'First Millennium Church' Ecclesiology

From a Russian Orthodox Archbishop, the classical Catholic and Anglican ecclesiological position, Eucharistic ecclesiology, Church as Eucharistic Communion of Eucharistic communions, the faith and doctrinal tradition of the undivided Church of the first thousand years of Christian history, primus inter pares primacy, collegial episcopate and conciliar church government - in short, the Church of the First Millennium.

'...Full Christian unity is the Eucharistic communion. We do not need to reshape our Church administration, our local traditions. We can live with our differences within one Church, participating from one bread and one cup. We need, however, to rediscover what united us and what brought us to disunity, particularly in the 11th century.

So the basis for the restoration of the full communion would be, I believe, the faith of the Church east and west in the first millennium...'

'...In any case, we do not believe that there could be a bishop above all other bishops whose decisions would be binding for the entire Church. We believe that the bishop of Rome in the first millennium was obviously first in honour but he was first among equals. He did not have direct jurisdiction, for example, over the East. Therefore, when we come to the discussion of the primacy we would argue that the universal jurisdiction of the Pope is something that didn’t exist in the first millennium and that if we restore, for example, Eucharistic communion, we would accept his role as first among equals but not as the universal bishop...'

'...We still discuss the role of the bishop of Rome in the first millennium, and even on this issue we see clear differences between the Orthodox and the Catholics. If we come to the discussion of the second millennium, the differences will become much more obvious. Therefore we should not pretend that we are close to solving this problem.

I think, however, that we should discuss it honestly; we should describe the differences in our positions, and we should see what would be the way out. For us, as I said, the way out would be the return to what we had in the first millennium...'

'And with your spirit'

Courtesy of my brother, Father Brandon Jones, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, comes this first video installment in a series of presentations on the new English translation of the Novus Ordo Roman Missal. The liturgical changes about to be introduced into the Roman Rite as of 27th November 2011 will bring the English version of the Novus Ordo Missae Roman liturgy back to its own tradition in many respects and bring the modern English Roman Mass much closer to the venerable antiquity and beauty of our Anglican Rite. The theology demonstrated in this first video accords entirely with the orthodox Anglican liturgical heritage and, hence, the ancient Western Rite of the Church.

The Anglican Church in America

UPDATE: From the ACA website...

February 7, 2011

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We bid you greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Recently, because of questionable and possibly irregular episcopal actions that have taken place in both Florida and California, we asked the chancellors of the Anglican Church in America to render an opinion regarding temporal and corporate issues related to the ACA, particularly as concerns the Patrimony of the Primate. The chancellors' decision, released in a letter dated February 5, 2011, has been widely disseminated. It appears on the ACA web pages. The chancellors' letter contains pointed language; it represents a solid, legal opinion and should inform further discussions as we move forward. Opinions expressed in that document, whether temporal, corporate or ecclesiastical, are advisory in nature and should be regarded as such.

The chancellors' letter emphasizes the state of broken communion in which we presently find ourselves. The Patrimony of the Primate was initially established as a temporary entity to allow for the smooth transition to the Roman Catholic Ordinariate for those so inclined. It was the expectation that the Patrimony would exercise no diocesan functions, but would respect the established diocesan structures within the ACA. Indeed, the Patrimony of the Primate was envisioned as an entity for those who wished to leave their existing diocese while waiting for the Ordinariate to be formed. Although it was our hope that we all might remain together under the umbrella of the ACA, that now seems impossible. Those who wish to enter the Ordinariate have engaged in activities that suggest they have begun to operate as a separate jurisdiction. We understand that our brothers wish to move forward on the path they believe is right. We understand their sense of urgency and their commitment to the cause they believe is correct. We pray for them, just as we seek their prayers for us. But we must also recognize and respond to the situation as it presently exists.

An amicable and immediate separation between the Patrimony and the ACA is indeed necessary. It is necessary in order to reduce the tensions and reestablish collegial bonds. This separation will formalize what already exists in practice. Though we may find ourselves in different jurisdictions, it is vital that we part in a spirit of generosity and Christian love. Above all, we must recognize that we are children of God struggling to understand God's call to each of us.

We ask your continuing prayers as we serve as your Bishops, praying that the Holy Ghost may guide us as we make decisions that enable us to serve God's people in the particular places where we have been called.

+Brian

+Daren

+Stephen

Also from the website of the Anglican Church in America...

'...I would like to inform you that the Anglican Church in America shall remain as a continuing Anglican church. Notwithstanding what you may have heard, this church is not going to collapse or disappear. It will, by the Grace of God, continue its important and essential witness as part of God's holy church.

Second, we would like to advise you as to the situation in the Diocese of the Eastern United States which has been the one diocese most gravely affected by what has happened.

As all of you may know, the Bishop of this DEUS has elected to abandon his diocese when the diocese refused to go to the Roman Catholic Ordinariate. Of the twenty-five parishes and missions in the diocese, approximately ten parishes and missions have elected to remain with this church. These ten parishes and missions, effectively abandoned by Bishop Campese, will form the nucleus of a new diocese. While the majority of the parishes and missions chose to go with Bishop Campese, the majority of the laity has elected to remain with the diocese. Bishop Campese brought a number of missions into the diocese in the eighteen (18) months prior to leaving the diocese. We have chosen to stay together, to remain with the ACA, and should shortly be conducting a search for a new bishop...'

The Eucharistic Presence

Our Lord's proclamation of the truth of the Real Objective Presence in Saint John chapter 6 is certainly not symbolical or metaphorical, and He is not speaking in figurative terms, as the context of the Scripture makes clear. In our day, when a significant percentage of American Roman Catholics do not believe in the Real Objective Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and probably an even greater percentage of Anglicans (at least of the evangelical variety) doubt and struggle with this divine truth, I think it is better to emphasise the corporeal and incarnational dimension of the Eucharistic Presence rather than place emphasis on the more symbolic or representative aspects of the Eucharistic Mystery: one can never affirm or assert too strongly the fact that the Blessed Sacrament is Jesus Christ, a Divine Thing, the glorified Body and Blood of Christ under the consecrated elements of bread and wine, so that the fullness of Our Lord's human nature, as well as His Divinity, is present in the form of the sacred species, in an abiding and permanent way after Consecration. We should reject as contrary to Holy Tradition the doctrine of memorialism, which makes the Eucharist a mere mental psychological act of remembrance devoid of presence and grace, and the doctrine of virtualism, which holds that only the believing faithful receive the subjective grace or power of the Body and Blood through the elements, but not the Thing Itself objectively present in the elements. Historically, Anglicanism has, at sundry times, been confused by these two insufficient doctrines on the Eucharistic Presence, and it is up to us to clarify the biblical and patristic truth for our own tradition.

Since the Reformation, Anglicans have insisted, with the consensus of the early Fathers, Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, Saint Theodore of Mopsuestia and Saint Theophylact especially amongst them, that the materiality of the Bread and Wine remains in its original physical state after Eucharistic Consecration, but that to it is joined by Consecration the supernatural totality of the Incarnate God-Man, by a 'hypostatic union,' a Personal Union extending the Incarnation, a sacramental unity of the outward and visible sign with the Divine Thing, Our Lord, Who is signified and contained in the sign. The Holy Ghost, through the Consecration of the Mass, effects a sacramental change, an ontological change, in the forms of bread and wine on a supernatural metaphysical level, so that the outward forms become the Spirit-filled Body and Blood of Christ in an 'immaterial' but essential manner. The Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist are the Body and Blood of His mighty Resurrection and glorious Ascension, a spiritual Body vivified by the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 15.44). The afore-described doctrine is plainly laid out in the Prayer Book Catechism, the Prayer Book Offices of Instruction and in the Prayer Book Eucharistic Liturgy, as well as Articles of Religion XXVIII and XXIX. All communicants receive the outward and visible Sign and the Thing Signified; only the faithful receive the Benefit or virtue of the Sacrament, as the wicked receive not benefit but condemnation (I Corinthians 11.27-29). We do indeed need to be careful about Eucharistic language, so as to avoid on one hand a monophysiticism wherein the elements are believed to be destroyed and absorbed into Christ, and a Nestorianism often found in Calvinism and 'reformed' protestantism on the other, wherein the sign is divorced and entirely separated from the Divine Reality.

Saint Irenaeus says, 'in the Eucharist there is an earthly thing and an heavenly thing,' hence, the outward signs of Bread and Wine and the Thing Signified, the Body and Blood of Our Lord. Other Fathers describe the Eucharist as the prolongation of the Incarnation, a Mystery like an iron thrust into the fire - the iron does not lose its own properties or reality, but it takes on the reality and properties of the fire. Both remain complete in themselves and yet are perfectly united, and each takes on the property of the other: True God and True Man in the Incarnation, earthly elements and the Person of Christ in the Eucharist. The consecrated Elements are not destroyed, but elevated, not replaced, but perfected into a new Thing. Grace builds upon nature, and does not destroy, but perfects, nature. Our Lord is incarnated in the sacramental species, mystically present. I say all of this to concur with what many authors basically teach about the Real Presence, while carefully governing how we would assert that same truth in language consistent with the Scriptures and Fathers. Eucharistic miracles are just that, miracles, like the Real Presence itself, beyond our intellectual explanation and understanding.

That there is 1. a supernatural, glorified, metaphysical yet corporeal (of a Body) Presence of Our Lord's Incarnate Person in the Eucharist, the Risen and Exalted Lord, and 2. a Change in the Eucharistic Elements upon Consecration, is beyond doubt for all Catholic Christians; but as Anglicans we believe we cannot attempt dogmatically to define the exact manner of the Presence or the process of how the Presence comes about at Mass without adding to the Catholic Faith. We cannot rationally explain the inexplicable or define the indefinable. The Real Presence is Mystical - the ultimate Holy Mystery. The Presence is more real than that found in our own material physical plane, but it is not material and physical as understood in the limited field of our empirical experience.

Saint Charles, King and Martyr

On 30th January 1649, Saint Charles Stuart I of England was martyred - he died to save the English Church, the English Liturgy and the English Succession of Apostolic Faith and Order. Let us gratefully REMEMBER before Almighty God the witness, life and sacrifice of England's Martyr King.

BLESSED Lord, in whose sight the death of thy Saints is precious; We magnify thy name for the abundant grace bestowed upon our martyred Sovereign Charles; by which he was enabled so cheerfully to follow the steps of his blessed Master and Saviour, in a constant meek suffering of all barbarous indignities, and at last resisting unto blood; and even then, according to the same pattern, praying for his murderers. Let his memory, O Lord, be ever blessed among us, that we may follow the example of his courage and constancy, his meekness and patience, and great charity. And grant, that this our land may be freed from the vengeance of his righteous blood, and thy mercy glorified in the forgiveness of our sins, and all for Jesus Christ's sake, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

Saint Charles, King and Martyr, pray for us!

To Life!

In commemoration of today's March for Life and for the restoration of reverence for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death in our country and culture...

O MERCIFUL Father, whose face the angels of thy little ones do always behold in heaven; Grant us stedfastly to believe that these thy children hath been taken into the safe keeping of thine eternal love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

ALMIGHTY and merciful Father, who dost grant to children an abundant entrance into thy kingdom; Grant us grace so to conform our lives to their innocency and perfect faith, that at length, united with them, we may stand in thy presence in fulness of joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O GOD, whose most dear Son did take little children into his arms and bless them; Give us grace, we beseech thee, to entrust the souls of these children to thy neverfailing care and love, and bring us all to thy heavenly kingdom; through the same thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Pastoral Letter of the Bishops of the Mission Society of Saint Wilfrid and Saint Hilda

We write as bishops within the Church of England, who seek both to maintain and promote its Catholic heritage, believing that this demands maintaining the ministry of bishops, priests and deacons in a manner consistent with the tradition of the Church, East and West. We address all those, ordained and lay, who look to us at this time for pastoral guidance.

In July 2010 the General Synod of the Church of England took yet another decisive step in the direction of enacting legislation that would make it possible for women to be admitted to the episcopate. At the same time General Synod declined to make any appropriate provision that would satisfy the consciences of those of us who cannot accept that such ordinations would be a legitimate development in the life of the Church. Some have already decided that they can no longer remain within the Church of England. We genuinely wish them Godspeed as, heeding the call of conscience, they embark on a new episode in their Christian discipleship. We, too, in similar obedience to conscience, seek, if at all possible, to remain faithful members of the Church of England and undertake to support all who seek to do likewise.

Even at this late hour we are seeking a way forward that would enable us with integrity to retain such membership. We are passionate in our commitment to the mission of the Church of England and urgently seek a settlement through which we would be free to play our part to the fullest measure. We believe this could be done by the formation of a society within the Church of England, overseen by bishops committed to our viewpoint. Such bishops would need, of course, the necessary ordinary jurisdiction that would enable them to be the true pastors of their people and to be guarantors of the sacramental assurance on which we all depend for our authentic sharing within the Body of Christ. Given that our parishes are also constituent parts of local dioceses we also understand that some way would have to be identified for sharing jurisdiction with the diocesan bishop. We understand it to be something of this nature that our archbishops were trying to achieve in their ill-fated amendment at the July meeting of the General Synod. That amendment, though narrowly defeated in the House of Clergy, was widely supported elsewhere in the Synod and, indeed, a majority of members supported it. It might well be that a revisiting of the archbishops’ proposals, with some further development of them, could still help our Church to find a way forward that enabled us all to remain faithful members of it.

To this end we have set about forming ‘The Society’. It is under the patronage of Saint Wilfrid and Saint Hilda. Two of our number, the Bishops of Blackburn and of Gibraltar in Europe, have agreed to serve as episcopal protectors of The Society. The Bishop of Beverley will be the co-ordinating bishop. We are still in the process of giving more substance to its constitution. It may well be that the latter cannot be finally resolved until we know whether or not the House of Bishops and then the General Synod will be prepared to build further on our initiative. You can find more details as to our thinking by visiting The Society’s website. Many have already enrolled as prospective members of The Society and we now encourage all who support us to do so. We need to discover whether such a way forward commands the support of those who look to us for guidance. If that were to be so then it would be good to demonstrate to the wider Church just how many of its members need such provision in order to remain faithful members of it.

We do not want to build up false hopes. Every attempt we have made so far to persuade the Church of England to make the kind of provision that would enable us in good conscience to remain within its fellowship has been thwarted. We feel, nevertheless, duty bound, once again to seek a way out of the impasse that otherwise would make it impossible for many of us to remain faithful members of our Church. We recognise the huge change of heart that would need to happen for us to succeed. We ask you to pray fervently that such a change of heart might take place and encourage you to support us by enrolling in The Society.

+ Nicholas Blackburn
+ John Cicestr
+ Geoffrey Gibraltar
+Martyn Beverley
+John Burnley
+Peter Edmonton
+Mark Horsham
+John Plymouth
+Anthony Pontefract
+Martin Whitby
+Lindsay Urwin
+Robert Ladds

The Preface of the Anglican Ordinal

THE PREFACE.

IT is evident unto all men, diligently reading Holy Scripture and ancient Authors, that from the Apostles' time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church,—Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. Which Offices were evermore had in such reverend estimation, that no man might presume to execute any of them, except he were first called, tried, examined, and known to have such qualities as are requisite for the same; and also by public Prayer, with Imposition of Hands, were approved and admitted thereunto by lawful Authority. And therefore, to the intent that these Orders may be continued, and reverently used and esteemed in this Church, no man shall be accounted or taken to be a lawful Bishop, Priest, or Deacon, in this Church, or suffered to execute any of the said Functions, except he be called, tried, examined, and admitted thereunto, according to the Form hereafter following, or hath had Episcopal Consecration or Ordination.

The Sinlessness of Christ

Our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, is free from all sin, original and actual, because of his Virginal Conception and Birth by the operation of the Holy Ghost in the womb of Blessed Mary. Our Lord is completely free from original sin because original or ancestral sin is transmitted by normal human procreation and reproduction: the mortality and corruption of our wounded nature, alienated and separated from God, is passed from generation to generation by sexual reproduction and by birth into a corrupted and fallen world. By the Holy Ghost, Christ is given a totally new and renovated human nature in the virginal womb of Mary, for there is no sexual reproduction or generation in His human conception and birth. The Fathers of the Church refer to Mary as the New Garden of Eden - in the first garden, man was created free from sin, innocent, and capable of natural communion with God. Only because of the Fall of Man did the human race lose this natural state of union with God and the capacity for growth into the divine likeness, for God-likeness, theosis. Mary is the New Eve, a Virgin, who gives birth to the New Adam, the New Man, Who assumes human nature without the consequences or effect or power of sin.

Jesus Christ is the New Creation, Who was given a newly-created human nature without human seed. Thus, Christ re-creates, re-forms, re-generates, restores and renews human nature through His Virginal Conception, a Conception free from sin because there is no human father. Human nature was given a radically new start in Our Lady's body. Our Lord is truly, fully and completely human, but His humanity is like that of Adam in the original creation, pure, innocent, free from corruption, mortality, death and evil. It is precisely because Our Lord is the New Man, the Second Man, the Second Adam Who is the Lord from Heaven, that we can be saved: he imparts His new humanity, His new Manhood to us in the Sacraments. The Hypostatic Union, the union of the Person of God the Son to His perfect human nature, is Christ's gift of Himself to us in the Church and Sacraments - the Body of Christ in heaven, the Body of Christ in the Church, and the Body of Christ in the Sacraments are one and the same Body. In Baptism, we are plunged into His saving human nature and made one with His immaculate and all-holy Body; we are made members of His new humanity by being joined to Him in His Incarnation, Life, Death and Resurrection. In the Eucharist, the new life of grace, the Life of Christ's Human Nature in us, is nourished and replenished by His own Body and Blood, the substance of His new humanity. What is mystically infused into us at Baptism is empowered and intensified through Eucharistic Communion. And through union with Christ's human nature, we are united to and partake of His divine nature. We become by grace what God is by nature - God becomes Man so that Man may become God. 'Only what God assumed does He redeem' says the Church Fathers: so Our Lord assumed a true human body, mind, will and soul, perfectly human and totally like our own, with the exception of sin. The Blessed Virgin Mary did not transmit any sin, original or actual, to Our Lord because she did not conceive Him and give birth to Him in the natural way, but miraculously, supernaturally, through an act in which her Virginity was preserved before, during and after His miraculous conception and birth. The Virginal Conception and Birth are necessary for our salvation, for without these acts Our Lord would have inherited the original sin common to fallen humanity. But through the Virgin Birth, Christ offers to the whole of mankind that which by nature he cannot have, a human nature free from sin and united to God.

Our Lord's Baptism, as Blessed Lancelot Andrewes says, following the Fathers, is not a Baptism in which Christ is forgiven of sins, for Christ is perfectly sinless, but a Baptism in which Christ Himself hallows the water of our Baptism. He is baptised to identify Himself with sinful humanity as man's sole Redeemer, to show that He is truly human; He is baptised to manifest and reveal Himself as the Eternal Son of God in human flesh, the God Incarnate in true human nature; He is baptised to set the pattern for the Christian Sacrament of Holy Baptism; and He is baptised to reveal the Holy Trinity, the Father speaks, the Spirit descends in the form of a dove, and the Son stands in our human nature, anointed by the Holy Ghost in His human nature as the Messiah. Our Lord sanctifies the water for our own Baptism; it does not sanctify Him. Our Lord was baptised 'to fulfill all righteousness' and to become the model for our own Baptism into Him.

The Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles

‘Those who once worshipped the stars are now led by a star to worship thee, the Sun of Righteousness, and to follow thee, the Orient on High.’ This beautiful prayer from the ancient Byzantine rite refers to the wondrous mystery of our orthodox faith which we celebrate on 6^th January, the Epiphany, or as the Prayer Book describes it, the Manifestationof Christ to the Gentiles. This feast declares the self-revelation of God in the Person of Jesus Christ, the eternal Sonof God, the only-begotten Word of the Father. Jesus is the Light of the world; He is the Life and Light of men (St John 8.12, St John 12.36, St John 1.9). The Catholic Creed professes Him ‘Light of Light.’ Jesus Christ, the Lord of the universe, of Jews, of Gentiles, of all creation, shines upon a world darkened by death and sin. He comes to set the world alight with the brilliance of His divine power, presence and resurrection.

What is the significance of the title of this feast as provided in the Book of Common Prayer? The Jewish Messiah of Israel, the Promised One of the elect covenant people, reveals Himself as the universal Saviour of the whole human race, the redeemer of creation and Head and Author of the new created order and the new redeemed human family, the Church. He shows the Gentiles, those races and nations originally outside the covenant, that they are now called to the fullness of divine life and salvation. Some contemporary Christians are tempted simply to think of Our Lord as though He were Himself a Gentile – but not so – it is as the Jewish Messiah that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, the Davidic Priest-King, the fulfillment, completion and personification of Israel, comes to bring the Gentiles into communion with God in the fellowship of the one Body (Ephesians 2.11-22).

The word epiphano in the koinetic Greek means ‘to shine forth, manifest, reveal, illuminate, cast light upon.’ From it, we garner the English term ‘Epiphany.’

In the Sacred Scriptures and according to the Holy and Apostolic Tradition, there are at least three principal Epiphanies or manifestations of the Lord Jesus as the Eternal and Incarnate Word. Our Prayer Book liturgy will dwell on each in the weeks to come:

1. Specifically, on the Feast of the Epiphany itself, we celebrate on 6th January the Visit of the Magi (St Matthew 2.1-12). The number of three Magi is not identified in the New Testament; rather, the key number is only given by Tradition. Magi, or the Wise Men, were Persian astrologers and students of the sky, observers of natural phenomena and rulers of the people. They are the representatives of the Gentile world who come to adore the new-born King of all men. The three royal Sages from the East, Melchior, Balthasar and Gaspar in Tradition, manifest the three major races of man; they represent the whole of mankind, European, African, Asian. The ethne or Gentile nations, personified in the wise men, come to obey and worship their Lord and the King of all. Saint Hilary of Poitiers, an eminent Church Father of the West, interprets the holy gifts offered to Christ by the Three Kings:

• Gold: for the honour of royalty, gold shows forth Christ as King of the Universe and of the Gentiles.
• Frankincense: incense is always used in the Old and New Testaments in the worship of the Most High God, representing Deity, Divinity.
• Myrrh: a spice used for burial, it symbolises the Death, Burial and Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Who is King, God and Sacrifice: Our Lord is the crucified and risen God, the Messiah-King.

2. The Baptism of Christ – Our Own Baptism: In the Epiphany of His Baptism, Christ is manifested, revealed as the Messiah, and anointed with the Holy Ghost in His humanity as the Incarnate Son. In being baptised, the God-Man also sanctifies the water of our own Baptism into Him. Christian Baptism is our Illumination in the Eternal Son.Christ’s Baptism is, as well, the first pivotal manifestation of God as Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The Voice is that of the Father, the Son is baptised and revealed in His human nature, and the Spirit is seen as the dove descending on Christ (St Matthew 3.13-17, St Mark 1.9-12, St Matthew 28.16-20).

3. Cana of Galilee – the Eucharistic Sign: The Epiphany of Our Lord’s first miracle is recorded in Saint John’s Gospel (St John 2.1-11). Christ turns water into wine, which miracle or sign is an icon, image, of the august marvel and sacramental Sign of the Holy Eucharist, wherein Christ continually transforms bread and wine into His most precious Body and Blood. The Real Objective Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is an everlasting Epiphany, one which enlightens and nourishes us and makes us One Body and Blood with Him. ‘This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.’

There are, in fact, many Epiphanies of Jesus Christ in salvation history, and especially today. The Holy Catholic Church of Christ is the great Sacrament of the Lord and perpetually manifests Him in creation. The Church, Christ’s Mystical Body, is His epiphany still. All Seven Sacraments of the Church are a continual epiphany of Christ, a signification and manifestation of His power and grace. In the Church, we mystically join with the Magi and worship the new-born King, our Priest and Messiah. We unite ourselves with them in offering our lives to the true God. Our Blessed Lord has epiphanied Himself to mankind so that we, joined to Him, may manifest, presence, reveal our Saviour to others. The Christian vocation of one who has put on Christ (Galatians 3.27) is to shine forth the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (II Corinthians 4.6), to radiate in a benighted world with the divine Sun of Righteousness.

We are summoned to enlighten the whole of this cosmos with the divine light of the love of Christ. Jesus is the Light, and like Saint John the Baptist, we must ‘bear witness of the Light’ (St John 1.7). We are called to epiphany Jesus to the world in which we live and to the people we encounter. Baptised, Confirmed, Eucharistic, fully-initiated and illuminated Christians are the modern epiphanies of Christ, conformed to His Image and made in His glorious likeness by grace. We are the ultimate Epiphany of Christ. As filii in Filio, the sons in the Son, let us resolve to epiphany the Epiphany, and epiphanise the Lord!

May the Lord of glory, Jesus, the bright Splendour of the Father, bless you and all you love during this holy Epiphany season!

+Chad

A Continuing Anglican Manifesto

In light of recent news, from the reception of three Church of England bishops into the Roman Communion, to the apparent return of an Anglican priest to our fellowship from the Roman Church, let us begin this New Year of grace and of our salvation 2011 with a meditation on the nature of 'more, not mere Anglicanism'. What is it exactly that Continuing Anglicans really believe, and what has compelled them to remain so immovable in their commitments and beliefs?

Please note that this reflection expresses my personal views on matters ecclesiastical, and that it is not intended to be a comprehensive statement on all things ecclesial, but rather, a specific review addressing some particular issues in orthodox Anglicanism currenty challenged by non-Anglican writers in the blogosphere...

• We believe that of all vocations offered by the Lord to man, the gift of the sacramental hierarchical priesthood is most sacred and precious.
• We believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ has given the Anglican Church, of His mercy and goodness, the one priesthood of His Church, by unbroken Apostolic Succession of Faith and Order.
• We believe the Ecclesia Anglicana possesses the fullness of the Catholic Faith of the ancient undivided Church of the first millennium, and to be, in essence, Western Orthodoxy.
• We love and cherish our Anglican heritage because we affirm it is, in a special way and proven so to be by historical, theological and supernatural evidence, a true Church of the Apostles and Fathers.
• We affirm that Anglicanism, as represented in the Continuing Churches, lives still, a pure form of historical yet renewed catholicism.
• We believe our distinctive branch of the One Church faithfully preserves and employs the divine Scriptures, the ancient and universal Creeds, the seven holy Sacraments and Christ’s male threefold Apostolic Ministry, and utilises of all liturgical rites in Christendom the most sublime in the Book of Common Prayer.
• We believe Anglicanism has no faith or order of her own, only the faith and order of the Undivided Church as shared by all orthodox Christians in the first thousand years of our corporate history.
• We believe that the Anglican Liturgy, our teaching office, and the historic Anglican formularies entirely match the criteria required by the Canon of Saint Vincent of Lerins for orthodoxy: our faith and practice are based on the universal and ancient Tradition of the Church and catholic consent.
• We believe the Anglican Church extends the divine Life of Christ to all men in the beauty of holiness.
• We believe ours is a Church faithful to the Great, Holy and Apostolic Tradition, by which Spirit-guided Tradition the Holy Scriptures are rightly understood and interpreted.
• We believe that the Church is the Body of Christ and the prolongation and extension of the Incarnation, and we trust God has called us as Anglicans to share in bringing salvation to mankind, and to participate in Christ’s action of making men holy.
• We are totally committed to the orthodox dogmas of the Seven Ecumenical Councils, to the depositum fidei which is transmitted and treasured by the genuine Anglican Tradition.
• We believe the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar is Jesus Christ Himself, His objectively-present and abiding Body and Blood under the converted form of bread and wine, given for the remission of sins and eternal life; that the Mass is the sacramental re-presentation of Calvary; that grace is objectively conveyed in the sacraments; that the grace of sacramental absolution is given through the priesthood; and that prayer for the faithful departed is fruitful and powerful.
• We believe that in Anglicanism Our Lord Jesus Christ perpetually exercises the sacramental gifts, mission and authority of His priesthood, through the preaching of the Word of God written and the ministration of the Holy Sacraments.
• We believe the dominical Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion are generally necessary for the salvation of all men; that the five other sacraments are true means of grace; that the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God and contain all things required as necessary for eternal salvation through the faith and grace of Jesus Christ; and that nothing should be required as an Article of the Faith or necessary unto salvation but that which may be proved by the Holy Scriptures.
• We believe Christ continues in His Church, in persona Christi capitis, the priestly office and work of offering the Eucharistic Sacrifice and administering the True Body and Blood of Our Lord to the faithful, baptising and confirming men into His Body, blessing, witnessing marriages, absolving the penitent, anointing the sick, catechising the young and old alike, ministering pastorally to the faithful, and teaching, sanctifying, and governing the people of God in the local parish and in each Diocese and Province.
• We believe we possess full sacramental communion with the One Catholic and Apostolic Church of the ages, and the gift of the orthodox and historic Anglican episcopate, wherein nothing is lacking for the full living of the Faith of the Church.
• We believe the absolute axiom of catholic ecclesiology and theology which dictates that the Clergy rightly and canonically function when in communion with the episcopos, who sits in the Apostles’ chair, succeeding in the Apostolic line and commission, and, as St Ignatius of Antioch states, functioning as the ‘image of God the Father.’
• We agree with St Ignatius, who describes the microcosm or fullness of God’s Church as the local Eucharistic assembly, with the bishop, the father-in-God, celebrating the holy mysteries at the family Table, surrounded by his priests and deacons who assist him, and by the whole people of God, who, in communion with him, join with him in mystically offering the Lord’s Sacrifice: the Church is a Communion of Eucharistic Communions.
• We believe the Church is God’s Family, the household of the faith and the household of God, the Bride of Christ, and the Ark and unique home and sphere of grace and salvation, the dwelling-place of the Holy Ghost Who sanctifies the Church and her members.
• We believe in justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and in the necessary cooperation and correspondence with grace in the believer through the operation of the Holy Ghost for sanctification and salvation.
• We believe that the sole Head of the Universal Church is her Divine Head, the Lord Jesus, and that the Church is totus Christus, Head and members together in One Body.
• We believe that all Bishops are true Successors of the Holy Apostles, possess the Power of the Keys to bind and loose, transmit by the laying-on-of-hands that same ordination conferred by Our Lord on the Apostles, and receive from Our Lord equal spiritual power, as did the Twelve, by His institution and commission.
• We believe the Church is the Divine Society, the divinely-appointed steward of the mysteries of God, bound in unity by the Apostolic Succession of doctrine and ministry.
• We believe the Anglican Church to be a duly-constituted jurisdiction of that Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head and all baptised persons are the members, a graced vineyard of the Lord in which we may labour for the Kingdom of God and the spread of the Gospel of Christ.
• We are the original 'Catholics of the Anglican Rite', in union with Holy Mother Church through her Anglican expression, whereby nothing needful for grace and truth is deficient.
• We believe in the Communion of Saints, the Church Triumphant, Expectant and Militant, and in the due honour and efficacious prayers, virtues and examples of Our Lady Saint Mary, the Mother of God, and of all the whole company of Heaven.

God bless you!

A Blessed Christ-Mass!

May the Lord Jesus grant all of you, my dear friends, a truly blessed, happy and holy Nativity of the Saviour! Merry Christmas! And remember, let us put MASS back in Christ-Mass!

Christmas Masses at Saint Barnabas Dunwoody

The Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Eve, Friday 24th December
Sung Mass, 7pm
Sung Mass with incense (Missa Cantata), 11pm

The Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Day, Saturday 25th December
Sung Mass, 10am

Saint Stephen, Deacon and Martyr, Sunday 26th December
Low Mass, 9am
Sung Mass, 11am

Please join us if you are in the metropolitan Atlanta area!

God bless you and Happy Christmas!

Anniversary of Priestly Ordination

On Saturday 21st December 1996, I was, by the mercy and grace of God, ordained to the Sacred Order of Priests in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church by the Most Reverend John Thayer Cahoon Junior at Saint Paul's Anglican Catholic Church in Lexington, Virginia. Of your Christian charity, pray for me and my priestly ministry, and pray for the repose of the soul of Bishop John, who entered life eternal in 2001.

To live in the midst of the world without wishing its pleasures; to be a member of each family, yet belonging to one; to share all sufferings; to penetrate all secrets; to heal all wounds; to go from men to God and offer Him their prayers; to return from God to men to bring pardon and hope; to have a heart of fire for charity and a heart of bronze for chastity; to teach and to pardon; console and bless always. My God, what a life! And it is yours, O Priest of Jesus Christ!

Once in Royal David's City

My eldest son, Chandler Aidan Baskwill Jones, offering the first verse of Once in Royal David's City at the beginning of Nine Lessons and Carols on Sunday 19th December 2010 at Saint Barnabas Church. This was his liturgical music debut!

The Real Meaning of Christmas

Christmas by John Betjeman

The bells of waiting Advent ring,
The Tortoise stove is lit again
And lamp-oil light across the night
Has caught the streaks of winter rain
In many a stained-glass window sheen
From Crimson Lake to Hookers Green.

The holly in the windy hedge
And round the Manor House the yew
Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,
The altar, font and arch and pew,
So that the villagers can say
'The church looks nice' on Christmas Day.

Provincial Public Houses blaze,
Corporation tramcars clang,
On lighted tenements I gaze,
Where paper decorations hang,
And bunting in the red Town Hall
Says 'Merry Christmas to you all'.

And London shops on Christmas Eve
Are strung with silver bells and flowers
As hurrying clerks the City leave
To pigeon-haunted classic towers,
And marbled clouds go scudding by
The many-steepled London sky.

And girls in slacks remember Dad,
And oafish louts remember Mum,
And sleepless children's hearts are glad.
And Christmas-morning bells say 'Come!'
Even to shining ones who dwell
Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.

And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window's hue,
A Baby in an ox's stall ?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me ?

And is it true ? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant,

No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare -
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.

Tradition inspires young ‘Bishop Chad’ at Dunwoody’s St. Barnabas

By Joe Earle
joeearle @ reporternewspapers . net

Bishop Chandler “Chad” Jones is rector of St. Barnabas Anglican Church in Dunwoody.

He’s widely known simply as “Bishop Chad,” but don’t let the informality confuse you.

It’s not a sign of his youth, even though at age 39, he is the youngest Anglican bishop in the country.

No, Bishop Chandler “Chad” Jones is quick to say he’s a traditionalist. Tradition is what attracted him to the Anglican church in the first place.

“I consider myself a younger embodiment of that which has gone before,” he said recently during an interview in his office at St. Barnabas Anglican Church in Dunwoody. “An embodiment, and a living out, of tradition. I consider myself a person of tradition.”

Jones started out, however, not as an Anglican traditionalist, but as a Southern Baptist. He grew up in the small town of Elkin, N.C., in a Baptist family. He switched to the Episcopal Church as a teenager. He said he “read my way into it” after he discovered works by authors such as C.S. Lewis in the public library. He’s still a reader — a copy of “Wolf Hall,” a historical novel about 16th centuryEngland, sat on his desk recently.

While in college, Jones joined the Anglican church, which had split from the Episcopal church. He found the splinter group’s approach more in keeping with the traditions he admired.

The Anglicans split from the larger Episcopal church in the in the 1970s because they believed the American version of the denomination had become too liberal and strayed too far from its original teachings, members say. The Anglicans don’t recognize women priests, and the sign outside St. Barnabas states that the congregation adheres to the 1928 version of the Book of Common Prayer.

St. Barnabas organized in 1979, said Marguerite Harvey, one of its founders. There were only 13 members in the congregation then, she said. Now there are about 450.

The congregation originally met in member’s homes, gathering in their living rooms, she said. As it grew, the congregation called in a priest. It found it needed larger spaces for services, moving to a bank’s community meeting room, then to a hotel conference room and then to the meeting space in a DeKalb County women’s club.

In the early 1990s, the congregation purchased a former Presbyterian church building in Dunwoody. The building, at 4795 New Peachtree Road, happened to be next to St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church. “We moved in next door,” Jones said.

Despite the tangled history of their denominations, the two churches have gotten along well, Jones and Harvey said. They cooperate on ministries, such as the food pantry, Harvey said. “We have coexisted very peaceably,” Harvey said.

Jones moved to St. Barnabas from Florida in 2007 and became the church’s rector, or chief priest, in 2009. “We liked everything about him,” Harvey said. “He was young, he was active and full of spirit.”

She calls Jones “a wonderful scholar” and says he knows his subjects and speaks well. “He know his Bible up and down because he was raised a Southern Baptist,” she said.

Jones is the third bishop to serve at St. Barnabas. The other two were already bishops when they arrived at the church, Harvey said. One, Robert Harvey, became her husband, she said.

Jones formally was elevated Sept. 18 to bishop of the Diocese of the Eastern United States of the Anglican Province of America. He is now one of four active Anglican bishops in the country. As a bishop, he continues to minister to the congregation, but also serves as an adviser to other priests.

So, what did he do when he was consecrated a bishop? “I went to Ruth’s Chris Steak House with the [other] bishop and my family,” he said. “And the next day, I went to work. I didn’t go to Disney World, I went to Daytona Beach.”

From the Dunwoody, Georgia Crier

Jones consecrated a bishop
Tuesday, November 30, 2010 4:28 PM EST

Rev. Chandler H. (“Chad”) Jones, rector of St. Barnabas Anglican Church in Dunwoody, was consecrated as a Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of the Eastern United States, of the Anglican Province of America. The consecration took place in a ceremony at St. Alban’s Cathedral in Oveido, Fla., and was attended by an estimated 300 persons, in addition to 31 clergy. “I feel profoundly humbled and honored to have been elected to lead the faithful,” said Jones. “As bishop I pray for divine guidance as I shepherd Christ’s flock.” Jones, a noted preacher, teacher and scholar, will continue to serve as Rector of St. Barnabas, where he is assisted by Father Paul Rivard. The bishop, who is 39 years old, is the youngest bishop in the American Anglican Province. He is pictured at the consecration service, surrounded by his family, wife Megan, and Owain, Mailli and Aidan.

Saint George's Anglican Church, Baghdad

Inside St. George's - Baghdad from FRRME on Vimeo.

Support the Christians of Iraq

Please pray for the persecuted Christians of Iraq and indeed please urge your Congressmen to pass the proposed resolution noted below: in particular, Anglicans, who sponsored the Mission of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Assyrian Church of the East at the beginning of the twentieth century, should stand in solidarity with our bothers and sisters of the Assyrian, Syriac and Chaldean Christian traditions in Iraq, as they face at this very moment what is possibly the worst persecution in their venerable 2,000 year history.

The United States Conference of [Roman] Catholic Bishops urged Congress on Nov. 29 to pass a resolution condemning religious violence in Iraq, and insisting on better protection for Christians and other minority faiths.

Two representatives of the conference, Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles and Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany in New York, wrote to the sponsors of House Resolution 1725, in their respective positions as the national chairmen for migration and social justice. They commended the seven sponsors of House Resolution 1725, and called for the act's immediate passage.

Rep. Chris Smith (R – N.J.), a [Roman] Catholic and an outspoken advocate for international religious freedom, introduced the resolution along with six co-sponsors from both the Republican and Democratic parties. The proposal follows a wave of attacks targeting Iraqi Christians this fall, the worst of which left over 50 worshipers dead at Baghdad's Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation on Oct. 31.

Several Iraqi Christians now living in the U.S.--including a board member of the international charity Iraqi Christians In Need, and a former seminary professor of two priests killed at Our Lady of Salvation– have told CNA that the government is not doing enough to stop an epidemic of violence that has forced more than half of the country's Christians to flee.

Although Rep. Smith voted in favor of the American invasion of Iraq –which Pope John Paul II warned would destabilize the region and lead to sectarian violence– he has also demonstrated a willingness to speak out against cases of abuse or negligence by the ruling Iraqi government. Last year, he co-sponsored a resolution condemning Iraqi security forces' attacks on a group of Iranian refugees.

Archbishop Gomez and Bishop Hubbard praised Rep. Smith's introduction of HR 1725, as a means to “focus attention on the situation of the vulnerable religious communities in Iraq.” They particularly appreciated its call for a “comprehensive plan” to prevent religious persecution, and to increase the representation of Christians and other minority groups in Iraq's government.

The bishops described the attack at Our Lady of Salvation, along with other assaults intended to drive Iraqi Christians from their homes and businesses, as “horrific reminders of the appalling lack of security that has condemned many in Iraq to live in fear.” The resolution expresses concern for Iraqi refugees, urging that barriers to their resettlement or return be lifted.

“We sincerely hope that H. Res. 1725 will be adopted quickly by the House of Representatives as we believe it will help improve security for all Iraqis, especially Christians and other vulnerable minorities,” the bishops wrote, noting that the resolution's proposals would help the troubled country achieve peace and address its refugee crisis.

Saints and Canonisation

Q: Do Anglican Churches canonise Saints or have the ability to do so? Do Anglicans recognise the Saints canonised in other catholic Churches?

A: The Anglican and English Missal traditions do recognise as a matter of course the canonisation of Saints by both the Western and Eastern Churches after the period of the Reformation, a number of post-Reformation feast days being included in the Missals. The Missals are an officially authorised worship resource in the APA by virtue of Canon Law, so as a result, the canonisation and veneration of such identified Saints is part of our theological and canonical praxis. It is entirely within the competence of any Catholic and Orthodox jurisdiction to canonise Saints, as we see in the Eastern Orthodox Churches. The Churches of the East canonise Saints according to the careful decision and specific proclamation of particular Holy Synods, the Synods of Bishops in any given jurisdiction. After a number of years of research, study and prayer concerning an individual considered worthy of canonisation, a particular Orthodox jurisdiction has the ability and juridical right to proclaim an individual a Saint, and this happens with some frequency. It is the general custom of Anglican Churches to recognise these Saints, and those also canonised by the Roman Communion and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The 'Branch Theory' allows us to recognise all those holy men and women who have been canonised in other parts of the Holy Catholic Church.

Theoretically, there is nothing in canonical or doctrinal precedent to prevent the Provincial Synod of the APA, or of any other orthodox Anglican Province, from canonising a new Saint, 'canonisation' meaning the commemoration of the recognised worthy at the Altar with a special feast day in the liturgical calendar and special liturgical propers for the celebration of the Mass and Offices, but to my knowledge, no Anglican body has sought so to canonise formally any Saint unique to Anglicanism since 1661, when Saint Charles was officially canonised by the English Church: 26th April 2011 marks the 350th Anniversary of the official Canonisation of Saint Charles Stuart I, King and Martyr, by the Church of England. The closest the Anglican Communion has come since that time to liturgical official canonisation has been the inclusion of various Anglican 'Worthies' in local, regional and national liturgical calendars and Prayer Books. Our Missals, for example, contain feast days for Blessed William Laud, Blessed John Keble, Blessed Edward Pusey, Blessed John Mason Neale, etc., an act tantamount to canonisation without the formal process of a Synod or Convocation authorising it. Lesser Feasts and Fasts, in the orthodox 1963 edition of the American Church, also 'canonised' a large number of Saints from the Undivided Church and the Anglican Communion by giving them proper feast days and Eucharistic propers.

Our practice, as demonstrated in the Missals, is essentially that of the ancient Church, which Church always canonised Saints on a local basis by popular acclamation - the consensus of the local Church; a local Diocese would recognise in one of her own members a person of heroic sanctity and virtue, and would thus begin the practice of invocation of the person in prayer, with the veneration of the place of burial, relics, and sites associated with the person in question: over the course of time, such local veneration, often resulting in miracles, would flower into a more formalised devotion and the most official recognition possible, the holy one then being commemorated in the Liturgy, and the place of his burial and his mortal remains becoming a shrine and place of prayer and pilgrimage. A local Church would simply be compelled to recognise a Saint through popular devotion and 'make it so.' In the Undivided Church, there was no formal or 'bureaucratic' process of canonisation; veneration of an individual was the result of the Saint's life of Christian holiness, witness and example, and the fruit of Christian devotion and the movement of the Holy Spirit in the consensus fidelium of the People of God. So we Anglicans have basically followed the same path, and have slowly and incrementally incorporated particular Saints or Worthies of our own branch of the Catholic Church into our own liturgical calendar as acclamation and recognition have warranted, sometimes with Synodical and juridical action and sometimes without.

On the Sea of Galilee

Bethlehem

Egypt

The Prayer for the Whole State of Christ’s Church

This prayer serves as the ‘Mass intention’ of the Eucharistic Liturgy: it incorporates and expresses the petitions of the Body of Christ, the Church, for which the Eucharist is offered to the Father through Jesus Christ, whose perfect and eternal sacrifice is to be sacramentally re-presented in the Canon, by the power of the Holy Ghost - all in the Church as the royal priestly people of God, who offers to God the Sacrifice of her Head and herself in union with that Head of the Body. We beseech the Father in the Prayer of the Church to accept the oblations of bread and wine, and our own lives, which will be hallowed and transformed in the Prayer of Consecration: bread and wine will be consecrated into Christ’s Body and Blood, and our lives will be changed to bear the New Life in Christ. The oblations, set before the Father in preparation for their consecration into the Blessed Sacrament, are offered to God in sacrificial praise, along with the petitions and prayers of the faithful, and alms to be given to assist all those who need them. In this prayer, a supreme prayer of intercession and petition is offered to God for the needs of His Church by the Church as ‘a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people’ (I Saint Peter 2.9).

This prayer is the first stage in the Eucharist introducing Christ’s own Act of intercession, presented to the Father through His Body in the sacred liturgy, the leitourgia, ‘people-work’ or ‘the work of the people.’ It sublimely summarises all the intentions for which the Eucharistic Sacrifice is offered, as it petitions God for the ‘whole’ or ‘healthy’ state of the Holy Church - that the Church may be secured in unity, holiness and fidelity to Scripture and Tradition, and empowered to present to God fragrant offerings of self-sacrifice, righteousness and love. Into this prayer, Christ’s priestly people enter their own immediate needs, intentions, petitions, and concerns, individual and personal requests of God. Here, intimate sacrifices and desires are lifted to the Throne of Grace, as the Church inserts the personal and individual intercessions of her particular members, and the needs and intercessions of local churches, into the One Great Intercession of Christ, our High Priest, Mediator and Advocate, which will be made-present, pleaded sacramentally, in the Canon. The Eucharist, beginning here, reproduces the mystery described in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 9), as Christ makes present on earth His Eternal Offering.

The Prayer for the Church originates in the ancient Jewish prayers of supplication in the synagogue. The ancient Christian Eucharist named it the ‘Intercession, or Prayer of the Faithful,’ to be recited as either the preface or conclusion of the offertory, in which the holy gifts were prepared by the deacon at the altar. Eventually, this collection of intercessory prayers made its way into the Eucharistic Canon or Prayer of Consecration: in the Eastern Rite, it is located right after the epiklesis, the prayer for the Holy Ghost to consecrate the gifts into Christ’s Body and Blood, and in the traditional Latin Rite it is located after the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy). In the original 1549 English Prayer Book, Archbishop Cranmer placed his newly-composed intercession prayer (our ‘Prayer for the Church’) between the Sanctus and the opening section of the Canon proper (‘All glory be to thee...’), basically in the same location as the old Latin Rite prayer. Bishop Cranmer reconstructed and redesigned the Prayer for the Church, weaving new elements into it and reordering older ones, fashioning a new prayer, based on Scripture, holding fast to the most ancient of prayers and concepts.

In the 1552 English BCP, it was moved to its present position, immediately following the offertory. This change was based on the discovery of the original, primitive arrangement for this prayer as found in the Liturgy of St Justin Martyr (circa AD 150). Bishop Cranmer adjusted his prayer structure accordingly. The 1789 American Prayer Book followed the English 1552 usage, and so have we received it in our 1928 American BCP.

Our prayer follows the order of petitions also found in the Divine Office, the Bidding Prayer and the Litany. Its order is very straightforward. Notice the emphasis on ‘the Word,’ or Holy Scripture, characteristic of the perspective of the English Reformation, which reasserted the centrality and importance of the Bible as the ultimate standard of Church doctrine and morality. The people as well as the clergy are admonished throughout this prayer to teach, hear, receive and believe the content of Holy Writ:

1. Offering of Oblations, Alms and Prayers, with Intercession for the Universal Church: I Timothy 2.1 is quoted as the guiding principle in its opening paragraph.

2. Prayer for Christian Rulers: A prayer only for Christian rulers, and thus a prayer for the Church Catholic and her members, not necessarily intended for secular rulers outside the Flock.

3. Prayer for Bishops and other Ministers: an intercession for those in Holy Orders.

4. Prayer for the People of God in the local parish, and those present at the Eucharist.

5. Prayer for all who suffer or who are in adversity: an intercession for all in need.

6. Prayer for the Dead: an intercession for the Christian departed that they ‘grow’ in the love and service of God in paradise, and that we may follow the examples of the Saints.

7. A Final Doxology: the earthly intercession is united to Jesus’s heavenly High Priesthood.

A note on Prayer for the Dead:

The 1928 American BCP restores the primitive, ancient and venerable practice of praying for the departed, making intercession for the Church Expectant or Church in Paradise. The renewal of such prayer is a recovery of the truth of the Communion of Saints, of the One Family in Heaven and Earth (Ephesians 3.15) in which all who are alive in Christ, quick and dead, are united in one Body, one fellowship of shared life, love, grace and prayer, indestructible even in the face of death - for all who live in Christ are alive to God, both those on earth and those have passed through the veil of death. This One Communion of Saints, of ‘holy ones’ in Christ, possesses in common the One Life of Christ, the One Holy Ghost Who enlivens all, being the Life-Giver, and One heavenly Father - the total reality of the Trinity’s eternal life. The whole Body of Christ is joined and linked together in prayer and intercession, in union with Christ our Head and Priest, so that all generations of the new redeemed humanity, the Church, are essentially one and undivided. All are one in Christ.

This means, practically speaking, that within the Communion of Saints, the Church on earth liturgically intercedes for those who have entered into the Age to Come, as that vast majority of Christians now enjoying the larger life can and does intercede for us still striving in this mortal life. The Communion of Saints exists as a mutual exchange of love and prayer between the saints in paradise and militant Christians still struggling on earth. The Church, from the Apostolic age, has always offered the Eucharist on behalf of the departed, knowing that such prayer, in a way mysterious and unknown to us, benefits the dead. The Holy Sacrifice is pleaded for them, that they may rest in peace, and experience a foretaste of the Heaven we all hope to share - we pray that the Holy Dead may receive a state of light, refreshment and peace in the nearer presence of God.

Prayer for the dead, incorporated into our Eucharistic Liturgy, is a thankful return to the universal and unbroken Tradition of the Apostolic and Primitive Church, and her liturgical worship, which interceded for her faithful dead in the Eucharist as, now, do we. The first 1549 English BCP included both a commemoration of the Saints, offering God ‘most high praise, and hearty thanks, for the wonderful grace and virtue declared in all thy Saints from the beginning of the world...' with a high veneration of Our Lord’s Mother (‘chiefly in the glorious and most blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ our God and Lord’) and an intercession for the faithful departed, who have died with the sign of faith, that they may receive ‘mercy and everlasting peace.’ All reference to the Saints and faithful departed was unhappily expunged from the Prayer Book in its 1552 English edition. Our current prayer is originally based on that of the 1662 English BCP, which restored a commemoration of the departed borrowed from an Injunction Prayer of Queen Elizabeth I written in 1559. But, the 1559/1662 commemoration has no actual petition for the departed, only a grateful remembrance. The 1928 American Prayer Book’s phraseology of intercession for the dead (‘grant them continual growth in thy love and service’) is novel, having no discernible precedent, and is unique to our Liturgy. The 1928 BCP also reintroduced Requiem Mass propers.

The Biblical Texts

‘Let us pray for the whole state of Christ’s Church’ Psalm 122.6, Colossians 1.24
‘Almighty...God, who by thy holy Apostle...’ I Timothy 2.1-2, Philippians 4.6

‘We beseech thee...to accept our alms and oblations, and to receive these our prayers’ II Samuel 16.4, Acts of the Apostles 24.17, Hebrews 13.16, Galatians 6.6, Psalm 20.1-3, Hebrews 6.10, St Matthew 25.40, Psalm 6.9

‘beseeching thee to inspire continually the universal Church with the spirit...’
St Matthew 28.19-20, St John 10.15-16, St John 17.20-21, St John 16.13, Ephesians 4.1-4, St John 13.35

‘And grant that all they that do confess thy holy name may agree...and live...’
Romans 10.9-10, I St John 4.2-3,15, I Corinthians 1.10, Amos 3.3, II Corinthians 13.11, Philippians 2.1-3, Philippians 3.15-16

‘We beseech thee also, so to direct and dispose the hearts of all Christian rulers...’ I Samuel 10.24, Psalm 72.1, I Timothy 2.1-2, Proverbs 11.14, Exodus 18.21-22, Deuteronomy 1.17, Romans 13.3-4, I Peter 2.13-14

‘Give grace, O heavenly Father, to all Bishops and other Ministers...’ Philippians 1.1-2, II Thessalonians 3.1, Ephesians 6.13-19, I Timothy 4.12, Titus 2.7, Psalm 132.9, St Matthew 5.13-16, I Timothy 4.16, II Timothy 2.15, Titus 2.7-8,
Acts of the Apostles 20.28, Acts 7.38, II Timothy 2.7, Jeremiah 3.15, St John 17.17,
St John 6.63, St Matthew 28.19, Acts of the Apostles 8.36-38, Acts 16.31-33,
St Luke 22.8/19, Acts of the Apostles 20.7, I Corinthians 14.26-40

‘And to all thy people give thy heavenly grace...that...they may hear, and receive...’ Psalm 16.1, 119.18-36, Ezekiel 36.27, Acts of the Apostles 10.33, Nehemiah 8.2-5, Revelation 2.11, St James 1.19-21, Deuteronomy 32.46-47, I Thessalonians 2.13

‘...truly serving thee in holiness and righteousness all the days of their life.’
II Timothy 3.16-17, St James 1.22, Romans 6.22, St Luke 1.74-75, Galatians 6.9,
Micah 4.5

‘and we humbly beseech thee of thy goodness...to comfort all those who are in trouble...’ Hebrews 13.3, Psalm 145.9, Psalm 94.19, II Corinthians 1.3-4, Psalm 103.13-17, Psalm 90.5-6, Psalm 144.4, III St John 2, Hebrews 4.15, St Matthew 4.23, Hebrews 2.18, Psalm 94.12-13, Psalm 31.7, St Luke 7.11-15, St John 11

‘And we also bless thy Name for all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear...Grant this, O Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake, our only Mediator and Advocate.’ Job 1.21, Psalm 145.21, Revelation 14.13, Revelation 7.13-17, Hebrews 11.13, Ecclesiastes 8.12, II Timothy 4.7-8, Hebrews 12.1-2, Hebrews 6.12, Hebrews 13.7-8, Hebrews 11.39-40, St Matthew 8.11, Colossians 1.12, II Timothy 4.18,
I Thessalonians 4.14, I Corinthians 15.22, I Timothy 2.5

Pilgrimage to the Holy Land

Your episcopal blogger just returned yesterday afternoon from an astonishing 12-day journey to Israel, Palestine and Egypt, my first visit to the Holy Land: photographs to come with gratitude for everyone's ongoing prayers. God bless you!