Rise of Atheism

I find the rise of atheism in our culture troubling, both as a pastor and as one who tries to live a rational life. The common refrain I read in articles about the rise of atheism is that those who consider themselves atheists do so because they want to live a life based on reason and science. What they are suggesting is that the religious life and faith, are irrational and opposed to science. As one who enjoys the study of philosophy and (obviously) theology, I find that supposition to be absurd. In my study I find the religious life - particularly the Christian life and worldview - to be very rational, and to in no way conflict with reason or science. That some would suggest there is an inherent conflict between faith and reason makes me wonder what exposure these folk had to Christianity (was it the "Joel Osteen" version of religion), and what, if anything, they read. (We live in a new "dark ages" of course, where most people - even college students - no longer read, and where "universities" that do not even have libraries, such as the University of Phoenix, are accredited.)

The great Anglican theologian, Francis H. Hall, in his Dogmatic Theology, put it best when he stated that faith is a form of reason. If it is a form of reason, it cannot be opposed to reason as such. He writes, "Faith is not an independent faculty separate or separable from reason, but is reason itself insofar as reason is exercised on divine things and is assisted by supernatural grace. The act of faith is an act of reason, conforming strictly to the laws of human reason in general." The whole chapter on the relation between faith and reason in Vol.1 of his magnum opus is worth reading and rereading, and although written in 1912 still very much relevant to many of these arguments we face today.

It is essential that the Church not let these people speak for us, and suggest to the world that if one lives a life of faith - i.e. if one is a Christian - he is therefore by definition "opposed" to science and reason. Further, Christians would do well to learn to critically evaluate the arguments and ideas presented by atheists and others, so they can correct them when they say these inaccurate and false things.

1940 Hymnal Parish Study

I do a class on Sundays after mass, and my assistant does one during the week. My class just finished two back-to-back Bible studies. I decided to do something different, and so we are now doing the 1940 Hymnal. I've long realized that this needs to be done, as the format and layout of the hymnal is a bit confusing to the newbie (and even the oldbie). We study the Prayer Book and the Bible over and over... so why not the hymnal?

One of the reasons many of our churches are so moribund methinks is the music. The same old stuff is sung over and over again, and nothing creative or interesting is ever done musically in the service... this despite the fact that the hymnal has lots of variety in it (as does the Prayer Book). So we are studying the history of music in the church (listening to examples), a little bit of music theory, chanting, how to read and sing chants, what all of the notes, numbers, and tables mean, etc. I am supplementing my own material with the six excellent studies on the hymnal produced by Fr. Daniel McGrath which were printed in Mandate a couple of years ago (still available online).

The response to this class has been overwhelming! I never would have predicted that there would be so high a level of interest in this class. Even folk in the parish who are not musical are really excited about it, and want to learn more. The class was overflowing last week. People are really excited about raising the level of music in the parish, which is an essential element for us to grow. So if anyone is looking for a new class topic in your parish that will produce some very visible (or should I say "audible") results, try this.

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.

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!

Bp. Sauls gets it right

Divorce - Women's Ordination - Homosexuality... it is all related.

"Bishop Stacy Sauls of Lexington said the church allowed divorced persons as a concession to human frailty. 'It is time for the church be liberated from hypocrisy under which it has been operating about our gay brothers and sisters. Divorce contradicted sexual ethics. Our gay and lesbian members don't think much about what other Anglicans around the world think. The Nigerians are our most ardent critic. The Scribes and the Pharisees tied people up in burdens...'."

Buy My Art - Help My Parish

Please go to my website (www.jgordonanderson.com) and click on "New Paintings" to see several icons that I have for sale. Like all of my icons and other art, these are my own original drawings, and are not based on traced templates. Proceeds from those icons will go to help my parish, St. Francis Anglican Church. We are a small, struggling mission parish. And besides needing money to pay our regular bills, we need money to do long overdue renovations on our facility, restore some of our appointments, and buy new appointments.

I also have other works of art available on the site for sale in each category, and I will donate a portion of those sales to the church as well. If you have any questions, or want more detailed information on any of the works (size, medium, better photo, etc.), please e-mail me.

Protecting the Flock

One of the unfortunate things a parish priest has to do from time to time is deal with folk in the congregation who are disturbing the larger life of the parish, or putting the church at risk in some way. Small parishes of whatever stripe seem sometimes to attract rather strange people who are marginalized and ignored in larger parishes. Those people come to small parishes to get attention. In most cases they are not interested in joining the parish, but simply attend the services and other events regularly while maintaining official membership at some other church in town. In large parishes their odd behavior can be easily absorbed, but in small parishes that are trying to grow they can be quite destructive for mission and ministry of the church. These men and women come in all shapes, sizes, ages, and races.

Some, but not all, of these people seem to have genuine mental disorders which is why they act so weird and create risk. Other times they are just weird people with perhaps an arrested emotional development. Either way, it is important when dealing with such folk to try to discern if there is any mental illness involved, because that will have some bearing on how they should be dealt with. Also one must be careful to not stigmatize all those who suffer from mental illness. For not all mentally ill people are potential troublemakers in the church.

In my limited experience as a priest and in life I have found that the best and most healthy way to deal with those who create risk in small parishes and their weird behavior is direct confrontation - have one private meeting on my turf where everything is laid out on the table. After such a meeting, if it is on the rare occasion that the person has a mental disorder and is not seeking help, or he or she is just an antagonist or weirdo simply looking for a fight, the absolute best thing to do is to not engage that individual in any way.

The parish priest is a spiritual shepherd to his cure, and he must be ready to drive away from the flock all that would cause it harm and danger. It is not always pleasant doing this, but it must be done, and the needs and concerns of the larger group of people in the church who are focused on its mission and ministry must be given preference to those "attention seekers" who are simply at the church to use it for their own ends.

It takes more than theology...

The longer I am ordained and in ministry the more I realize how much a parish priest in the continuing Anglican tradition has to do that is not related strictly to theology. Many folk think they will have successful ministries simply if they can master St. Thomas, teach a class once a week, and lead a pretty mass. But it takes so much more than that, and people who think that having an academic interest in theology automatically translates into a vocation to Holy Orders (at least in our tradition) are sadly mistaken.

Today's parish priest is not only the spiritual father of his parish but also the CEO of a small business. As leader of the parish he has to think up activities that need to be done, and inspire others to do the same. He has to be attune to the needs of the physical plant. He has to advertise and go out and "beat the bushes" to spread the word about the church. He has to be computer literate. He has to be an outgoing "people person", or at least be able to fake it. He has to help generate an overall vision for the church and steer it in that direction. He has to be available to do parish ministry 24/7. In short, he cannot just sit back and wax eloquent on philosophy and theology and dress up in pretty clothes on Sundays - at least not in a continuing Anglican parish.... maybe in a TEC or Roman parish with some massive endowment clergy can afford to do that. But by and large, those days have long since passed. In continuing Anglican parishes clergy have to get their hands dirty and do real work, otherwise the parish will die. Being a parish priest is an all-consuming vocation.

Those who are interested in ordination should first and foremost be interested in parish ministry, and not academic theology. A thorough knowledge of philosophy and theology is indeed important and vital to the ordained ministry, but that is only part of it. If you can't communicate it well, or put it into action, or inspire others with it, or even worse if you are not that interested in ministry or dealing with "common people", then you probably have a different vocation... to be a theologian perhaps, but not necessarily a deacon or priest.

Interesting News

I was alerted recently that a parish formerly of the Charismatic Episcopal Church (CEC) has joined the Anglican Church in America (ACA). Christ the King has a gorgeous building on a nice piece of land in suburban Baltimore, and they are very near to another ACA parish, St. Stephen's. This is interesting because according to their site they still are into the "convergence" thing which the CEC was all about, and that would make them to my knowledge the first "openly charismatic" continuing Anglican parish.

In other news, the AMiA has decided to consecrate three new bishops. Now they just consecrated a couple last year I believe. Do they need three more? I didn't know they were that big. The thing that is strange to me is that one of the men elected, Rev'd. Todd Hunter, was just ordained to the priesthood in March of 2009! I personally don't think this is a wise decision. It takes ten years to become an Anglican, and even longer if you are in jurisdiction that makes use of the Prayer Book optional, or uses Roman forms for everything.

St. Paul tells us that the Church should "... lay hands on no man suddenly." (1 Tim. 5:22) I really could not agree with him more, especially in this case.

Roving Recluse 2

I am finding Peter Anson's spiritual biography (see my other entry about this book here) to be very interesting and eye-opening. My initial fascination with the book is slowly turning into revulsion. Why? Because his spiritual journey seemed to consist mainly in experiencing strange new liturgies, and experiencing other esoteric services that various Churches (Anglican, Roman, Orthodox) have to offer, and flitting about from one religious community to another. I don't think he has mentioned the Holy Name once in the entire book so far! In contrast to other spiritual biographies (e.g. Augustine, Merton, Lewis, etc.) he talks nothing of prayer, or of his inner spiritual life. So far his spiritual journey appears to be one big massive ego trip, the only religious part about it his strange fetish with unusual liturgies and church buildings.

He reminds me of people who drift through the Christian world and transfer from denomination to denomination, and church to church, with lightening fast speed... ever looking for that ultimate spiritual high... that "ultimate" solemn high mass. I have met a few people like that in my day, as they often pass through continuing Anglicanism for a time. Many such folk end up scaling the heights of esoteric religious experience so much that they eventually leave the Christian religion altogether. This is so depressing because they leave much spiritual wreckage in their lives and the lives of others.

The reason these esoteric liturgy junkies usually end up failing at their original task of finding deeper communion and fellowship with God the Holy Trinity is that somewhere along the line a subtle shift took place in their thinking. Their quest for the divine and truth - their quest for Jesus - becomes something that is all about "them", and are more interested in the gold on the Temple than in the Temple itself. Beauty, mystery, and solemnity in worship is a good thing, and it honors God, but it can very easily be made into an idol, and distract us from the very thing that would give us everlasting life.

The Devil is in the Interpretation

Related to the previous post, it is reported that the All Saints' Sisters of the Poor in Catonsville, an old Anglican Benedictine religious order, are converting to Rome (all but two of the sisters, anyway). I wonder how they will resolve property issues, and such with the two remaining sisters? I took several retreats there in my day since I grew up in Maryland. It is a wonderful place.

As someone who went from Anglicanism to Romanism, and then came back, I have great reservations and concerns about these sorts of things. Changing churches is not like changing shirts. There is a different ethos in the Roman Church that takes a lot of getting used to and can be quite spiritually disconcerting for some. The authority of Rome, which is usually touted as the reason for converting, is not understood or thought through very well by many converts.

The reason Anglicanism is found wanting is because there is no central authority to call the shots, as it were, hence all of the doctrinal confusion in the area of morality and (to a lesser extent) doctrine. Affirming the authority of the Scripture and Tradition in the classic Anglican and Orthodox sense isn't good enough for these folk, because the question remains as to how the Scriptures and Tradition are to be interpreted, and who is supposed to do it in a way that is normative for the life of the Church. So related to the question of authority is the question of interpretation, or hermeneutics: who does it, and how is it to be done?

What many converts to Rome fail to realize is that papal pronouncements, encyclicals, etc. all have to be interpreted as well. Nowhere was this clearer than with the recent "motu proprio" which freed Roman ministers to say the old Tridentine mass. The pope released what appeared to be a very clear statement regarding the use of that liturgy, but almost immediately he had to issue a follow up statement explaining how it was to be interpreted and understood! And no doubt he will have to keep on doing it, and will have to issue explanations of the explanation, and so on. And when he dies, it will be even harder to understand what he originally intended and meant. One can only begin to imagine the incredible complexity and difficulty of interpreting Medieval and Modern encyclicals, etc. Indeed, as we discussed in seminary, many encyclicals and pronouncements have simply been quietly consigned to the ecclesiastical basement because it is easier to do that than to try to reconcile them with later advances in human knowledge.

So there is a very basic hermeneutical problem that cannot be resolved simply by "swimming the Tiber". The excellent book by Fr. Francis Sulliven, Creative Fidelity (required reading in Roman seminaries), is about this very subject - how are the primary sources of theology to be weighed and interpreted. It is a very difficult and confusing subject, and once one actually gets into it he realizes how it is not quite so easy to say, "The pope says..., the pope says..., the pope says...". (He also raises an interesting question concerning WO. Quoting JPII, he says that the Roman Church "has no authority" to ordain women. (!) In an age when the apparent "authority" of Rome is touted as the answer to everything it is very intriguing to think of something that she does not have the "authority" to decide.)

Now I am not suggesting for one minute that Anglicans, the Orthodox, or other Christians do not have hermeneutical and epistemological issues in knowing and doing God's will because we do. But the Roman Church has the same problem, only pushed back another level.

Blessings and congratulations

... to my friend Fr. Jeff Steel and his family as they prepare to enter the Roman Church. I am proud to say that I went to college with Jeff and knew him when he was a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).

As he said in his blog, it is simply impossible to be a Catholic in the Church of England as it now is. Continuing Anglicans have been saying that for years. Unfortunately in England there are few options for those who wish to be Catholic Anglicans, as there is only a very small continuing Church presence. So what is a mainline CofEer to do to be Catholic in that land? Go to Rome. Luckily in the States we have other options.

Many prayers and blessings to the Steels in there new ecclesiastical home!