Healey Willan at Evensong and Benediction

A glimpse of Healey Willan (1880-1968) accompanying the Anglo-Catholic liturgy of the Church of St Mary Magdalene, Toronto. Recorded live at Vespers and Benediction in 1966.

The Magnificat with Antiphon - (plainsong with Willan fauxbourdons)
Psalm 117 with Antiphon (5:52)
Improvised postlude. (7:16)

Our Lady of Kursk

On Tuesday 15th February 2011, the Feast of the Purification of Our Lady in the Old Calendar, I was delighted and honoured to be invited to venerate the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God at Saint Mary of Egypt Russian Orthodox Church in Roswell, Georgia. This holy icon is considered the most sacred relic in the possession of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, and the devotion to Our Lady of Kursk is one of the most beloved in Russian Orthodoxy: Our Lady of Kursk is to the Russian Church what Our Lady of Walsingham is to Anglicanism. You may read about the devotion here. Let us continue to pray for the restoration of full communion between the Eastern Orthodox and orthodox Anglican Churches.

Video courtesy of the Eastern American Diocese of ROCOR.

Accipe Spiritum Sanctum

Father John Hunwicke provides us this week with a splendid meditation on rites of Episcopal Consecration old and new, and cites the writing of the eminent theologian, canonist and Church historian Cardinal Pietro Gasparri.

Father Hunwicke states: [Gasparri] was writing at a time when the universal opinion was that the Form of Episcopal Consecration was the formula Accipe Spiritum Sanctum, said by the consecrator as he imposed hands... and then quotes the Cardinal.

'Among all these rites which the Roman Pontifical prescribes in Episcopal Consecration, the common opinion is that the Matter is the imposition of the hands of the consecrating bishop (rather, of the consecrating bishops) and the Form is the related words Receive the Holy Spirit.

We think ... that, in the hypothesis of the imposition of the bishop's hands with the Preface alone, without those words Receive the Holy Spirit, the Consecration is valid, just as it was valid in the ancient liturgy; for how could you prove that the Church had taken its consecratory power away from this Prayer?

Equally, in the hypothesis of the imposition of the bishop's hands with those words alone Receive the Holy Spirit, without the Preface, we admit, with the common opinion, that the ordination is valid, since, although those words alone, considered in themselves, are indeterminate and do not sufficiently express the conferring of the episcopal order, nevertheless they are made sufficiently determinate not only by the Preface but by the caeremonia itself without the Preface.'

Cardinal Gasparri's sensible and historically-grounded theological explanation of the form of Episcopal Consecration, had it been applied generously in the deliberations of the Papal Commission of 1896 concerning Anglican Orders, would have likely produced a different result from the said Commission. Good liturgical theology has always recognised the reality of the moral unity of a rite, in which all the varying parts, acts and ceremonies together as an organic whole determine the meaning of the sacramental action. The convoluted and confusing theological method of Apostolicae Curae, shifting as it does from ground to ground in an effort scholastically to pinpoint a defect in the rites of Anglican ordination, could have been cleanly swept away or corrected by the use of Gasparri's historical-liturgical examination of the facts.

In other words, Anglican Orders are valid.

That in this and subsequent ordinations there are found in their fullness those orthodox and indispensable, visible and sensible elements of valid episcopal ordination - viz. the laying on of hands, the Epiclesis of the All-Holy Spirit and also the purpose to transmit the charisma of the Episcopal ministry.

Meletius, Patriarch of Constantinople, 1922

Septuagesima and Pre-Lent

Septuagesima: A funny sounding word that signals the ensuing approach of our Lenten discipline as we embark on the journey known as Pre-Lent, a mini-Lent before Lent, which is designed to ready us and gear us in the direction of the Lenten fast. As children, we might have thought ‘Septuagesima’ probably referred to a laboratory experiment or a very challenging mathematical formula found in algebra books; it actually means ‘Seventy Days before Easter.’ Beginning even now in Pre-Lent, we are mindful of the distant dawn of the Feast of Feasts, the Paschal Mystery of Our Blessed Lord’s Resurrection. By the route of these seventy days, through the Cross of Lent, we emerge victorious from the Tomb in Easter joy with Jesus Christ our Redeemer.

Holy Mother Church in her good pastoral sense recognises that we need preparatory time to adjust to the sometimes jarring painful reality of Lent, its hopeful yet real sombreness, its renewed intensity and concentration on self-denial, its self-sacrificial discipline. Pre-Lent, a liturgical season now almost entirely unique to orthodox Prayer Book Anglicanism, offers a stage-by-stage, incremental way of getting ready for Lent. Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, such a glorious trinity of celebration and feasting -- the message of Pre-Lent heralded to us is this; it is now time to lay aside our seasons of festivity and equip ourselves for sacrifice, for union with Our Lord in His mysterious offering of Himself for our sake, His voluntary passion and suffering.

Pre-Lent is a time for taking stock of our spiritual lives, of beginning the process of our spiritual inventory. We must begin again to examine our souls, consciences and lives -- to root out sin, to reject evil, to purge ourselves of that which does not belong to God, in short, to repent.

Only by the grace of God our Father, through Jesus Christ, in the Holy Ghost, are we saved from our sins, and only by the exercise of our free-will, our correspondence and co-operation with grace, can we enable the free gift of God’s Life within us to take hold and bear fruit. God created our freedom, and He loves and respects it as being in us an indispensable aspect of His Image. He does not want automatons or robots in His Family, His Kingdom, but sons of God in freedom, in His Likeness. He wants synergy; He wants us to love Him and worship Him in freedom and delight. Salvation is free gift; and it can be lost without perseverance, faith and obedience. Happy Pre-Lent!

Saint Paul announces that we enter into communion with God through the ‘obedience of Faith’ (Romans 1.5, 16.26). And our Book of Common Prayer asserts the theological virtue of Hope in relation to salvation: ‘I heartily thank our heavenly Father, that he hath called me to this state of salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. And I pray unto God to give me his grace, that I may continue in the same unto my life’s end’ (page 284).

Pre-Lent’s liturgical theme reminds us that we are saved by grace through faith, and that in the wondrous love of God, we cannot save ourselves, although God never forces us to be saved. The gift must be received, it must be used, it must be prayed, lived, experienced, actualised. On one hand, salvation, freedom from sin and union with God, is entirely the action of the divine initiative: ‘But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us’ (Romans 5.8) ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath ordained that we should walk in them’ (Ephesians 2.8-10).

On the other hand, the Word of God written tells us in no uncertain terms: ‘work out your own salvation with fear and trembling’ (Philippians 2.12) ‘Faith without works is dead’ (Saint James 2.20, 26). God’s free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ, unmerited and undeserved on our part, requires and demands a life - once liberated from the power of sin and death and supernaturally regenerated in Christ - lovingly conformed and subjected to the will of God, seeking to imitate Christ, to be Christ-like.

Father Ronald Knox, the famous English priest and theologian writes,

‘Septuagesima has an epistle that warns us that it is never too late to be damned and a gospel that reminds us that it is never too late to be saved’ -- fitting food for thought as we now engage in the process of preparing ourselves for the great revelation of the Risen Christ, who is always prepared to receive our repentance. The Christian life requires the acceptance of the divine gift, and good works proceeding from a living faith, if we are to be saved and go to heaven. Pre-Lent is about our response, our side of the divine-human equation; it is about the ‘D’ word: discipline.

1 Corinthians 9: Saint Paul gives us the whole Lenten theme in one fell swoop, and admonishes us to maintain discipline in our lives, without which we may slip and fall from grace. He cleverly uses the image of the arena of his day, track and boxing, to describe the process of subjecting the body to the spirit, and most importantly, to the Spirit of God. Prayer, almsgiving and fasting are exercises in self-control, and are critical to the conforming of our lives to the will of God. We can break the standards that we require of others, and thus lose our salvation. We must ever be vigilant for our own souls, ever on-guard through prayer and good works.

Real Christianity demands a real struggle, a real effort, real sacrifice. ‘Armchair Christianity’ is a deceptive impostor of the genuine article. The essence of the Christian life is ascesis, training, practice, effort, exercise. Orthodox Christianity is not only aesthetic, beautiful, it is ascetic, active.

Saint Matthew 20: Jesus Christ shows us in His parable of the labourers that God is limitless in love and mercy, forgives all sins, and, transcending all concepts of human justice, shows mercy on whom he shows mercy. The Kingdom of God is a free gift of God’s love, a pouring-out of the abundance of God’s generosity, which demands of us a proper response and a thankful return in the offering of our lives to Him. The Kingdom cannot be merited or deserved; it is given to us by Him who alone knows our own good actions and failures.

From the earliest Septuagesima sermon we possess, that of Saint Gregory the Great, the imminent reformer of the sixth century, we discover these words, more applicable today than when they were first uttered: ‘Many arrive at faith, but few are led into the heavenly kingdom. Behold many there are in the Church - they fill Churches throughout creation, yet who knows how few they are who shall be numbered in that chosen company of the elect? Behold the voices of all that proclaim Christ, but the lives of all do not proclaim Him. And many keep company with God in word, but shun Him in deed. At the call of the Lord are multiplied those without number; however, the unfaithful are mingled with the faithful, but because of their way of life they shall not merit to be partakers of the lot of the faithful. No one shall receive a Kingdom, who though formed in heavenly faith, with all their hearts seek the things of earth. Two things there are upon which we should carefully reflect. Because many are called but few chosen, the first is: let no one presume his own salvation; for though he be called to faith, whether he is worthy of the eternal kingdom he knows not. The second is: let no one presume to despair of his neighbour, who he perhaps sees lying in sin; for he knows not the riches of the divine grace.’

The days with the odd names beckon us to practice what we preach, to ‘walk the walk’ as well as to ‘talk the talk.’ Does our life, in its fruits, labours, works and prayers, match our profession? Saint Paul commands us to ‘walk worthy of our calling.’ Are we? If we are, we have the hope of being saved, of rejoicing on that heavenly shore, in that greater light, with Blessed Mary and all the Saints on that heavenly Easter Day which lasts for all eternity.

May the Lord Jesus Christ, the Suffering Servant Who fasted, prayed and gave for us men and our salvation, grant you a productive and transformative Pre-Lent.

Anglican Communion Heresy Alerts

First this, from Sydney...

I would like to argue that Sydney ought not go ahead with lay administration in the foreseeable future. I don’t think that there are any theological objections insofar as I would (and have) happily receive the Lord’s Supper in a Baptist church from a lay person and consider that the sacrament was in no way deficient – in fact, I would find it offensive were any Anglican to suggest it was in some way incomplete celebration. However, I do think it is not wise or necessary to proceed with this innovation at this time...

First, despite what some of its proponents claim, it is not in fact a ‘gospel issue’. Calling it a gospel issue posits an either-or that is simply not accurate. It confuses gospel issues with church order issues. The reason for calling it a gospel issue is that reserving the act of administration at the Supper for the ordained priest/presbyter allegedly communicates a view of the sacrament which sets it apart from the Word and makes it a special means of grace in addition to the gospel in some way – along the lines of a Roman Catholic theology of the sacraments. However, there is no sense in which a Communion service run in the evangelical parishes of the diocese of Sydney could ever be confused in that way. The usual practice communicates anything but a sacerdotal view of the Supper - and there is no evidence that anyone thinks that it does. The ministers do not normally robe or even wear collars these days. The locally authorised liturgies specifically rule out a sacerdotal interpretation of the Communion. Who administers at the Supper becomes then a matter of church order rather than of the gospel itself...

...It is simply the case that no practical necessity drives lay administration in Sydney. There are plenty of candidates for ministry, and plenty of serving presbyters – certainly compared to other dioceses. The current practice is for a monthly communion or perhaps less. Almost every practical concern could be overcome. The current policy of only ordaining as presbyters those who are rectors is perhaps an obstacle, in that congregational leaders may frequently not be presbyters. I would be in favour of returning to the old system. Nevertheless, diaconal administration - which is currently in place – has made this need less urgent.

And then this...

THE ANGLICAN Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf will now be able to ordain women as priests, appointing them to serve in churches in the region, and one of the first could be in Cyprus.

The announcement was made at the annual Synod of the diocese in Larnaca last week, and was warmly welcomed by members. Rt Rev Michael Lewis, bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf, reported that his request to have permission to ordain and appoint women had been granted by the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. The other dioceses of the Province: Egypt, Iran and Jerusalem will not be affected by the change....

Evangelical Mary

By Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali

There is a difference in culture in the two Churches in how we approach the Blessed Virgin Mary. And this difference in culture may also be a difference in theological culture. From the earliest days of the Christian Church there had been two 'tempers', one associated with Alexandria which is speculative and dogmatic, and one associated with Antioch which is historical and biblical, and inductive rather than deductive. If you wanted a crude guess about where I think the Roman Catholic Church's approach is, I would say that it is much more Alexandrian, particularly in its relation to Mary, and the dogmas and beliefs about Mary which have been developed over the years. Whereas the Anglican approach, even that of the Caroline divines and the Non-Jurors, has been more inductive; biblical, historical and patristic. We are discovering more and more that each approach can enrich the other. But it is worth recognizing the difference.

Since the second Vatican Council the Roman Catholic Church has shown a welcome tendency in all of its pronouncements to examine first the biblical background to any particular doctrine. And so we found it easy in ARCIC to consider, first of all, 'Mary and the Bible'. Pretty straightforward? Actually it raises all sorts of questions about how we read the Bible. Many of the reformers were critical of ways of reading it that had developed in the middle ages: the allegory and even the typography had got so florid you could make any part of the Bible mean anything at all. The Reformers were calling the Church back to a historical and literary seriousness, and the Anglican side were well aware of this. So we were delighted that the Roman Catholics also wanted to begin with the Bible and with some discussion about how typology, for example, could validly be used.

Of course, with the Older Testament, we must use typology with regard to Mary, as with Jesus. Anglicans sometimes sing Bishop Thomas Ken's hymn 'Her virgin eyes saw God incarnate born', which compares Mary to Eve. What was said about Eve in Genesis 3.15, about her offspring crushing the serpent's head, must apply in any kind of typological approach to the Blessed Virgin Mary. So not all allegory and typology is wrong and having got rid of the excesses we can now see where, from the Older Testament, we can validly talk of Mary.

When we came to the New Testament we were faced immediately with the question of how to treat the birth narratives. In both communions there is a spectrum of opinion in this matter. We felt that behind the two very different birth narratives there stands a common tradition that there was something highly unusual about the birth of Jesus. Beyond the narratives themselves, in Mark for instance, Jesus is described as the 'son of Mary'; in John when there is a discussion between Jesus and some of the Jewish people, they tell him, 'we were not born of fornication' and then, St Paul in Galatians speaks of the Saviour being 'born of a woman.

Staying with the birth narratives for the time being, I think the integrity of the tradition is shown by their differences. Although we conflate them at Christmas (and confuse everybody) they are different stories with different settings and different personae. So Joseph plays a major role in the Matthean narrative but not in the Lucan one. You have the magi in Matthew and the shepherds in Luke and so on. Positively in Matthew, we have this constant repetition of the 'Mother and the Child', never the one without the other, and this has been picked up in Christian iconography.

In Luke, we have first of all the Annunciation: Ave Maria gratia plena. The reformers did not like this, it seemed to be claiming too much of Mary and so the early English translations, including the King James version, tended to translate this as 'Hail Mary thou who art highly favoured' or some such phrase, Actually the word used, kecharitomene, means the one who has been fully endowed with grace. So Ave Maria gratia plena is correct, or more correct than somebody highly favoured, whatever that might mean, as long as it is understood that God endowed her with grace.

All sorts of questions arise about this. If Mary is so fully endowed with grace, how far back does that endowment go? Was it at the time when the angel came to see her? A little bit earlier? How much earlier? Right back to the beginning? And what was the beginning anyway? There has been fierce debate in the Church for centuries about this. There are, of course, other persons in the Bible about whom it is said that 'God had been preparing them for his calling from the very beginning of their lives.' Jeremiah. Samson, if you mean in the way that Samson was born. John the Baptist. St Paul himself says this about his own preparation for his calling.

There is no reason for us to want to deny such preparation of Mary from the beginning, especially because of what is said at the time of the Annunciation. And, indeed, that is the line that we have taken in Mary, Grace and Hope in the Church, that we cannot set limits to when God began to prepare Mary. It must have been from the beginning and even before the beginning in divine providence and wisdom.

We decided to say that the Virgin Birth, conception and birth, are important because they are about the new thing that God was about to do in the Incarnation of Our Lord. Here was something quite new which God was about to do and, in fact, if you read the narratives both Lucan and Matthean, you find that there is both continuity and newness.

The evangelists keep a balance, so the genealogies in both point to the continuity of David's line, of being part of the story of Israel, but the newness is concentrated in God being the chief agent in the work of the Incarnation. But Luke has so much else about him. Of course, there is the Visitation to Elizabeth and Elizabeth's cry when she sees Mary and recognizes her blessing. Mary, herself, speaks of this in the Magnificat, and at Evensong every day we recognize that ever blessedness of Mary first seen by Elizabeth. Luke is also conscious that Mary was reflecting on what was happening and it may be that a lot of what we know about the birth narratives somehow comes from Mary's reflection. In this sense Mary is also the first theologian, if you like, not just the first Christian but the first theologian who was thinking about the things that God was doing with her and for her and in her.

Then there is John's gospel and in the report we consider the two events in which Mary is present, Cana and Calvary. At Cana she seems to be there in her own right, Jesus arriving afterwards with the disciples. She says to Jesus 'there is no wine' and then there is that dialogue you know where he says 'my time has not yet come' but then Mary says to the stewards 'do as he tells you' and they do and you know what happens. But then there is something very telling at the end of it all where it says that Mary, now goes down with Jesus and the disciples back to Capernaum. She is seen for the first time as part of the company of disciples.

And, then, there is Mary at the Cross and the tremendous amount of reflection there has been on the Mother being handed over to the care of the beloved disciple and the beloved disciple to the mother. What are the theological implications of this relationship? Language about Mary being Mother of the Church can be based also on the perception that the Church is the Body of Christ, but the story about the disciple and Mary is a nice way of thinking of Mary's motherhood for those who are disciples of Christ.

Just as in John she is with Jesus and the disciples, so also in Acts at the time of the Pentecost, Mary is there with the disciples. We also considered the figure of the woman in the apocalypse in Revelation ch. 12 and its relevance for Mary. Generally speaking this imagery has been thought to be of God's people primarily rather than of Mary, but there have been some Fathers, like Epiphanius, who have thought that it could refer to Mary as well as the Church, so this might be another way of thinking of Mary as a type for the Church. It is difficult if one reads ch. 12, not to think of this if one were fair minded, for clearly the child is the Messiah.

Having examined the Bible we then looked at the early Church and we discovered two main concerns that involve Mary. The first typified by Ignatius of Antioch is that Mary is necessary for the Incarnation. To believe that Jesus was truly man you must take seriously the figure of Mary. Jesus was not just someone who appeared to be a man and so Ignatius in his letter to the Ephesians (interestingly enough they must have known quite a lot about it if Mary had lived among them) tells us that Jesus is both God and man both eternally begotten of the Father and born of Mary. Mary's virginity, along with the birth of Jesus and the Cross, are seen by him as the three great mysteries of the Christian Faith.

The other concern in the Early Church was of the unity of the two natures of Christ, that he was both human and divine. This is shown in the ascription of the title Theotokos or God-bearer, or Deipara to use the old Latin word, of Mary. Mary is God-bearer because the human and the divine are united in the one Christ and this is why what we say of the human is also true of the divine, and vice versa. This description of Mary as Theotokos became really quite central, not so much about Mary, but about Jesus and who he is.

As you know, through the Middle Ages there were all sorts of developments about belief regarding Mary. Some of them were faithful to the Bible and to the Fathers and some were not. Devotion to Mary got detached from thinking about Christ. Mary could become someone who dispensed grace in her own right, to whom people could pray in her own right, and so forth. At the Reformation the protests that took place were about these excesses – to give an example, Bonaventura, where he substituted Our Lady for every reference to God in the Psalms. Tyndale was particularly vicious about this kind of thing, whatever the intention might have been. But it was not just the Reformers. Erasmus and St Thomas More who both remained in communion with Rome were also critical of the cults that had arisen about the Blessed Virgin Mary. If you read More about Walsingham and Ipswich, it is difficult to tell whether it is Thomas More or William Tyndale! His point is that people have made the cults and the places and the shrines and the statues and the 'stocks' as he calls them, a substitute for Christ and for his Mother. Erasmus, after he visited Walsingham, was equally critical. So the Reformers were not alone. I mean that there was awareness that the cults had become excessive on both sides.

However, what we are perhaps not so familiar with is the extent to which there was continuity among even the most radical reformers. So, for example, Hugh Latimer, one of the most outspoken of the Reformers, said when asked about Mary, 'I go not about to make Mary a sinner but Christ her saviour.' And funnily enough many centuries later that is exactly what the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception does; it pleads the merits of Christ saving work for the preservation of Mary from sin.

Thomas Cranmer, and many other Reformers, take their stand on the sinlessness of Mary on the basis of what Augustine had said. But there is more than that and this is shown in the liturgy, in the Christmas Collect and the Christmas Preface, Mary is referred to as 'a pure Virgin.' What does that mean? It is not the technical language of the Immaculate Conception but there is this sense that she is somehow free from sin.

There was widespread recognition of her sinlessness among the Anglican Reformers and in the early catechisms, for example in Nowell's Catechism and Thomas Becon and so on. They are almost unanimous about perpetual virginity. The reason that they give very often is the verse in Ezekiel ch. 44, which says 'the gates from which the Lord has come no man should enter.' This is their reasoning for the perpetual virginity of Mary but also, of course, the nearly unanimous testimony of the Church. Even Jewel who knows that there was some dissent about this in the patristic period is happy to affirm the perpetual virginity of Mary. This is the case in the sixteenth century when so much was being overthrown and rejected. Nor should we neglect the liturgical and other aspects that were retained. For example, although in 1552 only two feasts having to do with Mary were retained, the Purification and the Annunciation, in 1561 three further feasts were recognized, the Conception, the Nativity and the Visitation.

When we come to our own day, the most significant thing for us as a Commission was that the Second Vatican Council decided not to issue a separate document on Mary but to subsume what they had to teach about Mary in their document on the Church, Lumen Gentium. This showed that they wanted to go back to the earliest insight of Mary being with the disciples rather than Mary being enthroned, as it were above the Church. They wished to see Mary in the midst of the Church. And this has signalled a new interest in the Roman Catholic Church in the historical, in the patristic situation, which, as Anglicans of course, we welcome very much and so there was a sort of meeting of minds in these areas.

What then can we say together so far? We can say that Mary is the recipient of divine grace not the originator of it; that whatever role Mary has it should not distract from the centrality of Christ's person and work in the Church and in the world; that Mary was prepared by the divine grace from the beginning for the work to which she had been called; in the light of Revelations 12, for example, that Mary can be spoken of as in glory with her son.

These things we can say together, but what about the dogmas? Where are we on that? The story of the dogmas is enormously complex and there are not only many Fathers but also many medieval scholars and saints who did not believe, for example, in the Immaculate Conception. Irenaeus, Augustine himself, Chrysostom and Aquinas. But I think that the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was an attempt by the Roman Catholic Church to foreclose discussion on what it might mean; in that sense it was an unfortunate step because the language used is that of nineteenth century Rome, and hardly understandable today and sometimes embarrassing even to Roman Catholics. However, what we can say about Mary is that she was a pure virgin; that she was prepared by God from the very beginning in what she had to do. If, for some, that means 'Immaculate Conception then that is their language. Similarly with the Assumption, notwithstanding the particular language of the dogma, we can say surely that Mary reigns with Christ in glory. With Bishop Ken we can say, 'Heaven with transcendent joys her entrance graced, Next to his throne her Son his Mother placed.'

'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!