Mysterium Christi: A Meditation on Ascension, Whitsunday and the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament

'Let us forever adore the Most Holy Sacrament!'

The Feast of Corpus Christi, that is, the Festival of the Body and Blood of Christ, is a fitting complement to and fulfilment of the great Feasts which we shall celebrate the two weeks before, the mysteries of Our Lord's glorious Ascension into heaven and the descent of God the Holy Ghost upon the Holy Catholic Church; in every offering of the Holy Sacrifice, which contains what the Book of Common Prayer describes as 'Holy Mysteries,' the True Body and Blood of Christ under the form of bread and wine, these events of salvation history are made-present to us here and now as continual, perpetual realities to be experienced and lived anew.

The Feast of Corpus Christi reinforces the divinely-revealed truth of the Eucharistic Change in the Elements, the permanent, abiding, objective and substantial presence of the Body and Blood of Christ under the species of bread and wine in the Blessed Sacrament. Our Lord remains under the veil of the Eucharistic Elements to be received, loved and adored.

In the Eucharist, we are drawn into the heavenly tabernacle as the veil between time and eternity is lifted, and we are carried into the eternal priesthood of the Lord Jesus, who, now in His risen and glorified humanity, presents Himself to the Father forever as our perfect and eternal Sacrifice. Every Eucharist is a literal union of the Church with the Act of Intercession of our heavenly and ascended Lord. In the Mass, the central and supreme act of Christian worship, we ascend with Christ and reign with Him in heavenly places, making intercession with and in Him for all creation. So too, in every Mass, at the Invocation of the Word and Holy Spirit in the Prayer of Consecration, called the Epiclesis, the Holy Spirit Himself descends upon the holy gifts to consecrate them into the living Body and Blood of Christ and upon the Church to make of her an energised, recreated, and transformed People. The Body of Christ in heaven makes the Church the Body of Christ on earth through the Body of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. Every Eucharist is a reproduction of Pentecost, of the fiery Gift of the Holy Spirit.

Consider these words of Dr John Macquarrie: 'Just as the first appearing of Jesus was like the rising of the sun over a darkened world, so today when the Host is lifted up either in the Mass itself or in Benediction, it is like the rising of the sun upon us and we receive the radiance and warmth of God's blessing through him whom he has sent.' The Lord Himself invites you to come and adore Him in the Holy Sacrament of His Body and Blood, the manifestation of His loving presence and mercy.

Man Who Says 95% of Britons Are Going to Hell Also Rejects Anglo-Catholicism

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2581243.ece

'I do think, you know, that this means we must be very wary about embracing a Catholic understanding of the Church. There is enormous temptation for evangelicals to embace an Anglo-Catholic understanding of the Church, its nature and its ministry. And I think we need to be very careful indeed that we do not betray - you have been debating the historical nature of Anglicanism, my book on the subject comes out in March, by the way; and we need to be very careful indeed that we do not betray our evangelical identity by embracing an understanding of the Church that is not historic Anglicanism. When Robert Runcie said, "Evangelicals don't have an ecclesiology," what he meant was, "I don't like the ecclesiology that evangelicals have." We do not need to apologise for our understanding of the Church: we are simply to faithfully expound it. So that's my point on evangelical identity.'

-Dr Richard Turnbull of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, October 2006

AMiA and CANA: Not in the Anglican Communion

No Lambeth Invitation for AMiA or CANA, as well as Robinson

The Bishop of New Hampshire will not be invited to participate in the 2008 Lambeth Conference, according to the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary of the Lambeth Conference.

Invitations to the conference were mailed May 22 to more than 800 bishops of the Anglican Communion by the conference’s host, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. The Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, Bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) and the Rt. Rev. Charles Murphy and his suffragans, the bishops of the Anglican Mission in North America (AMiA) will not receive invitations either, the conference organizers said.

Archbishop Williams said he had reserved the right “to withhold or withdraw invitations from bishops whose appointment, actions or manner of life have caused exceptionally serious division or scandal within the Communion,” but did not name names.

The bishops of the AMiA would not be invited to Lambeth because of the decision taken by Archbishop George Carey in 2000. Archbishop Carey “wrote to them saying he could not recognize their ministry” and that their “consecrations were irregular,” Canon Kearon explained. This decision was “confirmed at Oporto” by the primates in 2000, and the “decision was already fixed” by Archbishop Williams’ predecessor. The case of CANA Bishop Martyn Minns exhibits “no difference” from the AMiA and he falls into the same category, Canon Kearon said.

- The Rev. George Conger of The Living Church

Editor's Note - An an essential 'instrument of unity' for the Anglican Communion, the Lambeth Conference, since its inception in 1867, has served as the ultimate symbol of unity and communion within the Canterbury-centred structure. Exclusion from Lambeth is tantamount to exclusion from the Anglican Communion as a legally-constructed and organised body. Bishops of the Church of England in South Africa, beginning with Bishop Colenso, Bishops of the Reformed Episcopal Church and its derivative bodies, and Bishops of the Continuing Churches have never been invited to Lambeth. The Bishops of AMiA and CANA now share the same distinction. Whatever claims may be made to the contrary, it is now quite clear that neither the AMiA nor CANA can legitimately claim to be full constituent members of the Anglican Communion in full communio with Cantaur. For all intents and purposes, AMiA and CANA have become the very thing they assert themselves not to be, an evangelical and charismatic 'continuing' church.

The ACC and the UECNA

ANGLICAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND UNITED EPISCOPAL CHURCH SIGN COMMUNION AGREEMENT

On Ascension Day, May 17, 2007, The Anglican Catholic Church (ACC) and the United Episcopal Church (UECNA) entered into a communion agreement. Archbishop Stephen Reber of the UECNA and Archbishop Mark Haverland of the ACC signed the agreement at Saint Stephen's Pro-Cathedral, Athens, Georgia to restore or reaffirm the state of communio in sacris between the churches. This agreement came into immediate effect, though it still needs to be ratified by the ACC Provincial Synod and the UECNA Convention.“This comes at a time when Anglicanism in the USA is at a crossroads, when people are looking for firm ground to stand on and a place to belong,” said Bishop Leo Michael of the UECNA, who was present at the meeting along with Bishop Presley Hutchens of the ACC. The four Bishops celebrated Ascension Day with a noon Eucharist after signing the agreement. “We recognize in each other the presence of the essentials of the Christian Faith, Catholic Order, Apostolic Succession, Anglican worship, and Christian morals,” said Archbishop Mark Haverland.

The 1977 Congress of St. Louis, thanks to the efforts of the Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen (FCC), was an answer from faithful Episcopalians and Anglicans, both laity and clergy, to the exigencies of changes wrought by the then Episcopal Church USA. Their ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate and the doctrinally controversial 1979 Book of Common Prayer necessitated the birth of the Continuing Church. The churches were determined to “continue in the Catholic Faith, Apostolic Order, Orthodox Worship and Evangelical Witness of the traditional Anglican Church, doing all things necessary for the continuance of the same.” Thirty faithful years later, impelled by the commonness of origin and the common participation in the one holy catholic and apostolic church, the ACC and the UECNA have come forth with a pastoral provision.

The effect of the agreement will be to make explicit the somewhat doubtful continuation of the communion that many believe has always persisted between the two churches, both of which stem from the Denver consecrations of bishops in January 1978. Members of both churches will be welcomed at the altars of both bodies, and the clergy of both will be available for baptisms, funerals, and marriages as needed. Each church has agreed to consult carefully with the other in all matters affecting the other, including episcopal acts and ecumenical relations with other bodies and churches.

“This agreement constitutes an important movement towards restoring the unity of the Continuing Church, which stems from the Congress of Saint Louis and the Denver consecrations," said Archbishop Mark Haverland. “It is the contention of both that this Continuing Church subsists in the ACC, the UEC, and the Anglican Province of Christ the King. The organic unity of these three Churches remains our first and most urgent ecumenical task.” Both the churches pledge to work towards full organic union in a patient, unhurried manner, meanwhile respecting inessential differences and the other church's internal integrity. “His church is trustworthy, not because it depends upon men, but because it depends upon Him who endowed it with power and who is ever present in its council called in His name” said Archbishop Stephen Reber of the UECNA.

Editor's note - the UECNA, as of this writing, has never forfeited its intercommunion agreement with the Anglican Province of America (APA), although communio in sacris between the APA and UECNA has never been formally approved by the Provincial Synod of the APA and the General Convention of the UECNA. It has explicitly existed on a practical level for several years. Does this mean that the APA and the UEC are in communion and the ACC and UEC are in communion but the APA and the ACC are not in communion? Odd indeed, but such a situation obtained in Eastern Orthodoxy for most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in which Moscow and Constantinople were in communion with each other but Constantinople was not in communion with Patriarchate of Bulgaria, although Moscow was. There is a clear precedent for such bilateral but incomplete communion of Apostolic Churches. The development noted above is unquestionably a step in the right direction.

What is 'Anglican orthodoxy?'

http://all2common.classicalanglican.net/

I enthusiastically recommend a new essay at All Too Common on the question of what actually defines and constitutes 'Anglican orthodoxy.' This appellation, now proudly owned by a multiplicity of Anglican groups and organisations of vastly differing theologies and practices, is bandied about today with such imprecision and generality that it is, one could certainly submit, a phrase or war-cry that means so many different things at once that it no longer means anything at all. Andy's essay deserves a careful reading.

My response is as follows:

Thank you for your astute and precisely-correct essay, which targets and high-lights the real central point at stake in the continuing dissolution of the Anglican Communion. Anglican Catholics have said from the beginning of the post-2003 controversy that, like the issue of homosexuality in the Church, the purported ordination of women is a 'salvation issue.' Many Global South leaders have used this phrase in reference to militant and unrepentant homosexualism, and so they should. Certainly a life in a state of mortal sin, unrepentant and unconverted, jeopardises salvation and the state of grace. But the loss of valid priesthood and valid sacraments because of the ordination of women equally jeopardises salvation because without the priesthood and sacraments there is no sacramental assurance, no covenantal means of grace, no guarantee of grace and salvation. As a wise priest once said to me on this subject, 'a male practising homosexual priest can repent, but a priestess cannot change her sex.' It is essential that Catholics re-focus the issue at hand on that which is essential to the life of Holy Church, the divinely-instituted means of grace given to us by Our Lord and the Apostles in the ministerial priesthood. Thank you again!

Or as Saint Ignatius of Antioch would proclaim to us today as he did in the second century: no Bishop, no Church! By extension this means, succinctly, no valid episcopate, no valid priesthood, no valid Eucharist, no Church, no means of grace, no salvation. Or as Saint Cyprian and Saint Augustine would say: Extra ecclesiam non salus est. Our Blessed Saviour in His infinite love for all men purchased an Universal Church for our salvation by the Blood of His Cross. The Seven Holy Sacraments are His legacy bequeathed to us, the treasury of His fathomless grace and merit, the New and Everlasting Covenant, and it is our bounden duty and service to receive His divine Mysteries in faith and to commend them to the generations to come unimpaired and unaltered. This, my dear friends, can be the only meaning of the phrase 'Anglican orthodoxy.'

Archbishop Haverland on REC Orders

In a previous post some weeks back I shared with readers an article in The Trinitarian, the official publication of the Anglican Catholic Church, written by Archbishop Mark Haverland. In the article in question the Archbishop criticises the Federation of Anglican Churches in the Americas and the sacramental relationship of the Anglican Province of America to the Reformed Episcopal Church. I wish to offer a correction: I have been informed that I initially misrepresented his position. Nowhere in the article does he assert the invalidity of REC Orders. Rather he asserts that the official and binding position of the Anglican Communion, in the days of its orthodoxy, was that REC Orders should not be recognized.

I completely concur with the assessment that the objective fact of valid episcopal orders does not in and of itself automatically justify ecclesial recognition of those bodies which possess said orders. Resolution 54 of the 1958 Lambeth Conference takes precisely this position regarding episcopi vagantes, as it states 'it cannot recognise the Churches of such "episcopi vagantes" as properly constituted Churches, or recognise the orders of their ministers'. The distinction between validity and recognition rightly exists and should be operative in the discipline of any Church that calls itself Catholic. The APA has very happily and correctly progressed to recognise the REC's sacramental order on the basis of official pronouncements of Anglican Communion entities, although the Lambeth Conferences themselves have not given such recognition yet; it is certainly within the purview of any Church to decide for itself which other Churches and Orders it will or will not recognise, as Dr CB Moss so eloquently points out in his works.

Thank you!

Dr Beckwith: Catholicism as the Great Tradition

Philorthodox today celebrates the return of a prominent and gifted theologian and philosopher to the Sacraments of Mother Church: as has been now widely published in the blogosphere, Dr Francis J. Beckwith, former president of the Evangelical Theological Society, has been restored to the Roman Rite after a long hiatus.

Here is a marvellous and theologically crisp and precise quote from Dr Beckwith -

'There is a conversation in ETS that must take place, a conversation about the relationship between Evangelicalism and what is called the “Great Tradition,” a tradition from which all Christians can trace their spiritual and ecclesiastical paternity... At the suggestion of a dear friend, I began reading the Early Church Fathers as well as some of the more sophisticated works on justification by Catholic authors. I became convinced that the Early Church is more Catholic than Protestant and that the Catholic view of justification, correctly understood, is biblically and historically defensible. Even though I also believe that the Reformed view is biblically and historically defensible, I think the Catholic view has more explanatory power to account for both all the biblical texts on justification as well as the church’s historical understanding of salvation prior to the Reformation all the way back to the ancient church of the first few centuries. Moreover, much of what I have taken for granted as a Protestant—e.g., the catholic creeds, the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation, the Christian understanding of man, and the canon of Scripture—is the result of a Church that made judgments about these matters and on which non-Catholics, including Evangelicals, have declared and grounded their Christian orthodoxy in a world hostile to it. Given these considerations, I thought it wise for me to err on the side of the Church with historical and theological continuity with the first generations of Christians that followed Christ’s Apostles.'

In this beautiful synopsis of catholic theology and ecclesiology, there is not one mention of that crucible on which the historic Apostolic Churches have been divided, the Papal Claims. The definition of the Traditio Apostolorum supplied by Dr Beckwith is one that all Anglican Catholicism eagerly and vehemently endorses and applies to herself. The distinctives of the papal system, the dogmatic pronouncements of Vatican Council I, papal infallibility and papal universal jurisdiction, do not enter into the initial description of re-discovery of the Faith provided by Dr Beckwith. I do not doubt that he would freely reaffirm his belief in papalism, which is, after all, the sine qua non of communion with the See of Rome, but quite interestingly such a credo is excluded from his introductory apologia for his return to Catholic communion. More interestingly perhaps is the fact that the basis of his reversion to the Church (properly termed) is a conviction regarding the unique authority of the Holy Catholic Church as the Ark of Safety and Truth, the divinely-guided and Spirit-possessed Body of Christ, which through Apostolic Succession of doctrine and ministry authentically guards, protects, teaches, transmits and interprets the Gospel. In his blog entry, at least, Dr Beckwith could pass for an orthodox Anglican!

In sum, Dr Beckwith's profession of faith articulated in his article is a faith in the Church of the Great Tradition, of the whole Church possessed of ancient Christian orthodoxy, what Saint Vincent of Lerins describes as universality, antiquity and consent. What matters is the Church of the Apostles, the Church of the Fathers, the Church of the Ecumenical Councils and Creeds. That Church thrives today and receives as her inheritance from the Lord the Holy Scriptures and Apostolic Creeds and the Holy Sacraments and Apostolic Order. Such a stand corresponds exactly with the Catholic Faith as received by and practised in the Anglican Tradition. I rejoice with Dr Beckwith as we all pray for him and his family. His good words echo concepts found in a favourite description of the Catholic Faith of the Anglican Church written many years ago by our old friend Dr NP Williams:

'The doctrine of the Great Church, as it stood on the eve of 1054, includes, first of all, the main fabric of Trinitarian and Christological dogma, including, of course, the beliefs in our Lord's virginal Birth, bodily Resurrection, and Ascension into Heaven; the presuppositions of Christian soteriology known as the doctrines of the Fall and Original Sin; belief in Christ's Atoning Death as objectively bringing within our reach that salvation which we could never have earned for ourselves; the doctrines of the Sacraments as the means of grace, of the Real Presence and the Eucharistic Sacrifice; of the grace of Orders and the necessity of the episcopal succession from the Apostles; of the Church's absolving power in Penance; of Confirmation and Unction; of the Communion of Saints; and of the last things, Heaven and Hell, and the intermediate state, and the Last Judgement.'

-1920 Anglo-Catholic Congress

Random Thoughts by Fr Newman

http://web.mac.com/jayscottnewman/iWeb/jayscottnewman/Random%20Thoughts/Random%20Thoughts.html

My first cousin's sublime blog - the magisterial Roman blog online (pun intended)!

Father Tony on Bishop Cox and the History of the Continuing Church

A very helpful and intriguing read...

The Rev. Tony Clavier
Ecumenical Officer for the Diocese of West Virginia
Priest-in-charge, St. Thomas a Becket Church, Morgantown, WV


NO DISCIPLINE

The attempt to create a united church instead created fragmentation. After General Convention’s 1976 approval of the ordination of women and first reading of legislation to create a new Book of Common Prayer, traditionalists divided. Some remained within TEC as “The Evangelical and Catholic Mission”, a lobby whose heir is now “Forward in Faith America.” A few associated themselves with the Roman Catholic Church. Still others formed a body called “The Anglican Church in North America.” Despite the American precedent that it was possible to have a church without geographically resident bishops, the leaders of ACNA were determined to go ahead and elect bishops for their emerging dioceses and secure valid consecration for them.
The bishops-elect were James Mote of Denver, Dale Doren of Pittsburgh and Robert Morse of Oakland. All were Episcopal priests. Fr. Doren was an evangelical. They were divided in their ecclesiology, churchmanship and personal relationships.


As the date of their consecration drew near, it looked as if at least three bishops were willing to consecrate the bishops-elect. They were Charles Boynton, retired Suffragan of New York, Clarence Haden, Bishop of Northern California, Albert Chambers, retired Bishop of Springfield, Mark Pae, a Korean Anglican bishop and Francisco Pagtakhan, a missionary bishop of the Philippine Independent National Catholic Church which was in communion with the Episcopal Church.

At the last minute all but bishops Chambers and Pagtakhan dropped out. Most cited ill health. Bishop Mark Pae who was under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury sent a letter stating that if he were able to be there, he would have joined in the laying on of hands. This letter was produced during the service as a symbol of participation. The lack of a physically present third bishop suggested to many that the consecrations were “irregular.” Bishop Doren was consecrated by two bishops and then became the third bishop in the remaining consecrations.


It is not clear whether Bishop Chambers was disciplined by the Episcopal Church for his participation. Within a year ACNA divided into three groups. Bishop Mote became a territorial bishop in the Anglican Catholic Church. Bishop Doren became the Presiding Bishop of the United Episcopal Church of North America and Bishop Morse the Archbishop of the non-geographical Diocese of Christ the King. All three ecclesial groups exist to this day.

Division


At least one other jurisdiction pre-dates the “Denver Consecrations”. It was termed “The American Episcopal Church.” Its Orders were thought by many to be at least irregular. It was shunned by the post Denver churches. However the AEC demonstrated significant growth in the 1980s, as it absorbed smaller “continuing churches” and parishes and grew new ones. Beginning in 1985, the leadership of the Anglican Catholic Church began to show interest in merging with the American Episcopal Church. Those opposed to such a merger cited problems over Canon Law, the validity of Orders and other matters as obstacles to unity. On the other hand it was generally agreed that growing divisions among “continuing churches” hampered growth and stability and weakened the witness of those in exile from the Episcopal Church.
Despite considerable antipathy to a union between the American Episcopal Church and the Anglican Catholic Church, negotiations continued and agreement was reached over Canon Law, territorial dioceses and theological and liturgical breadth. The matter of the validity of Episcopal Orders remained a sticking point.

Conditional Consecration


Both churches agreed that the way forward had to include conditional ordination and consecration for the bishops of the American Episcopal Church. Some who regarded the “Denver Consecrations” as irregular thought that the ACC bishops, who were in succession to the Denver bishops ought similarly to receive conditional ordination and consecration. It was therefore finally agreed upon that all the bishops should undergo conditional consecration. Each should be affirmed or re-elected to their original sees in accordance with the Constitution and Canons in use, that is those adopted by the Episcopal Church in 1958 amended to provide for a two-province jurisdiction.

The Primate of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, with the consent of his comprovincial bishops agreed to be chief consecrator. Bishop Robert Mercer CR served as Bishop of Matabeleland in the (Anglican) Province of Central Africa before retiring and moving to Canada to serve the “continuing” ACCC. Bishops Charles Boynton and Robert Mize agreed to be co-consecrators. Bishop Boynton was originally bishop of the Episcopal Church’s Diocese of Puerto Rico. He later became Bishop Suffragan of New York Bishop Robert Mize served as Bishop of Damaraland –now Namibia- in the Province of Southern Africa before retiring to be an Assistant Bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin. Both bishops were members of the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops.


During the unity Synod of the merging churches, dioceses and parishes, on October 3rd. 1991, Bishops Mercer, Mize and Boynton conditionally ordained and consecrated the bishops participating in the merger. The service was conducted according to the Ordinal contained in the Book of Common Prayer, 1928 edition, in the presence of a large congregation and according to the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church adopted by the Anglican Church in America.

Discipline and Censure


For a number of years before these consecrations, the American Episcopal Church had been in formal discussions with the Episcopal Church. Whether for this reason or not, no attempt was made by the Episcopal Church or its House of Bishops, to discipline or censure Bishops Mize and Boynton for their participation in these consecrations. Both remained members in good standing of the House of Bishops until their deaths at very advanced ages. Bishop Mize also remained an assistant bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin in good standing. Bishop Boynton resigned from the ministry of the Episcopal Church in 1991 but no notice was taken of his action by the Episcopal Church. Meanwhile the resigned Bishop of Dallas, Donald Davies was deposed by Presiding Bishop Edmund Browning when he formed a continuing church named the Episcopal Missionary Church.

Whether similar action will be taken in the case of Bishop Cox, until recently assistant bishop of Oklahoma, remains to be seen. He too is very old and served the Episcopal Church with quiet gentleness and pastoral care. One may only hope that the powers that be will follow the precedent set in the cases of bishops Mize and Boynton. The practice of deposing clergy rather than withdrawing their licenses seems to call into question the Episcopal Church’s own doctrine of the indelibility of Orders and its teaching that Orders are of the Church Catholic and not the possession of an individual denomination.


Palm Sunday, 2007

The New Translation of the Novus Ordo Missae

From http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/

Isn't it fascinating how close some of the phrases and words are to the sublime and truly poetic version found in the Anglican Missal. Have the Roman Catholic authorities avoided using our superior Anglican Missal translations for the new English translation of the Novus Ordo simply because if they were to do so they might be perceived as lending credibility and legitimacy to our liturgical formulae, or even our liturgical patrimony vis-a-vis the Modern Roman Rite? They would have saved themselves much trouble and time by simply promulgating the Knott or Anglican Missals!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

or —Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ.

or —The Lord be with you. And with your spirit.

Brothers and sisters,
let us acknowledge our sins,that we may be ready to celebrate the sacred
mysteries.

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 in
what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most
grievous fault. 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.

May almighty God have mercy on us and lead us, with our sins forgiven, into eternal
life. Amen.

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 Lord be with you. And with your spirit.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to N. Glory to you, O Lord.

The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

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 and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified 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.

Pray, brothers and sisters, that the sacrifice
which is mine and yours may be acceptable to God the almighty Father.

May the Lord accept the sacrifice from your hands for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his holy Church. Amen.

The Lord be with you. And with your spirit.

Lift up your hearts.We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right and just.

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

Taught by the Saviour’s command and formed by the word of God, we have the courage to say: Our Father …

Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, sustained by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope, the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and for ever.

Lord Jesus Christ, who said to your Apostles, Peace I leave you, my peace I give you, look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and be pleased to grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will. Amen.

The peace of the Lord be with you always. And with your spirit.

Let us offer each other the sign of peace.

May this mingling of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life to us who receive it.

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on
us. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of
God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, by the will of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit, you gave life to the world through your death. By this your most holy Body and Blood free me from all my sins and from every evil; keep me always faithful to your commandments, and never let me be parted from you.

or —Lord Jesus Christ, may the receiving of your Body and Blood not bring me to judgment and condemnation, but through your loving mercy let it be my protection in mind and body, and healing remedy.

Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the banquet of the Lamb. Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.

May the Body of Christ keep me safe unto eternal life. May the
Blood of Christ keep me safe unto eternal life.The Body of Christ. Amen.

What has passed our lips as food, O Lord, may we possess in purity of heart, that what has been given us in time may be our healing for eternity.

Let us pray …Amen.The Lord be with you. And with your spirit. May almighty God bless you: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Go forth, the Mass is ended. Thanks be to God.

The Roman Canon:

To you, most merciful Father, we therefore humbly pray through Jesus Christ, your
Son, our Lord. We ask you to accept and bless these gifts, these offerings, these
holy and undefiled sacrifices, which we offer you first of all for your holy
Catholic Church. Be pleased to grant her peace, to guard, unite and govern
her throughout the whole world, together with your servant N. our Pope and N. our
Bishop, and all Bishops who, holding to the truth, hand on the catholic and
apostolic faith.

Remember, Lord, your servants N. and N. and all gathered
here, whose faith and devotion are known to you. For them we offer you this
sacrifice of praise and they offer it to you for themselves and all who are
theirs, for the redemption of their souls, in hope of health and security, and
fulfilling their vows to you, the eternal God, living and true. In communion with
the whole Church, they venerate above all others the memory of the glorious
ever-virgin Mary, Mother of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ, then of blessed
Joseph, husband of the Virgin, your blessed Apostles and Martyrs, Peter and Paul,
Andrew, James, John, Thomas, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon and
Jude: Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Laurence,
Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian and all your Saints: grant through
their merits and prayers that in all things we may be defended by the help of your
protection.Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Therefore, Lord, we pray: graciously accept this offering from us, your servants, and from your whole family: order our days in your peace, and command that we be delivered from eternal damnation and counted among the flock of those you have chosen. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

We pray, O God: be pleased to bless, recognize, and approve this offering in every way: make it spiritual and acceptable, that it become for us the Body and Blood of your most beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Who, on the day before he was to suffer took bread into his holy and venerable hands: with eyes raised to heaven to you, O God, his almighty Father, giving you thanks he said the blessing, broke the bread and gave it to his disciples, saying:

Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my Body, which will be given up for you.

In the same way, when supper was ended, he took this precious chalice into his holy and venerable hands, and once more giving you thanks, he said the blessing and gave it to his disciples, saying:

Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the Cup of my Blood, the Blood of the new and eternal Covenant; it will be poured out for you and for many [the word all will be changed before publication] for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.

The mystery of faith. We proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your resurrection until you come in glory. or —When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your death, O Lord, until you come again. or —Saviour of the world, save us, for by your cross and resurrection you have set us free.

Therefore, O Lord, as we celebrate the memorial of the blessed passion, the resurrection from the dead, and the glorious ascension into heaven of Christ, your Son, our Lord, we, your servants and your holy people, offer to your glorious majesty from your own generous gifts, the pure victim, the holy victim, the spotless victim, the holy Bread of eternal life and the Chalice of everlasting salvation. 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.

In humble prayer we ask you, almighty God, bid that these gifts be borne by the hands of your holy Angel to your altar on high in the sight of your divine majesty, that all of us who receive the most holy Body and Blood of your Son through this sharing at the altar may be filled with every grace and blessing from above. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Remember also, Lord, your servants N. and N. who have gone before
us with the sign of faith and rest in the sleep of peace. Grant them, O Lord, we
pray, and all who sleep in Christ, a place of refreshment, light and peace.Through
Christ our Lord. Amen.To us sinners also, your servants who hope in your abundant
mercies, graciously grant some share in the communion of your holy Apostles and
Martyrs: with John the Baptist, Stephen, Matthias, Barnabas, Ignatius,
Alexander, Marcellinus, Peter, Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia,
Anastasia, and all your saints, into whose company we beg you admit us, not
weighing our merits but granting us pardon, through Christ our Lord.Through
whom you constantly create all these good things, O Lord, you make them holy and
fill them with life, you bless them and bestow them on us.Through him, and with
him, and in him, to you, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy
Spirit, is all honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

De Civitate Dei

http://cityofgod.wordpress.com/

Please visit this superb blog co-written by Daniel Trout, a traditional Anglican seminarian and, Deo volente, future postulant and ordinand of the Anglican Province of America.

The Traditional Anglican Communion and Rome

http://www.themessenger.com.au/Video/20070329.htm

A fascinating and well-produced video presentation on our sister jurisdiction, the Traditional Anglican Communion, and its interest in forging a uniate relationship with the Church of Rome.

It's Coming!

The Traditional 1962 Rite of the Latin Mass is about to be authorised for the entire Roman Rite by Pope Benedict XVI. Soon Roman Catholics will have the opportunity to be restored to a liturgical and sacramental heritage that we Catholic Anglicans have never lost or abandoned.

Today, the text of a Le Figaro Magazine interview is making its way round the blogosphere. The magazine's website has not yet released it online...

Le Figaro: Is a Decree widening the possibility of celebrating the
Latin Mass according to the rite from before Vatican II (the so-called Mass of
Saint Pius V) still expected?

Cardinal Bertone: The merit of the conciliar liturgical reform is
intact. But both [for reasons of] not losing the great liturgical heritage left
by Saint Pius V and for granting the wish of those faithful who desire to attend
Masses according to this rite, within the framework of the Missal published in
1962 by Pope John XXIII, with its own calendar, there is no valid reason not to
grant to every priest in the world the right to celebrate according to this
form. The authorization of the Supreme Pontiff would evidently preserve the
validity of the rite of Paul VI. The publication of the motu proprio which
specifies this authorisation will take place, but it will be the pope himself
who will explain his motivations and the framework of his decision. The
Sovereign Pontiff will personally explain his vision for the use of the ancient
Missal to the Christian people, and particularly to the Bishops.

Where on Earth is the Church?

And now a word from our good friend Dr N.P. 'Nippy' Williams (1883-1943), Anglo-Catholic humourist and theologian extraordinaire and Oxford scholar:

'All bodies which can shew historical continuity with the undivided Church, and possess the essentials of its doctrinal and institutional structure, are still parts of the Catholic Church, and collectively constitute it. These essentials are: (1) orthodoxy, as defined by the Seven Ecumenical Councils; (2) the threefold Ministry; (3) the Seven Sacraments. Applying these criteria to bodies actually existing at the present day, we find that the true Church of Christ consists of the Roman, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Old Catholic Churches. . . . Whatever these bodies teach and practise in common is either a part of the primitive Depositum, or a legitimate development of or inference from it.'

Fr Kirk, The Anglican Communion and Me

It appears Fr Geoffrey Kirk and I completely agree on the underlying problems in the Anglican Communion, as evidenced by his op-ed piece in this month's New Directions and my own thoughts recorded at the end of the Tanzania Primates' Meeting. In short, the Anglican Communion is now defective at the core because it has ceded the Apostolic Faith to modernity by the innovation of women's ordination and a general refusal to accept the sensus Catholicus.

Here are a few thoughts I penned after the Tanzania meeting...

I am concerned by the attitudes displayed and language used by some of the participants at the Primates’ Meeting, which seem to convey a belief that maintaining the Anglican Communion in its current state or maintaining communion with the See of Canterbury is necessary for communion with our Lord Jesus Christ or with the historic Church. To me, such claims are nothing short of ecclesiolatry, the service of an ecclesiastical institution above that of our Blessed Saviour and His Gospel. Our Lord proclaims 'the gates of hell shall not prevail' against His Church (Saint Matthew 16:18). We take Jesus at His word. The Anglican Communion is a modern creation, only established by historical circumstances in 1784 when Bishop Samuel Seabury of Connecticut was consecrated for ministry in the United States by three bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church. It is only because of the exigencies of Bishop Seabury’s consecration that the Anglican Communion was brought into being. The communion of the Church necessitates a communion of orthodox bishops with one another in the Apostolic Faith; the Holy Catholic Church does not require for her full life either communion with the See of Canterbury or with any other particular historic See. Anglicanism, I am eager to state, is defined by adherence to the Anglican Tradition, not by communion with Canterbury at all costs. Although the Anglican Communion is a worthy institution owned by God and blessed by Him in time past and present for the spread of the Gospel, I submit it exists for the good order, the bene esse, or even the full order, the plene esse, of Anglicanism, but it is not of the esse, the essence, of Anglicanism. Simply put, I believe it is more important to remain in communion with Christ than to remain in communion with Canterbury.

We should state categorically that Mrs Katherine Jefferts Schori is not a bishop and we must deny that she possesses any jurisdiction or exercises any episcopal ministry from which any delegation of authority can occur in the first place. The proposal for a Primatial Vicar in The Episcopal Church obscures a genuine understanding of the theology and ministry of the episcopate, and will most likely not succeed in achieving its goal of uniting a body so profoundly divided on the essential matters of faith, order and moral teaching. It is doubtful that the bishops and congregations of the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) and the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) will voluntarily return to the oversight and jurisdiction of bishops or organizations within The Episcopal Church. It will probably require much more than a Pastoral Council or a Primatial Vicar to bring about any kind of institutional reconciliation between conservative people and groups and TEC structure.

I am led to believe by the actions of the Primates’ Meeting that the Anglican Communion has now received as authoritative doctrine the purported ordination and consecration of women to the episcopate. This is a very distressing development in the life of the Anglican Communion and it is one that the Anglican Province of America must, in all good conscience, reject as contrary to the historic Catholic and Apostolic Faith. We cannot condone the actions of the Primates’ Meeting or the Anglican Communion in this matter. We will continue to preserve and hand-on the two-thousand year old teaching of Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition regarding the male character of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. We will continue our witness to Prayer Book Catholicism.

Mindful of Christ’s call to us during this holy season of Lent, I believe the only real solution to the ongoing dilemma that now engulfs the Anglican Communion is repentance and amendment of life, a convicted return to the uncompromised Faith and Order of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and the Anglican formularies. That alone can heal the division and restore the mission of the Anglican Communion.

As for us, we shall remain committed to our brethren in Christ and in full communicatio in sacris with all faithful Anglicans who maintain the Scriptures, Creeds, Sacraments and Apostolic Ministry of the classical Anglican expression.

And here is Fr Kirk's commentary from New Directions:

'For nearly two centuries,' a wit once remarked, 'Westminster politicians have been talking about a solution to the Irish problem. What none of them would ever admit was the nature of the problem. The problem is that there is no solution.'


Much the same is true about the Anglican Communion. No one, it seems, has the courage to admit what must be obvious to all: that the problem with world-wide Anglicanism is not with the conduct of individual provinces but with the polity of the whole. Like the Home Office in the parlance of Dr John Reid, it is 'not fit for purpose'.

Not only does the doctrine of Provincial Autonomy make divergence in ethos and doctrine virtually inevitable, but the resulting weakness of common structures (the so-called Instruments of Unity) makes disciplining errant provinces severely difficult. And when that province is TEC, the predominant source of funding for the Communion's central secretariat, it is impossible.


Whether or not the Secretary General saw the irony of ending the recent meeting of Primates in Frank Weston's cathedral in Zanzibar, readers of New Directions will probably take the point: the doctrinal disintegration of Anglicanism is no adventitious phenomenon. It has been unfolding for the best part of a century. The Communique of the meeting in Dar es Salaam, for all its vaunted 'unanimity' cannot hope to turn the tide of history.

What the Communique has done, couched as it is in the language of the revisionists themselves, is merely to draw another line in the sand. The Primates have requested, through the presiding bishop, that the House of Bishops of TEC make an unequivocal common covenant that they will not authorize any rite of blessing for same-sex unions in their dioceses or through General Convention, and confirm that a candidate for episcopal orders living in a same-sex union shall not receive the necessary consent, unless some new consensus on these matters emerges across the communion.


The deadline for the answer is 30 September 2007. 'If the reassurances requested of the House of Bishops cannot in good conscience be given, the relationship between The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion as a whole remains damaged at best, and this has consequences for the full participation of the Church in the life of the Communion.'

No one could reasonably suppose that such undertakings will be given, or that the failure to give them will result in any specific action by any of the 'Instruments of Unity'. But that is hardly the point. The heart of the statement is not in the requests, but in the terms in which they are made: unless some new consensus on these matters emerges across the communion. With that proviso the game is up for the traditionalists.


For the grounds upon which traditionalists oppose gay bishops and same-sex unions is not that they go against previous Anglican practice, but that they contravene the plain teaching of Scripture, which applies in all times and cultures, and which neither individual provinces nor the Communion as a whole is competent to change.

By signing the Communique traditionalist bishops have conceded the very point they were striving to uphold. Having initially refused to sit at the same table as Katherine Schori, and shunned her at the Lord's Table, they have signed a document which endorses her position and effectively outlaws their own - and elected her to their Standing Committee! To this observer it looks uncommonly like suicide.


But lest you think this judgement harsh, consider the implications of the Communique for the future of Anglican moral theology.

Until now it has been assumed that penitence involves not only contrition but amendment of life. Not so with The Episcopal Church and the Zanzibar Communique. There a half-hearted expression of blanket regret (how many times has your confessor told you to be explicit?) and a future possible undertaking not to do the same again (why the reluctance to renounce wrong-doing in the first place?) is taken as enough. No mention, you will notice, of Gene Robinson.

We must sadly conclude that in Zanzibar the traditionalist primates were skilfully out-manoeuvred. They conceded the very principles for which they stand; and did so in exchange for assurances which they will probably not get, and which, should they be forthcoming, will be half-hearted and of little effect. All this came about not because those primates are weak or foolish, but because the Communion itself, of which they are an intrinsic part, is structured on principles of democracy and mutual accountability.

It was clear from its ringing endorsement of the politicking which resulted in the ordination of women in some provinces, that the 'Windsor process' cannot, by its very nature, comprehend an appeal to the unchanging word of God as witnessed by Catholic tradition. The words of Pope John Paul II: 'declaramus Ecclesiam facultatem nullatenus habere ordinationem sacerdotalem mulieribus conferendi' [we declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women] have no resonance whatever in the official structures of the Anglican Communion, which can only proceed by accommodation and consensus. And Katherine Jefferts Schori, now a member of the Primates' Standing Committee, is the very incarnation of those procedures.

A Critique of the Anglican Federation

A new epithet has been invented by some of our brothers in the Continuing Church to describe those orthodox Anglicans who are seeking to restore communicatio in sacris and practical cooperation amongst all who profess and embody the Anglican Tradition: neo-Anglicans. In the most recent edition of the The Trinitarian, Archbishop Mark Haverland of the Anglican Catholic Church issues a sharp criticism of the Federation of Anglican Churches in the Americas and its efforts to forge a new realignment in American Anglicanism. In the op-ed piece we 'Neo-Anglicans' are clearly implied to be the very antithesis of what we claim we are, orthodox Anglicans who maintain the fullness of the Apostolic Tradition. Why? Because of our sacramental relationship with the Reformed Episcopal Church and the Anglican Mission in America. Does our communion with these bodies render us innovators, un-Anglican and un-Catholic?

The Archbishop does not mention the 1941 Report of the Joint Commission on Approaches to Unity of the Episcopal Church led by the Anglo-Catholic Bishop Frank Wilson of Eau Claire, certainly held in the days of orthodoxy, which, taking into consideration the record of the 1888 Lambeth Conference, declares Reformed Episcopal Orders valid. Heresy, even regarding Apostolic Succession, does not invalidate Holy Orders, or so say Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Robert Bellarmine, to mention a few authoritative names. The 1941 Report unequivocally asserts: 'The Historic Episcopate has been preserved in the Reformed Episcopal Church and the episcopal succession has been carefully maintained from this beginning' and 'Therefore it is now proposed that the Statement to the Lambeth Conference of 1888 should be considered as a significant document of an earlier generation but with no current authority and that it should not be allowed to stand in the way of negotiations looking toward the healing of this particular schism.' In 1960, in the days of its orthodoxy, the Church of England published the findings of its Faith and Order Advisory Group (FOAG) which stated: 'It is clear that the orders of this Church [REC] derive from an Anglican bishop; and that its bishops have been consecrated in due succession and its priests ordained with the use of the Anglican Ordinal, though in a slightly altered form. We cannot regard these alterations as being in themselves sufficient to call into question the validity of the ministry.'

Archbishop Haverland also does not mention the critical fact for this discussion that the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA), perhaps for the first time in Anglican history, has reversed its previous position and as of July 2003 has ceased to purport to ordain women to the priesthood and episcopate. The Anglican Province of America consistently and repeatedly affirms the male character of the Sacrament of Holy Orders and sees in AMiA's decision a vitally-important first step back to Apostolic Faith and Order. God willing, the AMiA will in time come to embrace a fully catholic doctrine of the diaconate as well as of the priesthood and episcopate. A shared common doctrine of the sacerdotium has indeed finally enabled our Churches to restore sacramental communion, a precedent that should be encouraged for the whole Universal Church. It should also be noted that a dispute over the male character of the diaconate could be allowed, if pressed, to affect any jurisdiction's relationship with Forward in Faith United Kingdom, Forward in Faith North America and the majority of Anglo-Catholic dioceses and parishes worldwide. Most Anglo-Catholics have not allowed the dispute to be a church-dividing impediment.

What do you think? Do you agree with the Anglican Catholic Church on this issue?

Be wary of 'Neo-Anglicans' by the Most Reverend Mark Haverland

Father Lawrence Wells in Orange Park, Fla. has coined a term that I am recommending widely: "neo-Anglican." I continue to be asked why the ACC is not uniting with the folk currently leaving The Episcopal Church. The answer is that we can only unite with people who believe as we do about important matters of doctrine, worship, morals and order. Many people who joined The Episcopal Church in the 1980s and 1990s have had little or no expo­sure to the Anglican tradition. For such people the Affirmation of St. Louis and the ACC are not particularly attractive. Such folk are neo-Anglicans, with no commitment to the classical Prayer Books, the male character of Holy Orders, or the Anglican musical and literary patrimony. Canon John Hollister recently made a similar point about the "Anglican Federation of Churches and Ministries" (www.anglicanfederation.org), which is composed of the Anglican Church in America, the Anglican Mission in America, the Episcopal Missionary Church, the Anglican Province in America (sic), and the Reformed Episcopal Church. These various groups are by their federa­tion articles committed to receiving members from each other upon the mere presentation of Letters Dimissory. Canon Hollister has trenchant­ly observed that therefore each of these AFCM bodies has formally recognized the validity of the ministry of each of the other. Which is "neo-Anglican," not Anglican. The Lambeth Conferences in the days of their orthodoxy refused to recognize the ordinations of the Reformed Episcopal Church, which began with an explicit rejection of Apostolic Succession. Likewise the AMiA has women deacons, has "grandfathered" (or "grandmothered") in women already "ordained" as priests, and is under the oversight of an African Anglican Church which has women priests. All of the AFCM bodies have, therefore, effectively asserted that the ordination of women is NOT an essential bar to full communion and that the classical Anglican position on the REC is wrong. But these assertions are neither Catholic nor Anglican; only neo-Anglican.

Let me make clear that the ACC and I are not seeking to be separated from others. We desire the highest possible level of cooperation and communion. But the whole point of the formation of the ACC in the late 1970s was to assert that the creation of a new ministry (women priests) by The Episcopal Church was itself an essential error that demanded separation. Union of the ACC with people who accept that essential error on any level would be utterly disastrous. While I am alive—and I think I may speak for my episcopal colleagues in the ACC—the ACC will not infect itself with the disease we have purged ourselves of at great cost. "Unity" can come only when the AFCM, its member bodies, and similar groups, realize that the Faith is a seamless whole. We can­not pull out one thread without raveling the whole garment. The road from women deacons to Gene Robinson and Presiding Bishop Mrs. Schori is direct and short, and the happy coalition builders who are obscuring and compromising at the beginning of their enterprises will come quickly to grief.

The Eucharistic and Sacerdotal Doctrine of the 'Ritualists'

In November 1867, the Church Association, a radically protestant prosecutorial body created to attack Catholic Anglicanism in the church and civil courts of England, accused Anglican Catholics of holding the following:

'First, that the Supper of the Lord is a Propitiatory Sacrifice; secondly, that the Body and Blood of Christ are objectively present in the Elements; thirdly, that all who partake of the Elements receive the Body and Blood of Christ (including 'the wicked, albeit they do not receive it to salvation'); fourthly, that the Clergymen are Sacrificing Priests; fifthly, that the Clergy possess judicial authority to forgive sin, and that forgiveness of sin is not complete without Priestly Absolution; sixthly, that the Clergy are authorized to receive confessions as an habitual part of religious practice; seventhly, that Christ is to be adored as personally present in the Elements.'

Overall one can say, with a little correction and clarification - what a clear assertion of our Holy Religion! What was and is at stake as regards the Catholic Movement is not churchmanship or tastes or styles of worship, but the whole sacramental system of the Church and in particular the revealed dogma of the Real Presence. Keep the Faith...

The Faith In A Nutshell

'We as little follow Calvin as we do the Pope, where either the one or the other departs from the footprints of the Fathers.'

-Bishop Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626) quoted by Bishop William Forbes (1585-1634)

Bishop Kemp on his Old Catholic succession

'Because of my connection with the Old Catholic Churches, Michael Ramsey had invited them to be represented at my ordination to the episcopate. Both Archbishop Kok of Utrecht and Bishop Van Kleef of Haarlem were present and laid on hands, saying aloud, 'Accipe Spiritum Sanctum' which is the Old Catholic formula of episcopal ordi­nation. Afterwards they signed the Latin protocol, drawn up for such occasions by Dr NP Williams shortly after communion between the Church of England and the Church of Utrecht had been established. The fact that the two visitors did not quite under­stand the niceties of English history was evident when, at dinner at Lambeth the night before, they presented me with a picture to com­memorate the occasion - it was a drawing of William of Orange! Some years later I showed the protocol to an English Jesuit who wrote to me saying, 'I cannot see how even Cardinal Ratzinger could deny that you are a Catholic bishop.' The Bishop of Chartres, Mgr Michon, also attended, and at the end said to Canon Francois Legaux, who accompanied him, 'I can have no doubt that that man is now a bishop in the Catholic Church.' Whether that was because of the Old Catholic participation or the general impression made by the ceremony, I have never asked. As it was his last consecration, I had asked Michael himself to preach and I think that that pleased him. I much regret I do not have a copy of his sermon. The details of the service had been largely arranged with his chaplain at a meeting which I had attended shortly before. The service was unusual in that what always seems to me an unseemly scrum when the bishops come up for the laying-on of hands was replaced by their coming up individually and putting their hands on my head saying, 'Receive the Holy Ghost'. The two Old Catholic bishops were at the end.'

The Mass in Catholic Zanzibar

In the notable article posted below from The Living Church is recorded news of the Solemn Mass celebrated yesterday by the Anglican Communion Primates in Zanzibar, Tanzania, a great historic centre of Anglo-Catholicism in Africa. The one potential reference in the news and speeches from yesterday I found glaringly absent was the importance for the whole Anglican Communion of the life and witness of Bishop Frank Weston of Zanzibar, a vitally influential Anglo-Catholic pastor and divine for his generation. Bishop Weston was a keynote speaker at the 1923 Anglo-Catholic Congress, on which occasion he gave one of the most stirring and powerful public addresses of his time, a speech given wide coverage by both secular and religious media. He was an indefatigable defender of the Catholic Faith, who opposed all pan-protestant church union schemes and established Zanzibar as an shining example of Catholic teaching and evangelism for the whole of Africa and the world. His life and many works may be studied on the Project Canterbury website: http://anglicanhistory.org/weston/.

A sadness looms over the proceedings yesterday in Zanzibar as one considers what the Anglican Communion once was and might yet still more gloriously have become if only the faith and tradition embodied by Bishop Weston had been allowed to grow and expand throughout Anglicanism. Sunday's Mass was but a glimpse, a faltering shadow or glimmer, of what perhaps could have been Anglicanism if the Catholic Revival had been permitted to succeed. But even as the Catholicism of Bishop Weston was evident in it, the Solemn Mass was a stark demonstration of division and disunity, as seven Primates could not in good conscience receive the Blessed Sacrament at that Eucharistic Celebration. The Anglican Communion, as a true eucharistic communion in the fullest sense of the term, is divided, and probably permanently. Let us learn our lessons well and jealously guard and transmit the inheritance bequeathed to us by Frank Weston.

http://livingchurch.org/publishertlc/viewarticle.asp?ID=3085

No business sessions were held on Feb. 18 as the primates sailed two hours by boat to Zanzibar to celebrate a solemn Eucharist at the Cathedral Church of Christ, also known as the Universities Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) Cathedral.

Considered the most "Catholic" of the traditional mission societies, the UMCA heritage was evident in the color, music and liturgy of the Holy Communion service drawn from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

Over 600 worshippers packed the Cathedral, built in 1878 on the site of Zanzibar's former slave market in Stone Town. Archbishop Williams served as preacher, Archbishop Donald Mtetemela of Tanzania served as celebrant and the bishops of Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam served as deacon and sub-deacon in the elaborate Anglo-Catholic service which was conducted in both English and Swahili.

In high ritual style, Archbishop Mtetemela sang (sic) the liturgy, as clouds of incense arose from a censer held by the former Archbishop of Zanzibar, John Rahamdhani. The altar service reflected an ecclesial style seldom seen in The Episcopal Church, with copes, maniples, zucchettos and other finery. Yellow roses covered the front of the altar and much of the cathedral in honor of Quinquagesima Sunday.

Following a processional choir of 40 down the aisle to the hymn "Jesus Shall Reign," the primates proceeded down the aisle under a barrage of klieg lights and flashbulbs from the press, with 12 of the 14 new primates seated in canon's stalls around the high altar and the remaining primates seated in the stalls.

At the close of the service Canon Matthew Mhagama offered thanks to the Catholic missionary societies of the Church of England for planting the faith in Central Africa, and to the British Royal Navy for crushing the slave trade. "Whatever their shortcomings," the missionaries of the UMCA were "heroes." Their graves surrounding the cathedral were a testament to the power of the gospel and to their sacrifices for the "Catholic faith," he said.