.
The Collect of the Week
Week of Lent III
Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
See liturgical notes.
Week of Lent III
You may notice that the church seems a little plainer, a little less decorated than usual. You’re not imagining things—it is, and the reason, of course, is because we’re in Lent. Specifically, what you’re not seeing includes: flowers on the altar, and the Paschal Candle in its accustomed position near the baptismal font. In many places there are distinctive altar vestments (purple or unbleached linen) that denote the penitential character of the season, and sometimes different candlesticks are used. The liturgy itself also has a peculiarly Lenten feel: the Christian expletive of praise—Alleluia—is retired until the Easter Vigil, the General Confession is often moved to the beginning of the service. The service music is more restrained in tone. Instead of a blessing at the conclusion of the service, there is usually a “solemn prayer over the people.”
Nonetheless, please note that this is the second Sunday in Lent—the preposition is important, for Sundays in the season are manifestly not of Lent. Lent is a time of penitence and fasting; all Sundays are, by definition, feasts of the resurrection, “little Easters,” whenever they occur. For those observing dietary abstinence as a Lenten discipline, it would not be inappropriate to relax such measures on Sundays in Lent.
The word “Lent” is related to the same Old English root from which we get “lengthen,” alluding to the fact that, in the northern hemisphere, the days are getting longer at this time of year. Christians in the early centuries of the church put a great deal of energy into the annual observance of our Lord’s death and resurrection. Baptisms were saved up to be performed at the Great Vigil of Easter (Easter eve into Easter morning). Those who were under penitential discipline were restored to full fellowship with the church in time to make their communion at the vigil liturgy. It seemed appropriate that there be a time of focused preparation for these observances, a time in which all the Faithful could live in solidarity with those who were going to be baptized or restored. This period of preparation eventually evolved into Lent.
There are two lesser commemorations in our calendar:
Tuesday—St Gregory of Nyssa was one of the bright lights of eastern Christianity as a bishop, philosopher, and theologian in the last fourth century.
Friday—St Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome. Pope Gregory served in the late sixth century and briefly into the seventh. Through his administrative skill and pastoral aptitude, he did a great deal to consolidate the leading position of the Roman church in western Christianity. The plainsong musical idiom known as Gregorian Chant is named for him, as is the Gregorian Calendar. As Anglicans, our particular inheritance from Gregory flows from his sending the monk Augustine on a mission to the English kingdom of Kent (597), where the See of Canterbury was established.
Doing Justice to Just War Thinking
Friday, March 12, 2010 at 1:52 pm
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Just War as Christian Discipleship
Recentering the Tradition in the Church Rather than the State
By Daniel M. Bell, Jr. Brazos. $21.99. Pp. 267. ISBN 1587432250.
We live in a time of wars and rumors of wars, but of course for the church it has never really been otherwise. Christians have thought hard about the problem of war for centuries, not always well and not always as much as they should have, but nevertheless enough to have built up a large tradition of reflection on the issue. Unfortunately, says Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary’s Daniel Bell, too few Christians today are familiar with their own body of teaching on just war. And the sad result is predictable: many of us tend to talk about war in a way that simply mirrors our nationalism and partisan polarization, so that an onlooker might be forgiven for thinking that at bottom our convictions depend more on our loyalties to America, the G.O.P., or the Democratic Party, rather than to Christ and his church.
Others of us might make serious appeal to just war categories, but even these conversations tend to swing around to issues of public policy, so that “just war” becomes a matter of ticking items off an ethical checklist for decision-makers in Washington. What’s missing in all of this, Bell argues, is a serious appraisal of what it would take to be a just war people, along with what it would mean to think about war…
Recentering the Tradition in the Church Rather than the State
By Daniel M. Bell, Jr. Brazos. $21.99. Pp. 267. ISBN 1587432250.
We live in a time of wars and rumors of wars, but of course for the church it has never really been otherwise. Christians have thought hard about the problem of war for centuries, not always well and not always as much as they should have, but nevertheless enough to have built up a large tradition of reflection on the issue. Unfortunately, says Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary’s Daniel Bell, too few Christians today are familiar with their own body of teaching on just war. And the sad result is predictable: many of us tend to talk about war in a way that simply mirrors our nationalism and partisan polarization, so that an onlooker might be forgiven for thinking that at bottom our convictions depend more on our loyalties to America, the G.O.P., or the Democratic Party, rather than to Christ and his church.
Others of us might make serious appeal to just war categories, but even these conversations tend to swing around to issues of public policy, so that “just war” becomes a matter of ticking items off an ethical checklist for decision-makers in Washington. What’s missing in all of this, Bell argues, is a serious appraisal of what it would take to be a just war people, along with what it would mean to think about war…
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Cardinal DiNardo at Houston Baptist University
Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 1:34 pm
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Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, spoke on March 10 at Houston Baptist University, focusing on the text of John 14:6: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
Hunter Baker, a political science professor at HBU, writes at Touchstone’s Mere Comments: “I know there is a distance between Catholics and Protestants and that it is substantial, but listening to this cardinal preach has bolstered my confidence in the eventual unity of the church.”
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America’s God (by Stanley Hauerwas)
Tuesday, March 09, 2010 at 12:49 pm
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Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School, delivered this lecture at Church of the Incarnation, Dallas, Texas, on March 7 as part of a weekend of events cosponsored by the congregation and The Living Church.
I have been asked to address the character of American Protestantism as well as the religious awareness of the American people and the impact that awareness has on society and politics. No small topic. I think it first important to identify the perspective from which I speak. I am a Protestant. I am a communicant at the Church of the Holy Family, which is an Episcopal church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I teach in the Divinity School at Duke University, a very secular university, but before Duke I taught 14 years at the University of Notre Dame. I relate this history only to suggest to you I come from the Catholic side of Protestantism.
I am not sure I can make clear what it means to say I come from the Catholic side of Protestantism, but at the very least it means that I do not think Christianity began with the Reformation. When I was interviewed for possible appointment to the faculty at Notre Dame I was asked what Protestant courses I would teach. I said I did not teach Protestant theology because I thought the very notion was a mistake. Rather I would teach Thomas Aquinas, because his work was crucial…
I have been asked to address the character of American Protestantism as well as the religious awareness of the American people and the impact that awareness has on society and politics. No small topic. I think it first important to identify the perspective from which I speak. I am a Protestant. I am a communicant at the Church of the Holy Family, which is an Episcopal church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I teach in the Divinity School at Duke University, a very secular university, but before Duke I taught 14 years at the University of Notre Dame. I relate this history only to suggest to you I come from the Catholic side of Protestantism.
I am not sure I can make clear what it means to say I come from the Catholic side of Protestantism, but at the very least it means that I do not think Christianity began with the Reformation. When I was interviewed for possible appointment to the faculty at Notre Dame I was asked what Protestant courses I would teach. I said I did not teach Protestant theology because I thought the very notion was a mistake. Rather I would teach Thomas Aquinas, because his work was crucial…
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The Reptilian and the Limbic
Tuesday, March 09, 2010 at 11:14 am
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The Rt. Rev. Scott Benhase, Bishop of Georgia, writes about the importance of brain functions in understanding church leadership:
The full post is available at Call & Response, a blog of Duke University’s Faith & Leadership program.
A member of my diocese works with leaders in organizations to help them serve better together. He recently led us through an exercise that he has done many times with new CEOs so they can get a good grasp of their organizations’ history.
His background is brain neuroscience. He pointed out four parts of the brain moving from the back of the neck to the forehead: reptilian, limbic, cerebral cortex, and prefrontal lobes. The reptilian part functions for self-protection and asks: “Am I safe?” The limbic part focuses on tribal belonging and asks: “Am I accepted and included?” The cerebral cortex is the center of rational function where we deal with objective and subjective issues. The prefrontal lobes are our center of creativity.
The full post is available at Call & Response, a blog of Duke University’s Faith & Leadership program.
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Skating to Where the Puck is Going to Be
Reflections on pastoral leadership in a post-Christian culture.
Monday, March 08, 2010 at 10:04 pm
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Last week my friend and fellow blogger, and fellow Covenant author, Nick Knisely (Dean of Trinity Cathedral in Phoenix and short-list nominee for Bishop of Kentucky) posted an essay on the speed of technological change viz a vis mobile networking (using the incipient release of the iPad as the springboard for his reflections). He suggested that it would behoove churches (among other societal institutions) to try and get ahead of the change curve in the area of information technology, rather than always bringing up the rear. To illustrate his point, he alluded to legendary professional hockey player Wayne Gretzky’s response when asked to account for his astonishing performance in the NHL: “I don’t skate to where the puck is, I skate to where it’s going to be.”
That quote immediately arrested my attention, and I’ve been pondering it for several days. In fact, it’s almost hijacked my thought processes. I have a deep intuitive sense that there is a profound truth here that applies to a lot more than hockey in particular and sports in general. The ability to recognize changing circumstances, adapt to them quickly, and take it a step further by anticipating their implications is, I would suggest, the better part of what distinguishes good and great leaders from mediocre and incompetent leaders.
This is a subject of some importance to me because I am, among other things, a leader. I’m a parish pastor, and I have vestry members and parishioners…
That quote immediately arrested my attention, and I’ve been pondering it for several days. In fact, it’s almost hijacked my thought processes. I have a deep intuitive sense that there is a profound truth here that applies to a lot more than hockey in particular and sports in general. The ability to recognize changing circumstances, adapt to them quickly, and take it a step further by anticipating their implications is, I would suggest, the better part of what distinguishes good and great leaders from mediocre and incompetent leaders.
This is a subject of some importance to me because I am, among other things, a leader. I’m a parish pastor, and I have vestry members and parishioners…
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Life on Planet Glenn
Monday, March 08, 2010 at 8:06 pm
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Glenn Beck, who grew up Roman Catholic but converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with his second wife, advises others to swim the Tiber — away from Rome — if they hear the dread words “social justice.”
Joe Carter of First Things elaborates on a post from Patrol magazine.
Credit where it's due, to the frequently boorish Media Matters for America, for the video evidence.
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Learning from Wesley
Thursday, March 04, 2010 at 10:35 pm
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On a cold January evening in 1975, I knelt in the darkened living room of the Rectory of Emmanuel Church in Stamford, Connecticut, and made a total surrender of my life to Jesus Christ. This surrender came in response to an overwhelming sense of God’s presence as I spoke out the desperation and despair that I felt. The details of what happened are not important here because I am writing on the feast day of John and Charles Wesley to share what I learned from John Wesley after my conversion.
The problem was that I was already an ordained priest. It was some time later that I would learn that I shared with Wesley a post theological education conversion to Christ. I say “conversion to Christ” because that is what it was for me. I had felt called to the ministry, and, before seminary at least, I had believed in the Trinity and the creeds of the Church. What happened to me that night was that I experienced a personal sense of forgiveness and total acceptance by a living and real Christ. Jesus Christ became alive for me in a new way.
The most immediate result of this was expressed by what I did that night. I took the sermon that I had written that week and burned it in the fireplace. I was determined to speak now of the love of Christ I knew personally, and not the ideas about God that I…
The problem was that I was already an ordained priest. It was some time later that I would learn that I shared with Wesley a post theological education conversion to Christ. I say “conversion to Christ” because that is what it was for me. I had felt called to the ministry, and, before seminary at least, I had believed in the Trinity and the creeds of the Church. What happened to me that night was that I experienced a personal sense of forgiveness and total acceptance by a living and real Christ. Jesus Christ became alive for me in a new way.
The most immediate result of this was expressed by what I did that night. I took the sermon that I had written that week and burned it in the fireplace. I was determined to speak now of the love of Christ I knew personally, and not the ideas about God that I…
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Back to Basics
Thursday, March 04, 2010 at 10:29 pm
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Cross-posted at Shreds and Patches
Rather like wanderers on a foggy journey, who suddenly, in a break in the clouds, discover they are on the wrong path, leaders of our church are becoming aware that we are losing parishioners at an alarming rate.
I’ve noticed that even in Bishops’ Charges, given at diocesan conventions, the truth is being told. It is difficult for those admitting the crisis not to obtain comfort by noting that even Southern Baptists are in decline. We must be in trouble if we are claiming Southern Baptists as fellow travelers!
Two hundred years ago a similar moment of desperation descended upon Episcopalians. The period immediately after the Revolution signaled an enormous decline in religious affiliation. It has been suggested that only ten percent of the population were formally “churched.” Episcopalianism fared worse than most. It was even suggested that PECUSA dissolve and its members join other churches.
Many Anglicans left the country after the Revolution. The whole church was tainted in the popular imagination with “Tory” sympathies. Its first Bishop, Samuel Seabury served as a chaplain to the British Army as it moved to attack General Washington’s troops in New York. When General Convention debated including the Fourth of July as a Feast in the Prayer Book, the Presiding Bishop, William White sought unsuccessfully to have the motion “tabled” because its observance would cause discomfort to those clergy and laity who had been…
Rather like wanderers on a foggy journey, who suddenly, in a break in the clouds, discover they are on the wrong path, leaders of our church are becoming aware that we are losing parishioners at an alarming rate.
I’ve noticed that even in Bishops’ Charges, given at diocesan conventions, the truth is being told. It is difficult for those admitting the crisis not to obtain comfort by noting that even Southern Baptists are in decline. We must be in trouble if we are claiming Southern Baptists as fellow travelers!
Two hundred years ago a similar moment of desperation descended upon Episcopalians. The period immediately after the Revolution signaled an enormous decline in religious affiliation. It has been suggested that only ten percent of the population were formally “churched.” Episcopalianism fared worse than most. It was even suggested that PECUSA dissolve and its members join other churches.
Many Anglicans left the country after the Revolution. The whole church was tainted in the popular imagination with “Tory” sympathies. Its first Bishop, Samuel Seabury served as a chaplain to the British Army as it moved to attack General Washington’s troops in New York. When General Convention debated including the Fourth of July as a Feast in the Prayer Book, the Presiding Bishop, William White sought unsuccessfully to have the motion “tabled” because its observance would cause discomfort to those clergy and laity who had been…
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CDSP Panel on the Covenant
Monday, March 01, 2010 at 3:06 pm
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Anglican Communion Covenant Forum from ChurchDivinitySchool on Vimeo.
The video features two General Convention deputies from the Diocese of California (Sarah Lawton, development coordinator for UC-Berkeley's Center for Labor Research and Education, and Dr. Rod Dugliss, dean of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific's School for Deacons) and the Rev. Dr. Ruth Meyers, the Hodges-Haynes Professor of Liturgics at CDSP, who served as a deputy from the Diocese of Chicago.
The seminary describes the final text of the Covenant, incorrectly, as its third and final draft. The text is complete. The question is now how many provinces will sign on to the completed text.
One of the stranger assertions in this discussion: That Truro Church in Fairfax, Va., somehow influenced the Ridley Cambridge Draft. Such global power for a church in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.
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Video Review: Educating Anglicans
Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 9:02 am
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Anglicanism: A Gift in Christ
Anglican Communion Institute. Two 3-disc DVD sets. agiftinchrist.org.
What does it mean to be an Anglican Christian? If you put ten Anglicans in a room and ask each of them, you are likely to get 11 different answers. Part of the problem, argue the theologians of the Anglican Communion Institute, is simple forgetfulness.
While we Anglicans have been blessed with a rich and deep heritage, all too often we have allowed our spiritual treasures to molder away in history books. The prayer book, hymnody, Scriptural piety, evangelism and mission, classic Anglican divines like Cranmer, Hooker, and Charles Simeon — all of this is part of who we are, and the more we steep ourselves in our common tradition, the better we will understand both where we are now and where we are going; or, perhaps better put: the more we will begin to understand what God, in his providence, has been doing all along with the portion of his one, holy, and Catholic Church that is called Anglican.
To this end, the Anglican Communion Institute has produced a handsome DVD series, titled Anglicanism: A Gift in Christ.
Designed for adult education purposes, the set is composed of a series of talks given by renowned Anglican scholars and pastors. With Sunday morning or weeknight parish education sessions in mind, each lecture covers a key facet of Anglican faith and life: Bishop N.T.…
Anglican Communion Institute. Two 3-disc DVD sets. agiftinchrist.org.
What does it mean to be an Anglican Christian? If you put ten Anglicans in a room and ask each of them, you are likely to get 11 different answers. Part of the problem, argue the theologians of the Anglican Communion Institute, is simple forgetfulness.
While we Anglicans have been blessed with a rich and deep heritage, all too often we have allowed our spiritual treasures to molder away in history books. The prayer book, hymnody, Scriptural piety, evangelism and mission, classic Anglican divines like Cranmer, Hooker, and Charles Simeon — all of this is part of who we are, and the more we steep ourselves in our common tradition, the better we will understand both where we are now and where we are going; or, perhaps better put: the more we will begin to understand what God, in his providence, has been doing all along with the portion of his one, holy, and Catholic Church that is called Anglican.
To this end, the Anglican Communion Institute has produced a handsome DVD series, titled Anglicanism: A Gift in Christ.
Designed for adult education purposes, the set is composed of a series of talks given by renowned Anglican scholars and pastors. With Sunday morning or weeknight parish education sessions in mind, each lecture covers a key facet of Anglican faith and life: Bishop N.T.…
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The Beginning of the Reformation’s End?
Friday, February 26, 2010 at 7:27 am
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Channel: Wall Street Journal Author: Charlotte Hays
On a recent evening, about 60 people — ex-Episcopalians, curious Catholics and a smattering of earnest Episcopal priests in clerical collars — gathered [in downtown Washington] for an unusual liturgy: It was Evensong and Benediction, sung according to the Book of Divine Worship, an Anglican Use liturgical book still being prepared in Rome.
… One former Episcopalian present confessed to having to choke back tears as the first plainsong strains of “Humbly I Adore Thee,” the Anglican version of a hymn by St. Thomas Aquinas, floated down from the organ in the balcony. A convert to Catholicism, she could not believe she was sitting in a Catholic Church, hearing the words of her Anglican girlhood — and as part of an authorized, Roman Catholic liturgy. Read full post >> Go to the originating news channel for this excerpt to read the full article >>
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Lent and Lawsuits
A Living Church Editorial
Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 11:13 am
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Not long after appearing in a soft-spoken and impressive video about Lenten discipline, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori took issue with the Bishop of South Carolina on the proper response to any congregation that distances itself from the Episcopal Church.
For those readers joining this melodrama mid-story, here is a quick summary: Thomas Tisdale, Jr., a former chancellor of the Diocese of South Carolina, has asked the current chancellor for reams of documents regarding four congregations in various states of disaffection with the Episcopal Church. The Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence is trying to address the pastoral needs of these congregations without threatening to sue them.
As the Presiding Bishop described Bishop Lawrence’s actions, her tone departed from the proposed discipline of Lent. “He’s telling the world that he is offended that I think it’s important that people who want to stay Episcopalians there have some representation on behalf of the larger church,” she said in remarks to the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council on Feb. 19.
This description should surprise anyone who has read Bishop Lawrence’s public letter in response to the former chancellor’s fishing expedition.
Bishop Lawrence did raise questions about the appropriateness of a hostile legal probe occurring within his diocese, and noted that he has not heard from the Presiding Bishop regarding this probe.
But he also explained the deeper motivation of his decision to delay the diocese’s convention for three weeks: “This…
For those readers joining this melodrama mid-story, here is a quick summary: Thomas Tisdale, Jr., a former chancellor of the Diocese of South Carolina, has asked the current chancellor for reams of documents regarding four congregations in various states of disaffection with the Episcopal Church. The Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence is trying to address the pastoral needs of these congregations without threatening to sue them.
As the Presiding Bishop described Bishop Lawrence’s actions, her tone departed from the proposed discipline of Lent. “He’s telling the world that he is offended that I think it’s important that people who want to stay Episcopalians there have some representation on behalf of the larger church,” she said in remarks to the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council on Feb. 19.
This description should surprise anyone who has read Bishop Lawrence’s public letter in response to the former chancellor’s fishing expedition.
Bishop Lawrence did raise questions about the appropriateness of a hostile legal probe occurring within his diocese, and noted that he has not heard from the Presiding Bishop regarding this probe.
But he also explained the deeper motivation of his decision to delay the diocese’s convention for three weeks: “This…
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Romeward Anglicans: A Case of Too Much Politics?
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 8:28 am
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Channel: America Author: Austen Ivereigh
It has been a week of movement in the often arcane world of Anglican traditionalists seeking a home in Rome.
The Australian branch of Forward in Faith — the main association of Anglo-Catholic priests — has become the first group within the Anglican Church to vote to accept the Pope’s ordinariate offer (their 15 February statement is here). FiF Australia, which has 200 members and 16 parishes, will join the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) — which is not in communion with Canterbury, and has already voted to accept the ordinariate proposal — in a working party set up by the Australian Catholic bishops to negotiate terms.
This means that Australia will become, in effect, the test centre for the new ordinariates envisaged by Pope Benedict’s Anglicanorum coetibus.
The full column is here. Read full post >> Go to the originating news channel for this excerpt to read the full article >>
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Don’t Despise Small Beginnings
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 8:14 am
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Channel: Catholic Herald Author: Damian Thompson
As it happens, there are prominent Catholics talking down the Ordinariate scheme, and they should be ashamed of themselves; but they certainly do not include Archbishop Bernard Longley, Bishop Malcolm McMahon and Bishop Alan Hopes, the three bishops on the Commission working out the details of the English scheme. This seems to me to be an ideal trio of English bishops for the task, combining holiness, humour, intellect and, in the case of Bishop Hopes, the specialist knowledge that comes from having once been a leading Anglo-Catholic.
No: what is slowing things down is the fact that a divided, demoralised and confused Anglo-Catholic constituency is under pressure to make decisions about an offer that is not yet on the table. How could it be, when so much hangs on the attitude and decisions of the Church of England?
The full column is here. Read full post >> Go to the originating news channel for this excerpt to read the full article >>
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Met. Kallistos Wants Ecumenical Nudge from Pope
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 7:54 am
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Channel: Catholic News Service Author: Mark Pattison
Although the 1995 encyclical “Ut Unum Sint” by Pope John Paul II helped with Catholic-Orthodox relations, more progress could be made with a nudge from the man currently occupying the chair of Peter, according to an Orthodox bishop who has been part of Catholic-Orthodox dialogues for more than a decade.
“Ut Unum Sint” “was certainly helpful,” said Metropolitan Kallistos. “As an Orthodox, I was surprised and moved at Pope John Paul II when he openly asked for the help of others to understand his role and his primacy as bishop of Rome to the universal church.”
The full report is here. Read full post >> Go to the originating news channel for this excerpt to read the full article >>
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