TAC Personal Prelature

The internet is abuzz with stories that the Holy Father is going to receive the TAC en-masse and make them a personal prelature like Opus Dei (personal prelatures seem to be the solution to everything these days - the same route is being considered with the SSPX apparently). This is exciting news and may lead to many more Anglicans going to Rome if it goes through. I really have to wonder, though, how something like this can be pulled off. It has got to be a lot easier with SSPX because they are entirely Roman in their liturgy and ethos, but with us it is a different story. Also, what if bring in a bunch of continuing Anglicans in this way perturbs the SSPX and other traditionalists in the Roman Church and derails that? I am sure B16 and his associates have this figured out, or are going to figure it out if it goes through. Supposedly an announcement is due by Easter. As for me, entering communion with Rome in this manner is far more desirable than fooling around with this Common Cause stuff.

Anglican Chant Weather Forecast

This is pretty good...

The shoe is on the other foot now!

I just finished reading the latest update to the "No Way APA" website. Maybe the owner should change the name of his site to "No Way REC".

The Joys of Studying Medieval Philosophy

I have just finished reading through Fr. Frederick Copleston's massive "History of Philosophy" series through the 'late medieval' section. I still have many more volumes to go before finishing the set, but am going to take a detour to read some other works in medieval philosophy that I have laying around. By the way, if you are looking for the best "History of Philosophy" series to read get Copleston. Whatever you do don't waste your time reading Bertrand Russell's. While he is much more entertaining to read, Copleston goes into far greater detail. This is to be expected as Copleston was a philosopher while Russell was just a mathematician. 

Anyway, the goal of reading his series from the beginning and into the Medieval era was to grasp St. Thomas better. While it was beneficial in that respect, I have to admit that in the end I have found Ockham to be the far most interesting reading of the whole series thus far. While I will have to do more reading on him, it seems based on what I have read thus far that Ockham and the "Ockhamist" or "Nominalist" school was really the unintentional fountainhead of skepticism. Over and over again Ockham maintained that very few Christian dogmas and doctrines could be philosophically proven. Yet he maintained that they were to be believed on the basis of faith, or Church teaching. Granted other Medieval philosophers thought that way about certain doctrines (e.g. St. Thomas with the doctrine of creation), but Ockham seemed to think that about virtually every category of Christian belief. Thus he ended up creating a massive dichotomy between theology and philosophy. Centuries later that was to have disastrous results.  

Hail to the Chief

Well, today is an historic day. We have a new president. A "great messiah" who will miraculously deliver us from our enemies and usher in a time of eternal peace and prosperity. Any time there is a difference of opinion on some great issue, such as abortion, same sex unions, Cuba, or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict this new "messiah" will fly in and deliver some fantastic sounding speech that will save the day. 

I am bracing myself spiritually and politically for the FOCA which he supports and which would force doctors and hospitals to provide abortions against their conscience and will. That this man would support this legislation while at the same time enjoying such popular support even by Christians is truly scary and depressing. 125,000 more abortions - oh wonderful... what fantastic "change" that is. Sounds like a change for the worse to me. God help us all.

God, send us an organist!

This picture has nothing to do with an organist. I just thought I'd post it. It is our "Rose Sunday" picture. The flowers were  big hit. The light coming in on the reredos is from our beautiful "eucharistic" stained glass windows in the sanctuary. Actually there is just one rose in each arrangement and the rest are pink carnations. That is what we financially poor churches must do. But it's fine to do it that way... as long as there is at least one pink rose!

I pray that God would send us a full time organist/music minister. We are blessed with a great interim organist (a VA Tech student who graduates in May), and we have some other good stand in organists that have helped us, and that we can call on when needed, but we need a full time person. 

One of the many reasons I came here was that I recognized right away the awesome potential in this place. I knew they couldn't "offer me" tons of perks right off the bat, but I know that down the road this will, by God's grace, be a thriving parish church that will be a blessing to me, and to everyone in Blacksburg and beyond in ways that are beyond my imagination. 

I just wish I could find a music minister who could join me in this endeavor. Someone who sees the potential, and all that we can do here! The sky is the limit with the musical possibilities in this parish and in this university town. Is there anyone out there who would come and join us in this work we are doing for God's glory?

Divorced and Remarried Clergy: The New Hot-Button Issue?

An interesting article on VOL. I once had lunch with Bp. Hewitt of the DHC and he was explaining to me and some other priests that the first fissure in TEC began in the late 60's/early 70's when they changed the canons governing divorce and remarriage for the clergy. That paved the way to the ordination of women, which eventually lead to the acceptance of homosexuality.

Anyway, it is interesting that the so-called Global South bishops are so strong on this issue, and on the homosexuality issue, but not on the issue of women's ordination which bridges the two. I think most of the Global South churches in the Anglican Communion ordain women - if not to the priesthood to the diaconate. Other groups, such as FiFNa churches and AMiA, ordain women to the diaconate.

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes of this.

Church Growth 2

These are some more random thoughts swirling around in my head about church growth as it relates to continuing Anglican parishes. These observations refer to a typical continuing Anglican parish like St. Francis: small, no choir (much less a paid choir), Sunday parish mass with hymns.

1) Most people prefer to come to church and do as little as possible and be entertained. Extremely clerical churches where the minister does everything (e.g. Presbyterian), or entertainment-oriented "game show" churches - where the service is like an episode of "The Price is Right" - appeal to the vast majority of people because of basic human laziness. Older services like ours (and maybe the Tridentine mass) service demand a lot of people, therefore there is a natural aversion to them. We clergy should simply expect this of people.

2) Most people prefer a service that is not only reverent but easy to follow. Ours is very complex, even in its lowest (straight Prayer Book) form. So we need to try to make our services as easy as possible to follow so as to make it accessible to the broadest number of people. I think we do that by sticking as close to the Prayer Book as possible. We clergy tend to become so familiar with the liturgy that we often get bored with it, so we are tempted to add, add, add. But we need to put ourselves in the laity's shoes. Sometimes adding all of that stuff (e.g. the minor propers, the extra collects, etc.) makes the service too hard for them to follow. (especially if they have to go from Prayer Book, to Hymnal, to bulletin, and back and forth)

3) Most people can only absorb a limited amount in one hour. Again, I think that adding all of the minor propers and extra collects is simply too much to absorb. It works in the old Roman mass because much of that mass was said in silence. But it doesn't always work with us. We forget that besides the mass we have: the hymns, the announcements, the sermon, coffee hour, and Sunday school. All of that takes a certain chunk of people's "spiritual absorption" quota. When we start adding tons of beautiful but verbose prayers people just begin to zone out after a while and the whole kit and caboodle becomes ineffective.

4) Too many hymns and too much singing can definitely be a bad thing. Unless you have a paid choir, or a good volunteer choir, we need to do less singing. Why? Time and taste: our typical mass music is pretty dreary (Willan, Merbecke), and adds lots of unnecessary time to the service. There is no rule that those parts MUST be sung, so if you have a small group just recite them and sing only the hymns. Why else? Our culture is becoming less and less musical. Average people do not sing much anymore, or even read music, so they feel awkward doing too much singing (especially of such alien music). Why else? Their voices get tired after a while from all of the responses and recitations; they are also tired from kneeling, and from it being so early in the morning. So I think the less music we have the better. I think it is best to try to get the biggest bang for your buck with the music - if there is going to be singing, let it be just the bare minimum of hymns, and just recite the ordinary of the mass (except maybe on special occasions). Too much music, especially when it is bad, just drives people away.

The rewards of being an artist

Being an artist is just as intense and demanding a vocation as being a priest. Like the priesthood, the artistic life has its highs and lows, and ups and downs. But the rewards of both vocations are immeasurable. I have been very blessed to touch many lives through my art - from people around the world. Recently I was sent this note about an icon that I did: (I gave it to a client who passed it on as a gift, and the client sent me the comment that follows.)

"The crucifixion painting you gave me has already been a treasure. As you may know, I suffer from phases of deep depression and take medication for that depression, but as with all things, there is a very spiritual dimension to my depression. When I am able to look at something like a painting of the crucifixion, it both makes the crucifixion real and brings me great comfort. I am going through such a time right now and this afternoon I propped the painting up by my bed so that I could look at it as I tried to rest. So I thank you very very much for it."

It is a tremendous blessing, and very humbling, to be able to touch so many peoples lives artistically and ministerially.

Church Growth 1

All that I have been thinking about the last couple days is church growth, not only because of trying to grow/revitalize this parish (though I wonder, based on the numbers in the books, if it was ever "vitalized" to begin with), but because many "continuing Anglican" (CA) parishes seem to be stagnant or in decline. And that is a major concern on many levels.

Now, we have had growth at St. Francis since I have been here. We have added some five new university students, one older professional, and one retired professional. I am VERY THANKFUL for that growth! And, thanks be to God, most CA parishes, dioceses, and jurisdictions can probably claim the same type of growth - though the demographics are different based on where they are located (i.e. we are across the street from VA Tech, so we have a number of college students; other parishes are in retirement communities, so they have lots of older, retired folk, etc.). So we ARE growing at St. Francis! And other parishes in the APA and in similar CA jurisdictions are also growing! The numbers prove that. As I have seen it said on other CA sites: "We are growing, slowly, but we are growing."

But is the growth keeping up with 'inflation'? In other words, how much of our parish growth is actual "new adult conversions to Christianity" growth verses getting folk from other Anglican parishes, or other churches? And how much of our growth is getting folk who are converts from some other tradition, such as Presbyterianism, Anabaptism, Romanism, etc.? From what I know it is far to say that most of our very small and slow growth comes in those areas, which is not bad (no growth is "bad", per se), but not good either. Very little growth (and none so far in my tenure here at St. Francis) is growth in terms of adult converts to the Christian religion! To be honest, in my whole life I know of only one adult person who went from being a complete, unbaptized pagan to becoming a Christian entirely in a continuing Anglican church! I am sure there are more out there, but I personally only know of one. And incidentally he is no longer CA but Orthodox, I am told. But is this an inditement of CA churches alone? By no means!

The sad truth is that across the board according to statistics ALL denominations (in America) are "growing" more in transfer of membership from other churches RATHER than by adult baptisms and conversions (Source: "Comeback Churches" Setzer/Dodson) - even the so-called "true church" - the Roman Church. That is warning to ALL Christians. We are supposedly "growing" (and megachurches are "growing" a lot, so it seems), but it is not real growth! It is just baptized people transferring memberships and attendance around! In other words, the growth of the Kingdom of God is not keeping up with the growth of "paganism" at this point! The bottom line is this: the Church (across the board) is NOT growing... if anything it is slowly shrinking. The statistics prove it. The question is what are we Christians going to do about it? More important, what are we so-called "continuing Anglicans" going to do about it?

If I was a Lutheran....

THIS is where I would go to church!