Since its inception in 1989, Forward in Faith, North America (FIF/NA), has sought “to minister pastorally and sacramentally to all who are faithful to the Anglican Way, both within the Episcopal Church and outside it...”.
FIF/NA is the only organization which represents those within The Episcopal Church who refuse to compromise the Church’s historic Faith and Order. In response to Resolution IV.11 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference of Bishops, FIF/NA has sought ways to serve as a bridge between the Communion and those who live that Faith and Order outside it, particularly those within the United States gathered in the Anglican Communion Network.
To this end, FIF/NA has entered into full communion with two such “extramural” bodies, the Anglican Church in America (ACA) and its parent, the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), and the Anglican Province of America (APA). Members of the ACA and the APA are thus eligible for full membership in FIF/NA, and to hold office in it.
At the end of November, the ACA’s House of Bishops elected FIF/NA’s President, the Rev’d Dr. David Moyer, to serve as that body’s Bishop for the Armed Forces. The leadership of FIF/NA was not consulted prior to the election, and first began to learn of it in confidence during the week of December 5th.
FIF/NA’s Assembly some years ago presented Fr. Moyer’s name to faithful Primates of the Anglican Communion, in the hope that he might be consecrated as bishop of an overseas Province and sent back to minister to the faithful in North America. While the decision of the ACA is entirely separate from that action, FIF/NA is on record as affirming its belief that Fr. Moyer is a worthy to serve as a bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ.
Fr. Moyer is a priest of the Diocese of Upper Shire, Malawi, in the Province of Central Africa. It is FIF/NA’s understanding that his Province’s canons allow him to remain within it as a priest in good standing, even as he serves as a bishop in the ACA. It is FIF/NA’s earnest hope that this will allow him to pursue even more effectively the organization’s efforts to bring together all who hold the historic Anglican Way, both within the Communion and outside it.
It is also FIF/NA’s hope that this will enable the organization to meet more effectively the pastoral and sacramental needs of those among its members who are no longer able to remain within their Episcopal congregations.
At the same time, the majority of FIF/NA’s members remain within the structures of The Episcopal Church. Fr. Moyer’s election in no way affects FIF/NA’s commitment to minister to them, and to its continued and active participation in the Anglican Communion Network.
Fr. Moyer’s election parallels events in Australia, where FIF/Australia’s vice-chairman has been elected to serve as a TAC bishop while continuing as a priest in good standing of the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane.
The date of Fr. Moyer’s consecration, February 16th, was chosen to coincide with a previously-scheduled international meeting which will bring the bishops who will consecrate him into the Philadelphia area. Some concern has been expressed that it will come just before the meeting in Ireland at which the Primates of the Anglican Communion will respond to the Windsor Report. Fr. Moyer has assured FIF/NA that this timing is simply a matter of coincidence: it is not meant to sent any message to the Primates, and FIF/NA hopes that Fr. Moyer’s election and consecration will have no impact on their deliberations.
While his consecration in the ACA will not affect his constitutional standing within FIF/NA, the Council and Fr. Moyer are considering whether or not he will continue as its President.
Copies of the original ACA release can be obtained from
Archbp. Louis Falk at 515-987-0124 or <bishopdmv@aol.com>
For further information, contact
Fr. Warren Tanghe at 404-872-4169, 404-822-6306, or <wtanghe@america.net>
Saturday, December 18, 2004
Do not forget JOSEPH
Christmas is all about Jesus who is the Christ/Messiah. Yet in the divine narrative we cannot ignore his mother, Miriam/Mary, who as the Orthodox say is “theotokos” (the birth giver of God, the Son). Further, we cannot remove Joseph from the narrative for his cooperation, even as that of Mary, with the will of the LORD was essential to the success of the whole divine drama and action that led to the Incarnation of the eternal Son/Word of the Father.
The key to an appreciation of Joseph is that he was a just man, who not only sought to obey the Law of Moses but was open to receiving the word of the Lord beyond this Law. Thus he sought to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with his God. In his humility before God he was open to being specifically instructed and led by God. Therefore, after the appearance of an angel of the Lord to him in a dream and his learning from this divine visitor unique facts about Mary’s pregnancy, Joseph the just and devout man “did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.” And this doing the will of the Lord beyond the law of Moses is a necessary part of the human co-operation with God in the salvation of the world.
The story we all know. Joseph was betrothed to Mary and before they came together in holy matrimony she became pregnant. When Joseph found out he believed his duty according to the Law of Moses (see Deuteronomy 22:13ff.) was to divorce Mary but he determined to do it quietly out of compassion for her. Before he had taken this action, the angel of the Lord spoke to him and told him that Mary’s pregnancy was an unique act of God who had (contrary to the laws of nature) generated a human life in her womb. Mary’s son would be the Messiah of Israel and he, Joseph, had an essential part in this divine action. He was to go ahead and marry Mary and call her son, his son, so that her and his son was truly a descendant of the royal line of David, the king.
In waking from sleep, Joseph also woke from doubts, woke from fear, woke from calculating human possibilities, and with the new dawn of trust and the serenity of faith he began to count on the word and the promises of his God. In fact he woke from an old into a new obedience, responsive to the speaking of God in the arrival of the new covenant, epoch and order.
So Joseph obeyed the Lord his God and made the decision by divine leading and appointment to become the human father of the Messiah, who is Jesus (God’s salvation) and Immanuel (God with us).
Joseph’s role in the history of salvation is unique, as also is in a greater way is that of Mary, his betrothed, who became his wife and then mother of his “adopted” Son. Yet Joseph presents himself to us as a faithful member of the righteous remnant of Israel, whose faithfulness we are to imitate in our own vocation and circumstances.
Thanks be to God for the faithfulness and example of holy Joseph, the righteous and caring man.
---
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
The key to an appreciation of Joseph is that he was a just man, who not only sought to obey the Law of Moses but was open to receiving the word of the Lord beyond this Law. Thus he sought to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with his God. In his humility before God he was open to being specifically instructed and led by God. Therefore, after the appearance of an angel of the Lord to him in a dream and his learning from this divine visitor unique facts about Mary’s pregnancy, Joseph the just and devout man “did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.” And this doing the will of the Lord beyond the law of Moses is a necessary part of the human co-operation with God in the salvation of the world.
The story we all know. Joseph was betrothed to Mary and before they came together in holy matrimony she became pregnant. When Joseph found out he believed his duty according to the Law of Moses (see Deuteronomy 22:13ff.) was to divorce Mary but he determined to do it quietly out of compassion for her. Before he had taken this action, the angel of the Lord spoke to him and told him that Mary’s pregnancy was an unique act of God who had (contrary to the laws of nature) generated a human life in her womb. Mary’s son would be the Messiah of Israel and he, Joseph, had an essential part in this divine action. He was to go ahead and marry Mary and call her son, his son, so that her and his son was truly a descendant of the royal line of David, the king.
In waking from sleep, Joseph also woke from doubts, woke from fear, woke from calculating human possibilities, and with the new dawn of trust and the serenity of faith he began to count on the word and the promises of his God. In fact he woke from an old into a new obedience, responsive to the speaking of God in the arrival of the new covenant, epoch and order.
So Joseph obeyed the Lord his God and made the decision by divine leading and appointment to become the human father of the Messiah, who is Jesus (God’s salvation) and Immanuel (God with us).
Joseph’s role in the history of salvation is unique, as also is in a greater way is that of Mary, his betrothed, who became his wife and then mother of his “adopted” Son. Yet Joseph presents himself to us as a faithful member of the righteous remnant of Israel, whose faithfulness we are to imitate in our own vocation and circumstances.
Thanks be to God for the faithfulness and example of holy Joseph, the righteous and caring man.
---
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
Fr Moyer Elected Bishop in ACA
The Rev. Dr. David L. Moyer, Rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Rosemont, PA, has been elected Bishop in The Anglican Church in America (ACA), a member Church of the worldwide Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC). To read the entire announcement, go to http://www.acahome.org/submenu/docs/moyer.htm
To Whom should the Collect for Advent IV be addressed?
In The Book of Common Prayer of 1662, the Collect for Advent IV, the Sunday next before Christmas, begins, “O Lord raise up (we pray thee) thy power, and come among us…,” while in the Canadian revision of 1960, it begins, “Raise up, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy power and come among us…” In this petition there is an echo of the cry unto “the Shepherd of Israel” in Psalm 80, “ Shew thyself…stir up thy strength, and come, and help us…”
In the Prayer Book of 1662 the “O Lord” is The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, while in that of 1960 he is The Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
To whom then should this Collect be addressed?
Dr. Mason Neale (Essays on Liturgiology, London, 1863, p.51) claimed that Archbishop Cranmer and his colleagues made a mistake in addressing it to the Father and in so doing lost almost wholly the true spirit and emphasis of the original Collect in the medieval Sarum Missal used widely in England until 1550. For Dr. Neale the Collect dramatically calls upon God the Son to raise up his power, that is to be born among us in order to be our Saviour. And thus to address it to the Father is to lose the sense of the proximity and power of the approaching Festival of the Incarnation, Christmas, and the Nativity of the Lord.
Other Anglican scholars have shared the opinion of Dr. Neale and apparently the belief that liturgically it is more appropriate to address the Son rather than the Father at the eve of the Christmas Festival was persuasive in the Liturgical Commission of the Anglican Church of Canada in the 1950s.
However, what Dr. Neale does not mention and what is often not observed is that the Latin Collect in the Sarum Missal is taken from the Gelasian Sacramentary, and in the latter it is addressed to the Father, not the Son, as is seen by the important preposition, Per (through) [Jesus Christ…]. However, it is appointed to Advent II.
Excita, Domine, potentiam tuam; et magna nobis virtute succerre: ut per auxilium gloriae tuae, quod nostra peccata praepediunt, indulgentia tuae propitionis acceleret. Per…
As the Collect is an essential part of the Eucharist, and since the Eucharist is addressed to the Father through the Son and with the Spirit, it is the general norm that Collects are addressed to the Father, per (through) the Son. However in several old Sacramentaries (Hadrianum, Paduan &, Gregorianum ) it is allocated to Advent IV and is addressed to the Son – see Liturgy & Worship, ed W.K. Lowther Clarke, p.383.
Here the Latin is the same as above except at the end there is no “Per” but instead “Qui vivis…” (“who with the Father and the Holy Spirit liveth…”).
Of course, both Collects make sense and there is certainly added “drama” when it is addressed to the Son as the Church expects (in liturgical time rather than chronological time) his Nativity & Arrival on December 25. However, the second part of the Collect concerning “the race that is set before us” more naturally fits into a petition to the Father in the Name of the Son.
Below is an exposition of the Collect as it appears in the Gelasian Sacramentary for Advent II, The Book of Common Prayer (1662) for Advent IV, Common Worship, 2000, of the C of E for Advent II and in the 1979 Prayer Book of ECUSA for Advent III!
Fourth Sunday in Advent
The Epistle: Philippians 4.4-7 The Gospel: St John 1:19-28
This Collect is the last for the season of Advent and is used for the Sunday and such other days as they are up to Christmas Eve.
The two major themes of Advent have been the First Coming in humility and the Second Coming in glory of the one and the same Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of the Father.
In this last period of Advent the emphasis is upon the Second Advent because from Christmas Eve the emphasis will most solidly be upon the First Coming, the Incarnation of the eternal Son from the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Collect is addressed to the Father, the first Person in order of the Holy Trinity, and it is an earnest request that he will gather up his power and descend to his people (by the Holy Ghost) in order to help, succour and sustain them in the race they are running in their earthly pilgrimage towards the goal & fullness of the kingdom of heaven (see Hebrews 12:1).
In making this petition, God’s people recognize that due to their sins of omission and commission they have failed to run in God’s grace as gracefully and swiftly as they are called to do and ought to have done. Thus they look to the Father to provide them through his Son and by his Spirit, and in grace and mercy, the help they need. In particular they look to the “satisfaction of thy Son”, to his perfect obedience of the Father in his life and in his death, as the basis for asking for divine mercy and assistance (i.e., they look to the active and passive obedience of the one Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ).
If God’s people are to live as those who expect the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, then they need not only to watch and pray but also to live as the obedient and faithful servants of God, engaged daily in his service and running the race that is set before them.
Not only is this the right way to approach the Christian life it is also the best preparation for the celebration of the Festival of the Incarnation, Christmas.
The Collect ends in doxology to the Three Persons of the Blessed, Holy and Undivided Trinity. Advent thus ends in adoration and praise.
The Epistle is a magnificent call to live, think, pray and behave as those who are filled with the great joy of Christmas, the Incarnation of God. Christmas-people are a rejoicing, thankful and peace-filled people!
The Gospel provides us through the testimony of John the Baptist a further clear statement of the identity of Jesus, who is not only the Messiah, but the Messiah who will fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus the Messiah is not the political liberator of the Jewish people from Roman oppression, but the Redeemer of the Jews and the Gentiles.
-----------------------------------------------------------
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
In the Prayer Book of 1662 the “O Lord” is The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, while in that of 1960 he is The Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
To whom then should this Collect be addressed?
Dr. Mason Neale (Essays on Liturgiology, London, 1863, p.51) claimed that Archbishop Cranmer and his colleagues made a mistake in addressing it to the Father and in so doing lost almost wholly the true spirit and emphasis of the original Collect in the medieval Sarum Missal used widely in England until 1550. For Dr. Neale the Collect dramatically calls upon God the Son to raise up his power, that is to be born among us in order to be our Saviour. And thus to address it to the Father is to lose the sense of the proximity and power of the approaching Festival of the Incarnation, Christmas, and the Nativity of the Lord.
Other Anglican scholars have shared the opinion of Dr. Neale and apparently the belief that liturgically it is more appropriate to address the Son rather than the Father at the eve of the Christmas Festival was persuasive in the Liturgical Commission of the Anglican Church of Canada in the 1950s.
However, what Dr. Neale does not mention and what is often not observed is that the Latin Collect in the Sarum Missal is taken from the Gelasian Sacramentary, and in the latter it is addressed to the Father, not the Son, as is seen by the important preposition, Per (through) [Jesus Christ…]. However, it is appointed to Advent II.
Excita, Domine, potentiam tuam; et magna nobis virtute succerre: ut per auxilium gloriae tuae, quod nostra peccata praepediunt, indulgentia tuae propitionis acceleret. Per…
As the Collect is an essential part of the Eucharist, and since the Eucharist is addressed to the Father through the Son and with the Spirit, it is the general norm that Collects are addressed to the Father, per (through) the Son. However in several old Sacramentaries (Hadrianum, Paduan &, Gregorianum ) it is allocated to Advent IV and is addressed to the Son – see Liturgy & Worship, ed W.K. Lowther Clarke, p.383.
Here the Latin is the same as above except at the end there is no “Per” but instead “Qui vivis…” (“who with the Father and the Holy Spirit liveth…”).
Of course, both Collects make sense and there is certainly added “drama” when it is addressed to the Son as the Church expects (in liturgical time rather than chronological time) his Nativity & Arrival on December 25. However, the second part of the Collect concerning “the race that is set before us” more naturally fits into a petition to the Father in the Name of the Son.
Below is an exposition of the Collect as it appears in the Gelasian Sacramentary for Advent II, The Book of Common Prayer (1662) for Advent IV, Common Worship, 2000, of the C of E for Advent II and in the 1979 Prayer Book of ECUSA for Advent III!
Fourth Sunday in Advent
O LORD, raise up (we pray thee) thy power, and come among us, and with great
might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let
and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and
mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through the satisfaction of thy Son our
Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be honour and glory, world without
end. Amen.
The Epistle: Philippians 4.4-7 The Gospel: St John 1:19-28
This Collect is the last for the season of Advent and is used for the Sunday and such other days as they are up to Christmas Eve.
The two major themes of Advent have been the First Coming in humility and the Second Coming in glory of the one and the same Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of the Father.
In this last period of Advent the emphasis is upon the Second Advent because from Christmas Eve the emphasis will most solidly be upon the First Coming, the Incarnation of the eternal Son from the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Collect is addressed to the Father, the first Person in order of the Holy Trinity, and it is an earnest request that he will gather up his power and descend to his people (by the Holy Ghost) in order to help, succour and sustain them in the race they are running in their earthly pilgrimage towards the goal & fullness of the kingdom of heaven (see Hebrews 12:1).
In making this petition, God’s people recognize that due to their sins of omission and commission they have failed to run in God’s grace as gracefully and swiftly as they are called to do and ought to have done. Thus they look to the Father to provide them through his Son and by his Spirit, and in grace and mercy, the help they need. In particular they look to the “satisfaction of thy Son”, to his perfect obedience of the Father in his life and in his death, as the basis for asking for divine mercy and assistance (i.e., they look to the active and passive obedience of the one Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ).
If God’s people are to live as those who expect the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, then they need not only to watch and pray but also to live as the obedient and faithful servants of God, engaged daily in his service and running the race that is set before them.
Not only is this the right way to approach the Christian life it is also the best preparation for the celebration of the Festival of the Incarnation, Christmas.
The Collect ends in doxology to the Three Persons of the Blessed, Holy and Undivided Trinity. Advent thus ends in adoration and praise.
The Epistle is a magnificent call to live, think, pray and behave as those who are filled with the great joy of Christmas, the Incarnation of God. Christmas-people are a rejoicing, thankful and peace-filled people!
The Gospel provides us through the testimony of John the Baptist a further clear statement of the identity of Jesus, who is not only the Messiah, but the Messiah who will fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus the Messiah is not the political liberator of the Jewish people from Roman oppression, but the Redeemer of the Jews and the Gentiles.
-----------------------------------------------------------
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Away in a manger
Away in a manger, no crib for his bed,
The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.
This carol is of American Lutheran origin and is (mistakenly) believed by some to be Luther’s cradle song, used in his German home in the 16th century.
The use of the words “manger” and “crib” and “cradle” in the carol and in the tradition is interesting and suggests that this carol could not have been written in recent times by an English person from Great Britain, who would not have used “crib”.
“Manger” refers to the box wherein the food for the animals was placed. Since presumably the animals were out in the fields, this available box was used as the receptacle in which to place the infant Jesus (with perhaps straw and cloth to make it comfortable).
But what does “crib” refer to? In modern church talk it refers to the representation of the stall in which was the manger and where Mary and Joseph received the shepherds (this stall was probably a large cave).
However, in this carol it appears to be the name for the “box” wherein Jesus would have been placed had he been born in a home or in the inn. Probably in German American homes in the 19th century, the place where small children slept was called a crib and this referred to a small bedstead with high enclosing slatted sides (in Britain this is usually called a “cot” today but it has also been called a “crib” in earlier centuries – see the O E D).
“Cradle” refers to a bed for a baby that is on rockers.
So I conclude that for the average English speaking person, who knows that the representation of the place where Jesus was born is now called “the crib”, the first line of this popular carol is somewhat confusing, especially when it is sung by the “crib” in church! For there He is in the Crib!
The Rev’d Dr Peter Toon December 16, 2004
The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.
This carol is of American Lutheran origin and is (mistakenly) believed by some to be Luther’s cradle song, used in his German home in the 16th century.
The use of the words “manger” and “crib” and “cradle” in the carol and in the tradition is interesting and suggests that this carol could not have been written in recent times by an English person from Great Britain, who would not have used “crib”.
“Manger” refers to the box wherein the food for the animals was placed. Since presumably the animals were out in the fields, this available box was used as the receptacle in which to place the infant Jesus (with perhaps straw and cloth to make it comfortable).
But what does “crib” refer to? In modern church talk it refers to the representation of the stall in which was the manger and where Mary and Joseph received the shepherds (this stall was probably a large cave).
However, in this carol it appears to be the name for the “box” wherein Jesus would have been placed had he been born in a home or in the inn. Probably in German American homes in the 19th century, the place where small children slept was called a crib and this referred to a small bedstead with high enclosing slatted sides (in Britain this is usually called a “cot” today but it has also been called a “crib” in earlier centuries – see the O E D).
“Cradle” refers to a bed for a baby that is on rockers.
So I conclude that for the average English speaking person, who knows that the representation of the place where Jesus was born is now called “the crib”, the first line of this popular carol is somewhat confusing, especially when it is sung by the “crib” in church! For there He is in the Crib!
The Rev’d Dr Peter Toon December 16, 2004
Fourth Sunday in Advent
O LORD, raise up (we pray thee) thy power, and come among us, and with great
might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let
and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and
mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through the satisfaction of thy Son our
Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be honour and glory, world without
end. Amen.
The Epistle: Philippians 4.4-7 The Gospel: St John 1:19-28
This Collect is the last for the season of Advent and is used for the Sunday and such other days as they are up to Christmas Eve.
The two major themes of Advent have been the First Coming in humility and the Second Coming in glory of the one and the same Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of the Father.
In this last period of Advent the emphasis is upon the Second Advent because from Christmas Eve the emphasis will most solidly be upon the First Coming, the Incarnation of the eternal Son from the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Collect is addressed to the Father, the first Person in order of the Holy Trinity, and it is an earnest request that he will gather up his power and descend to his people (by the Holy Ghost) in order to help, succour and sustain them in the race they are running in their earthly pilgrimage towards the goal & fullness of the kingdom of heaven (see Hebrews 12:1).
In making this petition, God’s people recognize that due to their sins of omission and commission they have failed to run in God’s grace as gracefully and swiftly as they are called to do and ought to have done. Thus they look to the Father to provide them through his Son and by his Spirit, and in grace and mercy, the help they need. In particular they look to the “satisfaction of thy Son”, to his perfect obedience of the Father in his life and in his death, as the basis for asking for divine mercy and assistance (i.e., they look to the active and passive obedience of the one Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ).
If God’s people are to live as those who expect the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, then they need not only to watch and pray but also to live as the obedient and faithful servants of God, engaged daily in his service and running the race that is set before them.
Not only is this the right way to approach the Christian life it is also the best preparation for the celebration of the Festival of the Incarnation, Christmas.
The Collect ends in doxology to the Three Persons of the Blessed, Holy and Undivided Trinity. Advent thus ends in adoration and praise.
The Epistle is a magnificent call to live, think, pray and behave as those who are filled with the great joy of Christmas, the Incarnation of God. Christmas-people are a rejoicing, thankful and peace-filled people!
The Gospel provides us through the testimony of John the Baptist a further clear statement of the identity of Jesus, who is not only the Messiah, but the Messiah who will fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus the Messiah is not the political liberator of the Jewish people from Roman oppression, but the Redeemer of the Jews and the Gentiles from sin, Satan and death.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
The Third Sunday in Advent
O Lord Jesu Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee: Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world, we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
The Epistle. 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 The Gospel. St Matthew 11:2-10
This Collect was written in 1661 by Bishop Cosin of Durham and inserted into the 1662 edition of The Book of Common Prayer, to replace the Collect that had been in there since the first edition of 1549. This was very brief: “LORD, we beseech thee, give ear to our prayers, and by thy gracious visitation lighten the darkness of our heart…”
The Address. In The Book of Common Prayer of 1662 only three Collects are addressed to the Incarnate Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (Advent 3, St Stephen’s Day & Lent 1) while the rest are addressed to God, the Father. Here Jesus of Nazareth is thought of as the exalted Messiah, who has been given the name of “the Lord” by his Father. He reigns in heaven at the right hand of the Father as the Lord of lords and King of kings over the whole universe and also over the kingdom of the Father, wherein are all the redeemed and holy angels.
The Recollection. As we address the Lord Jesus Christ, we recall in his presence an aspect of that which he has done in salvation history in order for it to become the basis for our specific petition to him. And what we recall is that He as the Lord of history and salvation caused John the Baptist to prepare the way for himself, as the Messiah of Israel, and for his messianic ministry of bringing the message and power of the kingdom of God from heaven to earth. We are not here presuming to tell the Lord Jesus what He already knows perfectly; but, rather, we are remembering in his presence what we need to have in mind in this act of prayer.
The Petition. God’s people pray especially this Sunday and during the week for those who are ordained ministers, that they may be faithful heralds of the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ even as John the Baptist was a faithful herald of the ministry of the Messiah at the First Coming. The description of a Christian minister (from the original Greek words of the NT) is in terms of a rower (huperetes) in the Church’s galley and as a steward (dispenser/housekeeper) in the household of God. As slaves/rowers in the Church’s galley, ministers receive orders and the timing of their rowing from the Captain, who is also their pilot on the voyage. As stewards or housekeepers, ministers also serve those who attend Christ’s Banquet with that which the Lord himself has provided (see the Epistle reading). If the ministers are faithful as rowers and stewards they will be God’s agents in bring people to repentance from sin and commitment to holiness and service of the Lord.
This prayer for clergy is particularly meaningful on this Sunday for Advent 3 is an ember week and Advent 4 is traditionally a time for ordinations.
The Aspiration. No-one knows when the Lord Jesus will return to earth in power and great glory and accompanied by the holy angels. Yet it is most necessary that the household of God, the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, be in such a state of faithfulness, godliness and preparedness, that they may be found an acceptable people at his Parousia/Appearing. They want to hear at the Judgement his words, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”
The Termination. Since this Collect is addressed to the Second Person of the Holy, Blessed Trinity, the ending unites Him with the First and Third Persons in a brief doxology. There are three Persons, each of whom possesses in totality the One Godhead or Divinity/Deity and thus we say, “Three Persons and One God. A Unity in Trinity and a Trinity in Unity.”
The Epistle is in part the inspiration for the Collect. While the people of God have certain legitimate expectations of the clergy, it is God the Father who will ultimately be the Judge of all.
The Gospel describes the entry – the Coming – of Jesus of Nazareth into the holy city as the Son of David, the Messiah and the Lord. Thus it helps us recall the other two Comings, the Incarnation as a baby and the Parousia at the end of the age as the Lord of all lords.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
O Lord Jesu Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee: Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world, we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
The Epistle. 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 The Gospel. St Matthew 11:2-10
This Collect was written in 1661 by Bishop Cosin of Durham and inserted into the 1662 edition of The Book of Common Prayer, to replace the Collect that had been in there since the first edition of 1549. This was very brief: “LORD, we beseech thee, give ear to our prayers, and by thy gracious visitation lighten the darkness of our heart…”
The Address. In The Book of Common Prayer of 1662 only three Collects are addressed to the Incarnate Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (Advent 3, St Stephen’s Day & Lent 1) while the rest are addressed to God, the Father. Here Jesus of Nazareth is thought of as the exalted Messiah, who has been given the name of “the Lord” by his Father. He reigns in heaven at the right hand of the Father as the Lord of lords and King of kings over the whole universe and also over the kingdom of the Father, wherein are all the redeemed and holy angels.
The Recollection. As we address the Lord Jesus Christ, we recall in his presence an aspect of that which he has done in salvation history in order for it to become the basis for our specific petition to him. And what we recall is that He as the Lord of history and salvation caused John the Baptist to prepare the way for himself, as the Messiah of Israel, and for his messianic ministry of bringing the message and power of the kingdom of God from heaven to earth. We are not here presuming to tell the Lord Jesus what He already knows perfectly; but, rather, we are remembering in his presence what we need to have in mind in this act of prayer.
The Petition. God’s people pray especially this Sunday and during the week for those who are ordained ministers, that they may be faithful heralds of the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ even as John the Baptist was a faithful herald of the ministry of the Messiah at the First Coming. The description of a Christian minister (from the original Greek words of the NT) is in terms of a rower (huperetes) in the Church’s galley and as a steward (dispenser/housekeeper) in the household of God. As slaves/rowers in the Church’s galley, ministers receive orders and the timing of their rowing from the Captain, who is also their pilot on the voyage. As stewards or housekeepers, ministers also serve those who attend Christ’s Banquet with that which the Lord himself has provided (see the Epistle reading). If the ministers are faithful as rowers and stewards they will be God’s agents in bring people to repentance from sin and commitment to holiness and service of the Lord.
This prayer for clergy is particularly meaningful on this Sunday for Advent 3 is an ember week and Advent 4 is traditionally a time for ordinations.
The Aspiration. No-one knows when the Lord Jesus will return to earth in power and great glory and accompanied by the holy angels. Yet it is most necessary that the household of God, the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, be in such a state of faithfulness, godliness and preparedness, that they may be found an acceptable people at his Parousia/Appearing. They want to hear at the Judgement his words, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”
The Termination. Since this Collect is addressed to the Second Person of the Holy, Blessed Trinity, the ending unites Him with the First and Third Persons in a brief doxology. There are three Persons, each of whom possesses in totality the One Godhead or Divinity/Deity and thus we say, “Three Persons and One God. A Unity in Trinity and a Trinity in Unity.”
The Epistle is in part the inspiration for the Collect. While the people of God have certain legitimate expectations of the clergy, it is God the Father who will ultimately be the Judge of all.
The Gospel describes the entry – the Coming – of Jesus of Nazareth into the holy city as the Son of David, the Messiah and the Lord. Thus it helps us recall the other two Comings, the Incarnation as a baby and the Parousia at the end of the age as the Lord of all lords.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
The Unique Act of the Holy Spirit & Mary: Questioned in Common Worship?
In Common Worship, the ever growing collection of alternative services of the Church of England, there are on pages 302-303 of the first volume special provisions for the period “from Christmas Day until the Eve of the Epiphany”. Amongst these are three Prefaces for the Eucharistic Prayer, and in each of them, in referring to the conception and birth of Jesus, the Messiah, the expression “by the power of the Holy Spirit” is used. (E.g., “… by the power of the Holy Spirit, he took our nature upon him…”)
Where does this expression “by the power of the Holy Spirit” come from? It is from the 1970s Ecumenical Commission for the translation of common texts for the Liturgy and it was used in the version of the Creed in The Book of Alternative Services (1980) -- “Conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit”. Happily “by the power of” was then dropped from the Creed used in Common Worship, where we find “from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary”, based on the original Greek. [ We may note that the translation of the Creed in The Book of Common Prayer from 1549 to the present day (1928 in the USA and 1962 in Canada) has “conceived by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary” based on the Latin text.
So it seems that Common Worship has retained material from The Book of Alternative Services when it ought to have revised it so that it is in harmony with the translation of the Creed in the same book. Is this a case of careless editing? Or is there something special in “by the power of”? (We recall the theme of “empowering” from the 1960s?)
Of course, and very importantly to those who are theological sensitive, “conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit” is erroneous when used to point to the assuming of manhood in the Virgin’s womb by the only-begotten Son of the Father (which divine act is also at the same time Mary’s conception of Jesus). All procreation and reproduction in this world is according to the laws of nature and is possible by the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of God present through the universe.
BUT, the unique conception by Mary, which is also the Incarnation of the Logos/Son, is directly brought to be by the immediate presence of the Person of the Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. He is directly and immediately present in an unique manner in order to cause this miracle of miracles to occur and the salvation of the world to begin in and by the Word made flesh.
Your cat’s kittens and your dog’s puppies were conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit; but, the Son of God assumed human nature and Mary conceived Jesus by the Holy Ghost present as a Divine Person.
Why the Ecumenical Commission decided in the 1970s to add “by the power of” to the Creed is a matter of debate. But the claim that it was an attempt to do justice to Luke 1:35 does not hold water!
The angel said to Mary:
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
And the Power of the Most High will overshadow you:
Therefore the Child to be born will be called holy.”
“The Power of the Most High” points to the Shecinah (Exodus 40:38), the cloud of glory which signified the presence of YHWH (The LORD). The miracle of the virginal conception was by the personal action of God himself.
The expression “by the power of the Holy Spirit” in Common Worship detract from the full and real miracle of the virginal conception of Jesus by Mary, the very act which is also the Incarnation of the only Son of God!
The Revd Dr Peter Toon Advent 2004
Where does this expression “by the power of the Holy Spirit” come from? It is from the 1970s Ecumenical Commission for the translation of common texts for the Liturgy and it was used in the version of the Creed in The Book of Alternative Services (1980) -- “Conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit”. Happily “by the power of” was then dropped from the Creed used in Common Worship, where we find “from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary”, based on the original Greek. [ We may note that the translation of the Creed in The Book of Common Prayer from 1549 to the present day (1928 in the USA and 1962 in Canada) has “conceived by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary” based on the Latin text.
So it seems that Common Worship has retained material from The Book of Alternative Services when it ought to have revised it so that it is in harmony with the translation of the Creed in the same book. Is this a case of careless editing? Or is there something special in “by the power of”? (We recall the theme of “empowering” from the 1960s?)
Of course, and very importantly to those who are theological sensitive, “conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit” is erroneous when used to point to the assuming of manhood in the Virgin’s womb by the only-begotten Son of the Father (which divine act is also at the same time Mary’s conception of Jesus). All procreation and reproduction in this world is according to the laws of nature and is possible by the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of God present through the universe.
BUT, the unique conception by Mary, which is also the Incarnation of the Logos/Son, is directly brought to be by the immediate presence of the Person of the Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. He is directly and immediately present in an unique manner in order to cause this miracle of miracles to occur and the salvation of the world to begin in and by the Word made flesh.
Your cat’s kittens and your dog’s puppies were conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit; but, the Son of God assumed human nature and Mary conceived Jesus by the Holy Ghost present as a Divine Person.
Why the Ecumenical Commission decided in the 1970s to add “by the power of” to the Creed is a matter of debate. But the claim that it was an attempt to do justice to Luke 1:35 does not hold water!
The angel said to Mary:
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
And the Power of the Most High will overshadow you:
Therefore the Child to be born will be called holy.”
“The Power of the Most High” points to the Shecinah (Exodus 40:38), the cloud of glory which signified the presence of YHWH (The LORD). The miracle of the virginal conception was by the personal action of God himself.
The expression “by the power of the Holy Spirit” in Common Worship detract from the full and real miracle of the virginal conception of Jesus by Mary, the very act which is also the Incarnation of the only Son of God!
The Revd Dr Peter Toon Advent 2004
What is “the Prayer Book Society of the U.S.A.”?
It is generally agreed that The Book of Common Prayer (first edition 1549) is both one of the great treasures of the English language and one of the few books that helped to create modern English prose. In fact, scholars tend to group together this Prayer Book, the King James Version of the Bible (1611) and the plays of Shakespeare, as the major influences upon the development of the English language in its formative period.
The literary genius behind the composition of the first two editions of The Book of Common Prayer (1549, 1552) was Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury under Henry VIII & Edward VI.
This Prayer Book reached its definitive English edition in 1662 and this edition was used in the British Colonies in America until it was revised to be appropriate for the new American nation in the late eighteenth century. It has had three editions in the USA, 1789, 1892 and 1928. Thus the classic BCP was the official Prayer Book of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA from its origins until very recently.
In 1976/79 the [Protestant] Episcopal Church of the USA adopted as its official prayer book a new kind of collection of services, in which were portions of the original Prayer Book, howbeit in a revised form, along with a variety of new liturgies. Instead of calling this new Book by a new name, such as “An American Prayer Book,” the Episcopal Church called it “The Book of Common Prayer” as if it were simply a revised edition of the classic BCP of 1662 or 1928.
The Prayer Book Society of the USA seeks to preserve for use and with understanding the classic and historic Prayer Book in its latest American edition of 1928. The Society is committed to the view that not only in its use of the traditional English language of prayer, but also in its forms of worship, prayer and doctrine it is one of the treasures of the Church of God in the West. In short, it was and remains an excellent Liturgy.
We believe that the classic BCP provides through its regular use an introduction to what C.S.Lewis called “Mere Christianity” and others have called “Basic Christianity.” Also, along with this, it provides the structure and basic content of what may be called the historic Anglican Way of worship, discipline and doctrine. Thus by its regular use a Christian is enabled to live within the Church Year in union with our Lord Jesus Christ and in fellowship with the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
Further, the BCP contains a presentation of what may be described as disciplined personal and corporate Christianity & Worship, which pre-dates the rise of modern individualism and individualistic subjectivism. Thus it provides a welcome and healthy change from, and challenge to, much modern thinking, feeling and behaving both in society and in the modern church.
Why not take the time to procure a copy and to sample its prayers and collects, its canticles and psalms, its doctrine and morals, its sanctification of time and its hallowing of the year (Oxford University Press of NYC publishes the editions of 1662 & 1928 in various formats)?
You will find that The Book of Common Prayer (1928) is still used in a minority of parishes in the Episcopal Church and in a majority of the parishes of the Anglican jurisdictions in the USA, which are known as the Continuing or Separated or Extra-Mural Anglican Churches.
In Canada, England and Australia the classic BCP remains in canon law the first prayer book of the Anglican Churches.
The Prayer Book Society seeks to make sure that the BCP is always in print and available. Further, the Society produces CD’s of services from the BCP, has a web site which is regularly maintained, publishes a bi-monthly magazine called The Mandate, and from time to time publishes books and booklets.
The Society is part of an international family of societies and they are found throughout the English-speaking world – Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, & Australia..
You are warmly invited to take a trial membership for a year and thereby receive the magazine and letters. If you have access to the world-wide web, please go to our website and from there to other similar sites to learn more about us, our purpose and our friends – www.episcopalian.org/pbs1928
To go on our List, please send you name and address and a donation (we suggest a minimum of $28.00) to The Prayer Book Society, P.O. Box 35220, Philadelphia, Pa. 19128-0220.
The literary genius behind the composition of the first two editions of The Book of Common Prayer (1549, 1552) was Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury under Henry VIII & Edward VI.
This Prayer Book reached its definitive English edition in 1662 and this edition was used in the British Colonies in America until it was revised to be appropriate for the new American nation in the late eighteenth century. It has had three editions in the USA, 1789, 1892 and 1928. Thus the classic BCP was the official Prayer Book of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA from its origins until very recently.
In 1976/79 the [Protestant] Episcopal Church of the USA adopted as its official prayer book a new kind of collection of services, in which were portions of the original Prayer Book, howbeit in a revised form, along with a variety of new liturgies. Instead of calling this new Book by a new name, such as “An American Prayer Book,” the Episcopal Church called it “The Book of Common Prayer” as if it were simply a revised edition of the classic BCP of 1662 or 1928.
The Prayer Book Society of the USA seeks to preserve for use and with understanding the classic and historic Prayer Book in its latest American edition of 1928. The Society is committed to the view that not only in its use of the traditional English language of prayer, but also in its forms of worship, prayer and doctrine it is one of the treasures of the Church of God in the West. In short, it was and remains an excellent Liturgy.
We believe that the classic BCP provides through its regular use an introduction to what C.S.Lewis called “Mere Christianity” and others have called “Basic Christianity.” Also, along with this, it provides the structure and basic content of what may be called the historic Anglican Way of worship, discipline and doctrine. Thus by its regular use a Christian is enabled to live within the Church Year in union with our Lord Jesus Christ and in fellowship with the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
Further, the BCP contains a presentation of what may be described as disciplined personal and corporate Christianity & Worship, which pre-dates the rise of modern individualism and individualistic subjectivism. Thus it provides a welcome and healthy change from, and challenge to, much modern thinking, feeling and behaving both in society and in the modern church.
Why not take the time to procure a copy and to sample its prayers and collects, its canticles and psalms, its doctrine and morals, its sanctification of time and its hallowing of the year (Oxford University Press of NYC publishes the editions of 1662 & 1928 in various formats)?
You will find that The Book of Common Prayer (1928) is still used in a minority of parishes in the Episcopal Church and in a majority of the parishes of the Anglican jurisdictions in the USA, which are known as the Continuing or Separated or Extra-Mural Anglican Churches.
In Canada, England and Australia the classic BCP remains in canon law the first prayer book of the Anglican Churches.
The Prayer Book Society seeks to make sure that the BCP is always in print and available. Further, the Society produces CD’s of services from the BCP, has a web site which is regularly maintained, publishes a bi-monthly magazine called The Mandate, and from time to time publishes books and booklets.
The Society is part of an international family of societies and they are found throughout the English-speaking world – Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, & Australia..
You are warmly invited to take a trial membership for a year and thereby receive the magazine and letters. If you have access to the world-wide web, please go to our website and from there to other similar sites to learn more about us, our purpose and our friends – www.episcopalian.org/pbs1928
To go on our List, please send you name and address and a donation (we suggest a minimum of $28.00) to The Prayer Book Society, P.O. Box 35220, Philadelphia, Pa. 19128-0220.
Monday, December 06, 2004
The Bible as Holy Scripture: to whom does it belong?
A discussion starter
The way in which the Hebrew and Greek Testaments of the One Canon of the Bible have been translated and published since World War II raises acute questions concerning the ownership of the Bible and the copyright of the original texts.
Let us suppose that the Canon of Scripture, made up of the Old and New Testaments, is the gift of God the Father through Jesus Christ the Lord and by the work of the Holy Spirit to the Church as the Household of God, the Body of Christ and the Bulwark of the Truth. It is the duty of the Church to preserve the sacred texts, to translate them, to interpret them, to make them known and to live by their rule of life. In the worship of the Church, the Scriptures are read and a context of worship and wisdom is provided for their interpretation and exposition. Reading and meditation in the homes of believers is, therefore, a growth from and, though important, is secondary to the public use and reading of the Bible in the assembly of the faithful.
This kind of approach is commended by the Collect in The Book of Common Prayer (1549) of the reformed Catholic Church of England for the second Sunday in Advent.
Blessed Lord [= God the Father], who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning [= instruction]: Grant that we may in such wise hear them [in the congregation of Christ’s flock], read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them [in public service and then in private devotion], that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Here the Bible is seen as given by God to us [the Church] and is first to be heard in the worship of the Church.
With the use together of The Book of Common Prayer and The English Bible (1611 – the Authorized Version or K.J.V.) in the Anglican Way, the basic purpose and meaning of the Bible was established in divine service and thus a framework of understanding was provided for family and personal use of the Bible in study, meditation and devotion. From the praise, prayer and instruction of divine service, the Scriptures in a healthy context flowed into homes and individual lives.
Looking back over the centuries from say the year 1939 it is possible to see and to claim that there was a general recognition in the Anglican Way (and more so in the R.C. way) that the Bible as Holy Scripture is first the Church’s Book and secondly and derivatively the Book of individual families and persons.
However, if we look back from 2004 to 1945, the end of Word War II, then we find that we cannot make this general observation and claim. For increasingly in these six decades, there was a move from (a) the English Bible as holy Scripture being firstly the Church’s Book to (b) the Bible in an English rendering becoming a commodity to be sold in competition in the supermarket of religion and thus becoming the individual’s Book. Let us recall that it is now possible to purchase around one hundred different paraphrases or translations of the original Hebrew and Greek texts and these are available in a variety of styles, typography, formats and covers.
No longer can the Bible straightforwardly be called the Church’s Book for the Church[es] have lost all control over the translation, printing and publication of versions of the Bible. With the involvement of pressure groups, commercial publishing houses and scholars ready to earn good money as translators or paraphrasers, the supermarket of religion offers the consumer real choice in the purchase of a version of the Bible. The many versions on offer are aimed at the individual person, at individual churches, and in some cases at denominations as the basic text to be used for their Sunday School program and lessons. In some cases, denominations and associations of denominations have commissioned a translation in order to have a Bible that meets their needs and commends their doctrines.
We need to realize that the ability of translators to make the ancient books of the Bible commend some modern developments and innovations (e.g., women’s ordination & same-sex blessings & politically correct speech) in their versions is much helped by the use of the modern approach to translation known as dynamic equivalency, where the translator provides not an essentially literal translation but an equivalence of thought. So, for example, if the ancient text has “the man” then the dynamic equivalent in the modern West becomes, for example, “the human being”, for to say “the man” today is regarded by some as sexist. By this now widespread method of dynamic equivalency, the Bible, made to read as a modern book, can be perceived to proclaim something entirely different to what it proclaimed in its original text in a different context.
The effects of all this – perhaps inevitable in a society and culture dominated by freedom, individualism, commercialism, consumerism and choice -- has been and is wide-reaching and deep. The Bible has lost much of its character as “HOLY Scripture” and has become merely “the Bible”, an important, easily accessible Book which is used to support the religious, devotional and moral choices made by individual persons, groups and societies. And religion has become for conservative and liberal alike “a personal relationship with God” based on an individual reading of the Bible in one or another version together with an individual spirituality, not formed from classic models by true religious habit, but by the exercise of privatized judgment and imitation of modern dominant models.
Let us be honest! There is not likely to be much change in the immediate future. People who enjoy and thrive in this individualistic approach to religion will continue to do so; but, those who see religion as first of all corporate and then leading to personal and individual dimensions are going to continue to have a difficult time as they seek to hear an authorized version of the Bible read and expounded in church and as they seek to read such in their homes and live by its teaching in their lives. And in this situation the traditional Anglican will find he has much in common with the traditional Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Orthodox and Roman Catholic, all of whom believe God holds the copyright to the original texts and that he has given permission to translate them only to the Body of his Son, his Household – not to commercial publishing houses!
The Rev’d Dr. Peter Toon Advent II, December 2004
The way in which the Hebrew and Greek Testaments of the One Canon of the Bible have been translated and published since World War II raises acute questions concerning the ownership of the Bible and the copyright of the original texts.
Let us suppose that the Canon of Scripture, made up of the Old and New Testaments, is the gift of God the Father through Jesus Christ the Lord and by the work of the Holy Spirit to the Church as the Household of God, the Body of Christ and the Bulwark of the Truth. It is the duty of the Church to preserve the sacred texts, to translate them, to interpret them, to make them known and to live by their rule of life. In the worship of the Church, the Scriptures are read and a context of worship and wisdom is provided for their interpretation and exposition. Reading and meditation in the homes of believers is, therefore, a growth from and, though important, is secondary to the public use and reading of the Bible in the assembly of the faithful.
This kind of approach is commended by the Collect in The Book of Common Prayer (1549) of the reformed Catholic Church of England for the second Sunday in Advent.
Blessed Lord [= God the Father], who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning [= instruction]: Grant that we may in such wise hear them [in the congregation of Christ’s flock], read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them [in public service and then in private devotion], that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Here the Bible is seen as given by God to us [the Church] and is first to be heard in the worship of the Church.
With the use together of The Book of Common Prayer and The English Bible (1611 – the Authorized Version or K.J.V.) in the Anglican Way, the basic purpose and meaning of the Bible was established in divine service and thus a framework of understanding was provided for family and personal use of the Bible in study, meditation and devotion. From the praise, prayer and instruction of divine service, the Scriptures in a healthy context flowed into homes and individual lives.
Looking back over the centuries from say the year 1939 it is possible to see and to claim that there was a general recognition in the Anglican Way (and more so in the R.C. way) that the Bible as Holy Scripture is first the Church’s Book and secondly and derivatively the Book of individual families and persons.
However, if we look back from 2004 to 1945, the end of Word War II, then we find that we cannot make this general observation and claim. For increasingly in these six decades, there was a move from (a) the English Bible as holy Scripture being firstly the Church’s Book to (b) the Bible in an English rendering becoming a commodity to be sold in competition in the supermarket of religion and thus becoming the individual’s Book. Let us recall that it is now possible to purchase around one hundred different paraphrases or translations of the original Hebrew and Greek texts and these are available in a variety of styles, typography, formats and covers.
No longer can the Bible straightforwardly be called the Church’s Book for the Church[es] have lost all control over the translation, printing and publication of versions of the Bible. With the involvement of pressure groups, commercial publishing houses and scholars ready to earn good money as translators or paraphrasers, the supermarket of religion offers the consumer real choice in the purchase of a version of the Bible. The many versions on offer are aimed at the individual person, at individual churches, and in some cases at denominations as the basic text to be used for their Sunday School program and lessons. In some cases, denominations and associations of denominations have commissioned a translation in order to have a Bible that meets their needs and commends their doctrines.
We need to realize that the ability of translators to make the ancient books of the Bible commend some modern developments and innovations (e.g., women’s ordination & same-sex blessings & politically correct speech) in their versions is much helped by the use of the modern approach to translation known as dynamic equivalency, where the translator provides not an essentially literal translation but an equivalence of thought. So, for example, if the ancient text has “the man” then the dynamic equivalent in the modern West becomes, for example, “the human being”, for to say “the man” today is regarded by some as sexist. By this now widespread method of dynamic equivalency, the Bible, made to read as a modern book, can be perceived to proclaim something entirely different to what it proclaimed in its original text in a different context.
The effects of all this – perhaps inevitable in a society and culture dominated by freedom, individualism, commercialism, consumerism and choice -- has been and is wide-reaching and deep. The Bible has lost much of its character as “HOLY Scripture” and has become merely “the Bible”, an important, easily accessible Book which is used to support the religious, devotional and moral choices made by individual persons, groups and societies. And religion has become for conservative and liberal alike “a personal relationship with God” based on an individual reading of the Bible in one or another version together with an individual spirituality, not formed from classic models by true religious habit, but by the exercise of privatized judgment and imitation of modern dominant models.
Let us be honest! There is not likely to be much change in the immediate future. People who enjoy and thrive in this individualistic approach to religion will continue to do so; but, those who see religion as first of all corporate and then leading to personal and individual dimensions are going to continue to have a difficult time as they seek to hear an authorized version of the Bible read and expounded in church and as they seek to read such in their homes and live by its teaching in their lives. And in this situation the traditional Anglican will find he has much in common with the traditional Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Orthodox and Roman Catholic, all of whom believe God holds the copyright to the original texts and that he has given permission to translate them only to the Body of his Son, his Household – not to commercial publishing houses!
The Rev’d Dr. Peter Toon Advent II, December 2004
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)