Icon Writing and general Art Update

Well, it has been several months since I've started icon "writing" (painting), and I making good progress in some ways, and not so good progress in other ways. So far I have done five icons, and am working on my sixth. The most difficult parts about it for me are:

1) etching the image into the wood - it is hard to get precise lines at first... sometimes the awl gets away from you, and a line gets unintentionally lengthened, or goes in the wrong direction, or something

2) painting on such a small scale - it's quite difficult and laborious trying to paint small facial features so they look good

As someone with a broad background in fine art, and especially in painting, I have found the egg tempra medium to be really great to work in. The amount of detail, and subtle textures that one can acheive with it are really amazing. I can see why Andrew Wyeth uses that medium for his major works. I might try some other types of paintings in this medium at some point. One of the interesting things I have noticed in studying various types of icons is that the east and west had an almost identical artistic tradition up until the Italian Renaissance. The work of Duccio (proto-Renaissance Siennese painter), is very similar to that of his contemporary Byzantine/Greek counterparts.

Anyway, once I am done all of these (all the icons I've done so far are 9"x12") I will try some larger scale ones, and then maybe I will have a show of them sometime next year. In other artistic news, I recently sold my "Purgatory" painting, which I did while in seminary. It was part of a series I did on the "stages of death" - the others in the series being "Alienation", "Death", "Hell" (destroyed), "Purgatory" (sold), and "Salvation" (sold). NB: I just tried to make a link to it, but for some reason it's not working. I will try to get it up soon. Anyway, it was exciting to sell this piece, as I've come close to selling it a few times. It is an interesting painting and very near and dear to my heart. In some ways it foreshadows where I want to eventually go with my icon painting.

I will be having a show in Bel Air (Maryland) in August at the Liriodendron art gallery, which will consist of recent cityscapes. More information will be posted about it in the coming weeks. And the best news of all, my lovely wife is poised to have my updated art website up in a few more weeks, which, of course, I will link to from this blog.

Ordination

This weekend a good friend of mine from my seminary days will be ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood. My wife and I hope to attend his ordination. He is being ordained in a pretty liberal diocese, but they have a new bishop who is trying to clean things up, so I think he will prosper. He is that rare cleric who is both committed to his principles and to what the RC Church teaches, but is also pastoral and can see "the big picture". I hope and pray that he will have a great ministry.

I have seen so many men prepare for holy orders, both in the Roman Catholic Church and in the continuing Anglican Churches who have "not made it". With many of them the craziest stuff seems to happen to thwart them on their way. It is as though Satan is working overtime specifically on them to prevent them from being ordained, and so from helping others draw near to Jesus Christ. The icon to the left always reminded me of this. Imagine the men as "aspirants and postulants" who are climbing up the ladder, seeking to be ordained, but devils are trying to pluck them off. And sadly, many men are plucked off.

Whenever we try to do anything good for God, and for His kingdom, we can be sure that Satan will try to stop us at every step of the way. How much more when a man is preparing for ordination, and preparing to become the "icon of Christ" - a priest.

No Kneeling in Orange County

Here is an interesting article from the New Oxford Review about how the Catholic bishop of Orange has banned kneeling during the Agnus Dei throughout his diocese. Traditionalist Roman Catholics are revolting, as one would expect. One person asks: "It's hard to understand why any bishop would prohibit his people from expressing reverence in the way they have done for centuries," said Helen Hull Hitchcock, a founder of the conservative Adoremus Society for the Renewal of Sacred Liturgy in St. Louis." A big stink developed when the pastor of one parish, who offered a popular Latin mass completee with lots of kneeling, retired, and was replaced by a guy who did the regular mass, and followed the bishop's order, and banned kneeling during the Agnus Dei. He promptly canned some servers and council members who refused to comply with this directive. It seems like a bad situation.

But I have to ask: who are these people to blatantly defy the order of their bishop, who was appointed by the supreme pontiff? And who are they to defy their priest, who represents the bishop? The Roman Catholic Church is not a democracy. I sympathize with them for wanting to kneel, but they simply must obey their bishop in mattters like this. And this raises a larger issue. Everyone who enters the Roman Catholic Church must be prepared to acccept whatever the supreme pontiff teaches and declares as truth. In the Archdioces of Baltimore, people entering the Roman Church are required to say: "I believe and profess all that the Holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God." So, should the Catholic Church ever allow priests to marry, or ordain women, the laity better be prepared to accept that. Granted, those are different issues than kneeling or not kneeling, but that's not the point. The point is obedience; will the laity obey those whom the Lord has set over them not matter what they say or do?

Other Interesting Anglican/Church-Related Music

In the spirit of the previous post, I thought I would highlight two other recordings that I have found fun and interesting to listen to.

The first is the Vince Guaraldi at Grace Cathedral (Live). This was a jazz eucharist done at Grace Cathedral featuring the musician who composed the music for the Charlie Brown cartoons. It was done in the late 1960's (big surprise), and so uses the 1928 BCP for the liturgy. They do the fourth communion service, which is an old plainsong melody, to jazz, and have a choir singing the Veni Creator Spiritus and more. One of the biggest highlights, though, is that the infamous James A. Pike is featured on the recording - giving an introduction to the service. You'll notice that he refers to the "Ground of Our Being" (Tillich) to refer to God, which is rather interesting. Overall, it is very well-done, and lots of fun to listen to.

The other recording that I enjoy is the Missa Flamenca, which was composed by the flamenco guitarist Paco Pena. All of the music is flamenco, of course, and the singing is done in the flamenco manner by a specially trained choir. I studied classical guitar in college (under Mario Abril and Julian Gray), so I have a special interest in this type of music. This composition is full of energy.

Now, I would never advocate using this type of music in a "public" traditional Anglican liturgy, not because I think it is morally wrong, but because I don't think the style matches the language and solemnity of the BCP. Guitars and drums, and instruments like them, being used in worship is more a sin against good taste than a sin against God. Music like this fine, however, to listen to at home in a relaxed atmosphere. It may be enjoyed privately in order to help cultivate deeper devotion to God if that is what it does for an individual.

Healey Willan

Although I am incredibly sick and tired of hearing the Healey Willan mass setting (the second communion service in the 1940 hymnal), Willan has some other incredible pieces of music that deserve to be listened to. I happen to have the CD on the left, as well as Apostrophe to the Heavenly Hosts. If you are looking for some great Anglican choral music, I highly recommend these two CDs. I think they can be purchased through St. Mary Magdalene church in Toronto (where he served as choir master and organist for years).

Life as a Newly Ordained Priest

People often ask me what it is like being newly ordained, and if any weird or unusual happens to me more than before I was ordained. Well, yes... once in a while something out of the ordinary does happen. People are afraid to curse around me when I am in my collar; some people are even afraid to curse around my wife; random people wave to me; Latinos tip their caps to you as you walk by; people just come up to me and start telling me about their problems; people ask relationship questions as well as theological questions; I do not have to pay for parking many times at garages and such; non-church going casual acquaintences ask me to do their weddings (actually, that happened even when I was in seminary); I get asked about doing baptisms and such for people not in my parish; and I could go on. It is quite interesting, and a real blessing when these random encounters or experiences open the door for a serious conversation about Jesus Christ, sin and repentance.

By far, though, the craziest thing was when I was in Shreveport once at a business meeting, and a colleague found out that I was preparing for ordination (this was while I was still a postulant, obviously). So he asked me what he should about a localized recurrent apparition (a ghost) of an old lady that was haunting his house. He described the situation to me in great detail - it seemed to be a a completely benign ghost that didn't do too much except "appear" here and there, freaking people out when it did so. As he is telling me this I am saying to myself, "Uhhh, here's what you should do: MOVE!" But I figured he didn't want to hear that, so instead I advised him, as it was apparently not malevalent or causing any real problems, to completely ignore it as much as possible, and under no circumstances ever try to communicate or make contact with it as that is forbidden in the scriptures. I then told him that if he was still freaked out about the whole thing he could call a priest over to bless his home. So far I have not had anything top that.

New Alb

I just received from Wippells in England this gorgeous traditional alb that I bought with some ordination gift money... just imagine me wearing it as opposed to a broad. The picture really doesn't do it justice - it is quite extrodinary. The amount of lace is just right. It seems to me that every Anglican cleric should have at least one item of vesture from Wippells.

Collegial Episocpate: The Anglican Way

My in-laws were asked by a Roman Catholic friend what some of the differences between RCs and Anglicans were, and specifically if we Anglicans "followed the pope." I explained to them that the one of the major differences between the two traditions is that, while we acknowledge the Bishop of Rome as being a true bishop, and as having perhaps a position of special honor among the bishops of the world, we do not acknowledge him to have universal jurisdiction over the other bishops of the world and the whole church. The Roman Catholic episcopate is "top down", whereas in the Orthodox and Anglican tradition it is collegial. This developed historically, as there was only one patriarchal see in the west (Rome), and the rest were in the east. So one can naturally see how a top-down system developed in the west.

In recent years we have seen some of the problems seemingly associated with a collegial episcopate - especially within Anglicanism. Some bishops and bishops' conferences, instead of acting "collegially", and considering how their acts and decisions affect the larger church, have acted unilaterally, promoting in some cases heresy and schism (as in ECUSA). During these times many orthodox Anglicans lament that they do not have a central authority figure like the pope to keep the wackos in line, or get rid of them when they promote heresy.

If we think this way, we would do well to realize that just because a few bishops have been promoting heresy and sin in recent decades, and have not been disciplined for this, that does not mean that the teaching of a truly the collegial episcopate is wrong. It means that the bishops are not living up to the true meaning of collegiality, not following their vows, and so on. It is like saying, as many people do, that mandatory priestly celibacy in the RC tradition is "wrong" because vocations are low right now, or because there was a pedophilia scandal. Well, even if there was some connection to these current problems within the RC world and mandatory priestly celibacy, that does not mean that the teaching of the church in that area is necessarily wrong. Correlation does not imply causlity. The same is true for the teaching of the collegial episcopate. The collegial episcopate is supported by both scripture and tradition, and it is one of the great marks of our tradition and that of the eastern orthodox.

Lower than...

I love it when I hear a new phrase used to describe how low a particular parish is. Some of my favorites have to do with snakes: "That place is lower than snakes' hips." Or, "That place is lower than a snake's belly." Or, "It's snake-belly low." Those are pretty good. But my favorite so far was used by the rector of my home parish to describe some church he had visited once way back when... I asked him about the churchmanship at this place and he growled, "That place is so low you have to crawl in."

New Faces, Old Religion

Today I had the distinict pleasure of being treated to lunch by my spiritual director, the Rev'd Fr. Charles McClean, SSC. Also joining us was a friend who is in the aspirant program for the ECUSA, and the Rev'd Fr. Jason Catania, SSC, who is the new rector of Mt. Calvary Church, Baltimore, MD. As my spiritual director put it, Fr. Catania is "...of the old school." A true anglo-catholic, devoted to the "faith once delivered to the saints." He is bringing about liturgical change to Mt. Calvary. As he put it, "the last vestiges of the new religion are being swept away." The missal is back on all of the altars. The altar cards up. The traditional positions of the sacred ministers have been restored as prescribed in Ritual Notes. The preparation and the Last Gospel have been restored. And soon, the sub-deacon will be in a humeral veil, and so forth. It is wonderful to see. Mt. Calvary definitely went through a phase of liturgical revision, not as bad as some historically anglo-catholic parishes, but it was there. Now all of that will be gone. What will be left of it? (NOTE: I am into liturgical revision, by the way... as long as it is revising the crappy "novus ordo" liturgy... revising it back to the way it should be - to the missal.) Fr. Catania is also a trained, and degreed musician, so I am sure that the already great music at Mt. Calvary will only get better under his leadership. It was also nice to be able to connect my friend with him and Fr. McClean, as they will be able to help him navigate through the process of being ordained in the ECUSA. So all in all, it was a great day. Clergy lunches , by the way, are one of the best parts about being ordained. Sitting around and talking "shop talk" is absolutely wonderful. In closing, I exhort us to say a prayer for Fr. Catania's ministry at Mt. Calvary, Baltimore - one of the great, flagship anglo-catholic parishes in America; to pray for the ministry of my spiritual director, a great man of God and a holy, devout priest; to pray for my friend as he explores a priestly vocation; and lastly, to pray for me and my humble ministry as a priest of the APA (bringing traditional anglo-catholicism to the 'burbs).

Altar Cards & Fiddlebacks

A clergy colleague made an interesting point about why priests should consider wearing fiddleback chasubles and keeping altar cards on the altar. They send an immediate message about what your parish is all about: the orthodox, traditional Christian faith. Plus, one never sees women "priests" in fiddleback chasubles.

The Very Right Reverend

The APA has absorbed a number of smaller continuing Anglican jurisdictions over the years, each one coming with a bishop or two. The deal is that the bishop gets to keep his title and dress, but not function as a bishop by doing confirmations, ordinations, etc. unless, of course, previous arrangements have been made. Overall the policy seems to work very well. But sometimes it can make for some unusual titles. For example, Bp. Grundorf recently announced the formation of a deanery in this region of the country. I believe it consists of MD, DE, and DC. And the "dean" in charge of it is a bishop from a jurisdiction that merged with us a couple of years back. So that makes him "The Very Rt. Rev." A.B. He gave me a call the other day and we were joking about it. He'll make a good dean in part because he has a great sense of humor!

Motorcycle for Sale - BMW R1100R

I am selling my 1999 BMW R1100R motorcycle (my dream bike). The mileage is about 39K. Motorcycling is a great hobby, and this is a fantastic bike. It really makes heads turn. It has a really smooth ride, and it is very stable and roadworthy. If anyone out there happens to be interested in it please let me know. Here's what it comes with:

1100 CCs
BMW Saddlebags
BMW Aeroflow Windshield
New Metzler Tires
Two Piece Adjustable Saddle
Throttle Lock
Heated Grips
Full Heated Body Suit (socks, pants, jacket, and gloves)
Techllusion Fuel Injection Kit (fixes surging problem)
Maintainence Free Battery
Torque Wrench
Oil Filter Change Tool
BMW Tool Kit

I suppose as an Anglican I should be riding a Triumph, or and old BSA or Norton, but alas, I wanted a bike that was reliable!

A Couple More Pics

Here's one of me and Fr. Chad Jones, SSC, sub-dean of the cathedral in Oviedo, and longtime friend and mentor. Also one of me and Fr. Ray Unterburger, the rector of St. Alban's, Joppa - also an important mentor and friend. And one of me and my wife after my first mass on Low Sunday. I am vested in red because Bp. Grundorf was doing confirmations that day and receiving new members.

Ordination Pictures

Here are some pictures from after my ordination. Unlike many modernistic, novus ordo churches, we do not permit photography during the liturgy, so I don't have any of the "holy huddle", or anything like that. The chasuble I am wearing was purchased in Rome on me and my wife's honeymoon back in October. The custom fiddleback ones that I am having made are not ready yet (won't be ready till July). There are more photos, but I won't flood the internet with them. The first one is of me giving my first blessing to Bp. Grundorf. The group photo consists the clergy of the parish, as well as clergy from various APA and REC parishes. Also represented were clergy from FiFNA. All in all it was a great time. Like other newly ordained priests, I find that the most amazing part about it is offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is a truly profound, and beautiful experience. To think that God uses me, a sinful mortal, to make the one, "...full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world..." present on the altar for the salvation of the world is awesome and humbling. I pray that God will help me to be a faithful priest, and dedicated servant for Him and for His people.

Ordination Charge

If you go to the Philorthodox blog you can read the charge I was given at my ordination by the Rev'd Fr. Chandler Holder Jones, SSC, who is sub-dean of our cathedral in Oviedo, Florida. I hope to have some pictures and thoughts posted soon!

Hip Hop Prayer Book

I found this Hip Hop prayer book while looking up 1940 Hymnals on the Church Publishing website. Looks pretty goofy to me. Here is how it translates Psalm 23:

Psalm 23 as adapted by Ryan Kearse
The Lord is all that, I need for nothing.
He allows me to chill.
He keeps me from being heated
and allows me to breathe easy.
He guides my life so that
I can represent and give
shouts out in his Name.
And even though I walk through
the Hood of death,
I don't back down
for you have my back.
The fact that you have me covered
allows me to chill.
He provides me with back-up
in front of my player-haters
and I know that I am a baller
and life will be phat.
I fall back in the Lord's crib
for the rest of my life.

God or the Girl?

There is a really interesting new mini-series on the A & E Network called God or the Girl about four men considering entering Roman Catholic seminary to become priests. As a graduate from a Roman Catholic seminary I find this series quite fascinating. They played two episodes last night, and have two more on tonight. Its just a two-day thing from what the website says, so try to catch it tonight if you can. It is very respectable, doesn't make a mockery of the Roman Church by any strech of the imagination, and is entertaining and educational. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops screened the episodes and have okayed it (of course, this is the same body whose film review arm said the movie Brokeback Mountain was a good film, but I digress). Anyway, I highly recommend this series.

There are so many things to say about the programs I saw last night. Here's a few general observations: Only one of the guys actually has a girlfriend. All but one are rather young.... too young and inexperienced to be making this kind of decision, in my judgment. They are all from pretty conservative dioceses/areas (Arlington, Scranton, etc.). Two, I think, went right out of high school to the minor seminary, so they already have some "seminary" experience.

If you have seen the show, here is my take on the guys. The two that I think should not be priests are Joe, who has major commitment issues and still hasn't found himself despite being 28 years old, and Steve, who seems to be exceedingly vain. The other two guys, I think, could be good priests. Dan is hyped about serving God and the church and already lives in a community of devoutly Roman Catholic religious men, and Mike (the one with the girlfriend) is very level-headed and sensitive... though his spiritual director seems to have some sort of Vulcan mind control over him. Of the four, Dan and Steve seem to have the worst case of "Messiah Complex" (i.e. I will be the savior of the Catholic Church and tell everyone what to believe and how to live). I suppose that is due to their age, though. Hearing it reminded me of an admonition given by one of my seminary professors (a very holy man): he said to make sure that we worked out our own salvation in fear and trembling, and thought about our vocation that way, before worrying about trying to save everyone else.

It is really sad that their denomination makes them have to choose between God and "the girl". Fr. Taylor Marshall asked a while back on his blog what good things Anglicanism has to offer the rest of christendom. One of those good things, though I don't know if it was mentioned, was the option for clergy to marry. The natural desire for men to be with women, both physically, emotionally, and spiritually, should not be denied, or set in opposition to serving in the ordained ministry. That opposition is neither biblical nor patristic. Anyway, this should be an interesting show to follow over the next few days, or for however long it stays on.

U2 Masses

Here is a link to an AP story on U2 masses that some ECUSA parishes are having. These are services where they use music by the rock group U2 for the liturgy. I think some churches have a cover band play the music, while others just spin the CD. U2 has granted there permission for churches to use their music in this way. Many of their songs have a Christian, or generalized religious, or other socially redeeming theme to them. There are even books out on using U2 songs to help write sermons. Now, I like U2, and I even have a few of their CDs on my I-Pod, but I don't think their music is suitable for the corporate worship of the church. The rock and roll medium is too simplistic, market-driven, and transitory to be used for the public worship of the eternal, Triune God of the universe. The banal words to most rock and roll songs draw attention mainly to themselves, and so the song and the group becomes the point of everything... not God. Further, rock and roll music is emotionally driven. The way many popular rock songs are composed (if one can use that word) causes people listening to them to be whipped into an emotional frenzy, clouding reason and intellect. Public Christian worship consists in large part of a perfect balance between reason and emotion. The ECUSA parishes that are doing this have reported that large numbers of young people have been drawn out to the services. But do they continue to come back? Do services that use this type of music have enough spiritual depth to sustain these apparant "conversions"? I doubt it. More important, do the churches holding these services really teach the Christian faith at all, with its great themes of creation, fall, and redemption? If not, then I don't care what kind of music you have playing, people will not come to the church. If there is no spiritual need for salvation, as many mainline churches seem to teach, then why go to church at all?

Baptisms Down

A news link on New Oxford Review reports that baptisms are declining in many churches... from the Southern Baptists to the Roman Catholics. One of the main reasons this is happening, acccording to the article, is because of interfaith marriage: people marry outside of their Christian tradition - or even outside of the Church - and decide to let their kids get baptized when they feel the time is right. They let it be their childrens' choice. Hmmm, I wonder if they would take one of their sons and say, "Well, let's not raise him as a boy or a girl. When he is old enough he can make his own decision as to which sex he wants to be." Or, "Let's not raise little Johnny to be financially secure and responsible, but instead we'll let him decide if he wants to be poor or middle class." That's what these parents are doing with the grace of God in baptism. They are robbing their children of it. If there is friction about whether or not the child should be baptized, then the couple should not be getting married in the first place. Christians should not marry unbelievers (or even "nominal" Christians) anyway - even as the children of Israel were forbidden to intermarry with the Canaanites. Too many churches do not teach what the scriptures teach in this area, and the world and the Church is worse off for it. In the evangelical/baptist world, I suspect one of the reasons for the downward trend in baptism has something to do with the whole "getting saved" theology. Why get baptized when you don't need it to get "saved". Since their faith is not incarnational, or even anti-incarnational, they see no need for sacraments. The Christian faith is mere assent to certain intellectual propositions, and living a morally upstanding life.