Church Year

As Lent begins this week it is appropriate to think about the Christian year and Church Kalendar. The Christian year is a specific way of marking sacred time. It includes not only the typical seasons that we think of (Advent, Lent, etc.), but days of fasting and abstinence as well. 

In England after the Reformation all of the major religious groups observed some sort of religious calendar. The Romans obviously had the most traditional one, though the celebration of major feasts could not be done with as much pomp and gusto as on the continent because they were driven undeground. The Puritans had the most iconoclastic calendar, keeping Sunday as the only regularly occurring red-letter day, though they also observed special days of humiliation and thanksgiving which commemorated special events. The Anglicans had the most moderate calendar, which was Christological in emphasis and retained many New Testament saints. The many black-letter saint days that were retained ceased to be holidays. Their calendar also included national days (Gowrie Day, Gunpowder Day, Accession, King Charles the Martyr, etc.). Days of thanksgiving and humiliation, somewhat similar to those of the Puritans, were also recommended (Book of Homilies) and observed from time to time. 

In the end, the Anglican calendar (and Church) ended up winning the day. The Roman calendar was too superstitious and conservative, and the Puritan too austere and joyless. Indeed the Puritans' strict regulations as to what was permissible and non-permissible on the Sabbath (e.g. games were forbidden) was one of the many things that ensured their later marginalization in the English Church and religious life. After Cromwell's dictatorship, the Restoration of the monarchy showed that the majority of English people preferred the moderate, reformed Catholicism of the English Church to eccentricities of Rome and Geneva. 

Six Months at St. Francis

I am really amazed that I have this job as vicar of St. Francis. Why no one else jumped at the chance to come to this great church in this great university town is utterly beyond me. This parish has an extremely dedicated core membership; we have a gorgeous historic stone building; and we are almost across the street from VA Tech. The students are great. It is so exciting to hear about what they study, and how they are doing in school and growing as people and Christians in this most important time in their lives. It is an extremely humbling experience to be their minister and priest... an awesome responsibility and privilege. I remember when I was in college how important my churches were to me, and how the clergy helped me grow and mature on so many levels - especially the spiritual level. Now I am that clergyman.

We've been here near to six months now, and things are going well. The pledges have more than doubled over last year's; attendance is up (10 new people and counting since coming here in August); and we have more student members than anyone can remember in recent memory. We get visitors very regularly, and a number have stayed. I leave the church open with beautiful music playing during my office hours for people to come in and pray and notice that the literature which I leave in the back is being taken (and hopefully read)! This is all because of the grace of God. There is still much work to do. I pray every day for God to help us be a healthy parish; to send us visitors; to send us families; to send us leaders - people who want to get involved and start things; and to send us a full time organist/music minister. And God answers. If we pray to Him, and ask Him to do something to glorify His Holy Name and the Catholic faith then He does answer. I have seen it with my own eyes.

Please pray for us at St. Francis that we would be a beacon for the Catholic faith in Blacksburg and beyond. Pray for me that I would be a godly priest, a good husband to my wife, and a good leader for those whom God sends us.

Don't judge a book by its cover...

I have to admit that I had low expectations for the VA Tech library in my areas of interest (religion, philosophy). Because Tech is known as an "engineering" school, I thought it would have mostly math and science stuff. And it probably is stronger in those areas than in others. But recently I was shocked and pleasantly surprised to find that it has a superb collection of philosophical and theological journals and books. Its collection of Anglican books is amazing - better than my seminary's collection. I was shocked to find entire collections from the Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology (Laud, Andrewes, etc.), and many other Anglican and Episcopal historical and theological works! And they actually had some pretty obscure works mixed in with the lot of them. I can only imagine what their collection is like for other theological traditions. So now I have even more books to keep me busy! Anyway the moral is: don't judge a "library" by its cover. You may find that you are dead wrong about what it has

Primer of Church Latin

I have been working through A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin (Collins) for a little over a year now. I started it when I was in seminary where my Greek professor (also a Latinist) helped me with it here and there. Inevitably I stopped working on it though, and it sat on a shelf collecting dust. So a year or so ago I decided to work through it and finish it. 

Well, I am almost done the book, and I have to say that it lives up to its claims. Its purpose is to give the student the ability within a year to read Church Latin (especially the Vulgate). I am definitely "almost there". The one problem though is that books like this that give passages from the Bible and liturgy to read and translate make it a little too "easy" for the student if he already  knows the Bible. In other words, he thinks he knows the language better than he does. But give him Luke's Gospel and he's fine; give him St. Augustine or Cicero and he struggles a lot! 

I found this when I studied Greek in seminary. In college Greek (classical Greek), we used a secular text, and I think that helps one learn the language a little bit better. Thus, when I slacked off Greek for a few years it was pretty easy to come back to. Now in seminary Greek (koine Greek) we used a book similar to this Latin one that was built around the Bible. That's fine, but again it made it "easier" to get through the book rather than really learn the language.  Thus, when we read through some apocryphal Greek texts (e.g. the Gospel of Peter) to see how well we could really read Koine Greek we definitely were humbled a bit!

So in retrospect I would probably go with Wheelock's Latin, or some other book that does not revolve around the Bible because I think it would force me to learn the language better. Now if I did not know the Bible at all, I would be fine with relying on this text, but since I do not it I feel like I am cheating.

Once one is finished studying a language either on his own or in class he must stay with it, otherwise the whole venture is just a waste of time. What I do is read through the Sunday propers in Greek and Latin when working on my sermon, and that helps me "stay with it" a little bit.

Return to the Sources

The new ACNA encompasses many different Anglican strands and groups, and among these groups, while there appears to be basic agreement on certain moral issues (such as human sexuality), there is widespread disagreement on important doctrinal issues such as the ordination of women, the nature of baptism, and the celebration of the Holy Eucharist (specifically lay presidency). These doctrinal issues cannot simply be pushed aside, as they are at the root of the more practical moral issues, and also for the sake of truth and fidelity to Christ and His Church. 

Well with all of this disagreement on such important matters it is critical that all parties return to the sources of theology and evaluate their beliefs and positions in light of the them. The sources of theology are the Scriptures and Tradition, the latter referring generally to the Church Fathers (up to St. John of Damascus), and the dogmas and definitions of the Seven Ecumenical Councils, but also to the ancient liturgies and devotions of the Church. Secondary sources would include the Book of Common Prayer, the Formularies of the English Church, and English reformers and their successors. New developments and ideas in theology have to be compared against this standard, not against an "ism" that is alien to the English tradition. (e.g. Calvinism, Romanism, etc.) So before one would even try to reconcile Calvin's doctrine of election with the Book of Common Prayer's rite of Holy Baptism one must compare Calvin to the English reformers, and men such as Archbishop Laud, and then also compare him to the fathers and doctors of the Church. As the Rev'd. Canon Arthur Middleton has shown in his great book "Fathers and Anglicans: The Limits of Orthodoxy" this return to the ancient sources was the central and primary concern of the English Reformers and their successors. He writes, 

"Therefore the principle upon which the English Reformation proceeded was by appealing against Rome to Holy Scripture as interpreted by the primitive church, so that in its intentions and first issues it was neither Lutheran not Calvinist, but a return to primitive ancient Catholic Christianity. The Book of Common Prayer was an embodiment of the desire of the English church to restore ancient and primitive doctrine and worship. If the note of controversy seems to creep in too often, it is because the immediate cause of most of the writings of this era of Anglicanism's history was the need to clarify its beliefs in the face of opposition. For example, Hooker, in his Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, and Laud in his Conference with Fisher the Jesuit, had the same fundamental aim, to make plain the position of the Church of England as contrasted with Papists on the one hand and the Continental Reformers on the other. Their theory on the position of the English church was a restatement of the doctrine of the original Reformers that there has been no break in continuity of the Church, so that she was still the same ancient catholic but reformed church of these islands." (p.307-308)

The "problem" with Anglicanism is not that it is a non-sensical "middle way" where two or more mutually exclusive integrities can somehow be held together (as some folk erroneously claim). The problem is when Anglicans reject the sources of their belief, and the intention of the English Reformers, and then alter or reject the theology of the Prayer Book to adopt a newfangled practice or belief.

As Geoffrey Fisher wrote, "The Anglican Church has no peculiar thought, practice, creed, or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ's Church from the beginning."

Wipf and Stock Publishers

This is the place to go for great classic Episcopal/Anglican books. Every time I go to their site I find that they have republished some great Anglican classic: "Christian Faith" (Moss); "Elements of the Spiritual Life" (Harton); "Theological Outlines" (Hall); "Catholic Religion" (Staley), etc. Go do a search yourself! Please buy as many of these peoples' books as possible so this company stays around.

FSSP Mass DVD

I finally got the FSSP "Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite" mass DVD. I ordered it when they were still giving them away for free while living in Florida but I never got it. (I thought they found out was Anglican and decided not to send it!) I collect this stuff and have the St. Clement's DVDs, Resurrection, and other FSSP DVDs too. I know... I have no life.

So anyway, the "Extraordinary Form" DVD is really good. It is an instructional DVD on how to celebrate old form of the mass. It is extremely well-produced (done with EWTN) and has great commentary and pointers. It would be useful for traditional Anglican priests and their training too, as it shows how to move and act with dignity at the altar for "ad orientem" celebrations. (the only way mass should be celebrated in the Western Rite IMHO)

Even though this is very good, though, I must say that I was taught most of the principles and actions in this DVD, so in that sense it was "nothing new" for me. I did learn a few new things that I think would make my celebration look a tad better (such as never walking diagonally along the front of the altar, but always walking parallel to it), so those I will implement. Other things it covers are not germane to our rite, or are purely optional (such as the excessive altar kissing - which I used to do, but have cut back on).

All in all I give this DVD 10 out of 10 stars. It would make an excellent addition to the video and liturgical library of any nerdy and foppish priest.

Lent Approacheth

Lent is coming, and the pre-Lenten season (the "gesima" Sundays) are the time to start thinking seriously about a Lenten discipline. I usually recommend very simple disciplines. Instead of making some grand promise like, "I am not going to drink or smoke during Lent," (a promise that you'll break in the first few days, no doubt), I recommend cutting back on things like that - maybe not doing them or enjoying them on certain days. I also think it is good to add disciplines and devotions during Lent - doing something as a part of your overall discipline. You have to start small in the spiritual life. Nothing is more sad than seeing folk try to make big spiritual changes in their life when they can't make them in even a small way.

I am going to read the Bible for one hour every day for a year. Really? What makes you think you can do that when you can't read it for one hour once a month?

I am going to enter an austere religious order to learn how to love God and people better? Really? What makes you think you can do that when you can't even love your next door neighbor or your family?

I am going to fast all day today - eating nothing! Really? What makes you think you can do that when you have never so much as gone without lunch?

I do not mean to disparage those who make spiritual vows and promises (even big ones), during Lent and at other times, but we need to work up to the bigger commitments. If we can't do the small things, we will not be able to do the big things. We may even hurt ourselves spiritually in the process! 

Growth in holiness is by very small and boring, uneventful steps. He who is faithful in the smallest things will be given charge over larger things. We can't play Bach until we earn to play scales. We would do well to start small and work up to greater disciplines. Master the small things and then go on to the larger things.

Church Website Updated

We have updated our site at St. Francis:

www.stfrancisblacksburg.org

Please check it out and come see us in Blacksburg if you are ever in town!

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!