Heinz 57 Variety

There is an interview on Virtuosity with David Virtue by the Reformed writer Michael Horton. I think that every continuing Anglican should listen to it. Horton and Virtue blame the demise of the Anglican communion on a slow disregard for doctrine and the authority of Scripture that began in the seminaries and slowly trickled down throughout the Church. For Anglicanism to have a future, they say, it must recover the authority of Scripture and take doctrine and dogma a lot more seriously. The use of the Book of Common Prayer and the affirmation of the 39 Articles as a doctrinal standard or "confession" is also needed as part of the recovery process. I would agree with all of that, except as far as the Articles of Religion as they understand them are concerned (though I think they definitely do have an important place within Anglicanism). After saying all of this Horton and Virtue, at the end of the interview, talk about how the great Global South, and now the "new" province is going to set things right within the world of Anglicanism and turn all of that around. But the question is are they? My answer is no - they will not.

The problem is that they are simply "The Episcopal Church Five Minutes Before Gene Robinson Was Consecrated". The Most Rev'd. Frank Griswold used to be referred to as "Pluriform Frank" because he believed that many different, contradictory truths could all be held together without any problems. That same pluriformity is, sadly, enshrined in this new American province in the form of "two integrities" concerning women's ordination. In the new province it is both right and wrong to ordain women. So much for recovering doctrinal integrity. Virtue and his ilk still do not see how WO is part of the whole pansexuality problem. Further, the new province is seeking to be admitted as a new province in the Anglican communion, so assuming that happens they will be in communion with those bodies that affirm pansexuality, universalism, etc. The new province also has the same mess of liturgical confusion as the Episcopal Church had, with many parishes (especially in AMiA, it seems) having a smorgasborg "liturgy" composed of a little of this, and little of that... whatever works, whatever the pastor feels like doing. Liturgical confusion leads inevitably to more and more doctrinal confusion. Although many of the groups that make up the new province give lip service to the 1662 BCP I have yet to hear of a single parish that actually uses it, or any other historic Prayer Book for that matter. That, incidentally, is probably why a watered down Calvinism permeates many of these groups. Because they do not use the Prayer Book (a real Prayer Book) they are under the delusion that Calvinist soteriology is somehow compatible with Anglicanism. If they read the Prayer Book they would see that it is not. One AMiA minister told me once that he didn't even know what Anglicanism was all about! So the new province is in my judgment simply perpetuating the same problems that have torn up the Anglican communion in the first place. More Methodist than Anglican, it will most likely run into great difficulties down the road unless these foundational problems are resolved.

Meanwhile, the hated, scorned, and despised so-called "Heinz 57" variety of continuing Anglicans - those who saw the writing on the wall long ago - have maintained a faithful, orthodox, classical Anglican witness. We (along with some others, to be sure) have preserved the classical Prayer Book, the great hymns of the 1940 Hymnal, the beautiful poetry of the Authorized Version, the traditions of the faith, the great missals, manuals, and other liturgical books - nothing less than the full integrity of the Anglican and Catholic faith for the world. In contrast to ACNA, the continuing Anglican churches (which are essentially divided into two big blocks) use the same liturgy, have the same beliefs about the priesthood, faith, and sacraments, and have the same traditions. In the face of great trials and tribulations from both within and without we have faithfully maintained and proclaimed the Gospel of Christ for almost 40 years. And yet we are largely scorned by these folk. We are so scorned by others because they know that we were right. They keep hoping we will go away, or fold into them, but we won't. We will always be here to proclaim the Anglican and Catholic faith until Christ comes again!

More reflections after one year...

It has been an exhausting year here at St. Francis both for my wife and me, and for our small parish family. For a broad sketch of some of our activities and accomplishments I would direct your attention to the previous post (sorry for the weird font issues with that post, BTW).

One of things that this past year has shown me quite clearly is that there is most definitely a spiritual vacuum that our so-called "continuing" Anglican parishes fill. I meet more and more people - especially young people - who tell me how glad they are that St. Francis is here. They express to me what a void this small parish fills in their lives. I think that many other continuing Anglican parishes are the same way. Our parishes are the perfect home for people who want orthodoxy, tradition, and beauty in worship and theology without a lot of the accompanying cultural baggage. We are not scary, happy-clappy evangelicals, fundamentalists, or charismatics. But neither are we dead mainliners who hold NPR and the NY Times to be God's new revelation to "humankind" today and don't believe in truth or the divine. We invite people to use their God-given faculty of reason so they really grapple with God and their faith, and the big questions of life. But we do this within the context of a living tradition of faith and liturgy going all the way back to the ancient Church, spanning the medieval and Reformation ages, and going into the future. In short we are unique, and offer something that no other church today does, and we should be proud of that. There are indeed other ways to be Catholic nowadays (e.g. Rome, Orthodoxy), but for many people those churches are not options. I do not know what I would do if I was not a priest or did not have a traditional 1928 BCP parish to attend! And the same goes for many others.

Still, it can be discouraging from time to time being in one of our parishes as either a layman or cleric. Often it seems (at least here at St. Francis at this point in her history) that we are in a race against time to grow lest we fail to make ends meet and have to fold. The truth is that we grow but at a much slower pace than other churches and ecclesial bodies. I think this is mainly because our service requires a certain level of cultural sophistication and appreciation that is sadly lacking in this age of "American Idol" and mass consumerism. It is much easier to go to some protestant mega church and be "entertained" with the gaudy trappings of immediacy (e.g. mindlessly repetitious and poetically banal "praise choruses") than to meditate (and sing!) the great hymns and Psalms of the faith. Even many "well-educated" people cannot figure out what phrases like, "...very God of very God..." mean. In short, we live in a dumb and lazy age, and it is getting dumber and lazier with each passing day. This is too bad for us, but we cannot abandon our traditions without losing that which makes us who we are. So it is what it is... Thanks be to God, there are still some people out there who appreciate and long for that which is true, beautiful, and good. Thanks be to God that there is a spiritual home for people who want the ancient, unchanging faith of the Fathers of the Church and the seven ecumenical councils, without its Roman additions, Protestant subtractions, or neo-Anglican postmodern deletions. We have a definite spiritual vocation in the 21st century. May God help us to fulfill it.

One of my main tasks this next year is to formulate a more definite "spiritual vision" for the parish, and think about how this parish should be formed spiritually. The purpose of the ministerial priesthood is to help people be "saved through Christ forever" - i.e. to help them get to heaven. We clergy have to ask ourselves from time to time: am I doing this? Or are we more focused on "growing the parish" in terms of numbers rather than forming our parishioners into the men and women God wants them to be? I am still in the process of thinking this through, but in general I want the parish to become more aware of the supreme importance of the Holy Eucharist and other sacraments, and of the sacramental structure of the spiritual life and indeed all of life. I also want us all to appreciate the Divine Office more, and have everyone integrate praying it into their rule of life. As Thornton reminds us in English Spirituality our tradition is rooted in the mass and offices. There are other things as well. It is all pretty vague at this point, but if I can begin thinking about the question itself - how do we form our parishioners - the answer will, with God's help, present itself. I think that it will cause me to reflect more on my own rule of life and continuing spiritual formation, as the life, manner, and spirituality of the priest determines to a large extent that of his cure.

Please keep us in your prayers this next year! Pray for priests.

One Year at St. Francis

From our August 2009 "print" monthly newsletter.

This month marks the one year anniversary of my arrival at St. Francis Anglican Church. It has been a challenging and exciting year for both Valerie and I personally and also for the parish. I am still amazed at how God worked everything out for us to come here. God enabled us to sell our house in Florida in a mere two months, got the parish the funding necessary to support a full time priest, provided housing, provided a job for Valerie, and more. These were signs that God indeed wanted us to come to St. Francis. During this past year we have seen some hopeful and exciting changes. Our attendance, membership, and giving are all slowly going up. Our average Sunday attendance is the highest it has been in a few years, and attendance at several important holy day services (e.g. Ash Wed.) were also at their highest in a few years. We have the largest number of students attending services here that anyone can remember. I am meeting more and more students who tell me how much they appreciate St. Francis in their spiritual lives; how they wished they knew it was here earlier; and how much they have learned about the Gospel and the Catholic faith through this parish. We have gotten a great deal of good publicity through two newspaper articles, joint activities with other churches, and activities around town. We have expanded our outreach to the community by ministering to those in hospice care, allowing community organizations to use the building, trying to build on our college organization, offering various classes and studies, and supporting local ministries such as the Caring Pregnancy Center, Montgomery Co. Emergency Assistance, and the Interfaith Food Pantry. More outreach activities and ministries are currently in the works. With the generous help of parishioners and friends we have begun beautifying and updating our facilities, giving them a “new look” to go along with the new attitude and life the parish has. This includes restoring our nursery, refinishing our wood floors, improving our lighting, and more. The liturgical life of the parish is at the fullest it has been in years, with daily services being offered, and all of the Prayer Book holy day services being celebrated. The church has been given some nice new, and much-needed liturgical appointments, such as sanctus bells, a thurible and incense boat, candelabra, and more. And we have been blessed to have Fr. David F. Coady join our pastoral staff. He brings years of pastoral and life experience to our parish and community, and is a joy to know and work with. We have withstood some very serious risks that arose including the loss of our longtime organist in December 2008 and the demise of our old furnaces in January 2009. In years past things like that could perhaps have destroyed the parish. But God enabled us to get through those difficult times without too much difficulty and trouble. So all in all things are looking up for us here at St. Francis. These are signs that despite suggestions by some in the past to close up shop and call it quits that God still has something for St. Francis to do for His kingdom here in Blacksburg. Still, there are significant challenges that lay ahead. St. Francis is in the red financially. We do not yet bring enough in each weekly offering to make ends meet. The church is need of a new roof (we are still relying on our the leaky original 1947 roof, patching it here and there as needed). The building needs air conditioning, not only to keep us cool, but to keep moisture down, and mildew out. The size and design of the parish hall is inadequate - we do not have a large room where we can eat together, and the way it is connected to the church is impractical and confusing. Our restroom faciltities are outdated and substandard. Our electricity needs to be upgraded. We need to increase our organists’ pay, and give Fr. Coady compensation (he currently works for free). And we need to do some renovations in the nave and sanctuary to beautify them and make them more attractive. It is important to emphasize that these physical improvements to our property are not an end in themselves, but serve a greater purpose - reaching people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When we get visitors it is vital that our building be warm, inviting, up-to-date, and comfortable so as to encourage them to stay. So while we have made much progress, there is still more work to be done. Let us keep at, and not get faint-hearted! God has brought us this far; He will carry us along as we try to be faithful to Him. Overall I have been very pleased with the level of support and enthusiasm from everyone in the parish, and from the vestry. As we go forward I would ask us to be mindful that our number one priority is not “growth in numbers” but being faithful to God, and being a healthy parish that is Christ-centered and proclaims His redeeming love in word and deed. If we are a healthy parish growth will come naturally, just as the human body, when it is healthy, grows naturally. I would also ask us each to remember that we are Christ’s hands and feet here on earth. It is our solemn duty to be missionaries, evangelists, and teachers, and to take the Good News of Jesus Christ to all nations and people. In other words, it is not only the clergy’s job to grow the church, but every believer’s job. The mission of the Church, and of each parish, is the salvation of souls through Jesus Christ. Every single thing we do here at St. Francis is directed toward that end. Let us never forget that, and let us be faithful to Our Lord Jesus Christ!