To introduce the subject of biblical inspiration from a classic Anglican perspective, I would certainly first make reference to Father Francis J. Hall, arguably the greatest Anglo-Catholic systematic theologian of the twentieth century. From his pen flows the following summary which very neatly describes the Anglican view:
Theological Outlines by Rev. Dr. Francis J. Hall
Ch.III. Q.14. Biblical Inspiration
THE Bible is a series of "Sacred Scriptures," written by holy men of old, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost; which has been compiled and preserved by the Church for the edification of the faithful, as "the Word of God," and a means by which every doctrine can be proved which she requires to be believed as necessary for salvation.
2. The Scriptures were written under diverse circumstances, by different writers, in different ages, and for a variety of immediate purposes. But a Divine unity of purpose governs the whole series. "The Old Testament is not contrary to the New . . . everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ," in both.
3. The Church declares in the Nicene Creed that the Holy Ghost "spake by the prophets." This is the Catholic doctrine of Inspiration. In other words, the Scriptures not only contain but are the Word of God, and for the purposes of their inspiration have Divine authority throughout. How they came to possess this authority, i.e., the method of their inspiration, the Church does not define; but what the Church means by teaching that the Bible is divinely inspired is perfectly clear — that they have Divine authority. Such authority, if present at all, is absolute; and biblical inspiration does not admit of degrees.
4. But the amount of spiritual teaching contained in the various portions of Scripture varies widely, and this has led writers to speak of different degrees or amounts of inspiration. In doing so they confuse inspiration with spiritual illumination or with revelation. We must distinguish between inspiration, or the authority possessed by the Scriptures, and the immediate purposes which the several parts of Scripture were inspired to fulfil. If one Scripture is inspired in order to record in God's way a dark passage in Israel's history, and another in order to make known heavenly mysteries, both are none the less equally inspired — i.e., have equally real Divine authority for their diverse ends. But they have unequal values, if both are viewed as sources of spiritual edification; and if spiritual edification were the invariable mark of Divine inspiration, we should have to deny the place of some parts of the Bible in inspired Scripture.
5. Plenary inspiration, or the equal inspiration of every part of the Bible, is taught by the Catholic Church. But when interpreting the several Scriptures we must bear in mind the limitations of Divine purpose in each, and the organic place of each Scripture in the whole. The biblical meaning, as distinguished from that of the human writer must be ascertained. The two meanings do not invariably coincide. The biblical meaning or purport is Divine and therefore inerrant, as far as it goes, however defective it may appear when compared with that of later Scriptures.
6. That a Scripture is divinely inspired is made known to us primarily by the Church, although the fitness of the Bible as a whole for the general purpose which it is designed to fulfil affords constant verification of the Church's testimony. Without ecclesiastical attestation we could not distinguish the Sacred Scriptures with certainty from other holy writings; nor, in view of the inevitable mistakes of copyists, could the Scriptures be preserved from doctrinal corruption except by the Spirit-guided Church. The Church is both the witness and the keeper of Holy Writ.
7. The Sacred Scriptures were written from the point of view of God’s Kingdom, and for the members of it; and their general purpose is to establish and strengthen them in the doctrine which they have learned or are able to learn in that Kingdom. The Bible is not the source of truth for God's Kingdom, for the Church’s possession of it is more ancient than the Bible, and was derived from direct revelation. Yet the Bible contains all saving doctrine, and must be found to prove what the Church teaches. It is often the means, also, by which individuals discover the true religion. The Church and the Bible are both necessary. Both are Divine and we may not separate or mutually oppose them in our study of Theology.
The foregoing forcefully reminds me of the teaching adage of Saint Augustine of Hippo, who said, to paraphrase, 'I would not have believed the Gospel had the Catholic Church not taught it to me.' The classic Anglican appraisal of Holy Scripture, and particularly regarding its inerrancy and canonicity, considers the Bible to be the inspired Word of God containing all things necessary to salvation, uniquely inspired and authorised of God, and rightly interpreted solely through the hermeneutical lens of the Spirit-bearing Body of Christ, the Catholic Church, scriptura omnia continet. As you astutely point out, Anglicans have not (historically) been deeply concerned with the various theories of how the Bible was inspired, because we receive the inspired Scriptures on the basis, not of particular theories or doctrines of inspiration, but of the canon-establishing authority of the Holy Catholic Church, which in turn has been guided by the Holy Spirit into all truth to determine those canonical books which bear the mark of divine inspiration. Holy Writ, the 'Church's Book,' possesses a full, plenary and complete inspiration from God and is therefore inerrant and infallible as the Word of God in its fundamental inspiration, that is, in its origin, authorship and revelation from God. How each part applies to particular questions of literature, history, theology, etc. depends upon the context and purpose of specific origin. But the underlying qualitative inspiration of the whole Canon of Scripture from God the Holy Ghost as the unique record of His revelation to man is unquestioned by orthodox Anglicans.
For a more 'liberal' Anglo-Catholic perspective on Biblical inspiration I present:
The famous Dr C B Moss's The Christian Faith...
Many orthodox Anglicans today find Moss's reverent agnosticism regarding the inspiration of Scripture distasteful if not erroneous. His view, a mid-twentieth century representation of the Lux Mundi liberal catholic school founded by Bishop Gore of Oxford, is heavily dependent on the then-novel historical-critical scientific method of evaluating Scripture, which has now in some respect been proven to be utterly misguided or useless (a la Wright) and fails to meet the practical demands of theologians today. One might argue that he weakens biblical authority in the name of strengthening the Church's. In some ways he is a forerunner of the modernist-revisionist movement, brining an attitude of rationalism and doubt and uncertainty to the formulation of Scriptural Canon and Tradition, and his emphasis on the role of reason has given rise to theological innovations which he would have undoubtedly abhorred.
http://anglicanhistory.org/cbmoss/24_36.html
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
The Common Cause Federation
Roundtable Drafts Articles for a Common Cause Federation
The Common Cause Roundtable which represents nine orthodox Anglican jurisdictions and organizations in North America met in Pittsburgh August 16–18, 2006 to continue its unifying work.
The Common Cause Roundtable Partners accomplished three major tasks:
affirmed their Covenant Declaration;
amended and approved the Theological Statement of the Common Cause Partnership; and,
recommended the formation of the Common Cause Federation (CCF).
The Roundtable drafted and approved proposed articles to create the Common Cause Federation which would formalize the relationship of the partners and allow for other orthodox Anglican groups to apply for membership. The representatives at the meeting will now take the three above-mentioned documents back to their constituent bodies for approval and adoption. The approval process is likely to extend over the next 18 months. The texts of the Covenant Declaration and the Theological Statement are contained below and are available on the website of the Anglican Communion Network at www.acn-us.org. The text of the Articles of the Common Cause Federation will be available in mid-October.
One of the actions of the Common Cause Partners’ meeting was to include the Convocation for Anglicans in North America (CANA) as the ninth roundtable partner. In addition, the retired Archbishop of Southeast Asia, the Most Rev. Yong Ping Chung was the Bible teacher for the Roundtable meetings over the three day period. Bible teaching took a central place in shaping the work of the Common Cause Roundtable.
COVENANT DECLARATION OF THE COMMON CAUSE PARTNERS
We intend by God’s grace:
to partner together in a renewed missionary effort in North America and beyond, driven by our passion for Jesus and His Gospel.
to ensure an orthodox Anglican Province in North America that remains connected to a faithful global Communion.
to create a unity in the essentials of our Anglican faith that respects our varied styles and expressions.
to build trusting relationships marked by effective coordination, collaboration, and communication.
THEOLOGICAL STATEMENT OF THE COMMON CAUSE PARTNERS
We believe and confess Jesus Christ to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no one comes to the Father but by Him.
Therefore, the Common Cause Partnership identifies the following seven elements as characteristic of the Anglican Way, and essential for membership:
We confess the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired Word of God, containing all things necessary for salvation, and to be the final authority and unchangeable standard for Christian faith and life.
We confess Baptism and the Supper of the Lord to be Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself in the Gospel, and thus to be ministered with unfailing use of His words of institution and of the elements ordained by Him.
We confess the godly historic Episcopate as an inherent part of the apostolic faith and practice, and therefore as integral to the fullness and unity of the Body of Christ.
We confess as proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture the historic faith of the undivided church as declared in the three Catholic Creeds: the Apostles’, the Nicene, and the Athanasian.
Concerning the seven Councils of the undivided Church, we affirm the teaching of the first four Councils and the Christological clarifications of the fifth, sixth and seventh Councils, in so far as they are agreeable to the Holy Scriptures.
We receive The Book of Common Prayer as set forth by the Church of England in 1662, together with the Ordinal attached to the same, as a standard for Anglican doctrine and discipline, and, with the Books which preceded it, as the standard for the Anglican tradition of worship.
We receive the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion of 1562, taken in their literal and grammatical sense, as expressing the Anglican response to certain doctrinal issues controverted at that time, and as expressing the fundamental principles of authentic Anglican belief.
In all these things, the Common Cause Partnership is determined by the help of God to hold and maintain as the Anglican Way has received them the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ.
“The Anglican Communion,” Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher wrote, “has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ’s Church from the beginning.” It may licitly teach as necessary for salvation nothing but what is read in the Holy Scriptures as God’s Word written or may be proved thereby. It therefore embraces and affirms such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the Scriptures, and thus to be counted apostolic. The Church has no authority to innovate: it is obliged continually, and particularly in times of renewal or reformation, to return to “the faith once delivered to the saints.”
To be an Anglican, then, is not to embrace a distinct version of Christianity, but a distinct way of being a “Mere Christian,” at the same time evangelical, apostolic, catholic, reformed, and Spirit-filled.
Proposed to the Partners August 18th, 2006
The Common Cause Roundtable which represents nine orthodox Anglican jurisdictions and organizations in North America met in Pittsburgh August 16–18, 2006 to continue its unifying work.
The Common Cause Roundtable Partners accomplished three major tasks:
affirmed their Covenant Declaration;
amended and approved the Theological Statement of the Common Cause Partnership; and,
recommended the formation of the Common Cause Federation (CCF).
The Roundtable drafted and approved proposed articles to create the Common Cause Federation which would formalize the relationship of the partners and allow for other orthodox Anglican groups to apply for membership. The representatives at the meeting will now take the three above-mentioned documents back to their constituent bodies for approval and adoption. The approval process is likely to extend over the next 18 months. The texts of the Covenant Declaration and the Theological Statement are contained below and are available on the website of the Anglican Communion Network at www.acn-us.org. The text of the Articles of the Common Cause Federation will be available in mid-October.
One of the actions of the Common Cause Partners’ meeting was to include the Convocation for Anglicans in North America (CANA) as the ninth roundtable partner. In addition, the retired Archbishop of Southeast Asia, the Most Rev. Yong Ping Chung was the Bible teacher for the Roundtable meetings over the three day period. Bible teaching took a central place in shaping the work of the Common Cause Roundtable.
COVENANT DECLARATION OF THE COMMON CAUSE PARTNERS
We intend by God’s grace:
to partner together in a renewed missionary effort in North America and beyond, driven by our passion for Jesus and His Gospel.
to ensure an orthodox Anglican Province in North America that remains connected to a faithful global Communion.
to create a unity in the essentials of our Anglican faith that respects our varied styles and expressions.
to build trusting relationships marked by effective coordination, collaboration, and communication.
THEOLOGICAL STATEMENT OF THE COMMON CAUSE PARTNERS
We believe and confess Jesus Christ to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no one comes to the Father but by Him.
Therefore, the Common Cause Partnership identifies the following seven elements as characteristic of the Anglican Way, and essential for membership:
We confess the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired Word of God, containing all things necessary for salvation, and to be the final authority and unchangeable standard for Christian faith and life.
We confess Baptism and the Supper of the Lord to be Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself in the Gospel, and thus to be ministered with unfailing use of His words of institution and of the elements ordained by Him.
We confess the godly historic Episcopate as an inherent part of the apostolic faith and practice, and therefore as integral to the fullness and unity of the Body of Christ.
We confess as proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture the historic faith of the undivided church as declared in the three Catholic Creeds: the Apostles’, the Nicene, and the Athanasian.
Concerning the seven Councils of the undivided Church, we affirm the teaching of the first four Councils and the Christological clarifications of the fifth, sixth and seventh Councils, in so far as they are agreeable to the Holy Scriptures.
We receive The Book of Common Prayer as set forth by the Church of England in 1662, together with the Ordinal attached to the same, as a standard for Anglican doctrine and discipline, and, with the Books which preceded it, as the standard for the Anglican tradition of worship.
We receive the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion of 1562, taken in their literal and grammatical sense, as expressing the Anglican response to certain doctrinal issues controverted at that time, and as expressing the fundamental principles of authentic Anglican belief.
In all these things, the Common Cause Partnership is determined by the help of God to hold and maintain as the Anglican Way has received them the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ.
“The Anglican Communion,” Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher wrote, “has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ’s Church from the beginning.” It may licitly teach as necessary for salvation nothing but what is read in the Holy Scriptures as God’s Word written or may be proved thereby. It therefore embraces and affirms such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the Scriptures, and thus to be counted apostolic. The Church has no authority to innovate: it is obliged continually, and particularly in times of renewal or reformation, to return to “the faith once delivered to the saints.”
To be an Anglican, then, is not to embrace a distinct version of Christianity, but a distinct way of being a “Mere Christian,” at the same time evangelical, apostolic, catholic, reformed, and Spirit-filled.
Proposed to the Partners August 18th, 2006
Friday, September 01, 2006
The Jerusalem Declaration
THE JERUSALEM DECLARATION ON CHRISTIAN ZIONISM
Statement by the Patriarch and Local Heads of Churches In Jerusalem
"Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God."(Matthew 5:9)
Christian Zionism is a modern theological and political movement that embraces the most extreme ideological positions of Zionism, thereby becoming detrimental to a just peace within Palestine and Israel. The Christian Zionist programme provides a worldview where the Gospel is identified with the ideology of empire, colonialism and militarism. In its extreme form, it places an emphasis on apocalyptic events leading to the end of history rather than living Christ's love and justice today.
We categorically reject Christian Zionist doctrines as false teaching that corrupts the biblical message of love, justice and reconciliation. We further reject the contemporary alliance of Christian Zionist leaders and organisations with elements in the governments of Israel and the United States that are presently imposing their unilateral pre-emptive borders and domination over Palestine. This inevitably leads to unending cycles of violence that undermine the security of all peoples of the Middle East and the rest of the world.
We reject the teachings of Christian Zionism that facilitate and support these policies as they advance racial exclusivity and perpetual war rather than the gospel of universal love, redemption and reconciliation taught by Jesus Christ. Rather than condemn the world to the doom of Armageddon we call upon everyone to liberate themselves from the ideologies of militarism and occupation. Instead, let them pursue the healing of the nations!
We call upon Christians in Churches on every continent to pray for the Palestinian and Israeli people, both of whom are suffering as victims of occupation and militarism. These discriminative actions are turning Palestine into impoverished ghettos surrounded by exclusive Israeli settlements. The establishment of the illegal settlements and the construction of the Separation Wall on confiscated Palestinian land undermines the viability of a Palestinian state as well as peace and security in the entire region. We call upon all Churches that remain silent, to break their silence and speak for reconciliation with justice in the Holy Land.
Therefore, we commit ourselves to the following principles as an alternative way:
We affirm that all people are created in the image of God. In turn they are called to honour the dignity of every human being and to respect their inalienable rights.
We affirm that Israelis and Palestinians are capable of living together within peace, justice and security.
We affirm that Palestinians are one people, both Muslim and Christian. We reject all attempts to subvert and fragment their unity.
We call upon all people to reject the narrow world view of Christian Zionism and other ideologies that privilege one people at the expense of others.
We are committed to non-violent resistance as the most effective means to end the illegal occupation in order to attain a just and lasting peace.
With urgency we warn that Christian Zionism and its alliances are justifying colonization, apartheid and empire-building. God demands that justice be done. No enduring peace, security or reconciliation is possible without the foundation of justice. The demands of justice will not disappear. The struggle for justice must be pursued diligently and persistently but non-violently.
"What does the Lord require of you, to act justly, to love mercy, and towalk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)
This is where we take our stand. We stand for justice. We can do no other. Justice alone guarantees a peace that will lead to reconciliation with a life of security and prosperity for all the peoples of our Land. By standing on the side of justice, we open ourselves to the work of peace - and working for peace makes us children of God.
"God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." (2Cor 5:19)
His Beattitude Patriarch Michel Sabbah
Latin Patriarchate, Jerusalem
Archbishop Swerios Malki Mourad, Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate, Jerusalem
Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal, Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East
Bishop Munib Younan, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land
August 22, 2006
Statement by the Patriarch and Local Heads of Churches In Jerusalem
"Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God."(Matthew 5:9)
Christian Zionism is a modern theological and political movement that embraces the most extreme ideological positions of Zionism, thereby becoming detrimental to a just peace within Palestine and Israel. The Christian Zionist programme provides a worldview where the Gospel is identified with the ideology of empire, colonialism and militarism. In its extreme form, it places an emphasis on apocalyptic events leading to the end of history rather than living Christ's love and justice today.
We categorically reject Christian Zionist doctrines as false teaching that corrupts the biblical message of love, justice and reconciliation. We further reject the contemporary alliance of Christian Zionist leaders and organisations with elements in the governments of Israel and the United States that are presently imposing their unilateral pre-emptive borders and domination over Palestine. This inevitably leads to unending cycles of violence that undermine the security of all peoples of the Middle East and the rest of the world.
We reject the teachings of Christian Zionism that facilitate and support these policies as they advance racial exclusivity and perpetual war rather than the gospel of universal love, redemption and reconciliation taught by Jesus Christ. Rather than condemn the world to the doom of Armageddon we call upon everyone to liberate themselves from the ideologies of militarism and occupation. Instead, let them pursue the healing of the nations!
We call upon Christians in Churches on every continent to pray for the Palestinian and Israeli people, both of whom are suffering as victims of occupation and militarism. These discriminative actions are turning Palestine into impoverished ghettos surrounded by exclusive Israeli settlements. The establishment of the illegal settlements and the construction of the Separation Wall on confiscated Palestinian land undermines the viability of a Palestinian state as well as peace and security in the entire region. We call upon all Churches that remain silent, to break their silence and speak for reconciliation with justice in the Holy Land.
Therefore, we commit ourselves to the following principles as an alternative way:
We affirm that all people are created in the image of God. In turn they are called to honour the dignity of every human being and to respect their inalienable rights.
We affirm that Israelis and Palestinians are capable of living together within peace, justice and security.
We affirm that Palestinians are one people, both Muslim and Christian. We reject all attempts to subvert and fragment their unity.
We call upon all people to reject the narrow world view of Christian Zionism and other ideologies that privilege one people at the expense of others.
We are committed to non-violent resistance as the most effective means to end the illegal occupation in order to attain a just and lasting peace.
With urgency we warn that Christian Zionism and its alliances are justifying colonization, apartheid and empire-building. God demands that justice be done. No enduring peace, security or reconciliation is possible without the foundation of justice. The demands of justice will not disappear. The struggle for justice must be pursued diligently and persistently but non-violently.
"What does the Lord require of you, to act justly, to love mercy, and towalk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)
This is where we take our stand. We stand for justice. We can do no other. Justice alone guarantees a peace that will lead to reconciliation with a life of security and prosperity for all the peoples of our Land. By standing on the side of justice, we open ourselves to the work of peace - and working for peace makes us children of God.
"God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." (2Cor 5:19)
His Beattitude Patriarch Michel Sabbah
Latin Patriarchate, Jerusalem
Archbishop Swerios Malki Mourad, Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate, Jerusalem
Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal, Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East
Bishop Munib Younan, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land
August 22, 2006
Roman Catholic Acceptance of 'Womenpriests'
http://www.stjoan.com/bulletinfr.htm
Saint Joan of Arc parish of Minneapolis Minnesota, a parish ostensibly in full communion with Pope Benedict XVI, is sponsoring a 'Eucharistic Celebration' offered by Ms. Regina Nicolosi – one of six women who in June of this year claim – contrary to church dogma - to have received sacramental ordination to the Catholic priesthood. The 'Eucharist' will be celebrated on 23 September at the parish, according to the parish bulletin for the 27-28 August weekend. Call to Action, a group of Roman Catholic laity and clergy that proclaims a need for fundamental change in the governance and belief-system of the Roman Church, issued the invitation to participate through the parish.
The actual advertisement:
Call to Action Minnesota: Womenpriests Celebrate the Eucharist. On Saturday, September 23, 4-8 pm. Call to Action invites you to a Eucharistic Celebration with Regina Nicolosi presiding. Rev. Nicolosi was ordained as a womanpriest this summer. Following the Eucharist is a presentation by SJA parishioner Dr. Dorothy Irvin on 'Ancient and Contemporary Models of Womenpriests and Deacons'.
Is this the beginning of a new revolution in the American branch of the Roman Communion? The echoes of the simulacrum which transpired in the Church of the Advocate Philadelphia on 29 July 1974, and subsequent events in the Episcopal Church leading up to 1976 and 2003, are ominously unmistakable.
Saint Joan of Arc parish of Minneapolis Minnesota, a parish ostensibly in full communion with Pope Benedict XVI, is sponsoring a 'Eucharistic Celebration' offered by Ms. Regina Nicolosi – one of six women who in June of this year claim – contrary to church dogma - to have received sacramental ordination to the Catholic priesthood. The 'Eucharist' will be celebrated on 23 September at the parish, according to the parish bulletin for the 27-28 August weekend. Call to Action, a group of Roman Catholic laity and clergy that proclaims a need for fundamental change in the governance and belief-system of the Roman Church, issued the invitation to participate through the parish.
The actual advertisement:
Call to Action Minnesota: Womenpriests Celebrate the Eucharist. On Saturday, September 23, 4-8 pm. Call to Action invites you to a Eucharistic Celebration with Regina Nicolosi presiding. Rev. Nicolosi was ordained as a womanpriest this summer. Following the Eucharist is a presentation by SJA parishioner Dr. Dorothy Irvin on 'Ancient and Contemporary Models of Womenpriests and Deacons'.
Is this the beginning of a new revolution in the American branch of the Roman Communion? The echoes of the simulacrum which transpired in the Church of the Advocate Philadelphia on 29 July 1974, and subsequent events in the Episcopal Church leading up to 1976 and 2003, are ominously unmistakable.
The Anglican Mission in America and the Female Diaconate
From my good friend Father Peter Geromel:
I wanted to pass along the location of a paper that I think you might find interesting. It is written to the AMiA bishops in response to the report on the Ordination of Women to the priesthood about the fact that while the priesthood has been denied to women in AMiA, the Diaconate has not. It is written by Fr. Jason Patterson, Assistant Rector at St. John the Evangelist AMiA in Churchville, PA. Fr. Patterson has studied at Westminster Theological Seminary and has a M.A.R. from Trinity School for Ministry. Although a young clergyman, he has already accepted a position on the Board of the Prayer Book Society. His paper uses Scripture, the traditional formularies, and evidence from the first five centuries of the Church to explain why AMiA cannot continue to ordain women to the diaconate. This is good to see coming out of the ranks of AMiA, because Holy Orders is a communion breaking issue and many Anglican theologians consider that the Sacrament of Ordination is one and therefore the integrity of the Sacrament must be inviolate throughout.
http://www.stjeac.org/ (the paper is in the righthand margin of the website).
I wanted to pass along the location of a paper that I think you might find interesting. It is written to the AMiA bishops in response to the report on the Ordination of Women to the priesthood about the fact that while the priesthood has been denied to women in AMiA, the Diaconate has not. It is written by Fr. Jason Patterson, Assistant Rector at St. John the Evangelist AMiA in Churchville, PA. Fr. Patterson has studied at Westminster Theological Seminary and has a M.A.R. from Trinity School for Ministry. Although a young clergyman, he has already accepted a position on the Board of the Prayer Book Society. His paper uses Scripture, the traditional formularies, and evidence from the first five centuries of the Church to explain why AMiA cannot continue to ordain women to the diaconate. This is good to see coming out of the ranks of AMiA, because Holy Orders is a communion breaking issue and many Anglican theologians consider that the Sacrament of Ordination is one and therefore the integrity of the Sacrament must be inviolate throughout.
http://www.stjeac.org/ (the paper is in the righthand margin of the website).
Monday, August 28, 2006
Swedish Lutheran Orders and the Roman Tradition
Did a Society of Saint Pius X Bishop publicly preach the validity of Swedish Lutheran Orders?
According to the Society's own official newsletter, SSPX Bishop Tissier de Mallerais made an interesting statement during the July 30, 2006, SSPX Mass at St. Nicolas du Chardonnet Church in Paris, observing the conversion of a former Lutheran pastor.
During his sermon, Tissier remarked:
'You yourself, dear Pastor, were a priest. You were a priest for 31 years, following a ceremony of ordination. There is evidently a doubt on this ordination, since one doesn't know if the apostolic succession in the Swedish Church is valid or not. You celebrated during 31 years what you thought to be a valid Mass in Swedish language.'
After careful examination, the Church of England officially proposed intercommunion with the Swedish Church, based on the validity of Swedish Orders, at the Lambeth Conference 1920. Perhaps our traditional Roman Catholic friends have begun slowly to discern what Anglicanism realised many deacades ago.
According to the Society's own official newsletter, SSPX Bishop Tissier de Mallerais made an interesting statement during the July 30, 2006, SSPX Mass at St. Nicolas du Chardonnet Church in Paris, observing the conversion of a former Lutheran pastor.
During his sermon, Tissier remarked:
'You yourself, dear Pastor, were a priest. You were a priest for 31 years, following a ceremony of ordination. There is evidently a doubt on this ordination, since one doesn't know if the apostolic succession in the Swedish Church is valid or not. You celebrated during 31 years what you thought to be a valid Mass in Swedish language.'
After careful examination, the Church of England officially proposed intercommunion with the Swedish Church, based on the validity of Swedish Orders, at the Lambeth Conference 1920. Perhaps our traditional Roman Catholic friends have begun slowly to discern what Anglicanism realised many deacades ago.
Friday, August 25, 2006
The Orthodox, the Anglican Communion Network and the 'Ordination' of Women
The Letter of Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad to Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, Bishop Edward Salmon of South Carolina and Bishop John-David Schofield of San Joaquin, Episcopal Church in the USA:
'Dear Brothers in Christ, We have learnt from the mass media that you have decided to refrain from recognizing the Presiding Bishop Elect of the Episcopal Church in the USA, Ms. Catherine Jefferts-Shori. It follows from the released letter you signed that this step was motivated by your refusal to accept the election of a woman to the post of the head of a Church as a gross violation of the old church Tradition. I would like to assure you that I fully share the stand you have taken. In due time, the Russian Orthodox Church also took not an easy step by ceasing on December 26, 2003, her contacts with the Episcopal Church in the USA because of the "consecration" of Gene Robinson, an open homosexual, as bishop. Through this act, the sinful way of life strictly condemned by Holy Scriptures has been supported by church leaders - the fact that defies any reasonable explanation. It is my profound conviction that secular liberal political and philosophical ideas, however we may treat them, cannot and must not adjust the Apostolic Tradition and the understanding of New Testament texts guarded by this Tradition. Any attempt to adjust Christian morality and especially the church order to the political tastes of an external environment is dangerous as it threatens with a loss of Christian identity. There must be no fear in the efforts to keep faithful to Christ. Indeed, the Gospel calls us to take the narrow path that many believed to be impossible even during the earthly life of the Saviour: "When the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?"". The example of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Soviet period is a vivid proof that Christians can stay faithful to Christ even in the hardest conditions. Despite the severe persecution and pressure from the Soviet power, our Church did not compromise with the spirit of this world. We continue to follow the situation in the Episcopal Church in the USA because we have always cherished good relations with her faithful. Dialogue between our two Churches was established over one hundred years ago, St. Tikhon the Patriarch of All Russia being one of its initiators. Since that time, our relations have been marked by sincerity, warmth, willingness to cooperate and mutual interest. Now we, regrettably, have been actually deprived of this rich heritage. However, as the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church stressed in its decision to break relations with the Episcopal Church in the USA, we are open to "contacts and cooperation with those American Episcopalians who remain faithful to the gospel's moral teaching". In this connection, I would like to inform you that the Russian Orthodox Church supports your act and expresses willingness to restore relations with your diocese. Using this opportunity, I wish you good health, God's help in your work, peace and prosperity.'
This truly remarkable, history-making epistle received the following unfortunate but necessary response:
'There is one matter, about which I must humbly advise you, that may impede the recognition you so graciously propose. Among the dioceses that Pittsburgh leads are dioceses that do ordain women to the diaconate and presbyterate, just as do many of the Provinces of the Anglican Communion. Under these circumstances would the Russian Orthodox Church still be willing to recognize those dioceses in our fellowship that share this practice, Pittsburgh being among them?'
- Bishop Robert Duncan in his reply letter, 25 August 2006
With all due and charitable respect to our beloved friends in the Anglican Communion Network and the Common Cause Federation, one must ask simply: can the Eastern Orthodox Churches realistically or honestly restore progressive ecumenical relations with ecclesial bodies, in this case several provinces and dioceses of the Canterbury Communion, or even go so far as to achieve theological consensus with such bodies, if the latter affirm and maintain doctrines and practices which are adjudged blatantly heterodox by historic Orthodoxy? Hasn't the purported ordination of women error ultimately imperiled or destroyed the official Anglican Communion-Eastern Orthodox dialogue?
The above-cited correspondence is to my mind proof positive that the Apostolic Churches of East and West, the Roman and the Eastern, should prophetically turn their ecumenical interests and investments toward the orthodox catholic Anglicans of the Continuing Church. Pope Benedict and Patriarch Bartholomew have been taking their official dialogues in a misplaced direction for a very long time now. When will they finally realise that the orthodox Anglicanism they seek to engage is utterly real, alive and well in places where they have yet refused to look? Let us pray for the restoration of authentic catholic ecumenism in our day, and let us pray for the restoration of catholic orthodoxy in those branches of the Church where such truth has been tragically neglected or abandoned. May we all come to see that the heart of genuine ecumenicity is the truth, the Apostolic Tradition.
'Dear Brothers in Christ, We have learnt from the mass media that you have decided to refrain from recognizing the Presiding Bishop Elect of the Episcopal Church in the USA, Ms. Catherine Jefferts-Shori. It follows from the released letter you signed that this step was motivated by your refusal to accept the election of a woman to the post of the head of a Church as a gross violation of the old church Tradition. I would like to assure you that I fully share the stand you have taken. In due time, the Russian Orthodox Church also took not an easy step by ceasing on December 26, 2003, her contacts with the Episcopal Church in the USA because of the "consecration" of Gene Robinson, an open homosexual, as bishop. Through this act, the sinful way of life strictly condemned by Holy Scriptures has been supported by church leaders - the fact that defies any reasonable explanation. It is my profound conviction that secular liberal political and philosophical ideas, however we may treat them, cannot and must not adjust the Apostolic Tradition and the understanding of New Testament texts guarded by this Tradition. Any attempt to adjust Christian morality and especially the church order to the political tastes of an external environment is dangerous as it threatens with a loss of Christian identity. There must be no fear in the efforts to keep faithful to Christ. Indeed, the Gospel calls us to take the narrow path that many believed to be impossible even during the earthly life of the Saviour: "When the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?"". The example of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Soviet period is a vivid proof that Christians can stay faithful to Christ even in the hardest conditions. Despite the severe persecution and pressure from the Soviet power, our Church did not compromise with the spirit of this world. We continue to follow the situation in the Episcopal Church in the USA because we have always cherished good relations with her faithful. Dialogue between our two Churches was established over one hundred years ago, St. Tikhon the Patriarch of All Russia being one of its initiators. Since that time, our relations have been marked by sincerity, warmth, willingness to cooperate and mutual interest. Now we, regrettably, have been actually deprived of this rich heritage. However, as the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church stressed in its decision to break relations with the Episcopal Church in the USA, we are open to "contacts and cooperation with those American Episcopalians who remain faithful to the gospel's moral teaching". In this connection, I would like to inform you that the Russian Orthodox Church supports your act and expresses willingness to restore relations with your diocese. Using this opportunity, I wish you good health, God's help in your work, peace and prosperity.'
This truly remarkable, history-making epistle received the following unfortunate but necessary response:
'There is one matter, about which I must humbly advise you, that may impede the recognition you so graciously propose. Among the dioceses that Pittsburgh leads are dioceses that do ordain women to the diaconate and presbyterate, just as do many of the Provinces of the Anglican Communion. Under these circumstances would the Russian Orthodox Church still be willing to recognize those dioceses in our fellowship that share this practice, Pittsburgh being among them?'
- Bishop Robert Duncan in his reply letter, 25 August 2006
With all due and charitable respect to our beloved friends in the Anglican Communion Network and the Common Cause Federation, one must ask simply: can the Eastern Orthodox Churches realistically or honestly restore progressive ecumenical relations with ecclesial bodies, in this case several provinces and dioceses of the Canterbury Communion, or even go so far as to achieve theological consensus with such bodies, if the latter affirm and maintain doctrines and practices which are adjudged blatantly heterodox by historic Orthodoxy? Hasn't the purported ordination of women error ultimately imperiled or destroyed the official Anglican Communion-Eastern Orthodox dialogue?
The above-cited correspondence is to my mind proof positive that the Apostolic Churches of East and West, the Roman and the Eastern, should prophetically turn their ecumenical interests and investments toward the orthodox catholic Anglicans of the Continuing Church. Pope Benedict and Patriarch Bartholomew have been taking their official dialogues in a misplaced direction for a very long time now. When will they finally realise that the orthodox Anglicanism they seek to engage is utterly real, alive and well in places where they have yet refused to look? Let us pray for the restoration of authentic catholic ecumenism in our day, and let us pray for the restoration of catholic orthodoxy in those branches of the Church where such truth has been tragically neglected or abandoned. May we all come to see that the heart of genuine ecumenicity is the truth, the Apostolic Tradition.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
'Mission'
'And we humbly beseech thee, O heavenly Father, so to assist us with thy grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in.' As we approach a new season in the calendar year, a season of renewal and change, we are often reminded of the priorities of life, the people and pursuits that really matter to us. Recently I had the great honour of participating in a local outreach ministry to children and families in need, the Summer Blast, which was for the second year in a row based at Community United Methodist Church in Casselberry. To my delight I was able to witness firsthand how financial and personal contributions from parishioners of Saint Alban's Cathedral went directly to the aid of people in serious crisis and need. Our efforts in this regard truly make a difference in people's lives. Our prayers matter. Our gifts matter. Our mission matters. We should never be tempted to believe falsely that our parish, although comparatively small in comparison to other churches of other traditions, does not make a difference or does not in some powerful way touch and transform lives for good. Rest assured, our parish makes all the difference, and has the capacity to transform and sanctify lives in ways we have not yet begun to imagine. All we have to do is freely unleash the supernatural gifts we have freely received. In the hot July sun, surrounded by hundreds of people of many races and languages, hungry for the Gospel, needful of the basics of life's necessities, gathered to receive the corporal alms of the community, Saint Alban's was present and made a difference. In the midst of a swirl of human energy and activity, our parish was duly represented, humbly but perceptibly, a sign of the Kingdom of God in the midst of a world unknowingly craving its Creator and Redeemer. Interestingly, that day's event proffered the opportunity for many guest speakers and musicians to present their several messages and visions of faith... centre stage. We were the only Christians of the Catholic and Apostolic Tradition present - we enjoyed the singular privilege of representing orthodox, sacramental and liturgical Christianity in a setting where the Great Tradition of the Holy Catholic Church has likely never before been seen or heard. There were many evangelical preachers gesticulating, many charismatic singers crooning, and many contemporary styles of both for all to absorb. I doubt that many of the listeners were accustomed to hearing an introduction to the Anglican and Catholic Faith from a man in clerical collar, a talk which referenced the Bible and the Creeds, and receiving a blessing in the Name of the Holy Trinity with the Sign of the Cross! I found doing that impishly fun!
I offer the recollection of this experience to you simply to reiterate what we all already know in our hearts and souls, that orthodox Christianity is the Life of the Holy Spirit, the genuine article, the real thing, and it belongs 'out there,' amongst the people who so desperately need it and perhaps do not even know they so need. Catholic Faith and Apostolic Order has the inherent power to transform society - in times past it transformed the ancient world, the Europe of the Middle Ages, and the Americas of new discovery and promise; it certainly has the power to convert in our own backyards and neighbourhoods. But it must convert us first, to a radical life of self-giving Gospel obedience and service, before we in turn can be used to change our surroundings. Traditional Anglicanism has been 'America's best kept secret' for far too long and it is high time to reverse that posture in our own personal lives of Christian commitment and in the life of our beloved parish as a whole. The more seriously we take our profession of Faith, the more effectively God will use us for His glory. May our heavenly Father grant us new opportunities in future for missionary outreach and greater graces to launch into the deep to make His Son known, loved and adored by all, in our own community and round the world. God desires us to be the unique instrument by which He reunites heaven and earth and restores communion between God and man. We are the Body of Christ. God has blessed our parish and has placed us where we are as we are for a time such as this.
Our Faith, the Faith once delivered unto the Saints, should continually remind us that Our Blessed Lord has not merely given a mission to the Church, but rather, God has constituted His Church a Mission in herself - a mission to transfigure the whole of creation and of mankind in love by the proclamation of Jesus Christ and the fullness of His Gospel to ends of the earth. Mission is of the nature of God Himself: mission is God's very essence, His very character. The Father in love sends or missions His Son and His Holy Ghost to us - God is the primeval missionary, the One Who gives and is given. God is Lover, Beloved and the Love shared. The Church is nothing else but the very Body and Bride of Christ, the totus Christus, the Head and Body of Christ united together as one corporate personality, Christ Himself in action, Christ in mission. Our mission is the Great Commission of Jesus Christ, which sacred charge and task is not an option but a commandment (Saint Matthew 28.18-20). As faithful disciples of Our Lord and Saviour, we seek to fulfil the commission in our place and circumstances according to that Providence which has placed us here today. Ultimately, as we devoutly and earnestly practise our Catholic Religion, which is nourished by Word and Sacrament, by Scripture and prayer and Eucharist, filled with the Holy Ghost, we are challenged to recall that mission, the high calling which is ours in Christ Jesus, is not about a mission's financial solvency or fundraising, not about worldly standards of success or failure, and not even about church growth: mission is about God Himself, for He is the One who has called us to mission and has promised to strengthen us by His life and power to accomplish that which He has commanded and desired. Christian mission is about proclaiming the Thrice-Holy God we love and know to others and manifesting His reconciling grace and salvific glory in the world and the age in which we live. There can be no authentic Christianity, no New Life in Christ, without mission. 'As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.' The Lord Jesus Christ is the Divine Apostle of the Father, the One whom the Father sent into the world to save, sanctify and glorify it. In turn this Heavenly High Priest and Apostle calls every adopted son of God, every baptised and confirmed Christian, literally to go out; we are to be 'Godsends,' men and women of Apostolic calling and zeal who carry Christ to others, thus inaugurating in Christ the New Creation, a world redeemed and divinised by grace. Jesus reproduces His life and love, His mission in us. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
So the next time we hear someone utter the word 'mission' let us be mindful of all that that little word means and implies. That little word is our charter and the course to our glorious destiny in Christ. God bless you.
I offer the recollection of this experience to you simply to reiterate what we all already know in our hearts and souls, that orthodox Christianity is the Life of the Holy Spirit, the genuine article, the real thing, and it belongs 'out there,' amongst the people who so desperately need it and perhaps do not even know they so need. Catholic Faith and Apostolic Order has the inherent power to transform society - in times past it transformed the ancient world, the Europe of the Middle Ages, and the Americas of new discovery and promise; it certainly has the power to convert in our own backyards and neighbourhoods. But it must convert us first, to a radical life of self-giving Gospel obedience and service, before we in turn can be used to change our surroundings. Traditional Anglicanism has been 'America's best kept secret' for far too long and it is high time to reverse that posture in our own personal lives of Christian commitment and in the life of our beloved parish as a whole. The more seriously we take our profession of Faith, the more effectively God will use us for His glory. May our heavenly Father grant us new opportunities in future for missionary outreach and greater graces to launch into the deep to make His Son known, loved and adored by all, in our own community and round the world. God desires us to be the unique instrument by which He reunites heaven and earth and restores communion between God and man. We are the Body of Christ. God has blessed our parish and has placed us where we are as we are for a time such as this.
Our Faith, the Faith once delivered unto the Saints, should continually remind us that Our Blessed Lord has not merely given a mission to the Church, but rather, God has constituted His Church a Mission in herself - a mission to transfigure the whole of creation and of mankind in love by the proclamation of Jesus Christ and the fullness of His Gospel to ends of the earth. Mission is of the nature of God Himself: mission is God's very essence, His very character. The Father in love sends or missions His Son and His Holy Ghost to us - God is the primeval missionary, the One Who gives and is given. God is Lover, Beloved and the Love shared. The Church is nothing else but the very Body and Bride of Christ, the totus Christus, the Head and Body of Christ united together as one corporate personality, Christ Himself in action, Christ in mission. Our mission is the Great Commission of Jesus Christ, which sacred charge and task is not an option but a commandment (Saint Matthew 28.18-20). As faithful disciples of Our Lord and Saviour, we seek to fulfil the commission in our place and circumstances according to that Providence which has placed us here today. Ultimately, as we devoutly and earnestly practise our Catholic Religion, which is nourished by Word and Sacrament, by Scripture and prayer and Eucharist, filled with the Holy Ghost, we are challenged to recall that mission, the high calling which is ours in Christ Jesus, is not about a mission's financial solvency or fundraising, not about worldly standards of success or failure, and not even about church growth: mission is about God Himself, for He is the One who has called us to mission and has promised to strengthen us by His life and power to accomplish that which He has commanded and desired. Christian mission is about proclaiming the Thrice-Holy God we love and know to others and manifesting His reconciling grace and salvific glory in the world and the age in which we live. There can be no authentic Christianity, no New Life in Christ, without mission. 'As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.' The Lord Jesus Christ is the Divine Apostle of the Father, the One whom the Father sent into the world to save, sanctify and glorify it. In turn this Heavenly High Priest and Apostle calls every adopted son of God, every baptised and confirmed Christian, literally to go out; we are to be 'Godsends,' men and women of Apostolic calling and zeal who carry Christ to others, thus inaugurating in Christ the New Creation, a world redeemed and divinised by grace. Jesus reproduces His life and love, His mission in us. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
So the next time we hear someone utter the word 'mission' let us be mindful of all that that little word means and implies. That little word is our charter and the course to our glorious destiny in Christ. God bless you.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Random musings for August
Episcopal rings are an ancient sign and symbol of the pontifical office and authority and have been used since patristic times: the ring was a fixed part of the episcopal regalia by the fifth century. Saint Isidore of Seville wrote in AD 637 - 'To the Bishop at his consecration is given a staff; a ring likewise is given him to signify pontifical honour and as a seal for secrets.' Episcopal rings signify the marriage of the Bishop to the Church and his spiritual paternity over the faithful of his Diocese as paterfamilias. The ring is meant to bind the clergy and people of the Diocese to the Bishop, whose authority and teaching in the Faith is central. For this reason, in Western tradition priests have not worn special ecclesial rings. In fact, such rings for priests were banned in the Middle Ages because they were seen as worldly and secular jewellery, not befitting the dignity and simplicity of the priesthood. I remember reading that in the medieval era, most rings aside from wedding bands bore pagan or secular images and were considered a form of vanity and worldly indulgence. In the Latin Communion up until 1983, the Code of Canon Law forbade the use of rings by priests except for religious priests in vows, who wear rings as symbols of vow and profession, not jurisdiction. I like this quote from an RC source: 'Although modern influences now permit certain exceptions, it is best not to assume a ring, for the ring represents the fundamental authority of the bishops.' The wearing of special rings by priests, I think, would be similar to the wearing of pectoral crosses by priests - it is simply not Anglican or Western tradition. Having said that, many Anglo-Catholic priests proudly sport a Nashotah House ring. Many other Anglican priests wear different seminary rings. I have a signet ring from Duke, but I never wear it. I suppose today it is really a matter of personal choice and taste.
But something inside me likes seeing rings reserved to Bishops...
I finally had a chance to look over C. B. Moss and here are some remarks from your amateur correspondent:
1. On Original Sin. It appears Moss is heavily influenced by the modern historical-critical method of biblical interpretation and intends to transfer the meaning of the scriptural language and theological categories of Original Sin into a sort of 'holy symbolism' or sanctified mythology. The concept of Original Sin, from what I can discern from Moss' writing style, seems to be for him a sort of divine syllogism explaining the state of man in his current dilemma. Original Sin is then more an aetiology, an explanation of how we got where we are, than a theological truth in and of itself. Oddly enough, he sounds very Eastern here, almost reducing Original Sin to the Eastern Orthodox view (much milder than the Pauline/Augustinian form) of 'ancestral sin' or 'fallen condition.' While still certainly within the bounds of orthodoxy, Moss in places comes terribly close to sounding like a modern liberal theologian. I believe what saves him, as what saves us too, is his uncompromised belief in the supernatural character of divine revelation and of the Church and Sacraments. Had Moss not really believed in the objective nature of the Incarnation and its sacramental extension via Catholic Church, he would no doubt have been tempted to jump off the precipice into that morass of modernism in which the Anglican Communion now finds itself. Prayer Book Catholicism to the rescue once again...
2. On the Filioque. Here I must confess I sympathise with Moss' position far more than my Augustinian-minded brethren would. Moss certainly appears to be philorthodox and wants to reconcile Anglicanism to the Eastern Churches, and is willing to give up the filioque to do so. To that degree so am I! In my estimation he rightly distinguishes between A. the theological issues implied by a double procession of the Holy Ghost and B. the canonical question of the legality and universality/ecumenicity of the filioque clause qua clause. The filioque is not heretical doctrinally but is uncanonical, illegal, lacking the consensus fidelium of an undisputed ecumenical council. Moss also asserts that the Orthodox are right about the intrinsic papalism of the filioque - it was imposed on the Symbol of Constantinople, not by the action of a general council, but by the unilateral authority of the Bishop of Rome. The clause would then be objectionable as an early instalment in history of that usurpation of authority from the conciliar nature of the Church eventually aggregated to the Pope. Again I am compelled to agree with him. The Old Catholics removed the filioque in the 19th century to appease the Orthodox; if given the opportunity, I would (blush) do the same.
I am afraid I am one for one on these important points raised by the good Dr Moss - I am hopelessly Eastern-minded myself.
But something inside me likes seeing rings reserved to Bishops...
I finally had a chance to look over C. B. Moss and here are some remarks from your amateur correspondent:
1. On Original Sin. It appears Moss is heavily influenced by the modern historical-critical method of biblical interpretation and intends to transfer the meaning of the scriptural language and theological categories of Original Sin into a sort of 'holy symbolism' or sanctified mythology. The concept of Original Sin, from what I can discern from Moss' writing style, seems to be for him a sort of divine syllogism explaining the state of man in his current dilemma. Original Sin is then more an aetiology, an explanation of how we got where we are, than a theological truth in and of itself. Oddly enough, he sounds very Eastern here, almost reducing Original Sin to the Eastern Orthodox view (much milder than the Pauline/Augustinian form) of 'ancestral sin' or 'fallen condition.' While still certainly within the bounds of orthodoxy, Moss in places comes terribly close to sounding like a modern liberal theologian. I believe what saves him, as what saves us too, is his uncompromised belief in the supernatural character of divine revelation and of the Church and Sacraments. Had Moss not really believed in the objective nature of the Incarnation and its sacramental extension via Catholic Church, he would no doubt have been tempted to jump off the precipice into that morass of modernism in which the Anglican Communion now finds itself. Prayer Book Catholicism to the rescue once again...
2. On the Filioque. Here I must confess I sympathise with Moss' position far more than my Augustinian-minded brethren would. Moss certainly appears to be philorthodox and wants to reconcile Anglicanism to the Eastern Churches, and is willing to give up the filioque to do so. To that degree so am I! In my estimation he rightly distinguishes between A. the theological issues implied by a double procession of the Holy Ghost and B. the canonical question of the legality and universality/ecumenicity of the filioque clause qua clause. The filioque is not heretical doctrinally but is uncanonical, illegal, lacking the consensus fidelium of an undisputed ecumenical council. Moss also asserts that the Orthodox are right about the intrinsic papalism of the filioque - it was imposed on the Symbol of Constantinople, not by the action of a general council, but by the unilateral authority of the Bishop of Rome. The clause would then be objectionable as an early instalment in history of that usurpation of authority from the conciliar nature of the Church eventually aggregated to the Pope. Again I am compelled to agree with him. The Old Catholics removed the filioque in the 19th century to appease the Orthodox; if given the opportunity, I would (blush) do the same.
I am afraid I am one for one on these important points raised by the good Dr Moss - I am hopelessly Eastern-minded myself.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Carol Grundorf - RIP
Dear friends:
I regret to return to my blog with terribly tragic news. It is with a heavy heart that I must report that Presiding Bishop Walter H. Grundorf’s wife, Carol, died suddenly Saturday night, 22 July. Please keep the Bishop and his four sons, Wally, Stephen, Jason, and Daniel and their families in your continual prayers, and pray for the repose of Carol's soul.
A family visitation will be held at the Family Funeral Care centre (also known as the National Cremation Society) on Red Bug Lake Road, Oviedo, Florida, Thursday 27 July, 6PM to 8PM. The Solemn High Mass of Requiem will be offered Friday 28 July at Saint Alban's Cathedral, 3348 West State Road 426, Oviedo, Florida at 11AM with a luncheon following.
In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations to the Carol Grundorf Memorial Fund. Cheques can be made out to 'Saint Alban’s' with the note 'Carol Grundorf Memorial Fund' in the memo field.
Clergy attire for the procession is cassock, surplice and a purple or black stole.
Rest eternal grant unto her, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon her. My her soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
I regret to return to my blog with terribly tragic news. It is with a heavy heart that I must report that Presiding Bishop Walter H. Grundorf’s wife, Carol, died suddenly Saturday night, 22 July. Please keep the Bishop and his four sons, Wally, Stephen, Jason, and Daniel and their families in your continual prayers, and pray for the repose of Carol's soul.
A family visitation will be held at the Family Funeral Care centre (also known as the National Cremation Society) on Red Bug Lake Road, Oviedo, Florida, Thursday 27 July, 6PM to 8PM. The Solemn High Mass of Requiem will be offered Friday 28 July at Saint Alban's Cathedral, 3348 West State Road 426, Oviedo, Florida at 11AM with a luncheon following.
In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations to the Carol Grundorf Memorial Fund. Cheques can be made out to 'Saint Alban’s' with the note 'Carol Grundorf Memorial Fund' in the memo field.
Clergy attire for the procession is cassock, surplice and a purple or black stole.
Rest eternal grant unto her, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon her. My her soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Holiday!
Philorthodox, your online source for musings and random thoughts from a traditional Prayer Book & Missal Anglican Catholic perspective, will be taking a holiday from 19 June to 19 July. Please keep reading previous posts. Please also keep in your daily prayers the Provincial Synod of the Anglican Province of America and the Synod of the Diocese of the Eastern United States, to be held in Merrillville, Indiana this week, and the Anglican Life Adventure Camp to be held in Ashe County, North Carolina at the end of June. God bless you!
Apostolicae Curae Fulfilled? Schori as PB
[Episcopal News Service] Katharine Jefferts Schori, bishop of the Diocese of Nevada, has been elected June 18 by the House of Bishops as the 26th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.
With the election of the Bishop of Nevada to the position of Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, the Apostolic Succession of the TEC will, from this moment forward, be cast under an irreversible cloud of doubt and uncertainty. Some jurisdictions and individuals have logically maintained, and with very good theological reasons, that that cloud has existed since the innovation of purported women's priestly ordination in 1976, but I shall not address that question here. Where sacraments are uncertain or possibly invalid, orthodox moral theology always demands that the Church take the safest and surest course, which is the refusal to recognise such dubious sacraments as valid or efficacious. Otherwise sacrilege might occur. A woman who has received the rite of episcopal consecration is now the fons sacramentorum, the fount and origin of ministerial orders within The Episcopal Church. Every future episcopal consecration held within the TEC will, if prescribed canons are followed, be conferred by a chief consecrator whose priestly and episcopal orders the Holy Catholic Church has never recognised and cannot and will not recognise as sacramentally valid. No Bishop, no Priesthood, no Eucharist, no Church. The Apostolic Succession of a once-Catholic body is now in unmistakable jeopardy. The problem is strictly sacramentological, quite distinct from the personal beliefs and views of Mrs Schori. She could be perfectly orthodox, biblical, in her moral and doctrinal teaching (which sadly she is not) and the problem of her orders or lack thereof still exists. In point of fact, the Bishop of Nevada is an outspoken modernist and revisionist, but I should contend most emphatically that the problem of her purported ordination is actually more serious in consequence to the body to which she belongs than her personal religious beliefs, as deeply troubling and false as they are. Beliefs change and people convert, but invalid orders, in this case, cannot be rectified. By virtue of her position, she will inescapably introduce over time a plainly suspect sacramental system into every Diocese of the The Episcopal Church, including those which are currently Anglo-Catholic. To be in communion with the TEC is to face the inevitability of the loss of Catholic Faith and Apostolic Order.
Ironically, in The Episcopal Church it appears that the Papal Encyclical Apostolicae Curae of Pope Leo XIII (1896) will apply in future, not specifically because of a defect of form or a defect of intention, but because of a clear defect of minister. Pope Leo claimed the Anglican Succession died with Archbishop Matthew Parker in 1559 - that judgement was patently erroneous, from every conceivable objective theological examination. But now, curiously enough, a scenario described by Leo, the termination of Succession, has precisely emerged today in the body formerly known as ECUSA. This is a theological consideration, not a social or political one. Sacramental assurance, the very assurance of grace and supernatural life for which Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Sacraments, will eventually evaporate from the TEC, because the chief minister of episcopal consecrations, the Primate, will be one whose status casts doubt on the validity of all subsequent sacramental actions in her line. And this doubt regarding sacramental assurance will extend to all future episcopal consecrands, including male candidates for the episcopate, involved in any purported consecration in which Mrs Schori functions as consecrator. A break in the Succession may occur in years to come once male bishops purportedly consecrated by a woman attempt to pass on their ministerial line and orders to others. The end result could be the cessation of an undoubtedly valid sacramental structure. The Sacrament of Holy Orders as understood by the Church Catholic would then no longer subsist in the TEC. What will Forward in Faith North America do? What will the Anglican Communion Network do? What will the American Anglican Council do? The line has been drawn: let us see what the responses will be. The Episcopal Church has made its irrevocable decision - it has committed itself finally and completely to a form of liturgical unitarian modernism. Let us pray for our beloved ones who are still fighting the good fight in that strange land...
With the election of the Bishop of Nevada to the position of Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, the Apostolic Succession of the TEC will, from this moment forward, be cast under an irreversible cloud of doubt and uncertainty. Some jurisdictions and individuals have logically maintained, and with very good theological reasons, that that cloud has existed since the innovation of purported women's priestly ordination in 1976, but I shall not address that question here. Where sacraments are uncertain or possibly invalid, orthodox moral theology always demands that the Church take the safest and surest course, which is the refusal to recognise such dubious sacraments as valid or efficacious. Otherwise sacrilege might occur. A woman who has received the rite of episcopal consecration is now the fons sacramentorum, the fount and origin of ministerial orders within The Episcopal Church. Every future episcopal consecration held within the TEC will, if prescribed canons are followed, be conferred by a chief consecrator whose priestly and episcopal orders the Holy Catholic Church has never recognised and cannot and will not recognise as sacramentally valid. No Bishop, no Priesthood, no Eucharist, no Church. The Apostolic Succession of a once-Catholic body is now in unmistakable jeopardy. The problem is strictly sacramentological, quite distinct from the personal beliefs and views of Mrs Schori. She could be perfectly orthodox, biblical, in her moral and doctrinal teaching (which sadly she is not) and the problem of her orders or lack thereof still exists. In point of fact, the Bishop of Nevada is an outspoken modernist and revisionist, but I should contend most emphatically that the problem of her purported ordination is actually more serious in consequence to the body to which she belongs than her personal religious beliefs, as deeply troubling and false as they are. Beliefs change and people convert, but invalid orders, in this case, cannot be rectified. By virtue of her position, she will inescapably introduce over time a plainly suspect sacramental system into every Diocese of the The Episcopal Church, including those which are currently Anglo-Catholic. To be in communion with the TEC is to face the inevitability of the loss of Catholic Faith and Apostolic Order.
Ironically, in The Episcopal Church it appears that the Papal Encyclical Apostolicae Curae of Pope Leo XIII (1896) will apply in future, not specifically because of a defect of form or a defect of intention, but because of a clear defect of minister. Pope Leo claimed the Anglican Succession died with Archbishop Matthew Parker in 1559 - that judgement was patently erroneous, from every conceivable objective theological examination. But now, curiously enough, a scenario described by Leo, the termination of Succession, has precisely emerged today in the body formerly known as ECUSA. This is a theological consideration, not a social or political one. Sacramental assurance, the very assurance of grace and supernatural life for which Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Sacraments, will eventually evaporate from the TEC, because the chief minister of episcopal consecrations, the Primate, will be one whose status casts doubt on the validity of all subsequent sacramental actions in her line. And this doubt regarding sacramental assurance will extend to all future episcopal consecrands, including male candidates for the episcopate, involved in any purported consecration in which Mrs Schori functions as consecrator. A break in the Succession may occur in years to come once male bishops purportedly consecrated by a woman attempt to pass on their ministerial line and orders to others. The end result could be the cessation of an undoubtedly valid sacramental structure. The Sacrament of Holy Orders as understood by the Church Catholic would then no longer subsist in the TEC. What will Forward in Faith North America do? What will the Anglican Communion Network do? What will the American Anglican Council do? The line has been drawn: let us see what the responses will be. The Episcopal Church has made its irrevocable decision - it has committed itself finally and completely to a form of liturgical unitarian modernism. Let us pray for our beloved ones who are still fighting the good fight in that strange land...
Friday, June 16, 2006
GENCON '06
Orthodox Continuing Churchmen nationwide continue to breathe a deep sigh of relief that they are no longer linked to the established body known as ECUSA as the 75th General Convention of TEC (The Episcopal Church) slowly churns and sputters towards its inevitable conclusion in Columbus, Ohio. For all of the debate over compliance or non-compliance with the Windsor Report, the resolutions so far have taken a predictably modernist direction.
The exception are two resolutions that have progressed through the Special Committee on Anglican Communion relations - A166 articulates the desire of the TEC to be involved in a new 'Anglican Covenant' envisioned by Archbishop Williams and the Windsor Report. A159 would commit the TEC to remaining a 'constituent member of the Anglican Communion.'
The Bishops passed C008, which affirms the right of workers to organize and form unions. C012 supports the Episcopal Network for Economic Justice. The Bishops approved the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations as a priority for the TEC. The Bishops approved A077, changing the Lectionary of the 1979 Book for the Revised Common Lectionary. The Bishops also passed resolution C018 reaffirming environmentalism.
TEC Bishops voted to urge and encourage sex equality in D024. The Bishops passed another political resolution, A017, on immigration.
In COCU ecumenist fashion, the Bishops also passed a resolution approving what is described as interim eucharistic sharing with the United Methodist Church. The Episcopal Church is preparing to recognise the sacramental validity of Methodist ordinations and Methodist celebrations of the Eucharist. A055 encourages communicatio in sacris between the two bodies under certain loosely-defined circumstances. The move is identical to the communion agreement which existed between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and TEC prior to the adoption of the controversial Called to Common Mission, which established full sacramental communion between TEC and ELCA. Methodist ministers are now reckoned to be Catholic priests, and Methodist communion services are held to be proper Masses in which the True Body and Blood of Christ are consecrated. Similar agreements have been established with other mainline protestant bodies.
Fascinatingly, attendees report what appears to be the deliberate decision on the part of GenCon organisers to eliminate the abbreviation ECUSA and replace it with 'The Episcopal Church.' At the opening of Convention, the platform was covered with international flags representing the nations where The Episcopal Church has historically enjoyed a missionary presence. The slogan being used at Convention asserts that The Episcopal Church is an 'international family.' Suspicion is running high. Could it be that The Episcopal Church (now known as TEC) intends to declare itself its own denomination and communion entirely apart from the Anglican world? The possibility of that is very strong indeed. TEC may be gearing up to 'walk apart' any day now.
In all charity, I must say I feel immeasurably blessed and preserved not to be associated with the goings-on transpiring this week in Columbus. Regardless of the problems which undoubtedly exist in the Continuum, Continuing Anglo-Catholics have been set free from the seemingly endless mire of political debate over the essentials of the Faith found in the establishment to concentrate on what really matters - the Gospel and the mission of the Church Catholic. Let us pray our dearly beloved orthodox brethren still struggling in TEC (or ECUSA) may soon be able to join us in a new orthodox alignment within Anglicanism.
The exception are two resolutions that have progressed through the Special Committee on Anglican Communion relations - A166 articulates the desire of the TEC to be involved in a new 'Anglican Covenant' envisioned by Archbishop Williams and the Windsor Report. A159 would commit the TEC to remaining a 'constituent member of the Anglican Communion.'
The Bishops passed C008, which affirms the right of workers to organize and form unions. C012 supports the Episcopal Network for Economic Justice. The Bishops approved the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations as a priority for the TEC. The Bishops approved A077, changing the Lectionary of the 1979 Book for the Revised Common Lectionary. The Bishops also passed resolution C018 reaffirming environmentalism.
TEC Bishops voted to urge and encourage sex equality in D024. The Bishops passed another political resolution, A017, on immigration.
In COCU ecumenist fashion, the Bishops also passed a resolution approving what is described as interim eucharistic sharing with the United Methodist Church. The Episcopal Church is preparing to recognise the sacramental validity of Methodist ordinations and Methodist celebrations of the Eucharist. A055 encourages communicatio in sacris between the two bodies under certain loosely-defined circumstances. The move is identical to the communion agreement which existed between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and TEC prior to the adoption of the controversial Called to Common Mission, which established full sacramental communion between TEC and ELCA. Methodist ministers are now reckoned to be Catholic priests, and Methodist communion services are held to be proper Masses in which the True Body and Blood of Christ are consecrated. Similar agreements have been established with other mainline protestant bodies.
Fascinatingly, attendees report what appears to be the deliberate decision on the part of GenCon organisers to eliminate the abbreviation ECUSA and replace it with 'The Episcopal Church.' At the opening of Convention, the platform was covered with international flags representing the nations where The Episcopal Church has historically enjoyed a missionary presence. The slogan being used at Convention asserts that The Episcopal Church is an 'international family.' Suspicion is running high. Could it be that The Episcopal Church (now known as TEC) intends to declare itself its own denomination and communion entirely apart from the Anglican world? The possibility of that is very strong indeed. TEC may be gearing up to 'walk apart' any day now.
In all charity, I must say I feel immeasurably blessed and preserved not to be associated with the goings-on transpiring this week in Columbus. Regardless of the problems which undoubtedly exist in the Continuum, Continuing Anglo-Catholics have been set free from the seemingly endless mire of political debate over the essentials of the Faith found in the establishment to concentrate on what really matters - the Gospel and the mission of the Church Catholic. Let us pray our dearly beloved orthodox brethren still struggling in TEC (or ECUSA) may soon be able to join us in a new orthodox alignment within Anglicanism.
Roman Mass Translation Accepted... Sort Of
Yesterday the nation's Romanist bishops accepted 173-29, with many slight amendments, the new ICEL translation of the third typical edition of the Missale Romanum.
Additions to the official text are: a continued increased prominence for the rite of blessing and sprinkling of Holy Water; the maintenance of two alternative introductions for the penitential rite; seven additional formulae for the penitential rite; keeping the familiar four additional introductions to the Lord's Prayer; two alternate forms for the dismissal; the 'insertion of a prayer over already blessed water' for the sprinkling rite; and the maintenance of the phrase 'Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again,' which was not included in the ICEL text.
The word 'dew' was removed from the Eucharistic Prayers, 'chalice' remains. Several proposals to change the word to the current 'cup' were rejected by the Bishops' Committee on Liturgy, which expressed its preference for the rationale established by ICEL. Several bishops also requested striking 'precious' from the submitted rendering of 'precious chalice' in the Eucharistic Prayers, but the committee declined these on the grounds that to do so would not be faithful to the Latin use of the term praeclarum calicem. In Eucharistic Prayer IV, and at other instances in the text where ICEL rendered unigenitus as 'only-begotten' without adding 'Son' to it, several prelates sought a change to include 'Son,' which the bishops accepted. Two bishops sought to return the phrase 'for the many,' pro multis, to the consecration of the precious chalice. The BCL rejected the proposal given the purported overwhelming view of the USCCB membership in favor of 'for all.' Another bishop sought to have the Gloria's rendering of peace to 'all people of good will' changed to 'all men.' The Committee refused, saying that 'people' is the most accurate rendering of hominibus in English as spoken in the United States. In other areas, 'Look with favor on your church's offering' -- a 1970 translation in Eucharistic Prayer III -- is staying put, 'undefiled' in the Canon becomes 'unblemished,' the deacon's pre-Gospel request will not be the traditional Pray, Father, your blessing,' but the pedantic 'May I have your blessing, Father.' And the Mortem tuam has been proposed by the USCCB as reading 'We announce your death, O Lord, and proclaim your resurrection until you come in glory.' A proposal to change the words of the Nicene Creed from the odd 'one in being' to the proper 'consubstantial,' which is closer to the Latin, failed.
Rome may yet reject some of the American alterations to the ICEL text and require a return to the original translation. As for me and my house, we shall stand with the traditional Missals and the Book of Common Prayer, which are vastly superior liturgical texts, theologically and aesthetically...
Additions to the official text are: a continued increased prominence for the rite of blessing and sprinkling of Holy Water; the maintenance of two alternative introductions for the penitential rite; seven additional formulae for the penitential rite; keeping the familiar four additional introductions to the Lord's Prayer; two alternate forms for the dismissal; the 'insertion of a prayer over already blessed water' for the sprinkling rite; and the maintenance of the phrase 'Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again,' which was not included in the ICEL text.
The word 'dew' was removed from the Eucharistic Prayers, 'chalice' remains. Several proposals to change the word to the current 'cup' were rejected by the Bishops' Committee on Liturgy, which expressed its preference for the rationale established by ICEL. Several bishops also requested striking 'precious' from the submitted rendering of 'precious chalice' in the Eucharistic Prayers, but the committee declined these on the grounds that to do so would not be faithful to the Latin use of the term praeclarum calicem. In Eucharistic Prayer IV, and at other instances in the text where ICEL rendered unigenitus as 'only-begotten' without adding 'Son' to it, several prelates sought a change to include 'Son,' which the bishops accepted. Two bishops sought to return the phrase 'for the many,' pro multis, to the consecration of the precious chalice. The BCL rejected the proposal given the purported overwhelming view of the USCCB membership in favor of 'for all.' Another bishop sought to have the Gloria's rendering of peace to 'all people of good will' changed to 'all men.' The Committee refused, saying that 'people' is the most accurate rendering of hominibus in English as spoken in the United States. In other areas, 'Look with favor on your church's offering' -- a 1970 translation in Eucharistic Prayer III -- is staying put, 'undefiled' in the Canon becomes 'unblemished,' the deacon's pre-Gospel request will not be the traditional Pray, Father, your blessing,' but the pedantic 'May I have your blessing, Father.' And the Mortem tuam has been proposed by the USCCB as reading 'We announce your death, O Lord, and proclaim your resurrection until you come in glory.' A proposal to change the words of the Nicene Creed from the odd 'one in being' to the proper 'consubstantial,' which is closer to the Latin, failed.
Rome may yet reject some of the American alterations to the ICEL text and require a return to the original translation. As for me and my house, we shall stand with the traditional Missals and the Book of Common Prayer, which are vastly superior liturgical texts, theologically and aesthetically...
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Proposed Texts: Authentic Liturgy
The following are examples of the proposed new translation for the Roman New Order Mass in English. They are remarkably close to those used in the Prayer Book and the Anglican and Anglican Missals. It is hard to imagine that the liberal hierarchy of the Roman Church in the USA will accept these translations in their original unaltered form:
The Confiteor:
Priest: Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins, that we may be ready to celebrate the sacred mysteries.
All: I confess to almighty God, and to you my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned greatly in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and what I have failed to do,(striking their breast, they say) through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault. (Then they continue)Therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.
Priest: May almighty God have mercy on us and lead us, with our sins forgiven, into eternal life.
The Gloria:
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will. We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you, we give you thanks for your great glory, Lord God, heavenly King, O God almighty Father. Lord, Jesus Christ, Only-begotten Son, Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; you take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer; you are seated at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.
The Nicene Creed:
I believe in one God,the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, (At the following words, up to and including and became man, all bow.) and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. Crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. And one holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.
From the Roman Canon:
Be pleased to look upon them with a serene and kindly gaze and to accept them, as you were pleased to accept the gifts of your just servant Abel, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the offering of your high priest Melchizedek, a holy sacrifice, a spotless victim.
Ecce Agnus Dei:
Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are they who have been called to the banquet of the Lamb. Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed.
The Salutation:
Priest: The Lord be with you.
All: And with your spirit.
The Confiteor:
Priest: Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins, that we may be ready to celebrate the sacred mysteries.
All: I confess to almighty God, and to you my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned greatly in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and what I have failed to do,(striking their breast, they say) through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault. (Then they continue)Therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.
Priest: May almighty God have mercy on us and lead us, with our sins forgiven, into eternal life.
The Gloria:
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will. We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you, we give you thanks for your great glory, Lord God, heavenly King, O God almighty Father. Lord, Jesus Christ, Only-begotten Son, Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; you take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer; you are seated at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.
The Nicene Creed:
I believe in one God,the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, (At the following words, up to and including and became man, all bow.) and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. Crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. And one holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.
From the Roman Canon:
Be pleased to look upon them with a serene and kindly gaze and to accept them, as you were pleased to accept the gifts of your just servant Abel, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the offering of your high priest Melchizedek, a holy sacrifice, a spotless victim.
Ecce Agnus Dei:
Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are they who have been called to the banquet of the Lamb. Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed.
The Salutation:
Priest: The Lord be with you.
All: And with your spirit.
Kairos: The Big Week in Romanism and ECUSA
This week the National Conference of [Roman] Catholic Bishops in Los Angeles votes to appove or alter the new much-improved English translation of the third typical edition of the Novus Ordo Missae and its Missale Romanum.
Simultaneously, the Episcopal Church USA will decide at its 75th General Convention in Columbus, Ohio whether or not to accede to the requests of the Windsor Report and thus remain within the Anglican Communion.
For the former, let us pray for a restoration of Catholic liturgical integrity and the doxological tradition of the Western Church; for the latter, let us pray for genuine conversion and a restoration of orthodox Christian moral and theological teaching...
http://www.usccb.org/index.shtml
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/53785_ENG_HTM.htm
Simultaneously, the Episcopal Church USA will decide at its 75th General Convention in Columbus, Ohio whether or not to accede to the requests of the Windsor Report and thus remain within the Anglican Communion.
For the former, let us pray for a restoration of Catholic liturgical integrity and the doxological tradition of the Western Church; for the latter, let us pray for genuine conversion and a restoration of orthodox Christian moral and theological teaching...
http://www.usccb.org/index.shtml
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/53785_ENG_HTM.htm
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Roman Protestantism: Trautman on Liturgy
Here's another unsurprising and disturbing snippet from the recent goings-on in the Roman Communion regarding the translation of the new Missale Romanum into American English. The language vilified by the liturgical-revisionist Bishop of Erie is, of course, contained word-for word in the Anglican and English Missals and in the traditional Western liturgy. Once again Anglican Catholics are proven more Catholic than Rome...
http://www.losangelesmission.com/ed/articles/2006/0606as.htm
An estimated 41,000 [Roman] Catholic catechists and religious educators from throughout the United States and four other continents packed the Anaheim Convention Center for the Los Angeles archdiocese's 39th annual Religious Education Congress from Thursday, March 30 through Sunday, April 2.
On Friday, Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, Pennsylvania, chairman of the U.S. bishops' liturgy committee, gave a talk, 'Contemporary Liturgical Issues.' Bishop Trautman expressed apprehension about the U.S. bishops' upcoming June vote on the new sacramentary (containing the order of Mass) translation, which reflects a more traditional style closer to the original Latin. He described the vote as a 'decisive and defining' moment and admitted that the conference is 'divided.'
'Liturgical language today must not just be faithful and accurate to the original, but also intelligible, proclaimable, dignified and reflective of a word order, vocabulary, expression from the contemporary mainstream of the English language as spoken in the United States,' said Trautman. 'If a translation, no matter how exact, does not communicate in the living language of the worshipping assembly, it fails as a translation. It fails to lead to full, conscious, and active participation.'
Trautman continued, 'in the proposed translation of the sacramentary, we meet words and expressions that many would consider not in the speech of the mainstream assembly.' For example, he said, the proposed translation of the Nicene Creed uses the phrase, 'consubstantial with the Father,' to replace the present wording, 'one in being with the Father.' Also, 'by the Holy Spirit, He was incarnate of the Virgin Mary' replaces 'He was born of the Virgin Mary.'
'Both words, "consubstantial" and "incarnate,"' said Trautman, 'are not readily intelligible to the vast majority of those in the assembly.'
Commenting on a proposed change to the first Eucharistic Prayer (the Roman Canon) -- 'grant them, O Lord, we pray, and all who sleep in Christ, a place of refreshment, light, and peace,' Trautman drew audience laughter when he quipped, 'the phrase, "a place of refreshment," is a literal translation that conveys the image of a heavenly spa or tap room at the heavenly hotel.'
Trautman addressed another proposed change to the first Eucharistic Prayer -- from 'cup' to 'precious chalice.' Said Trautman: '"precious chalice" -- when I hear those words, I think of a gold vessel with diamonds on it. Did Jesus, at the Last Supper, use a precious chalice or a cup? The gospels clearly say "cup," but even in the lectionary from Rome we have the word "chalice" imposed on the inspired text to carry out this"sacred language."'
Alluding apparently to defecation, the bishop garnered more audience guffaws when he recited the following proposed translation for Eucharistic Prayer II: 'make holy these gifts, we pray, by the dew of your Spirit -- D-E-W.'
Susan Larker, 37, of Long Beach, who attended Trautman's talk, said the bishop 'doesn't want to say that "Jesus took bread into His holy and venerable hands." He laughed at the Vatican wanting this translation and said that that the laity can't relate to this sort of language.'
Friday night's entertainment consisted of a 'Rockin' the "Rena"' concert, described as a 'rockin' musical festival of song, dance and ritual, including a musical quartet and contemporary artists....' Other Friday events included 'lunchtime entertainment' with Pedro Rubalcava and David Haas; Celtic, Justice and Peace, and Nigerian evening liturgies; and the Liturgy of the Hours with music provided by Jeanne Cotter and Tony Alonso.
http://www.losangelesmission.com/ed/articles/2006/0606as.htm
An estimated 41,000 [Roman] Catholic catechists and religious educators from throughout the United States and four other continents packed the Anaheim Convention Center for the Los Angeles archdiocese's 39th annual Religious Education Congress from Thursday, March 30 through Sunday, April 2.
On Friday, Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, Pennsylvania, chairman of the U.S. bishops' liturgy committee, gave a talk, 'Contemporary Liturgical Issues.' Bishop Trautman expressed apprehension about the U.S. bishops' upcoming June vote on the new sacramentary (containing the order of Mass) translation, which reflects a more traditional style closer to the original Latin. He described the vote as a 'decisive and defining' moment and admitted that the conference is 'divided.'
'Liturgical language today must not just be faithful and accurate to the original, but also intelligible, proclaimable, dignified and reflective of a word order, vocabulary, expression from the contemporary mainstream of the English language as spoken in the United States,' said Trautman. 'If a translation, no matter how exact, does not communicate in the living language of the worshipping assembly, it fails as a translation. It fails to lead to full, conscious, and active participation.'
Trautman continued, 'in the proposed translation of the sacramentary, we meet words and expressions that many would consider not in the speech of the mainstream assembly.' For example, he said, the proposed translation of the Nicene Creed uses the phrase, 'consubstantial with the Father,' to replace the present wording, 'one in being with the Father.' Also, 'by the Holy Spirit, He was incarnate of the Virgin Mary' replaces 'He was born of the Virgin Mary.'
'Both words, "consubstantial" and "incarnate,"' said Trautman, 'are not readily intelligible to the vast majority of those in the assembly.'
Commenting on a proposed change to the first Eucharistic Prayer (the Roman Canon) -- 'grant them, O Lord, we pray, and all who sleep in Christ, a place of refreshment, light, and peace,' Trautman drew audience laughter when he quipped, 'the phrase, "a place of refreshment," is a literal translation that conveys the image of a heavenly spa or tap room at the heavenly hotel.'
Trautman addressed another proposed change to the first Eucharistic Prayer -- from 'cup' to 'precious chalice.' Said Trautman: '"precious chalice" -- when I hear those words, I think of a gold vessel with diamonds on it. Did Jesus, at the Last Supper, use a precious chalice or a cup? The gospels clearly say "cup," but even in the lectionary from Rome we have the word "chalice" imposed on the inspired text to carry out this"sacred language."'
Alluding apparently to defecation, the bishop garnered more audience guffaws when he recited the following proposed translation for Eucharistic Prayer II: 'make holy these gifts, we pray, by the dew of your Spirit -- D-E-W.'
Susan Larker, 37, of Long Beach, who attended Trautman's talk, said the bishop 'doesn't want to say that "Jesus took bread into His holy and venerable hands." He laughed at the Vatican wanting this translation and said that that the laity can't relate to this sort of language.'
Friday night's entertainment consisted of a 'Rockin' the "Rena"' concert, described as a 'rockin' musical festival of song, dance and ritual, including a musical quartet and contemporary artists....' Other Friday events included 'lunchtime entertainment' with Pedro Rubalcava and David Haas; Celtic, Justice and Peace, and Nigerian evening liturgies; and the Liturgy of the Hours with music provided by Jeanne Cotter and Tony Alonso.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Holy Relics - Sign of the Incarnation
Dear N.:
Irony of ironies, it seems modernist C of E Anglicans have in the last decade rediscovered, at Saint Alban's Shrine at least, that most anciently catholic and yet controverted practice of the enshrining of holy Relics. Now if only they could reappropriate to themselves the dogmatic tradition of the ancient Church! I hope I do not disappoint you by telling you that in fact I find the veneration of Relics, if done according to the strictest canons and traditions of the Church, to be a perfectly orthodox and spiritually salutary practice. Indeed the enshrinement of the Relics of the Saints and their veneration is older than the canonised New Testament, older than the original Creed of Nicea, older than the organisation of the undivided Church into Patriarchates. The practice harkens back to the earliest Fathers and Saints of the sub-apostolic period.
Authentic relics can be a wondrous treasure of catholic faith and liturgical tradition, if used correctly:
It is often the case in Apostolic Churches that the Altar dedicated in a chapel to a particular Saint contains at least one Relic of the Saint so commemorated, but, strictly speaking, Altar stones in the Catholic tradition must contain the Relic of a Martyr, one who died for Christ and the Church and who has been officially canonised as such. This tradition harkens back to the passion and commemoration of the second-century Saint Polycarp of Smyrna, whose bones were entombed and venerated in a Christian Altar, the first such recorded case of the use of a Martyr's Relics to hallow and consecrate the mensa on which the Holy Mysteries are offered. Christians 'gathered the bones of Saint Polycarp as a treasure more precious than precious stones and purer than gold, and placed them for the celebration of the day of his heavenly birth, and for the instruction and confirmation of future Christians.' In turn the ancient catholic practice echoes the Book of Revelation 6.9ff, in which we see the Martyrs under the heavenly Altar awaiting the judgement and the general resurrection. An Eucharistic Altar in a Catholic Church may contain many Relics, including those of a patron Saint, but always by tradition contain the relic of an holy Martyr. On the Altar of Saint Alban's Cathedral we use an antimension, a Byzantine Rite 'Altar,' which is actually a cloth into which the bone fragment of a Martyr is sown and which is used as a portable Altar. The cloth bears an iconic portrayal of Our Lord's Burial. Our particular antimension, very oddly, is Uniate and contains a Relic of Saint Josaphat, a seventeenth century papalist Greek Rite bishop martyred by the Orthodox. Some Anglo-Catholics restored the use of Relics in Altars for the celebration of Mass in the nineteenth century. The sale of Relics is forbidden canonically and morally. However, one may make a donation or financial gift to the church or person who possesses the Relic in order to compensate for the reliquary used in housing a Relic. Under no circumstances are Relics broken up, destroyed or discarded - that would be a sin of blasphemy. They must be treated with the greatest care and with the utmost reverence. In the Anglican Church they are displayed or processed liturgically only in the extremely rarest of circumstances, and their use is normally regulated by the Bishop of the local Diocese.
Anglicans are not obliged to venerate the Relics of the Saints, just as they are not obliged to solicit the gracious prayers of the Saints on our behalf, but, just as they are not compelled so to venerate or to request, so they would be wrong to say that such practices are contrary to Scripture and Tradition. For Anglicans, the practice of the invocation of the Saints is limited in the main to private devotions and extraliturgical services which are not part of the usual public Liturgy. However, I ever say veneration is certainly to be encouraged and has never been rejected by the Anglican Church, which counts herself a true Apostolic Church practicing the fullness of the Catholic Faith, of which the Communion of Saints is a supreme article. Please note that Article of Religion XXII does not condemn the ancient or patristic or biblical doctrine concerning the Invocation of Saints and the veneration of their Relics, but only the Romish, the Doctrina Romanensium, that is, the popularly-believed late medieval and thus erroneous view of the same. The Anglican teaching is the reformed Catholic view, anchored in the Holy Scriptures and the Tradition of the Primitive Church. Only that which is contained in Holy Scripture is reckoned by Anglicans to be necessary for salvation, and therefore only that doctrine of the state and prayers of the Saints which accords with Scripture is believed to be necessary for all Christians.
At the heart of the matter it is vital to maintain the doctrine of worship and honour presented by Saint John of Damascus and codified at the Seventh Ecumenical Council when dealing with Saints (and their Icons and Relics), which doctrine forcefully distinguishes adoration of God and the honour of the Saints. Latria, adoratio, adoration, is divine worship offered to the Godhead alone. Only God the Holy Trinity is worshipped and adored. The worship of God, the Divine Essence, is absolute, offered to God Himself because He is and the rewarder of them that seek Him. The honour given to the Saints is dulia, proskunesis, timeo, veneration, reverence, respect. It is not worship - for we do not worship the Saints, we only honour and revere them. Such honour is strictly relative and passes from the Saint to God, Who is blessed and glorified in His Saints, His human heavenly friends and children. The distinction between the Creator and His creatures is strenuously maintained and asserted. From later tradition, the Blessed Virgin Mary, because she is Mother of God, has been given the highest form of relative honour and reverence, called hyperdulia or super-veneration, the highest praise rendered to a creature. Our Lady and the Saints are, after all, creatures, human beings who have become by God's grace truly and ultimately human, for that is the very reality of Sainthood, to be restored to the fullest image and likeness of God, to once again become fully man. The Saints, by becoming by grace what God is by nature, by partaking of the divine nature (II Saint Peter 1.4), fulfil the human vocation and become, through theosis or divinisation, 'God-like.'
The veneration of the Relics of the Saints is actually based on the same theological principle on which the Holy Icons are venerated, and as are the honourable memories of the Saints themselves, the axiomatic principle of the Incarnation of the Word of God. In a nutshell, because God Himself was made Man for our sake and was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary to redeem and divinise human nature, and because the glorified human nature of the Risen Lord communicates the Holy Ghost to the members of the redeemed human family, the communio sanctorum, and thus makes the bodies of the Saints to be temples, dwelling-places of the Holy Spirit, the bodies of those who are acknowledged to have possessed heroic sanctity in this life are honoured, venerated as holy possessions of God and dwelling places of the Holy Spirit. A sober, healthy, balanced, sane, biblical theology of the Saints and of their earthly Relics is intensely incarnational and sacramental - the flesh is honoured as the vehicle of the Spirit. By honouring the bodies of the Saints, and by honouring their holy Images, we are taught to honour each other and to recognise in the human body, redeemed and sanctified in Christ, the locus of the Spirit of God.
Clearly, as any objective student will confess, the medieval western cult of the Saints and of their Relics was subject to the grossest abuse and perversion. But again here we have another case of 'baby and bathwater.' The later abuses connected to the Relics and veneration of the Saints do not of themselves render the original primitive and patristic tradition regarding Saints and Relics invalid. A practice of such Christian veneration, scrupulously governed and preserved from abuse, can be an overwhelmingly profound reminder of the sanctity of the whole creation itself, the sanctity of the human person incorporated into Christ, the intrinsic holiness of the human body as the sacrament of the Holy Spirit and the image and likeness of God, the power, grace and efficacy of the Sacraments, and of the ultimate future destiny of the redeemed human person in the New Man of the Resurrection, the second Man Who is the Lord from Heaven.
Historically the Holy Catholic Church, East and West, has honoured Relics in at least the following ways:
1. The preservation of the Saints' bodies and their places of burial.
2. The discovery and translation of Relics to Churches and Shrines.
3. The construction of Altars and Churches on the sites of Relics.
4. The canonisation of feast days in honour of Relic translations.
5. The making of pilgrimages to and the decoration of Relic Shrines.
6. The enshrining of Relics in Altars for the celebration of Mass.
7. The association of miraculous signs and wonders with Relics.
Anciently, the Catholic Church did not distinguish between venerating the souls of the Saints in heaven and the bodies of the Saints on earth. Both forms of veneration were (and are) given. The Old Testament people considered the bodies of the dead ritually unclean because their deliverance in the Incarnation had not yet arrived. The enfleshment of the Saviour would change everything. Man in Christ becomes holy, the body of man is restored as the temple of the Spirit. The Eternal Word forever united a human body to His Divinity in His Divine Person; the human bodies of Christians, regenerated by Holy Baptism, now become the receptacles of the Most Precious Body and Blood of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, and thus become living temples of the Holy Ghost. By extension, the bodies of those acknowledged to have lived lives of supernatural charity and holiness, or who have died for the sake of Christ, are understood to be worthy of special honour.
We see from the Old Testament that the bodies of the Saints would, in Christ, possess a special sanctity. God used the bodies and property of the righteous in the Old Covenant to perform miracles of grace and healing. The miraculous mantle of the Prophet Elijah, who was assumed into heaven bodily without dying, parted the Jordan River when used by the Prophet Elisha to touch the water. The body of a dead man was raised to life again miraculously upon the touch of the Relics of the Prophet Elisha - II Kings 13.21. In the New Covenant, cloths and articles of clothing applied to the body of Saint Paul miraculously healed the sick and exorcised evil spirits from the possessed - Acts of the Apostles 19.11-12. The great Fathers of the golden conciliar age of the Church universally testify to the power and supernatural grace and influence of the Relics of the Saints. In the Western Church, both Saint Ambrose of Milan and Saint Augustine of Hippo deliver many homilies on the legitimacy of the cult of the Saints, and particularly on the importance of the Relics of Saint Gervasius and Saint Protasius. In the East, the Cappadocian Fathers dwell on the sanctity of the Relics of Saints frequently in their orations and sermons. The Relics of Saint Ignatius of Antioch (d. 107) were taken from Rome to Antioch and preserved as 'an invaluable treasure of the grace which dwelt in the martyr, a treasure left to the holy church.'
It should be vigorously emphasised as well that what is most important, to the Church of catholic history, about Relics is not some supposed inherent power or energy located in Relic itself as though such were separated from the person and life of the Saint - it is precisely from such an artificial and stilted separation of grace and person that abuses and errors arose in the medieval West - what is most important is that the Relics represent to our minds, hearts and souls the intercessions of the Saints, our heavenly brothers and sisters, before God for us. The Relics are, in this respect, very much like sacramentals: they stir up in us faith that we may more beneficially receive the grace of God. Orthodox Christians believe, not in any inherent power in a Relic like a talisman or charm, but in the prayers of the Saints in heaven for our sake. Relics bring us closer to the Saints and deepen our love, reverence and honour for those whose mortal remains continue to pledge the hope of our future resurrection.
We Anglicans tend to look at Relics from our deeply-conditioned western perspective, a viewpoint effected and affected by our common western ancestry of pre-reformation, reformation, and counter-reformation experiences. On the positive side, and on the other side of the historical divide, the Eastern Orthodox maintain a very natural, very earthy and organic reverence for the Relics of the Saints which has never been allowed entirely to fall into the sort of superstition and mistreatment prevalent in the pre-Reformation Latin Church. The Orthodox, and I think they are here indubitably correct, insist that the Relics of the Saints enforce the dogmas of the Incarnation and of human redemption and glorification, and, are therefore, as essential a component of orthodox Christology as are Icons. For them, as for the earliest Church, the two plainly go together.
I know someone who possesses Vatican-issued Relics of several Church Fathers, ossuary first-class Relics of Saints John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Gregory Nazianzen, and the great Augustine of Hippo. His reliquary rests in a discreet place of prayer where, with Icons, they are used as aids to prayer and devotion. They are really no different from the cherished photographs of one's parents or beloved personal effects of family members long gone, physical reminders which stimulate the memory and reawaken the heart and soul. Icons and Relics, however, stimulate and reawaken on a far more profound and transformative level, the level of faith!
I hope this dreadfully long thesis is of some use to you, and I do hope and pray I have not frightened you senseless with my ramblings about a subject which confronts with horror most protestant sensibilities. Please keep asking these marvellous questions...
Irony of ironies, it seems modernist C of E Anglicans have in the last decade rediscovered, at Saint Alban's Shrine at least, that most anciently catholic and yet controverted practice of the enshrining of holy Relics. Now if only they could reappropriate to themselves the dogmatic tradition of the ancient Church! I hope I do not disappoint you by telling you that in fact I find the veneration of Relics, if done according to the strictest canons and traditions of the Church, to be a perfectly orthodox and spiritually salutary practice. Indeed the enshrinement of the Relics of the Saints and their veneration is older than the canonised New Testament, older than the original Creed of Nicea, older than the organisation of the undivided Church into Patriarchates. The practice harkens back to the earliest Fathers and Saints of the sub-apostolic period.
Authentic relics can be a wondrous treasure of catholic faith and liturgical tradition, if used correctly:
It is often the case in Apostolic Churches that the Altar dedicated in a chapel to a particular Saint contains at least one Relic of the Saint so commemorated, but, strictly speaking, Altar stones in the Catholic tradition must contain the Relic of a Martyr, one who died for Christ and the Church and who has been officially canonised as such. This tradition harkens back to the passion and commemoration of the second-century Saint Polycarp of Smyrna, whose bones were entombed and venerated in a Christian Altar, the first such recorded case of the use of a Martyr's Relics to hallow and consecrate the mensa on which the Holy Mysteries are offered. Christians 'gathered the bones of Saint Polycarp as a treasure more precious than precious stones and purer than gold, and placed them for the celebration of the day of his heavenly birth, and for the instruction and confirmation of future Christians.' In turn the ancient catholic practice echoes the Book of Revelation 6.9ff, in which we see the Martyrs under the heavenly Altar awaiting the judgement and the general resurrection. An Eucharistic Altar in a Catholic Church may contain many Relics, including those of a patron Saint, but always by tradition contain the relic of an holy Martyr. On the Altar of Saint Alban's Cathedral we use an antimension, a Byzantine Rite 'Altar,' which is actually a cloth into which the bone fragment of a Martyr is sown and which is used as a portable Altar. The cloth bears an iconic portrayal of Our Lord's Burial. Our particular antimension, very oddly, is Uniate and contains a Relic of Saint Josaphat, a seventeenth century papalist Greek Rite bishop martyred by the Orthodox. Some Anglo-Catholics restored the use of Relics in Altars for the celebration of Mass in the nineteenth century. The sale of Relics is forbidden canonically and morally. However, one may make a donation or financial gift to the church or person who possesses the Relic in order to compensate for the reliquary used in housing a Relic. Under no circumstances are Relics broken up, destroyed or discarded - that would be a sin of blasphemy. They must be treated with the greatest care and with the utmost reverence. In the Anglican Church they are displayed or processed liturgically only in the extremely rarest of circumstances, and their use is normally regulated by the Bishop of the local Diocese.
Anglicans are not obliged to venerate the Relics of the Saints, just as they are not obliged to solicit the gracious prayers of the Saints on our behalf, but, just as they are not compelled so to venerate or to request, so they would be wrong to say that such practices are contrary to Scripture and Tradition. For Anglicans, the practice of the invocation of the Saints is limited in the main to private devotions and extraliturgical services which are not part of the usual public Liturgy. However, I ever say veneration is certainly to be encouraged and has never been rejected by the Anglican Church, which counts herself a true Apostolic Church practicing the fullness of the Catholic Faith, of which the Communion of Saints is a supreme article. Please note that Article of Religion XXII does not condemn the ancient or patristic or biblical doctrine concerning the Invocation of Saints and the veneration of their Relics, but only the Romish, the Doctrina Romanensium, that is, the popularly-believed late medieval and thus erroneous view of the same. The Anglican teaching is the reformed Catholic view, anchored in the Holy Scriptures and the Tradition of the Primitive Church. Only that which is contained in Holy Scripture is reckoned by Anglicans to be necessary for salvation, and therefore only that doctrine of the state and prayers of the Saints which accords with Scripture is believed to be necessary for all Christians.
At the heart of the matter it is vital to maintain the doctrine of worship and honour presented by Saint John of Damascus and codified at the Seventh Ecumenical Council when dealing with Saints (and their Icons and Relics), which doctrine forcefully distinguishes adoration of God and the honour of the Saints. Latria, adoratio, adoration, is divine worship offered to the Godhead alone. Only God the Holy Trinity is worshipped and adored. The worship of God, the Divine Essence, is absolute, offered to God Himself because He is and the rewarder of them that seek Him. The honour given to the Saints is dulia, proskunesis, timeo, veneration, reverence, respect. It is not worship - for we do not worship the Saints, we only honour and revere them. Such honour is strictly relative and passes from the Saint to God, Who is blessed and glorified in His Saints, His human heavenly friends and children. The distinction between the Creator and His creatures is strenuously maintained and asserted. From later tradition, the Blessed Virgin Mary, because she is Mother of God, has been given the highest form of relative honour and reverence, called hyperdulia or super-veneration, the highest praise rendered to a creature. Our Lady and the Saints are, after all, creatures, human beings who have become by God's grace truly and ultimately human, for that is the very reality of Sainthood, to be restored to the fullest image and likeness of God, to once again become fully man. The Saints, by becoming by grace what God is by nature, by partaking of the divine nature (II Saint Peter 1.4), fulfil the human vocation and become, through theosis or divinisation, 'God-like.'
The veneration of the Relics of the Saints is actually based on the same theological principle on which the Holy Icons are venerated, and as are the honourable memories of the Saints themselves, the axiomatic principle of the Incarnation of the Word of God. In a nutshell, because God Himself was made Man for our sake and was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary to redeem and divinise human nature, and because the glorified human nature of the Risen Lord communicates the Holy Ghost to the members of the redeemed human family, the communio sanctorum, and thus makes the bodies of the Saints to be temples, dwelling-places of the Holy Spirit, the bodies of those who are acknowledged to have possessed heroic sanctity in this life are honoured, venerated as holy possessions of God and dwelling places of the Holy Spirit. A sober, healthy, balanced, sane, biblical theology of the Saints and of their earthly Relics is intensely incarnational and sacramental - the flesh is honoured as the vehicle of the Spirit. By honouring the bodies of the Saints, and by honouring their holy Images, we are taught to honour each other and to recognise in the human body, redeemed and sanctified in Christ, the locus of the Spirit of God.
Clearly, as any objective student will confess, the medieval western cult of the Saints and of their Relics was subject to the grossest abuse and perversion. But again here we have another case of 'baby and bathwater.' The later abuses connected to the Relics and veneration of the Saints do not of themselves render the original primitive and patristic tradition regarding Saints and Relics invalid. A practice of such Christian veneration, scrupulously governed and preserved from abuse, can be an overwhelmingly profound reminder of the sanctity of the whole creation itself, the sanctity of the human person incorporated into Christ, the intrinsic holiness of the human body as the sacrament of the Holy Spirit and the image and likeness of God, the power, grace and efficacy of the Sacraments, and of the ultimate future destiny of the redeemed human person in the New Man of the Resurrection, the second Man Who is the Lord from Heaven.
Historically the Holy Catholic Church, East and West, has honoured Relics in at least the following ways:
1. The preservation of the Saints' bodies and their places of burial.
2. The discovery and translation of Relics to Churches and Shrines.
3. The construction of Altars and Churches on the sites of Relics.
4. The canonisation of feast days in honour of Relic translations.
5. The making of pilgrimages to and the decoration of Relic Shrines.
6. The enshrining of Relics in Altars for the celebration of Mass.
7. The association of miraculous signs and wonders with Relics.
Anciently, the Catholic Church did not distinguish between venerating the souls of the Saints in heaven and the bodies of the Saints on earth. Both forms of veneration were (and are) given. The Old Testament people considered the bodies of the dead ritually unclean because their deliverance in the Incarnation had not yet arrived. The enfleshment of the Saviour would change everything. Man in Christ becomes holy, the body of man is restored as the temple of the Spirit. The Eternal Word forever united a human body to His Divinity in His Divine Person; the human bodies of Christians, regenerated by Holy Baptism, now become the receptacles of the Most Precious Body and Blood of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, and thus become living temples of the Holy Ghost. By extension, the bodies of those acknowledged to have lived lives of supernatural charity and holiness, or who have died for the sake of Christ, are understood to be worthy of special honour.
We see from the Old Testament that the bodies of the Saints would, in Christ, possess a special sanctity. God used the bodies and property of the righteous in the Old Covenant to perform miracles of grace and healing. The miraculous mantle of the Prophet Elijah, who was assumed into heaven bodily without dying, parted the Jordan River when used by the Prophet Elisha to touch the water. The body of a dead man was raised to life again miraculously upon the touch of the Relics of the Prophet Elisha - II Kings 13.21. In the New Covenant, cloths and articles of clothing applied to the body of Saint Paul miraculously healed the sick and exorcised evil spirits from the possessed - Acts of the Apostles 19.11-12. The great Fathers of the golden conciliar age of the Church universally testify to the power and supernatural grace and influence of the Relics of the Saints. In the Western Church, both Saint Ambrose of Milan and Saint Augustine of Hippo deliver many homilies on the legitimacy of the cult of the Saints, and particularly on the importance of the Relics of Saint Gervasius and Saint Protasius. In the East, the Cappadocian Fathers dwell on the sanctity of the Relics of Saints frequently in their orations and sermons. The Relics of Saint Ignatius of Antioch (d. 107) were taken from Rome to Antioch and preserved as 'an invaluable treasure of the grace which dwelt in the martyr, a treasure left to the holy church.'
It should be vigorously emphasised as well that what is most important, to the Church of catholic history, about Relics is not some supposed inherent power or energy located in Relic itself as though such were separated from the person and life of the Saint - it is precisely from such an artificial and stilted separation of grace and person that abuses and errors arose in the medieval West - what is most important is that the Relics represent to our minds, hearts and souls the intercessions of the Saints, our heavenly brothers and sisters, before God for us. The Relics are, in this respect, very much like sacramentals: they stir up in us faith that we may more beneficially receive the grace of God. Orthodox Christians believe, not in any inherent power in a Relic like a talisman or charm, but in the prayers of the Saints in heaven for our sake. Relics bring us closer to the Saints and deepen our love, reverence and honour for those whose mortal remains continue to pledge the hope of our future resurrection.
We Anglicans tend to look at Relics from our deeply-conditioned western perspective, a viewpoint effected and affected by our common western ancestry of pre-reformation, reformation, and counter-reformation experiences. On the positive side, and on the other side of the historical divide, the Eastern Orthodox maintain a very natural, very earthy and organic reverence for the Relics of the Saints which has never been allowed entirely to fall into the sort of superstition and mistreatment prevalent in the pre-Reformation Latin Church. The Orthodox, and I think they are here indubitably correct, insist that the Relics of the Saints enforce the dogmas of the Incarnation and of human redemption and glorification, and, are therefore, as essential a component of orthodox Christology as are Icons. For them, as for the earliest Church, the two plainly go together.
I know someone who possesses Vatican-issued Relics of several Church Fathers, ossuary first-class Relics of Saints John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Gregory Nazianzen, and the great Augustine of Hippo. His reliquary rests in a discreet place of prayer where, with Icons, they are used as aids to prayer and devotion. They are really no different from the cherished photographs of one's parents or beloved personal effects of family members long gone, physical reminders which stimulate the memory and reawaken the heart and soul. Icons and Relics, however, stimulate and reawaken on a far more profound and transformative level, the level of faith!
I hope this dreadfully long thesis is of some use to you, and I do hope and pray I have not frightened you senseless with my ramblings about a subject which confronts with horror most protestant sensibilities. Please keep asking these marvellous questions...
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Anglican-Orthodox Agreed Statement on the Mass
Here follows the text of the only official Anglican-Orthodox agreement which has ever been accomplished on the subject of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, established in 1935 in Bucharest, Romania. The Anglican-Orthodox Dublin Agreed Statement of 1984 states, 'nor have we considered how far the Eucharist may be regarded as a sacrifice.' That is, 'we have not discussed [the Bucharest Statement of 1935] in detail, nor, acting as a Joint Commission, have we yet expressed our agreement or otherwise with the six points that it contains.' Because later dialogues at Moscow and Dublin did not address the subject, the 1935 agreement remains the only official agreement between the two Churches to date:
A Report of the Conference held from Saturday, June 1st, to Saturday, June 8th, 1935, in the Patriarchal Palace of Bucarest, between the Commission of the Rumanian Church upon Relations with the Anglican Communion and the Church of England Delegation appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to confer with the same.
We, the Members of the aforesaid Rumanian Commission and Church of England Delegation, report to the Holy Synod of the Church of Rumania, and to His Grace, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as follows:
THE HOLY EUCHARIST
A statement was submitted by the Rumanian Commission to the Anglican Delegation, concerning the Holy Eucharist and was accepted unanimously by the latter in the following form:
1. At the Last Supper, our Lord Jesus Christ anticipated the sacrifice of His death by giving Himself to the Apostles in the form of bread blessed by Him as meat and in the form of wine blessed by Him as drink.
2. The sacrifice offered (prosenechtheisa) by our Lord on Calvary was offered once for all, expiates the sins as well of the living as of the dead, and reconciles us with God. Our Lord Jesus Christ does not need to sacrifice Himself again.
3. The sacrifice on Calvary is perpetually presented in the Holy Eucharist in a bloodless fashion (anaimaktos) under the form (Rumanian, sub chipul) of bread and wine through the consecrating priest and through the work of the Holy Ghost in order that the fruits of the sacrifice of the Cross may be partaken of by those who offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice, by those for whom it is offered, and by those who receive worthily the Body and Blood of the Lord.
4. In the Eucharist the bread and wine become by consecration (metabole) the Body and Blood of our Lord. How? This is a mystery.
5. The Eucharistic bread and wine remain the Body and Blood of our Lord as long as these Eucharistic elements exist.
6. Those who receive the Eucharistic bread and wine truly partake of the Body and Blood of Our Lord.
It was stated by the Anglican Bishops that in the Sacrament of the Eucharist 'the Body and Blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper,' and that 'the Body of Christ is given, taken and eaten in the Supper only after an heavenly and spiritual manner,' and that after Communion the consecrated elements remaining are regarded sacramentally as the Body and Blood of Christ; further, that the Anglican Church teaches the doctrine of Eucharistic Sacrifice as explained in the Answer of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to Pope Leo XIII on Anglican Ordinations; and also that in the offering of the Eucharistic Sacrifice the Anglican Church prays that 'by the merits and death of Thy Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in His blood, we and all Thy whole Church may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of His passion,' as including the whole company of faithful people, living and departed.
Again, we have the Catholic Faith of the Anglican Tradition on the Eucharist unambiguously asserted in an ecumenical agreement with the Eastern Orthodox Churches. In 1935, the Church of England and the Romanian Orthodox Church achieved substantial agreement on the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist.
A Report of the Conference held from Saturday, June 1st, to Saturday, June 8th, 1935, in the Patriarchal Palace of Bucarest, between the Commission of the Rumanian Church upon Relations with the Anglican Communion and the Church of England Delegation appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to confer with the same.
We, the Members of the aforesaid Rumanian Commission and Church of England Delegation, report to the Holy Synod of the Church of Rumania, and to His Grace, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as follows:
THE HOLY EUCHARIST
A statement was submitted by the Rumanian Commission to the Anglican Delegation, concerning the Holy Eucharist and was accepted unanimously by the latter in the following form:
1. At the Last Supper, our Lord Jesus Christ anticipated the sacrifice of His death by giving Himself to the Apostles in the form of bread blessed by Him as meat and in the form of wine blessed by Him as drink.
2. The sacrifice offered (prosenechtheisa) by our Lord on Calvary was offered once for all, expiates the sins as well of the living as of the dead, and reconciles us with God. Our Lord Jesus Christ does not need to sacrifice Himself again.
3. The sacrifice on Calvary is perpetually presented in the Holy Eucharist in a bloodless fashion (anaimaktos) under the form (Rumanian, sub chipul) of bread and wine through the consecrating priest and through the work of the Holy Ghost in order that the fruits of the sacrifice of the Cross may be partaken of by those who offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice, by those for whom it is offered, and by those who receive worthily the Body and Blood of the Lord.
4. In the Eucharist the bread and wine become by consecration (metabole) the Body and Blood of our Lord. How? This is a mystery.
5. The Eucharistic bread and wine remain the Body and Blood of our Lord as long as these Eucharistic elements exist.
6. Those who receive the Eucharistic bread and wine truly partake of the Body and Blood of Our Lord.
It was stated by the Anglican Bishops that in the Sacrament of the Eucharist 'the Body and Blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper,' and that 'the Body of Christ is given, taken and eaten in the Supper only after an heavenly and spiritual manner,' and that after Communion the consecrated elements remaining are regarded sacramentally as the Body and Blood of Christ; further, that the Anglican Church teaches the doctrine of Eucharistic Sacrifice as explained in the Answer of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to Pope Leo XIII on Anglican Ordinations; and also that in the offering of the Eucharistic Sacrifice the Anglican Church prays that 'by the merits and death of Thy Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in His blood, we and all Thy whole Church may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of His passion,' as including the whole company of faithful people, living and departed.
Again, we have the Catholic Faith of the Anglican Tradition on the Eucharist unambiguously asserted in an ecumenical agreement with the Eastern Orthodox Churches. In 1935, the Church of England and the Romanian Orthodox Church achieved substantial agreement on the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist.
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