Irregular Marriages and the Apostolic Constitution

Article 6.2 of the Apostolic Constitution states that those "...who are in irregular marriage situations may not be accepted for Holy Orders in the Ordinariate." While this may sound like it puts the kibosh on certain divorced and remarried Anglican clergy wishing to take part in this, I would not be so quick to make that judgement. While there are indeed divorced and remarried Anglican clergy, most have no doubt had annulments, which declares that a sacramental marriage never existed - hence they were never "married" before. The presumption of course is that those annulments were authentic and accurately done in the first place.

Interestingly, the same situation of divorced and remarried clergy exists in the Roman Church. When I was in seminary I had a classmate (a Roman Catholic seminarian) who was divorced. He said "divorced" - I think he meant that he was granted an annulment. He obviously had to be granted an annulment, because when one is ordained in a Roman Catholic priest he "marries" the Church, so he can't at the same time be married to another woman.

Whatever happened to the beauty of holiness?

It was nice to hear recently that a liturgical artist and designer whom I am acquainted with on Facebook is extremely busy with commissions for vestments and other art. That shows that there are still some churches and people out there that still place a premium on beauty and dignity in worship.

In my experience this seems to be something that is lacking in most "continuing" Anglican parishes. A look at some of the photos of these parishes on their websites (if they even have websites, and if they do they often are very bad) shows parishes that look like barns, parishes with stark white walls, flat ceilings, etc. And I am sure an in-person look would reveal tattered and worn vestments and appointments. This is the case with some of the appointments at St. Francis. Our processional cross is pitted and grimy looking. Our tapers are bent and tired. Luckily the altar vestments are in good order. Hopefully over the years we'll be able to restore some of our worn items and buy nice new ones as well.

Of course some parishes do not even have beat-up appointments. In fact they have little to no appointments to speak of! There are no nice collections of mass vestments or other appointments. It is usually up to the priest to have his own vestments, chalice, etc. because no one has ever gotten around to buying some for the church, or if they have it is awful looking garbage.... because who would want to spend money on something as frivolous as "church" or "church appointments".

God places great importance on how He is worshipped. All one must do is read the Old Testament to see this is true. God gave detailed instructions as to how the Tabernacle, Temple, and related items were to be made and decorated. Why some people care so little about how things in church look is utterly beyond me. It is an affront to God to worship Him using beat-up, substandard things. And it is an affront to God for His house to look like garbage while our own house looks like the Taj Mahal.

Where are the people who will commission statues, vestments, stained glass, and paintings for churches?! Are their any left? Doesn't anyone care about beauty and dignity in worshipping God anymore? Let us not forget that, in addition to the Oxford Movement, equally important to the Anglican Communion's recovery of Catholic faith and tradition was the "Cambridge Movement", and the work of the Cambridge Camden Society which restored churches and made them beautiful once again. If we recover Catholic beauty in our churches it will help us recover the Catholic faith.

Roman Overtures

I have been asked by many people how I feel about the news of the Vatican's offer to accept Anglicans en masse and create a new structure within the Roman Catholic Church to accommodate them. Like for many people, this announcement filled me with joy and happiness, but also raised some serious questions. From the Anglican perspective there are doctrinal questions to be dealt with. There is no need to list them as they are obvious to all. Neither the generous offer from the Holy Father, nor the confusion and fragmentation of Anglicanism changes alters the state of these doctrinal questions. From the Roman perspective there are canonical questions to be dealt with. How will irregular marriages be dealt with? What about orders? What about confirmation? What about liturgy? And so on. On both sides there are practical questions: how will this work? Who will be in charge? Who owns property? Etc. So until the Apostolic Constitution comes out there will be many questions, and even after it comes out there will be many questions. As has been seen with the recent Summorum Pontificum, radical changes such as this is are slowly phased in, and sometimes there are lots of growing pains in the process.

If the doctrinal and practical questions can be resolved by those Anglican clergy wishing to take this option there will no doubt be more opportunities for them in the larger body of the Roman Catholic Church. I imagine there will be more chances and opportunities for ministry, and more chances for fellowship and support. Right now, because of the fragmented state of the Anglican world (especially the "continuing" Anglican world), there are few chances for ministry and few opportunities for fellowship and support. I think that many Anglicans yearn to be part of something larger, and even though we are (perhaps only in our own minds) "Catholics" it doesn't always feel that way because of the fragmented state of things. Granted this problem is probably more acute in "continuing" parishes than in the new ACNA group.

Statement from Archbishop Grundorf Concerning the Vatican's Recent Announcement

For anyone who is interested....

APA Statement on the Vatican Announcement of October 20, 2009

From the Office of the Presiding Bishop,
The Most Rev. Walter H. Grundorf, D.D.
October 26, 2009

The Anglican Province of America (APA) welcomes with hopeful interest the Note of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith about Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans entering the Catholic Church. It has opened a way for persons who are currently Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church while retaining elements of Anglican liturgy, spirituality, theology, discipline and ethos. This remarkable decision demonstrates on the part of the Roman Communion a recognition of the integral virtues of historic Anglicanism. These characteristics can serve to be a gift to the wider Catholic and Apostolic Church. The new structure proposed by the Roman Communion is a fruit of the prayer and labor of faithful souls who for over a century have devoted themselves to such a form of reconciliation. While many in the Continuing Anglican movement may not avail themselves of this new ecclesiastical structure, the APA awaits with anticipation more information, which will give it a greater opportunity for consideration and reflection.

Our Province remains grateful to Almighty God for the positive relationships which have existed and continue to exist between the Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions. Traditional Anglicans possess in common with the Roman Communion the essentials of the Catholic Faith, including the canonical Scriptures, the universal Creeds, the Seven Sacraments, the male character of the Apostolic Ministry of bishops, priests and deacons, and traditional Christian teaching and doctrine concerning Holy Matrimony. We share what Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey called in 1966 a Faith “founded on the Gospel and on the ancient common Tradition.”

Our differences over the role and authority of the papal office, the infallibility and universal jurisdiction of the Pope as defined in the decrees of the I Vatican Council of 1870, the 1854 and 1950 dogmas regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary, the validity of Anglican Orders andApostolicae Curae will require further intensive and deliberate dialogue. Nevertheless, we anticipate a deepening relationship and collaboration with the Roman Catholic Church as a result of the new Apostolic Constitution about to be promulgated, a Constitution we are eager to read, evaluate and prayerfully consider.

We commit ourselves to fervent prayer for all those who will follow the path now created by the See of Rome, as we pledge to continue our prayer and work with Roman Catholics everywhere for the visible unity of Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Sermons Online

I have often been asked to post the text of my sermons online. But since I usually stray from my text, I've always resisted. Plus, I write my sermons to be listened to, not read. And I don't think they would have the desired effect were they simply read.

So, thanks to the wonders of modern technology I am going to begin posting some of my sermons in audio format on the parish website.

They are a bit long for Anglican sermons, I guess, but our service still usually ends up being one hour. I will say that listening to my sermons rather than simply reading them has already given me some ideas as to what I need to improve in terms of content, organization, and delivery.

Thoughts on Parish Fundraisers

On Saturday the Oct. 3rd we'll be having our annual "Blessing of Animals" for the feast of St. Francis. The service the next day will on his actual feast day will have special music and some more pomp added to it, since St. Francis of Assisi is our title saint. Last year we had talked about making this event a fundraiser of sorts. I thought it a good idea to have two fundraisers - one in the fall and one in the spring. But then it completely fell off my radar screen what with everything else I have going on and to do at church. We have expanded it a bit this year (giving away gifts, having testimonials, etc.), but that's it. Overall it is more of a publicity/PR event I rather than a fundraiser. I guess I'm kind of glad.

Fundraisers in churches in general are weird to me. Every Anglican parish I have ever been in or known has a fundraiser of some sort. The churches I attended growing up (not Anglican) did not have fundraisers. People just gave money to the church in response to needs. Then when I became Anglican I started experiencing fascinating fundraising events like "Cookie Walks", "Pony Shows", "Caribbean Dances", and more. But I always wondered (and still do) what any of that stuff has to do with religion. Shouldn't God's people should just "work, pray, and give" for the spread of His kingdom, and not need some fancy shindig that causes lots of work for a small group of people to justify giving extra? Shouldn't Christians just tithe? Moreover why would Christians want to come to church for stuff like that and not devotional exercises such as daily Mass, rosary, the daily offices, etc.? In small churches, like most continuing Anglican parishes are, the fundraiser can become a major headache for the priest. Why? Because he is often expected to think up, manage, and/or contribute to these events... just as he is often expected to be a marketing guru, a fix-it guy, a CPA, and more. But seminary does not prepare men for those things. And the priest is already really busy just doing his job (which is often 24/7), and he may have a real aversion to certain type of fundraising events (such as events involving animals).

I guess if a church did have a fundraiser it should be very religiously focused. It should coincide with some sort of liturgy, and have the goal of helping people draw nearer to God in Christ through the Church. Junk sales, raucous parties, and peddling cheap booze (as part of one parish's fundraiser they would raffle off a "Basket of Cheer" which contained a bunch liquor) - all of that stuff is more worldly than spiritual, and counterproductive to what the Church is or should be about.

What to say next?

Sorry to have posted nothing for a while. It is extremely tiring always having to come up with new "material" all the time. I do a weekly e-mail newsletter for the church (which you can read in the News and Updates section of the parish website), and then I do a monthly print newsletter which gets mailed to parishioners and friends of the parish. Besides that, I have a Bible study class each week in which I try to come up with talking points, and the usual sermon. So I am always having to come up with new things to say and write. Though sometimes it is fun to see what I can think of next, overall it gets tiresome.