Martyrs and Confessors of our Time (tr.)

Statues of 20th-century martyrs on the façade above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey.  Those commemorated are Maximilian Kolbe, Manche Masemola, Janani Luwum, Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia, Martin Luther King, Óscar Romero, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Esther John, Lucian Tapiedi, and Wang Zhiming.

Today is an interesting feast in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (and possibly elsewhere, though I am not sure).  It is the commemoration of Martyrs and Confessors of our Time.  It has a rather simple Collect (and red is, obviously, the designated liturgical color) which makes its intentions quite clear:

Eternal Lord throughout the world, in our own day many have bravely borne witness to your Son: grant that when faced by persecution or the challenge to do what is right we too may be found faithful; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

An Anglican Prayer Book 1898, p. 314

It is the explanation of the festival that is most interesting, though.  The Anglican Church of Southern Africa has included this day on the calendar with this understanding:

It is too early to estimate the place in the annals of the Christian Church which posterity will give to such people as Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Martin Luther King.  The frontiers of of human knowledge have been greatly advanced in the twentieth century; but it is an advance too often limited to material things, and not matched by a like growth in our awareness of God and of the demands that God’s justice and love make upon us. . . .

Saints and Seasons with Additional Collects: Anglican Church of Southern Africa, p. 121

As a Christian in a church which has both Bonhoeffer and King on the Calendar* it is interesting to have both these men specifically mentioned as those for whom it is too early to guess how the Church will remember them.  I do not believe either of these men will fade into the background of Christian history and yet I can sympathize with the ACSA’s reluctance to “canonize” them (cf. A Word on Saints, Pt. 1: Canonization).  The ACSA is a liturgically conservative province** that is, overall, more Anglo-Catholic than much of the Anglican Communion.  A cursory look at their calendar of saints will reveal that the 20th century is sparsely represented.  I believe that this commemoration in the ACSA is representative of the tension between our desire to celebrate those whose lives especially reveal the work of Christ and our desire to reserve our devotion for those men and women hallowed by time.

——-

*Martin Luther King is on April 6 and Dietrich Bonhoeffer is April 9 in The Episcopal Church.

**The Anglican Church of Southern Africa (formerly the Church of the Province of Southern Africa) has three liturgical books authorized: The Book of Common Prayer (1662 England), A Book of Common Prayer for South Africa (1954), and An Anglican Prayer Book 1989.

 

“Paranormal Activity”: A Reflection

- SPOILER ALERT -

IF YOU DO NOT WANT THE PLOT OF THE FILM PARANORMAL ACTIVITY RUINED, DO NOT READ THIS POST.

I am a sucker for horror movies.  I really enjoy them and find many of them to be far more deep and meaningful than most are willing to give them credit for.  Last night I watched Paranormal Activity.  This low budget rising star of horror film has been most often compared to The Exorcist when it comes to the levels and quality of fright.  Once I saw the movie, though, I realized it is rightly compared to The Exorcist for many other reasons as well.  My reflection will be, essentially, a comparison and contrasting of the two films and why this new horror craze worked/didn’t work.

1.  The house:
Both of these films take place largely in the context of a home.  Both are larger homes indicative of a “successful” person/family.  Both, also, provide ample space for activity to take place in distant parts of the house away from the characters and from us, the viewers.  The Exorcist’s setting is one that narrows over the course of the film.  The beginning of the movie spans two continents, then the entirety of the Georgetown University Campus and the surrounding city, the house, it moves on to center on Regan’s bedroom, her bed, and ultimately her.  Paranormal Activity lacks such change in setting.  The entire movie takes place in the house with the exception of a couple scenes in the back yard.  Much of the activity takes place in parts of the house where the people are not, except when they are asleep when the wraith seems more daring.  The pattern of events defies any attempt to discover a patter except in intensity.  The movie centers on the bedroom because that’s where the camera literally spends most of its time, though the entity in the house does not necessarily seem to care about the bedroom.  The final scene’s return to the bedroom out of some urge to confront the camera is not, unlike The Exorcist, the culmination of a general momentum of action, but simply the final seemingly random place for activity.

2.  The point of view:
Paranormal Activity is another attempt at a first person film captured by an amateur filmer/character within the story itself.  This is the same technique as was used in The Blair Witch Project and in Cloverfield.  The technique is designed to lend a form of credibility to the story and increase the sense of reality.  In this case, it is because the boyfriend, Micah, is dead set on capturing whatever is going on in his house on film because, as he repeatedly says, he “can take of it.”  Because the movie is designed to look like a documentary, we’re supposed to make the leap of faith that it is/could be real.  The drawback to this technique, though, is actually given within The Blair Witch Project by one of the characters who describes holding the camera as a way to almost deny what is happening around him because he’s watching it happen through a lens.  In Paranormal Activity, the horror is pinned on the hopes that we’ll buy in to the mockumentary style and feel like we’re witnessing a haunting as it happened.  Paranormal Activity intends to frighten by presenting the events as coldly and authentically real as possible by making us witnesses.  This is, of course, the opposite approach to that of The Exorcist.  In this movie there are multiple points of view, Regan’s mom Chris, Fr. Damien Karras, and Fr. Merrin along with the other characters who are impacted by the possession of Regan by the demon.  What this does is expose us to the emotional intensity of the situation: the nonreligious mother who is at wit’s end and horrified that she’s lost her only child forever, the young priest who’s all but lost his faith and blames himself for his own mother’s death, and the elder priest who sees the situation as nothing less than yet another conflict between Christ and the adversary.  The movie gives us a range of points of views, presents the situation from those points of view, and lets us do the choosing whereas Paranormal Activity bets it all on one.

3.  The demon:
Paranormal Activity is not a ghost story.  Rather quickly it is determined that what is haunting their house is a demon who is somehow interested in Katie.  This demon, though interested in Katie, does little to indicate that and were it not for the narrative about her past experiences it would not be clear who the demon was interested in until nearly the end.  This demon also seems to only provide the minimal possible evidence that it is malevolent in an intelligent way.  The haunting is mostly a series of noises and occurrences devoid of any pattern.  The demon also has no rival.  It is after Katie in the sense that it possesses her, but one could argue that this is only a means to the end of killing Micah who is the closest thing to a rival this demon has.  He as a rival, though, has a flippant attitude about it throughout most of the movie and his approach is predominantly one of curiosity and his object is to be left alone.  There are a few references to a “demonologist,” especially after the consultation with the so-called ghost expert, but it is unclear what this person would say/do, if anything.  The demon in The Exorcist, on the other hand, has a singular objective: possess Regan and destroy the lives of everyone around her.  It is intelligent and not only uses sounds, but employs grotesque markings on Regan’s body, uses foul language, and actively engages it’s rivals Frs. Karras and Merrin in conversation and physical violence.

4.  The conflict:
The conflict in Paranormal Activity remains one between Micah and Katie and their differences in opinions in how to solve the mystery of the haunting they’re experiencing.  Micah is curious and utterly dedicated to capturing as much of the demon’s activity on film, purportedly in order to handle the situation (though he never explains how this will work, presumably because he doesn’t know).  Katie is scared and believes Micah’s obsessive filming is making things worse.  The two of them have more than one argument about whether to consult the “demonologist,” Micah being firmly against it until things are way out of control.  The emotional content of the film is the conflict between a girlfriend and boyfriend who are at odds with how to deal with their home’s having been invaded by a spectral presence.  The conflict with the demon remains, until the very end, one that is secondary and provides the backdrop for their fighting.  The demon, for the first half of the movie at least, operates more as part of the setting than as a character and until the very end is void of anything that could be labelled a personality.  The conflict in The Exorcist, though, is one between a truly evil preternatural force and Regan/Chris MacNeil/Fr. Karras/Fr. Merrin.  The demon has a personality manifest early on in the film when Regan interrupts her mother’s party by saying “you’re going to die up there.”  The demon has so much personality that Fr. Karras, a psychiatrist, believes that Regan is manifesting a handful of distinct personalities each with complete patterns of behavior.  From the opening scene with Fr. Merrin standing opposite the idol, the demon squealing “fear the priest” to the actual exorcism the conflict is always the demon versus Regan and everyone around her.  The signs of haunting in Paranormal Activity provide the backdrop, the signs of haunting in The Exorcist are quickly evident as direct assaults by the demon in order to win it’s ultimate objection: destroy the lives of as many people as possible.

Theologically speaking, neither movie demonstrates what most people (who believe in ghosts) would describe as a haunting.  What is demonstrated in both is actually what is known as demonic obsession and demonic possession.  The Exorcist’s ever-narrowing setting reinforces the sense that the forces of evil are closing in on their target until it finally takes over Regan’s body.  Though we do not see it in Paranormal Activity, we can at least infer that a similar process is happening culminating with the taking over of Katie’s body.  That being said, this movie is completely void of the religious and cultic elements present in The Exorcist.  There is no process of seeking scientific help (perhaps the ghost specialist counts?), turning to the clergy in desperation, or an ancient ritual of confrontation with evil.  Put simply, the world views are different.  In one there is an uneasy coexistence between natural and preternatural (particularly shown in the life of the priest/psychiatrist, Fr. Karras), evil is unmistakably present, and evil has those who confront it in God’s name.  In the other, there is neither science nor the preternatural.  Though there is obsessive documentation and a consultation with a self-described expert, neither serious inquiry nor firm belief in something beyond the natural world is present.

The Exorcist presents a world in which an aggressive, intelligent, and evil being takes over the body of a girl, commits murder, and both of those who confront it end up dead with the lives of everyone changed forever (except, notably, for Regan who remembers none of it).  This all happens while simultaneously presenting a world in which Christ is active and God is very real, whether or not one believes in him.  The characters and the viewers can’t help but wonder why God would allow for this girl to undergo such horrible experiences and people to die.  The characters and the viewers also can’t help but notice that though scientific inquiry is important, it falls short, mystery is proved a part of the fabric of reality, and ultimately there is redemption.

Paranormal Activity presents a very different world.  A world in which a young woman is followed around by a semi-intelligent, presumably evil, being for a great length of time, but only intermittently interfering with her life.  The activity is patternless, haphazard inquiry reveals very little, the only pseudo-expert proves unhelpful, and her boyfriend is killed.  The characters and viewers do ask why this is happening, but it is an almost unjustified question since the haunting does not tear at any apparent normal way of operating, it is just another seemingly random element in two lives that are void of genuine inquiry.  There are no real questions and therefore no real answers.  In fact, real questions are not only not asked, they are feared (Micah’s opposition to the “demonologist”) and though the events within the house are unpleasant, our sense of justice is not violated because there is no God or system of order to be offended by the presence of this demon.

The Exorcist is a timeless horror classic because it is more than just a scary movie.  It confronts us with questions of theodicy while simultaneously asserting and questioning God’s activity in the world.  It presents a chilling possibility for existence in which though armed with the best of the natural world and trusting in the mysteries of the Church, tragedy still happens and makes permanent marks on our lives.  It does this while still offering hope of redemption; a hope that is real, though it does not wash all the bad stuff away.

Paranormal Activity is a good scary movie, but will doubtfully make it to “classic” status.  It does not confront us with anything.  It presents a tragic sequence of events in a random, cold world in which there is very little outside of ourselves.  Though there is the unexplained, there is no mystery.  Because of the movie’s lack of mystery in the face of random pain, it can therefore offer no hope of redemption.  It is, perhaps, the incapability of redemption that makes this movie so scary in the first place.

 

A November Spirituality

Though the Book of Common Prayer does not set the month of November apart as a distinct mini-season within the extensive Season after Pentecost (AKA Ordinary Time), November has some distinguishing characteristics of its own beginning with All Saints’ Day and culminating with Christ the King (Advent will often begin at the very end of the month).

First, as always, I’d like to direct you to the Collects.  I have already posted the Collect for All Saints previously, but I would like to pull out a particularly apt phrase, “that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you.”  This is a tone setter in that amidst the context of festival of Christ’s mystical body, we also turn our attention to the final things that have been “prepared” by God for his people.  The Collect for Proper 26 (Sunday closest to November 2) continues this attention to this cosmic finality with the phrase, “Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises.”  It is furthered quite explicitly in Proper 27’s Collect where we look to the day “when he comes again with power and great glory.”  The Collect for Proper 28 calls us to pause, reflect, and prepare as we “ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.”  Finally, the Church comes to Proper 29, informally known as “Christ the King Sunday,”* where we pray:

Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Looking second at the Sunday readings (both BCP and RCL), the Church begins to read from the parts of Scripture that contain eschatological messages.  Though this is often associated with Advent, it is important to note that the Church begins these kinds of readings at the end of the Church year and continues to read them at the beginning.  In other words, the Church’s calendar begins by preparing for the end of days (the final advent of our Lord) and after a year’s progression from the birth, appearing, life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, the coming of the Holy Spirit, revelation of the Most Holy Trinity, and the lives of all the saints of the Church, finally the year ends in November by again preparing for the end of days, this time with a trajectory pointing to the final celebration of Our Lord Jesus Christ King of the Universe.**

Andrew Burnham’s A Manual of Anglo-Catholic Devotion, recognizing the importance of November, gives it a distinct section of the Church Year which he refers to as “The King and the Kingdom (Ordinary Time in November and Christ the King).”  In it he provides a different set of canticles for the month, an office hymn, a responsory, and a set of antiphons/refrains.  Lastly, included also is Pope Leo XIII’s “Act of Dedication to Christ the King.”

November is the time when the Church asserts more strongly than ever that “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15b).

——-

*Properly speaking, the feast of Christ the King is not recognized by the Book of Common Prayer as such.  It is, however, an appropriate name for the final Sunday of the Church year given the language of the Prayer Book’s Collect and well within the Prayer Book’s spirituality to borrow this title from the Roman Catholic Church.  By way of the Revised Common Lectionary, this feast is now celebrated by a number of mainline Protestant churches, sometimes known as the Reign of Christ Sunday.  Note also that before Pope Paul VI moved the feast to the last Sunday of the year in 1969, Christ the King was celebrated on the last Sunday in October before All Saints.

**This is the English translation of the new name of the celebration given by Pope Paul VI in 1969: D. N. Iesu Christi universorum Regis.

 

Guy Fawkes Day

Tonight is Guy Fawkes Night in which the downfall of the Gunpowder Plot is celebrated.  I have included an etching from 1776 of the celebrations that took place outside of Windsor castle.  It marks the downfall of the Gunpowder Plot, in which a number of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot re-entered the consciousness of Americans by way of the film V for Vendetta wherein the vigilante resisting the totalitarian British government of a hypothetical future wears a Guy Fawkes mask.  So successful was this cultural re-entry that there is now a sizable portion of Americans, particularly of my generation, who now know at least some of the rhyme “Remember, remember the Fifth of November…”

The Book of Common Prayer, from 1605-1859, included a service to commemorate the day which evolved over time into two distinct versions: the 1662 version and the eighteenth century version which adds in a celebration of the restoration of King William.  Below, I have included the 1662 version:

A Form of Prayer with Thanksgiving;

to be used yearly upon the Fifth Day of November for the happy Deliverance of the King, and the Three Estates of the Realm, from the most Traiterous and Bloudy intended Massacre by Gun-Powder.

The Service shall be the same with the usual Office for Holidays in all things; Except where it is hereafter otherwise appointed.

If this Day shall happen to be Sunday, only the Collect proper for that Sunday, shall be added to this Office in its place.

Morning Prayer shall begin with these Sentences.

TURN thy face away from our sins, O Lord; and blot out all our offences. Psal. li. 9
    Correct us, O Lord, but with judgment, not in thine anger; lest thou bring us to nothing. Jere. x, 14
    I will go to my father, and will say unto him; Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee; and am no more worthy to be called thy son. S. Luke xii. 18, 19.

Proper Psalms. Xxxv. Lxiv. Cxxiv. Cxxix.

Proper Lessons.

The First, 2 Sam. xxii.

The Second, Acts xxiii.

In the Suffrages after the Creed, these shall be inserted and used for the King.

Priest. O Lord, save the King;

People. Who putteth his trust in thee.

Priest. Send him help from thy holy place

People. And evermore mightily defend him.

Priest. Let his enemies have no advantage against him.

People. Let not the wicked approach to hurt him.

Instead of the First Collect for Morning Prayer, shall these two be used.

ALMIGHTY God, who hast in all ages shewed thy power and mercy in the miraculous and gracious deliverance of thy Church, and in the protection of righteous and religious Kings and States, professing they holy and eternal truth, from the wicked conspiracies and malicious practices of all the enemies thereof; We yield thee our unfeigned thanks and praise for the wonderful and mighty deliverance of our late gracious Sovereign King James, the Queen, the Prince, and all the Royal Branches, with the Nobility, Clergy, and Commons of England, then assembled in Parliament, by Popish treachery appointed as sheep to the slaughter, in a most barbarous, and savage manner, beyond the examples of former ages. From this unnatural conspiracy, not our merit, but thy mercy; not our foresight, but thy providence, delivered us: And therefore, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us; but unto thy Name be ascribed all honour and glory in all Churches of the saints, from generation to generation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O LORD, who didst this day discover the snares of death that were laid for us, and didst wonderfully deliver us from the same; Be thou still our mighty Protector, and scatter our enemies that delight in blood. Infatuate and defeat their counsels, abate their pride, assuage their malice, and confound their devices. Strengthen the hands of our gracious King Charles, and all that are put in authority under him, with Judgment and justice, to cut off all such workers of iniquity, as turn religion into rebellion, and faith into faction; that they may never prevail against us, or triumph in th ruine of thy Church among us: But that our gracious Soveraign and his Realms, being preserved in thy true Religion, and by thy merciful goodness protected in the same, we may all duly serve thee, and give thee thanks in thy holy congregation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In the end of the Litany (which shall always this day be used) after the Collect [We humbly beseech thee, O Father, &c.], shall this be said which followeth.

ALMIGHTY God and heavenly Father, who of thy gracious providence, and tender mercy towards us, didst prevent the malice and imaginations of our enemies, by discovering and confounding their horrible and wicked enterprize, plotted, and intended this day to have been executed against the King, and whole State of this Realm, for the subversion of the Government, and Religion established among us; We most humbly praise and magnify thy glorious Name for this thine infinite gracious goodness towards us, expressed in both these acts of thy mercy. We confess, it was thy mercy, thy mercy alone, that we were not then consumed. For our sins cried to heaven against us; and our iniquities justly called for vengeance upon us. But thou hast not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us after our iniquities; nor given us over, as we deserved, to be a prey to our enemies; but didst in mercy delivered us from their malice, and preserved us from death and destruction. Let the consideration of this thy goodness, O Lord, work in us true repentance, that iniquity may not be our ruine. And increase in us more and more a lively faith, and fruitful love in all holy obedience, that thou maist continue thy favour, with the light of thy Gospel to us and our posterity for evermore; and that for thy dear Sons sake, Jesus Christ our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

In the Communion Service, instead of the Collect for the Day, shall this which followeth, be used.

ETERNAL God, and our most mightly protector, we thy unworthy servants do humbly present ourselves before thy Majesty, acknowledging thy power, wisdom, and goodness in preserving the King, and of the Three Estates of this Realm assembled in Parliament, from the destruction this day intended against them. Make us, we beseech thee, truly thankful for this thy great mercy towards us. Protect and defend our Sovereign Lord the King, and all the Royal Family from all treasons and conspiracies: Preserve them in thy faith, fear and love; prosper his Reign with long happiness here on earth; and crown him with everlasting glory hereafter in the kingdom of heaven; through Jesus Christ our only Saviour and Redeemer. Amen.

The Epistle. Rom. xiii. 1.

LET every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be, are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist, shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terrour to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrathe upon him that doth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be suject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For, for this cause pay you tribute also: for they are Gods ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues; tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour.

The Gospel. S. Matth. xxvii. 1.

THEN the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governour. Then Judas which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent Bloud. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of bloud. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potters field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, The field of bloud unto this day. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; and gave them for the potters field, as the Lord appointed me.

After the Creed, if there be no Sermon, shall be read one of the six Homilies against Rebellion.

This Sentence is to be read at the Offertory.

WHATSOEVER ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets. St. Matth. vii. 12.

 

Revelation 12 & Our Lady of Grace

Today’s epistle reading for the Episcopal Church’s daily office was Revelation 12:1-12, one of Scripture’s more exciting passages.  The interpretation of the dragon is quite clear as verse 9 states that it is “that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan.”  The woman, though, seems to cause more difficulties for people.  The stumbling block for most is the ascribing of these verses to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  You may not be surprised to read that I see this as a non-issue and agree with this commentary found in the Douay-Rheims translation from the Vulgate:

“A woman”… The church of God. It may also, by allusion, be applied to our blessed Lady. The church is clothed with the sun, that is, with Christ: she hath the moon, that is, the changeable things of the world, under her feet: and the twelve stars with which she is crowned, are the twelve apostles: she is in labour and pain, whilst she brings forth her children, and Christ in them, in the midst of afflictions and persecutions.

As those with high Marian views will constantly remind Protestant detractors, such views/devotions are rooted in Christology.  Here, too, the allusion to Mary is not because of her inherent superhuman qualities, but because of her being a symbol of the people of God.

The imagery of this selection has been used in devotional imagery and icons of Mary, particularly Our Lady of Grace (pictured above).  This particular icon* is also the form of statue of Our Lady that I have seen most often in Episcopal places of worship, Our Lady of Walsingham coming in second.  Reading Revelation at Evening Prayer I could not help but think of her and this image of her.

——-

*’Icon’ here is being used in the Roman Catholic sense.  Orthodoxy maintains that statues are not icons.  It is important that we use this word with caution.  Note also that I am using the word icon in reference to the statute, not the image I have included (I could not find a good picture of the statue).

 

Anglican-Old Catholic meeting

From the Anglican Communion News Service:

The Anglican Old Catholic International Co-ordinating Council -
Communique

Posted On : November 4, 2009 4:32 PM | Posted By : Webmaster
ACNS: http://www.aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2009/11/4/ACNS4666
Related Categories: ACO – Ecumenical

The Anglican-Old Catholic International Co-ordinating Council (AOCICC)
met in the International Study Centre, Canterbury, England, from 26 to
29 October 2009. The Council welcomed the Revd Carola von Wrangel from
the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe as a new member.

The members received reports of developments in each Communion and
reviewed present ecumenical dialogues in which our Communions are
engaged. The Council studied several papers on the theology of blessing.
It also discussed and adopted an information leaflet about the Old
Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht.

A draft text for a common statement on ecclesiology and mission was
discussed. The Council will present it to the Anglican and Old Catholic
Bishops’ Conference and recommends that it be made the theme of the
forthcoming International Old Catholic and Anglican Theological
Conference in 2011.

Attention was given to the recently published document “Kirche und
Kirchengemeinschaft” (Church and Communion) of the International Roman
Catholic-Old Catholic Dialogue Commission (IRAD), as well as to the
recent Vatican announcement of the Apostolic Constitution to provide
personal ordinariates for Anglicans and former Anglicans.

The Council participated in daily Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and the
Eucharist in the Cathedral. The Bible Studies each morning were led by
members of the Council. The Council was present at the consecration of
the Bishop of Shrewsbury (Diocese of Lichfield) by the Archbishop of
Canterbury in Westminster Abbey. Old Catholic bishops Joachim Vobbe and
Harald Rein joined with the College of Anglican bishops in the laying on
of hands.

At a dinner hosted by the Dean of Canterbury he welcomed members of the
Council and led them on a candle-lit pilgrimage in the Cathedral.

The next meeting of the Council will take place 8-12 November 2010 in
Germany.

Bishop Harold Rein extended an invitation to the 30th International Old
Catholic Congress, to be held 9-13 August 2010 in Zurich.

For further information, please contact the Revd Professor Dr Angela
Berlis, tel +41 (0)31 631 4193, email aocicc@alt-katholisch.de, or Neil
Vigers at the Anglican Communion Office, tel +44 (0)20 7313 3929, email
neil.vigers@anglicancommunion.org.

The members of the Anglican-Old Catholic International Co-ordinating
Council are:

Anglicans

The Rt Revd Jonathan Gledhill - Co-chair
Mr Neil Vigers – acting Co-secretary
The Rt Revd David Hamid
Mrs Maryon Jägers
The Revd Dr Jeremy Morris
The Revd Carola von Wrangel

Old Catholics

The Rt Revd Joachim Vobbe – Co-chair
The Revd Professor Dr Angela Berlis – Co-secretary
The Revd Henriette Crüwell (absent)
The Revd Professor Dr David R. Holeton
The Rt Revd Dr Harald Rein
The Rt Revd Dr Dick Schoon (absent)

Administrative Support and Interpreter: The Revd Lars Simpson

This item is also available in German here:
http://www.aco.org/ministry/ecumenical/dialogues/oldcatholic/docs/de2009
communique.cfm

The Anglican Communion and the Utrecht Union of Old Catholic Churches have been in full Communion since the Bonn Agreement of 1931 along with the Philippine Independent Church.

 

When in Rome…

… remove your crucifix?  

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of a woman who sued the Italian government because of the crucifix on display in her child’s classroom.  The crucifix was ruled to be removed and the government fined the equivalent of just shy of $8,000.  The Vatican, of course, protested and the Italian government plans to appeal.  Crucifixes, unsurprisingly, are seen just about everywhere in Italy and the legal objection by Italy and the Vatican is that Christianity has played a central role in the formation of the Italian/European civilization and that even if one is not a practicing Catholic, Catholicism is intrinsic to Italian identity.  As inconceivable as it may sound, the crucifix is one step closer to being banned in Rome.

Article in yesterday’s Guardian.

Associated Press release (on MSNBC).

 

Time for some Christian humor

Time for some Christian humor, just because sometimes I (we) need to laugh.  The first is a funny song about a man who suspects his wife of Calvinism.  The second is a satire of Christian fads.  The third parodies the self-centered approach to “church shopping” that has become the defining feature of American Christianity.

1.  ”I think my wife’s a Calvinist” (song)

2.  Porpoise Driven Life

3.  Drive-through Church

 

Scripture, Nature, Custom

As I have alluded to in the past, I believe it it erroneous, if not simplistic, to describe Anglicanism with the formula “Scripture, Tradition, and Reason” and claim Hooker as the source.  Today, being the memorial of Richard Hooker I thought it would be appropriate to cite a selection from his Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. This selection is a bit long, but I believe gives insight into the theology of Richard Hooker which, as you’ll see, is informed by Scripture and built upon a philosophical foundation of Aristotle and Natural Law.  Note that there may be small punctuation and spelling errors as this is a plaintext copy of a pdf, though I have tried to smooth them out as I saw them:

The main drift of the whole New Testament is that which St. John setteth down as the purpose of his own history, ” These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is Christ the Son of God, and that in believing ye might have life through His name.” The drift of the Old, that which the Apostle mentioneth to Timothy, ” The Holy Scriptures are able to make thee wise unto salvation.” So that the general end both of Old and New is one, the difference between them consisting in this, that the Old did make wise by teaching salvation through Christ that should come, the New, by teaching that Christ the Saviour is come, and that Jesus whom the Jews did crucify, and whom God did raise again from the dead, is lie. When the Apostle, therefore, affirmeth unto Timothy that the Old was able to make him wise to salvation, it was not his meaning that the Old alone can do this unto us which live smce the publication of the New. For he speaketh with presupposal of the .doctrine of Christ known albo unto Timothy, and, therefore, fiist it is said, ” Continue thou in those things which thou hast learned and art persuaded, knowing of whom thou hast been taught them.” Again, those Scriptures he granteth were able to make him wise to salvation, but he addeth, ” through the faith which is in Christ.” Wherefore, without the doctrine of the New Testament teaching that Christ hath wrought the redemption of the world, which redemption the Old did foreshow He should work, it is not the former alone which can on our behalf perform so much as the Apostle doth avouch, who presupposeth this when he magnifieth that so highly. And as his words concerning the books of ancient Scripture do not take place but with presupposal of the Gospel of Christ embraced, so our own words also, when we extol the complete sufficiency of the whole entire body of the Scripture, must in like sort be understood with this caution, that the benefit of Nature’s light be not thought excluded as unnecessary because the necessity of a diviner light is magnified.

There is in Scripture, therefore, no defect but that any man, what place or calling soever he hold in the Church of God, may have thereby the light of his natural understanding so perfected, that the one being relieved by the other, there can want no part of needful instruction unto any good work which God himself requireth, be it natural or supernatural, belonging simply unto men as- men, or unto men as they are united in whatsoever kind of society. It sufficeth, therefore, that  Nature and Scripture do serve in such full sort that they, both jointly, and not severally either of them, be so complete that unto everlasting felicity we need not the knowledge of anything more than these two may easily furnish our minds with on all sides ; and, therefore, they which add traditions as a part of supernatural necessary truth have not the truth, but are in error. For they only plead that whatsoever God revealeth as necessary for all Christian men to do or believe, the same we ought to embrace, whether we have received it by writing or otherwise, which no man demeth ; when that which they should confirm who claim so great reverence unto traditions is, that the same traditions are necessarily to be acknowledged divine and holy. For wo do not reject them only because they are not in the Scripture, but because they are neither in Scripture nor can any reason be proved to be of God.  That which is of God, and may be evidently proved to be so, we deny not but it hath in his kind, although unwritten, yet the selfsame force and authority with the written laws of God. It is by ours acknowledged, “that the apostles did in every Church institute and ordain some rites and customs serving for the seemliness of Church regiment, which rites and customs they have not committed unto writing.”  Those rites and customs being known to be apostolical, and having the nature of tilings changeable, were no less to be accounted of in the Church than other things of the like degree, that is to say, capable in like Sort of alteration, although set down in the Apostle’s writings. For both being known to be apostolical, it is not the manner of delivering them unto the Church, but the author from whom they proceed, which doth give them their force and credit.

Laws being imposed, either by each man upon himself, or by a public society upon the particulars thereof, or by all the nations of men upon every several society, or by the Lord himself upon any or every of these, there is not amongst these four kinds any one but containeth sundry both natural and positive laws. Impossible it is but that they should fall into a number of gross errors who only take such laws for positive as have been made or invented of men, and holding this position hold also that all positive and none but positive laws are mutable. ‘ Laws natural’ do always bind, laws positive not so, but only after they have been expressly and wittingly imposed. Laws positive there ‘are in every of those kinds before mentioned. As in the first kind the promises which we have passed unto men, and the vows we have made unto God, for these are laws which we tie ourselves unto, and till we have so tied ourselves they bind us not. Laws positive in the second kind are’ such as the civil constitutions peculiar unto each particular comnaonweal. In the third kind the law of heraldry in ‘war is positive ; and in the last all the judicials which God gave unto the people of Israel to observe. And although no laws but positive be mutable, yet all are not mutable which be positive. Positive laws are either permanent or else changeable, according as the matter itself is concerning which they were first made. Whether God or man be the maker-’ of them, alteration they so far forth admit as the matter doth exact. Laws that concern supernatural duties are all positive, and either concern men supernaturally as men, or else as parts of a supernatural society, .which society we call the Church. To concern men as men supernaturally, is to concern them as duties which belong of necessity to all, and yet could not have been known by any to belong unto them unless God had opened them Himself, inasmuch as they do not depend upon any natural ground at all out of which they may be deduced, but are appointed of God to supply the defect of those natural ways of salvation, by which we are not now able to attain thereunto. The Church being a supernatural society doth differ from natural societies in this : that the persons unto whom we associate ourselves in the one are men simply considered as men, but they to whom we be joined in the other are God, angels, and holy men. Again, the Church being both a ’society and a society supernatural, although as it is a society it have the selfsame original grounds which other politic societies have, namely, the latural inclination which all men have unto sociable life, and consent to some certain bond of association, which bond is the law that appointeth what kind of order they shall be associated in; yet unto the Church as it is a society supernatural this is peculiar, that part of the bond of their association which belong to the Church of God, must be a law supernatural, which God himself hath revealed concerning that kind of worship which His people shall do unto Him. The substance of the service of God, therefore, so far forth as it hath in it anything- more than the law of reason doth teach, may not be invented of men as it is amongst the heathens, but must be received from God himself, as always it hath been in the Church, saving only when the Church hath been forgetful of her duty. Wherefore to end with a general rule concerning all the laws which God hath tied men unto, those laws divine that belong, whether naturally or supernaturally, either to men as men, or to men as they live in politic society, or to men as they are of that politic society which is the Church, without any further respect had unto any such variable . accident as the state of men, and of societies of men, and of the Church itself, in this world is subject unto; alllaws’ that so belong unto men they belong for ever, yea, although they be positive laws, unless, being positive, God himself which made them alter them. The reason is because the subject, or matter of laws in general, is thus far forth constant: which matter is that for the ordering whereof lawswere instituted, and, being instituted, are not changeable without cause, neither can they have cause of change L when that which gave them their first institution remaineth , for ever one and the same. On the other side, laws that were made for men, or societies, or Churches, in regard of their being such as they do not always continue, but may perhaps be clean otherwise a while after, and so may require to be otherwise ordered than before; the laws of God himself, which are of this nature, no man endued with common-sense will ever deny to be of a different constitution from the former, in respect of the one’s constancy and the mutability of the other. And this doth seem to have been the very cause why St. John doth so peculiarly term the doctrine that teacheth salvation by Jesus, Christ, Evangelium aternum, an eternal gospel, because there can be no reason wherefore the publishing thereof should be taken away, and any other instead of it proclaimed, as long as the world doth continue; whereas, the whole law of rites and ceremonies, although delivered with so great solemnity, is notwithstanding clean abrogated, inasmuch as it had but temporary cause of God’s ordaining it.

Richard Hooker, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity: Vol. 1; ed. John Keble, pp.270-275.

If you’ve made it to the bottom, I’m sure you’ll agree with Pope Clement VIII who (reportedly) commented that his work “had in it such seeds of eternity that it would abide until the last fire shall consume all learning” (Lesser Feasts and Fasts: 2006, p. 440).

 

All Souls Day

All Souls’ Day – Aladar Korosfoi-Kriesch

Today is the commemoration of All Faithful Departed (All Souls).  This is a day in which the necessity of prayer for our fellow Christian is made most apparent.  We pray that even in death, they (and someday we) will continue to grow in the love of God and that they will “see [God] as he is” (BCP 1979, Catechism, p. 862).  Whether one sees this process through the theological lens of Gregory Palamas, et al in which the Holy Spirit continues to purify the person(s) until they see the very uncreated light/energies of God or through that of the West in which souls are purified until they come to experience the essence of God,* the Prayer Book, as it is apt to do, allows room for both without pronouncing the minutia of either.  I refer here, to the Collect for the Day:

O God, the Maker and Redeemer of all believers: Grant to the faithful departed the unsearchable benefits of the passion of your Son; that on the day of his appearing they may be manifested as your children; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Lesser Feasts and Fasts: 2006

We do not pray for the dead because we need to “pray them into heaven” or to spring them from Purgatory (to paraphrase the poem ascribed to Tetzel), but because we trust that God is the God of the living (Matthew 22:32) and that the righteous are in his hands (Wisdom 3:1).  We pray for them because we are to bear each other’s burdens (Galatians 6:2) and we anticipate the resurrection of the dead (II Maccabees 12:44-45).  Most of all, we pray for the faithful departed for the same reasons we pray for the faithful whose earthly lives have not yet ended – we are one interconnected Body united in Christ.  Susan Tassone, author of Thirty-Day Devotions for the Holy Souls, a Roman Catholic devotional, asserts just this point when she selects the following as the very first verse of Scripture reflected upon:

Then they said to one another, “In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he besought us and we would not listen; therefore is this distress come upon us.”

Genesis 42:21 (RSV)

In closing, I would like to quote from John Henry Newman’s “Dream of Gerontius.”  This is his poem about the soul’s journey from death into the purifying waters of Purgatory.  Just to make it clear, this was composed in 1865, long after his reception into the Roman Catholic Church and clearly reflects a Roman Catholic theological approach:

Angel [to the soul]

Softly and gently, dearly-ransom’d soul,

In my most loving arms I now enfold thee,

And, o’er the penal waters, as they roll,

I poise thee, and I lower thee, and hold thee.

And carefully I dip thee in the lake,

And thou, without a sob or a resistance,

Dost through the flood thy rapid passage take,

Sinking deep, deeper, into the dim distance.

Angels, to whom the willing task is given,

Shall tend, and nurse, and lull thee, as thou

liest;

And masses on the earth, and prayers in heaven,

Shall aid thee at the Throne of the Most

Highest.

Farewell, but not for ever! brother dear,

Be brave and patient on thy bed of sorrow;

Swiftly shall pass thy night of trial here,

And I will come and wake thee on the morrow.

 

Today we pray for the faithful departed and assert that we are in communion with Christians not just around the world and across denominational boundaries, but with those who have gone before us in ages past.  Newman’s poem, if nothing else (and aside from the Roman Catholic doctrinal points), reminds us of the interconnectedness of Christians both living and departed with the whole host of heaven knit together by Christ himself.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

——-

*The West and East have no small degree of disagreements on these matters.  The East, in short, teaches that one can see the energies of God possibly even before death whereas the Catholic West teaches that one can experience the essence of God, but only after death.  Furthermore, the East teaches the doctrine of the process of theosis whereas the Catholic West teaches the intermediate state known as “Purgatory.”  Anglicanism has made no formal pronouncement, but Anglo-Catholics have tended to prefer the theology of Roman Catholicism to that of Orthodoxy when it comes to these issues and the publications of the Guild of All Souls (an Anglican devotional society) will make references to Purgatory.