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!

Press Release: The Anglo-Catholic Standard

A new magazine has been established to defend and promote traditional Prayer Book English Catholicism. The first issue of The Anglo-Catholic Standard has just been published and contains excellent articles on:

Just War and Anglican Worship

Anglican Ecclesiology

Can "Two Integrities" Really Co-exist?

and more...

This professionally produced and printed magazine also contains poetry and a book review.

To order a copy send you name and address and $5.00 to:

The Anglo-Catholic Standard

P.O Box 444

Ivy, VA 22945

Jesus Christ is the King of Kings!

This is the "Christ the King" statue from St. Mary the Virgin in Manhattan. A nice photo taken by my wife.

Living and ministering in a college town affords many opportunities to share the Christian faith with people. Yesterday I had a long discussion with a man working on his Ph.D in philosophy about religion and philosophy. The discussion confirmed to me once again the importance of us Christians getting out there and talking about our faith in Christ with others. Why, well obviously because The Lord commands us to share the Gospel with all people (Matt. 28). But also because there are so many radical intellectual misconceptions that some people have about religion, and about Christianity (even well-educated people), if they know anything about it all (e.g. many folk I talk with do not understand the belief that Jesus is both God and man!). And also because secular/agnostic folk very often have many presuppositions about science, ethics and morality, the nature of knowledge, and so on that - if for nothing else but the sake of intellectual honesty - need to be corrected somewhat. In the context of such discussions the inconsistencies in their thinking and that they are not even aware of usually come out. And sometimes some of our own inconsistencies come out too! More important, I often find in these encounters that these folk often have very basic spiritual problems that they are struggling with, and which have perhaps lead to their secularistic views (e.g. forgiveness; anger; etc.).

Mind your building!

Since coming to St. Francis I have been concerned with, among many other things, tidying up the church, painting, cleaning, etc. Someone suggested to me once that we should not be so concerned with that sort of thing so much "getting out there", meeting people in the community, and sharing Christ and the Catholic faith. I personally do not see the two as being mutually exclusive or at odds with each other, though. I am out in the community almost every day (always in my clerics, and often in my cassock) meeting people and talking about the church, inviting people to come, and so on. The thing that I am concerned with is what they see and experience when they get here. Is the building nice or ugly? Is it smelly and musty, or is it fresh and airy? Is it drab, dull, and colorless? Or is it warm, distinguished-looking, and colorful? All of that makes an impact on people. Beauty and dignity attracts people. Blandness and ugliness repels people. Now obviously there are other things in a Church community that attract people: friendliness, good music, good teaching, etc. But the physical space and grounds itself are important too. Beyond the pragmatic, there is however, the spiritual. The parish church is God's house. It should not be smelly, plain, and rundown. Would we tolerate having paint from the wall smeared on the baseboard and windows in our own house? Probably not. Then why tolerate it in God's house? The way we treat our churches is a direct reflection on how we think of God, and the importance that He has in our life. The parish church, the house of God, should be the most beautiful, well-kept, and dignified building around. And a beautiful and holy of the parish church not only honors God, but also attracts people to Him.

St. Mary the Virgin

Here is a quick shot of St. Mary the Virgin in NYC. My wife got some killer shots on her digital SLR camera which I need to download, but this one gives you a sense of the massive space. The parish is located right in Times Square. It is full of gorgeous wood carvings by the German carver Johannes Kirchmayer (1860-1930). The rood screen which he carved is the most beautiful I have seen to date. The church itself is built in 13th century French Gothic and is modeled on Saint-Chapelle in Paris. The nave sores to a height of 80 feet. While there the organist was practicing, playing an amazing piece by Durufle, which managed to drown out all of the traffic and street noise from Times Square.  I'll post more pictures of this cool church later. Unfortunately the building seems to be the only traditional Anglo-Catholic thing left about this place. They are a "Rite 2" parish, and when I attended Sunday mass at this church a few years ago they had a woman celebrating the Eucharist. Using incense and bells does not make one a Catholic.

The Beauty of Holiness

My wife and I just returned from vacation. The first part was taken up in NYC where her sister lives. While there I did a mini "anglo-catholic"/classical Episcopal NY tour of my own making. It included a visit to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, daily mass at Church of the Resurrection, choral evensong at St. Thomas 5th Ave., a tour of St. Mary the Virgin, General Seminary (a picture of the rood screen in their chapel of the Good Shepherd to the left), and Trinity Church. I had been to some of these places before, and skipped some others that I have been to a million times (e.g. Church of the Transfiguration). The history, artwork, and design in all of these places is really unparalleled here in the United States. 

To a certain extent it makes one feel sad that as a "continuing Anglican" we have few beautiful and historic institutions and churches such as these to inspire the soul and stir up the spirit. We can claim that these are rightfully ours, I suppose, in terms of our history and continuity with Anglican and Catholic tradition, but the fact remains that they are not ours. For we have chosen to walk apart from the Episcopal Church for the sake of the Catholic faith, and so have lost our "rights", as it were, to these places. Some might think that real Christianity doesn't need gorgeous wood carving, floor tile, stained glass, etc.. And to the extent that they do not add to our salvation they are right. But we must not forget that the Catholic faith is incarnational and sacramental, and these beautiful edifices express and communicate the Anglican and Catholic faith and tradition, which is ours. In that sense the beauty of church architecture and decoration is supremely important.

The Tractarians writings and preaching only did so much to restore the fullness of the Catholic tradition to the English Church. The group that did the rest (and had even more of an influence in this area) was the Cambridge Camden Society, who were devoted to the science of ecclesiology (used in its original sense of "church building"), to to matters of decoration and ritual. Without their concurrent work in this area, the influence of the Tractarians would have been less far-reaching. I think those of us who would seek to continue the Anglican and Catholic faith today should pay more attention to the outward and artistic forms of our worship and churches as much as possible. To read our sublime liturgy and sing our gorgeous hymns in a drab and hideous setting not only undercuts its effectiveness, but makes a mockery of it.

Bastion of anglo-catholicism?

A dear friend graduates from Nashotah House this spring. I received his announcement in the mail today. The commencement speaker this year is J.I. Packer. Nashotah is also granting him an honorary doctorate. My how the times have changed! This historic bastion of anglo-catholicism is granting a degree to a rabid Calvinist who once wrote book explaining "Why we need the Puritans" (A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life). These are, incidentally, the same Puritans who sought to continually abolish the Prayer Book; who left the Church after the Restoration; and who later became Unitarians. Dr. Packer has said that the ordination of women is a "second tier" issue. In his book "Knowing God" he expressly condemns the use of images in worship. His Calvinist soteriology is completely at odds with the Book of Common Prayer and even the Articles of Religion! Yes indeed - the times have changed. I am told that Nashotah has been all but taken over by happy-clappy evangelicals from Trinity School for Ministry and other places. I guess this confirms it.

Holy Week Round Up

My first Holy Week as a "solo" priest had both highs and lows. Highs: Our services were well attended for such a small parish with most of the student members missing; we used incense, bells, and torches at some of the services; the weather was perfect - it was just somber enough to make it feel like Holy Week; and we had a primo ad in the local college paper that we got for a song. Low: (there weren't "Lows", just one "low") no choir. You cannot do anything at a small parish - or even a relatively large one - without a good organist and choir! The books (like Ritual Notes) regarding how to celebrate services such as Maundy Thursday and Good Friday in "small parishes" usually just say, "The priest reads the parts that are normally sung." But - as anyone who has actually tried to do this, and has even an ounce of common sense knows - you can't sit up there and recite millions of prayers and read millions of lessons for hours on end! It just doesn't work. It ends up being a big, long, boring joke. Trust me, I have been to services where there is nonstop mindless "recitation" and it totally makes you want to slit your wrists it's so boring. Boredom doe snot help one meditate on the texts... but beauty - good music and singing - does. So what I did this year was very minimal, almost straight Prayer Book, low church (except the incense and bells). That worked fine for us, but it would have been nice to do a bit more. But I will only do more as we grow and get a choir.

Integrity

Many people that I come into contact with around town and beyond seem mildly and perhaps scandalously amused at our slavish devotion to the old Prayer Book and its sidekick, the Authorized Version of the scriptures. Their use is often viewed as horribly antiquated and an obstacle to growth, and maybe it is. Nonetheless, we continue to proudly and intentionally use them almost down to the very rubric. Why? Well not only because our canons require it, and because it is biblical and Catholic, and because we like it (I could go on), but also because the our very identity as a branch of Christ's One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church depends on it. History shows that if one strays from the Prayer Book, strange doctrine and even schism inevitably follow. The Methodists are a perfect example of this. Even though John Wesley was a loyal high churchman, and regularly took the sacrament up until he died, he laid the groundwork in his movement for eventual schism from the Church of England by tinkering with the liturgy - specifically with the introduction and toleration of extempore prayer and creating additional liturgies to be used alongside the Prayer Book. Eventually he "ordained" his own successors to keep the movement going. His own selective use of the Prayer Book which he so highly valued bore bad fruit. For shortly after his death the movement stopped using the Prayer Book altogether and became its own tradition.

I wonder if the neo-Anglican jurisdictions that have recently broken from TEC will not go down the same path. The folk from those churches, while usually well-meaning and devoted to God, seem to treat the BCP as something that is negotiable... and that to be an Anglican doesn't mean you have to use the Prayer Book. Even now, when I visit such churches and meet their clergy, they seem like they re not quite Anglican... more "non-denominational" with (in most cases anyway) episcopal ordination and a quickie eucharist tacked on to the end of the service. Inevitably when engaging such folk in conversion I find that they do not use the Prayer Book in their parishes... maybe bits of it here and there, with some other stuff thrown in for good measure. Will these churches be the new-new dissent 25-50 years down the road? Will they be the Methodists of the 21st century? To be Anglican means in large part to use the Prayer Book in the public liturgy of the Church as well as in your private devotions. Cranmer did not start a new church. He did not write a confession of faith, or a systematic theology. What he did was reform the liturgy for the English Church. How someone can claim to be part of that trajectory and not use her liturgy is utterly beyond me.

Longevity Matters

Interacting with fellow clergy here in Blacksburg has been an interesting and valuable experience. One of the things I have learned is that most of the mainline church pastors have been here in Blacksburg for around 10 years. Generally, the longer the pastor has remained the same, the more stability the congregation seems to have - even if the pastor has some strange and heretical views. That helps explain the the lack of stability at this parish - for the longest time there was no abiding pastoral presence here, so the place just slowly unravelled.

Discipleship

A fellow minister here in town made an interesting point recently regarding church growth. He said that he prays for his church to grow only so much that everyone in it can still be adequately discipled in the faith, and so no one falls through the cracks. I that is good to pray for as one of the shortcomings of really big churches, whether they be Protestant mega-churches or Roman Catholic parishes, do not always do well in helping their parishioners grow in personal faith and devotion to Christ... too many people just fall through the cracks. What is scary about our parishes is that this often happens even though we are very small.

Paul O'Dette Concert

Last night my wife and I saw Paul O'Dette in concert at the Radford Guitar Festival. This was a special treat as this man is widely considered to be the greatest lutanist in the world. He played pieces by Holborne, Johnson, and (of course) John Dowland. I love early, Renaissance, and Baroque music. It is very ordered and restrained, yet full of emotion and melodic complexity. As I was listening to him play last night the music reminded me of the Book of Common Prayer. It too is very ordered and restrained, yet quite emotional at the same time. I would not be so quick to say that this "restrained emotionalism" is an "English" characteristic as much as it is a characteristic of the Renaissance in general. From an amateur classical guitarist's perspective this sound is common among Spanish, Italian, German, and English lute composers, and I imagine the same is true in religion and other areas.

New Edition of the 1928 BCP Published

The Anglican Province of America has just published a 4" x 6" personal edition of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer in bonded leather. You can buy here for the low price of $25 USD. 

Barack Obama gets it wrong (again).

Those of you who have been on Mars recently may not have heard that our president, who on the campaign trail once referred to pregnancy as a "punishment", signed an executive order allowing federal funding for stem cell research. This involves the destruction of human embryos which are "left over" from fertility clinics so that their stem cells may be harvested and used to research treatments and cures for various diseases. What has been so frustrating listening to his commentary as well as that of some of the news networks is that they say that 1) this is "sound science", and 2) that the Bush policy put political ideology over science. First, there is no evidence that I have heard of that harvesting these stem cells will lead to any miracle cures. They have decided a priori that embryonic stem cells (and no other kind) are the source of miracle cures, therefore that we have a "moral obligation" to destroy these human beings and use them to save others. But they have not proved that these stem cells will do anything to help anyone! And second, the Bush policy put morality - not political ideology - over over science, which is precisely what we need. This language that Obama is trying to throw out there is quite dangerous and I have seen it in the church. He suggests that abortion and infanticide is a "political", not moral issue, and people in the church pick up on that and start to believe it. Therefore when you discuss abortion from the pulpit some people accuse you of bringing "politics" into the church. This is a moral and scientific issue. It is Obama who is putting politics over science. There are other types of stem cells that may be used for this sort of research, as well as other human-made cells that scientists are developing for this type of research. Yet Obama has to use tax payer dollars to fund this scientifically dubious and morally wrong research, getting a whole bunch of people (like me) worked up when he doesn't have to.

Fr. Michael McInerney - Benedictine Monk & Architect

Thanks to a former St. Francis parishioner who is an architect and architectural historian I learned who the architect of our unique building was. His name was Fr. Michael McInerney, and he was a monk out of Belmont Abbey in North Carolina. This noted architect significant designed churches, schools, and hospitals, and is considered the main architect of the "American Benedictine" school of architecture. He also designed various church appointments, such as sanctuary lamps and chalices. He lived from 1877-1963, and his work is divided into three major periods: a neo-gothic period where he used lots of brick; a romanesque period where he used lots of stone; and a late, more modern period that used very minimal artistic ornamentation and had flat roofs. Our building is from the last period and is pictured in the back of a little booklet on him as the "classic example" from his late period. Like all artists there are common themes running through his work from all periods, such as long-stemmed stone crosses set into the facade of the building (we have two such crosses on the exterior of our building). All of his work is very simple and minimal. He was so successful as an architect that he kept the Belmont Abbey and college financially solvent during the Great Depression.

This building makes more sense to me now that I have this booklet about the architect. It is very Benedictine, which is actually perfect for an Anglican parish since Anglicanism is very Benedictine in its spirituality. (NB: this was originally St. Mary's Catholic Church, for readers who did not know that from earlier posts.) I will be putting up pictures from the book and more commentary about the architect on the St. Francis website when I have time at www.stfrancisblacksburg.org 

Ecumenical Overload

I am a member of two ecumenical ministerial groups here in town. One is dominated by more mainline churches, and the other more conservative, evangelical churches. St. Francis has been warmly welcomed by both. These groups are very important, because not only does it provide emotional, professional, and spiritual support, but also networking opportunities. The first group is sponsoring a series of ecumenical Lenten services that we are a part of. The second group is new, and while we probably will not do joint services, we will pray for each other and offer each spiritual support and counsel in a spirit of Christian charity. 

This is a new thing for St. Francis. From what I have heard it has historically been something of a standoffish church, which was largely the culture of our former jurisdiction. That spirit has done nothing but weakened this and many other continuing Anglican parishes over the years. Like a nerdy guy trying to get a date, we can't possibly grow or spread the Catholic faith if we do not put ourselves "out there" in various way. This is just one of these ways. And while we are certainly not in doctrinal agreement on many issues with the ministers in both of these groups, and cannot share in the sacraments, we can work together in other productive ways. And we can also learn something from each other. I have really appreciated the insights into building and sustaining a ministry in this unique college town that I have gained from the AMiA and PCA clergy that I have met with, as well as from the UMC, Roman Catholic, and Baptist clergy. As clergy we face many of the same issues, such as church-hopping, and people not establishing membership at a parish.

So I am looking forward to more interaction with these folk as the years go on! I think that our parish will come out stronger because of it - especially in our anglo-catholic convictions.