God has given us in His Son Jesus Christ, who was crucified for us and rose from the dead. We glory in His Resurrection, and await His Coming Again. We must overcome the divisions that separate us, so that we can stand united in one mind and one heart, confessing that God has come in the flesh to raise us to heaven. We must live according to the moral and ethical commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ enshrined in the Gospel, and reject sin and recognize its corruption. This is the orthodox faith of the Fathers, the Ecumenical Councils and the undivided Church. We will have to accept the scorn and derision of those who are of this world, even those who call themselves brethren, being cast out of their synagogues and ridiculed, sued in civil courts, and count all things as worthless that we have lost for the sake of Christ. This, my friends, is our cross. We have to support one another in bearing it. The closer we come, the greater our mutual support will be, and we will not lose heart, or forget that Christ has already won the victory: He has overcome the world. By accepting to go by way of His Cross, we too will share in His Victory.


Let us listen to the words of St. Paul: 10 I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.
11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brethren.
12 What I mean is that each one of you says, "I belong to Paul," or "I belong to Apollos," or "I belong to Cephas," or "I belong to Christ."
13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? ...
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."
20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,
23 but we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17-25, Revised Standard Version)


Beloved, Christ is Risen.

With Chief Justice Carley on 29th May