(I think that the Arch of Cant comes out of this well --P.T.)
Feb 11, 2006
Forward in Faith welcomes the decision of the General Synod this week, by 348 votes to 1, to devote a further six months to exploring whether 'Transferred Episcopal Arrangements' (TEA) might form a basis for making suitable provision for those who in conscience will be unable to receive the ordination of women as bishops.
Forward in Faith also particularly welcomes the words with which the Archbishop of Canterbury brought the Synod debate to a close.
Dr Williams said: "People have talked at times about differences of opinion and how the Church can live with differences of opinion. I think that the problem is, for those who are not content with the idea that we should go forward along the line of ordaining women as bishops, the problem is not one of opinion, it’s rather one of obedience. It’s one of obedience to Scripture, or obedience to the consensus of the Church Catholic. And, while that’s not a view I wholly share, I think we ought to recognise that that’s where it comes from, those who hold to it are not just thinking ‘this is a matter of opinion’. And therefore it is rightly and understandably a lot harder to deal with dissent if you are talking about what fundamentally comes down to a question of whether you obey God or human authority. That’s why it’s serious. That’s why it’s difficult. More than ‘opinion’."
Forward in Faith also notes with pleasure that all attempts to amend the resolution before Synod, including suggestions that the TEA proposal should be replaced by a single clause measure and code of practice, were soundly defeated.
The full text of the motion moved by the Archbishop and so overwhelmingly passed was as follows:
‘That this Synod
(a) welcome the assessment made in GS 1605 of the options for removing the legal obstacles to the ordination of women to the episcopate;
(b) consider that an approach along the lines of “Transferred Episcopal Arrangements”, expressed in a Measure with an associated code of practice, merits further exploration as a basis for proceeding in a way that will maintain the highest possible degree of communion in the Church of England;
(c) invite the House of Bishops, as part of its ongoing work on the underlying issues raised by the “Rochester report”, to produce for the July group of sessions a statement of the theological, ecumenical and canonical implications of such an approach;
(d) instruct the Business Committee to make sufficient time available at the July group of sessions for Synod to determine, in the light of advice from the House of Bishops, the next steps, including a possible timetable for legislation; and
(e) invite all members of Synod to reflect prayerfully and consult widely on the serious decisions now facing the Church.’
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon MA., D.Phil (Oxford)
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Ladies who are Reverend, Very Reverend, Right Reverend and Most Reverend
Greetings from the West Coast as we head fast towards Easter with Septuagesima near.
May I make a comment on the absorption into the Anglican Communion Network of the Forward in Faith of North America groups.
It seems – if I understand aright - that the leadership of the Network holds the view that the ordination and deployment of women in parish ministry is not a cause for breaking Eucharistic fellowship, that those who are for, and those who are against, the ordination of women should exist together in the same Province or Network, rejoicing in what they hold in common and making secondary that in which they disagree.
This position is perfectly understandable for it assumes that there is agreement in what is opposed (“revisionism” of ECUSA) as well as in what is confessed and taught, and further
that there are secondary matters that may be held but are not essential to fellowship and cooperation or to corporate church life. In essence this is the kind of Anglicanism commended by the Eames Reports and their new doctrine of reception and it has held not a few Provinces together during times of controversy and theological high temperatures. Whether it will do so in the near future (watch the C of E) we cannot tell.
What I think the Network position does not take into account as a real empirical fact of contemporary church life, especially in the West, are these things.
May I make a comment on the absorption into the Anglican Communion Network of the Forward in Faith of North America groups.
It seems – if I understand aright - that the leadership of the Network holds the view that the ordination and deployment of women in parish ministry is not a cause for breaking Eucharistic fellowship, that those who are for, and those who are against, the ordination of women should exist together in the same Province or Network, rejoicing in what they hold in common and making secondary that in which they disagree.
This position is perfectly understandable for it assumes that there is agreement in what is opposed (“revisionism” of ECUSA) as well as in what is confessed and taught, and further
that there are secondary matters that may be held but are not essential to fellowship and cooperation or to corporate church life. In essence this is the kind of Anglicanism commended by the Eames Reports and their new doctrine of reception and it has held not a few Provinces together during times of controversy and theological high temperatures. Whether it will do so in the near future (watch the C of E) we cannot tell.
What I think the Network position does not take into account as a real empirical fact of contemporary church life, especially in the West, are these things.
- That there has been present in the West for forty years or more strong women’s and feminist movements calling for full rights for women. There is no doubt whatsoever that in the ECUSA it was this liberation movement which pushed for not only the ordination of women (done illegally in 1973 and approved in 1976) but later for the serious changes in the language used in the churches and especially for the naming and addressing of God, YHWH. So much so that many in the Network take inclusive language at least for humanity as a done deal, and they use dynamic equivalency versions of the Bible. For good or ill the presence of ordained women is the story of the triumph of human rights,
Further, with these changes in the life and tradition of the Church there has occurred also serious changes in the way that the Bible is read and interpreted (as Forward in Faith of the UK has demonstrated in its recent book Consecrated Women? ) leading to changes in piety and spirituality, as well as to doctrine. For example, even though the Bible is filled with it, patriarchy has been used as a “dirty” word in terms of church and family, even by those who still call God “our Father.” - That since the ordination of women entered the ECUSA as an aspect of full rights for women, it has become a basis for other groups to call for their full rights (as understood in a modern democratic society) to be recognized and implemented. Here of course we think of the calls from persons claiming to be Lesbian, Bisexual and Gay. “If they got their rights, we should be given ours.” In ECUSA they have been successful.
- That the tortuous forms of biblical interpretation required to make the New Testament teach the possibility of women as presbyters and overseers in the Church of God also serve to justify the claims of the LesBiGay for full inclusion also made from the same texts of Scripture. Indeed there is a commonality to the forms of Bible interpretation used since the 1960s to justify women’s ordination, the blessing of serial monogamy and the acceptance, blessing and ordination of Lesbian, Bi-Sexual and Gay persons. All these forms are in one way or another the rejection of divine order in creation and in the new covenant and thus all require a special kind of way of reading the Bible – unknown to our forefathers -- to make them acceptable in a culture where human rights is the language of morality and acceptability.
So, what I am suggesting is that by accepting the ordination of women as a possibility and by welcoming ordained women as fully accredited clergy, the Network (and the Fin F NA) is causing itself to read and interpret Holy Scripture in ways which cause a disconnection to those standard ways in place before the 1960s; and further is opening the door for the use of the claim of human rights to function if not today then tomorrow in its ranks – not necessarily on behalf of LesBiGays but maybe for serial monogamists and other persons with dis-ordered lives.
Finally, what I am stating does not in any way detract from the commitment, godliness and sincerity of ordained women in the Network. If they are part of a process of disorder then, whatever their gifts and graces, and through no personal fault of their own, their presence actually serves to keep the Church from being what She as the Bride of Christ is called to be. If there is blame it is to be attributed to the Bishops who ordain women.
Yours most sincerely,
Peter Toon
Thursday, February 09, 2006
A note to my friends and contacts – from Peter Toon
A note to my e-mail friends and contacts – from Peter Toon
This note is to let you know that the Board of the Prayer Book Society of the USA – meeting on February 8 in St John’s Church, Savannah, in its new facility called Cranmer Hall, and in the room containing the Library of the late Rev’d Dr William Ralston – appointed me as the President for this year 2006. This was suggested by the outgoing President, the Rev’d Fr David Kennedy SSC, and confirmed by all present.
This year the Society has its 35th birthday, being founded by Dr Ralston and others in Tennessee (at Vanderbilt University and the University of the South) in 1971. Happily my daughter, Deborah, attended Vanderbilt and lives in Nashville, working as a lawyer now, and is often present on the campus.
In returning to the USA in April 2005 I planned on working for the Prayer Book Society; but not on being President again, and certainly not in this momentous year for American Anglicanism, when we may see the departure of the ECUSA permanently from the Anglican Communion of Churches, and will continue to experience a major crisis within the Anglican Way. My wife, Vita, rightly fears that she will see too little of me during this period for I will be taken up by travel and writing. Plans for visiting here and there and doing this and that will be on hold for a while!
The present breaking off from the perimeters of the Episcopal Church of a growing number of congregations departing to be linked to overseas Anglican Bishops (creating a veritable alphabet of affiliations) is providing new opportunities for the Society. The trauma of departing often causes a search by those in the exodus for the real meaning of the Anglican Way, its Scriptural base, its attachment to the Fathers of the Church, its Formularies, its liturgy, music and poetry, its piety and devotion, and so on. Never before, I guess, has the Society been so sought out, consulted and asked to advise by those wanting to know more of the riches of Reformed Catholicism.
May I make bold to ask for your prayers for the Society and for me, that we may be given the strength and wisdom to make a positive contribution to the healing of the wounds of Anglicans/Episcopalians in the US and to the enrichment of the Anglican Way in North America. The Board approved a series of imaginative and bold projects for this year of crisis and it is our hope and prayer that in doing them in a timely and good way we shall serve Christ and the kingdom of God.
Three more things… First, I am available as an emissary of the Prayer Book Society to visit churches to give talks, sermons, conduct retreats, and engage in debate and dialogue. Please send me an email if you desire to invite me and suggest dates. Secondly, in your charity I ask you to give a donation to the Society to encourage the Board in its work and to help pay for the work that we do and plan to do. Finally, do not forget or hesitate to buy a copy of the new leather bound edition of the Altar Book for the BCP (1928). It is a first class product and will make a fine coffee table book as well as an altar book. Why not buy one in memory of a loved one for your church? Please call the toll free number to ask for prices.
The Prayer Book Society
P. O. Box 35220
Philadelphia, Pa. 19128-0220
1-800-727-1928
www.episcopalian.org/pbs1928 and www.anglicanmarketplace.com
This note is to let you know that the Board of the Prayer Book Society of the USA – meeting on February 8 in St John’s Church, Savannah, in its new facility called Cranmer Hall, and in the room containing the Library of the late Rev’d Dr William Ralston – appointed me as the President for this year 2006. This was suggested by the outgoing President, the Rev’d Fr David Kennedy SSC, and confirmed by all present.
This year the Society has its 35th birthday, being founded by Dr Ralston and others in Tennessee (at Vanderbilt University and the University of the South) in 1971. Happily my daughter, Deborah, attended Vanderbilt and lives in Nashville, working as a lawyer now, and is often present on the campus.
In returning to the USA in April 2005 I planned on working for the Prayer Book Society; but not on being President again, and certainly not in this momentous year for American Anglicanism, when we may see the departure of the ECUSA permanently from the Anglican Communion of Churches, and will continue to experience a major crisis within the Anglican Way. My wife, Vita, rightly fears that she will see too little of me during this period for I will be taken up by travel and writing. Plans for visiting here and there and doing this and that will be on hold for a while!
The present breaking off from the perimeters of the Episcopal Church of a growing number of congregations departing to be linked to overseas Anglican Bishops (creating a veritable alphabet of affiliations) is providing new opportunities for the Society. The trauma of departing often causes a search by those in the exodus for the real meaning of the Anglican Way, its Scriptural base, its attachment to the Fathers of the Church, its Formularies, its liturgy, music and poetry, its piety and devotion, and so on. Never before, I guess, has the Society been so sought out, consulted and asked to advise by those wanting to know more of the riches of Reformed Catholicism.
May I make bold to ask for your prayers for the Society and for me, that we may be given the strength and wisdom to make a positive contribution to the healing of the wounds of Anglicans/Episcopalians in the US and to the enrichment of the Anglican Way in North America. The Board approved a series of imaginative and bold projects for this year of crisis and it is our hope and prayer that in doing them in a timely and good way we shall serve Christ and the kingdom of God.
Three more things… First, I am available as an emissary of the Prayer Book Society to visit churches to give talks, sermons, conduct retreats, and engage in debate and dialogue. Please send me an email if you desire to invite me and suggest dates. Secondly, in your charity I ask you to give a donation to the Society to encourage the Board in its work and to help pay for the work that we do and plan to do. Finally, do not forget or hesitate to buy a copy of the new leather bound edition of the Altar Book for the BCP (1928). It is a first class product and will make a fine coffee table book as well as an altar book. Why not buy one in memory of a loved one for your church? Please call the toll free number to ask for prices.
The Prayer Book Society
P. O. Box 35220
Philadelphia, Pa. 19128-0220
1-800-727-1928
www.episcopalian.org/pbs1928 and www.anglicanmarketplace.com
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Chronolatry. To what extent are we all engaged in this dangeorus activity?
A question for modern churchpeople!
The word “Chronolatry” is rarely used but it is a word that can serve a useful purpose. Its origins seems to have been from the pen of the philosopher Jacques Maritain in his Le paysan de la Garonne (Paris 1966), pp.25-28. And I learned of it from hearing Dr Crouse of Nova Scotia, Canada, use it.
Chronos is time and latria is reverence or worship. So chronolatry is the worship of the present, or the placing of the mind and opinions of ourselves or persons today above those of yesterday.
Now in matters purely scientific and concerned with such studies as mathematics, physics and cosmology, the theories of the leading scientists in these fields are obviously to be preferred to those of a former times. And the same applies in other modern scientific study as well. However, the opinions of today are not necessarily better than those of yesterday in all areas of human knowledge and experience.
Regrettably, what is happening today in society, church and culture is that too often we assume that modern opinions about morality and religious doctrine and practice are superior to those of yesterday. In Church synods in the mainline Churches of the USA (Episcopal, Methodist, Lutheran, etc.) there has been an increasing tendency since the 1970s to elevate “contemporary experience” and the “opinions of the elite” above the received tradition of faith and morality, assuming that the latest opinions held by the finest are obviously the best and thus to be made church doctrine!
In this ongoing Chronolatry, Church synods, working on democratic principles (with all the accompanying political activism of working for votes) assume that when they pass a measure, which introduces an innovation (which is itself a rejection of the wisdom of yesterday), then that majority vote is the “leading of the Spirit.” In their counting of votes, however, they do not count the saints who have gone before them and who had “voted” for that which the innovation displaces and replaces!
Have you noticed how both Episcopalians and Methodists now speak of the four-legged stool of theological method -- Scripture, Tradition, Reason and Experience? In this new formulation (it used to be: Scripture, Tradition and Reason, only) contemporary experience (not only personal and corporate, but also the supposed assured results of the human “sciences”) has the final word as to the place and use of the others.
In the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, claims for the “leading of the Spirit” because innovations were introduced through majority votes have been common since the 1970s. What has happened is that the Bible and Tradition are now sources that can be used to supplement or support doctrines which emanate within the enlightened mindset of modern leaders of cultural change. The authority is “experience” understood in a large sense and the worship offered is Chronolatry. No vote is given to the Apostles, to the members of the Ecumenical Councils, to the great teachers, female and male, of the Church through history, and to the faithful millions of the centuries. Contemporary opinion becomes doctrine for today and tomorrow even as it is given God-names and descriptions. Obvious examples in the Episcopal Church from one decade, that of the 1970s are: a new doctrine of marriage to take account of the growing divorce culture, 1973; a new doctrine of the Ministry to take account of the campaigns of the feminists for equality in all areas, 1976; and a new prayer book with the old title to replace the historic BCP, to take account of the latest opinions in liturgical studies, 1979. From the present decade there is the new doctrine of sexual relations which permits two persons of the same gender/sex to live together as though they are married and as such to be exemplars of holiness.
No area of received doctrine, morality, discipline, devotion or polity is safe from chronolaters, who inhabit the seats of power in the committees of synods and conventions. And they have developed the art of speaking about treasured things of the past in such a way that most people think that they take these things most seriously. Yet what they are often doing is using a very selective harvesting of teaching from Scripture and Tradition in order to use this to buttress their novel doctrine and morals. Presiding Bishop Griswold has often spoken of and cited great spiritual and mystical writers of the past in such a way as to make people think that he is teaching a doctrine like theirs, when he is actually offering very different views of holiness and union with God.
But let us come nearer home. Chronolaters are also found even amongst those who call themselves “the orthodox” over against those they term “revisionists”. To give a few examples: they prefer versions of the Bible rendered into English by dynamic equivalency rather then by a careful literal translation; their way of talking about morality is determined more by human rights theory than by the statutes of the Lord; their modes of evangelization give great weight to contemporary theories of communication and marketing which cause the Gospel message to be trimmed to fit the customer; and their way of running the church, and organizations connected to it, owes more to modern political activism than to biblical pastoral principles.
Chronolatry is a sin. It excludes both the wisdom of the Scriptures and the lesser but still important wisdom of the holy teachers of 7 councils of the Church from the creation of worship, doctrine and discipline in the present. Not that we are to hide in the past and become irrelevant today, but that we are to exhibit to God and his world that we are members of a people who have received the Faith and have witnessed to the Gospel through space and time. We today are a small minority in terms of the total membership. We have only a few votes in reality and we are outvoted. And we are certainly in a minority by far in terms of wisdom and knowledge of the Lord our God -- the Blessed, Holy and Undivided Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
A final word from Greek mythology. The god of chronolaters is obviously the Greek god, Cronus, who looses Titans upon the earth, and reigns in heaven, consuming his own children, until the great god, Zeus, banishes him to Tartarus. Likewise, the god of present-day chronolaters will be cast from “heaven” and with him all who bow before him.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon MA., D.Phil (Oxford)
The word “Chronolatry” is rarely used but it is a word that can serve a useful purpose. Its origins seems to have been from the pen of the philosopher Jacques Maritain in his Le paysan de la Garonne (Paris 1966), pp.25-28. And I learned of it from hearing Dr Crouse of Nova Scotia, Canada, use it.
Chronos is time and latria is reverence or worship. So chronolatry is the worship of the present, or the placing of the mind and opinions of ourselves or persons today above those of yesterday.
Now in matters purely scientific and concerned with such studies as mathematics, physics and cosmology, the theories of the leading scientists in these fields are obviously to be preferred to those of a former times. And the same applies in other modern scientific study as well. However, the opinions of today are not necessarily better than those of yesterday in all areas of human knowledge and experience.
Regrettably, what is happening today in society, church and culture is that too often we assume that modern opinions about morality and religious doctrine and practice are superior to those of yesterday. In Church synods in the mainline Churches of the USA (Episcopal, Methodist, Lutheran, etc.) there has been an increasing tendency since the 1970s to elevate “contemporary experience” and the “opinions of the elite” above the received tradition of faith and morality, assuming that the latest opinions held by the finest are obviously the best and thus to be made church doctrine!
In this ongoing Chronolatry, Church synods, working on democratic principles (with all the accompanying political activism of working for votes) assume that when they pass a measure, which introduces an innovation (which is itself a rejection of the wisdom of yesterday), then that majority vote is the “leading of the Spirit.” In their counting of votes, however, they do not count the saints who have gone before them and who had “voted” for that which the innovation displaces and replaces!
Have you noticed how both Episcopalians and Methodists now speak of the four-legged stool of theological method -- Scripture, Tradition, Reason and Experience? In this new formulation (it used to be: Scripture, Tradition and Reason, only) contemporary experience (not only personal and corporate, but also the supposed assured results of the human “sciences”) has the final word as to the place and use of the others.
In the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, claims for the “leading of the Spirit” because innovations were introduced through majority votes have been common since the 1970s. What has happened is that the Bible and Tradition are now sources that can be used to supplement or support doctrines which emanate within the enlightened mindset of modern leaders of cultural change. The authority is “experience” understood in a large sense and the worship offered is Chronolatry. No vote is given to the Apostles, to the members of the Ecumenical Councils, to the great teachers, female and male, of the Church through history, and to the faithful millions of the centuries. Contemporary opinion becomes doctrine for today and tomorrow even as it is given God-names and descriptions. Obvious examples in the Episcopal Church from one decade, that of the 1970s are: a new doctrine of marriage to take account of the growing divorce culture, 1973; a new doctrine of the Ministry to take account of the campaigns of the feminists for equality in all areas, 1976; and a new prayer book with the old title to replace the historic BCP, to take account of the latest opinions in liturgical studies, 1979. From the present decade there is the new doctrine of sexual relations which permits two persons of the same gender/sex to live together as though they are married and as such to be exemplars of holiness.
No area of received doctrine, morality, discipline, devotion or polity is safe from chronolaters, who inhabit the seats of power in the committees of synods and conventions. And they have developed the art of speaking about treasured things of the past in such a way that most people think that they take these things most seriously. Yet what they are often doing is using a very selective harvesting of teaching from Scripture and Tradition in order to use this to buttress their novel doctrine and morals. Presiding Bishop Griswold has often spoken of and cited great spiritual and mystical writers of the past in such a way as to make people think that he is teaching a doctrine like theirs, when he is actually offering very different views of holiness and union with God.
But let us come nearer home. Chronolaters are also found even amongst those who call themselves “the orthodox” over against those they term “revisionists”. To give a few examples: they prefer versions of the Bible rendered into English by dynamic equivalency rather then by a careful literal translation; their way of talking about morality is determined more by human rights theory than by the statutes of the Lord; their modes of evangelization give great weight to contemporary theories of communication and marketing which cause the Gospel message to be trimmed to fit the customer; and their way of running the church, and organizations connected to it, owes more to modern political activism than to biblical pastoral principles.
Chronolatry is a sin. It excludes both the wisdom of the Scriptures and the lesser but still important wisdom of the holy teachers of 7 councils of the Church from the creation of worship, doctrine and discipline in the present. Not that we are to hide in the past and become irrelevant today, but that we are to exhibit to God and his world that we are members of a people who have received the Faith and have witnessed to the Gospel through space and time. We today are a small minority in terms of the total membership. We have only a few votes in reality and we are outvoted. And we are certainly in a minority by far in terms of wisdom and knowledge of the Lord our God -- the Blessed, Holy and Undivided Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
A final word from Greek mythology. The god of chronolaters is obviously the Greek god, Cronus, who looses Titans upon the earth, and reigns in heaven, consuming his own children, until the great god, Zeus, banishes him to Tartarus. Likewise, the god of present-day chronolaters will be cast from “heaven” and with him all who bow before him.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon MA., D.Phil (Oxford)
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Prayer Book Society of the USA – does it have a future?
A personal explanation from the Revd Dr Peter Toon addressed to enquirers
My first encounter with the Prayer Book Society was at the General Convention of ECUSA at Phoenix in 1991, where I assisted in the production of daily newssheet(s) providing theological comment on what was being debated. I had only been in the USA for 9 months and it was all new to me. Then it was called “The Prayer Book Society of the Episcopal Church.” It tended to act as though it had real influence in that Church (when it had very little); talked as though, by a simple return to the use of the BCP (1928), the ECUSA would be cured of all its ills; and used professional republican fund raisers to write begging letters, usually emphasizing the moral failures of leading Episcopalians.
Since 1995 or so, a deeper appreciation of the actual religion, faith and morality, of the Prayer Book, together with a practical and financial realism, have descended, I believe, upon the Board of the Society. So exhibitions and massive expenditure at the General Convention have ceased; production there of a daily newspaper alone or with the FinFNA has ceased; pretence that the ECUSA can easily be turned around has disappeared, and politicized letters begging for money no longer go out. Further, the Board has made major changes by (a) calling itself the PBS of the USA and enlarging its mission to include all Anglicans, outside and inside the ECUSA, and (b) by including in its mission statement a commitment not only to the 1928 edition of the BCP but to the 1662 & 1962 editions as well. By the latter, it states that it is one with the majority of the Anglican Communion of Churches for whom the Formularies of 1662 are their Standards.
Uniquely amongst the Prayer Book Societies of the Anglican Family, the PBS of the USA seeks energetically to preserve not only the BCP in print and in use but also all its clear doctrines (not only those of “Mere Christianity” and the Apostles’ Creed) as the teaching of Reformed Catholicism. In practice, this means that the Society assumes that the ordination of women is contrary to biblical and catholic truth and order, and that generous and gracious patriarchy/headship is to characterize bishops (“Father in God”) in church and fathers in Christian families.
In fact, the USA Society sees the three Formularies – BCP, Ordinal and Articles of Religion – as belonging together and therefore does not campaign merely for the text of the BCP to be in use but also for the Formularies to be in place and their reformed catholic teaching to be known, appreciated and propagated. It holds this to be good and right in itself but particularly apposite in the USA situation where only by a return to the foundations of the Anglican Way will there be both unity of Anglicans and advancement of the Anglican Way as Reformed Catholic Faith.
This means that the PBS of the USA has the distinct task of witnessing within the “would-be orthodox remnant of the ECUSA” to the need to set aside all the major innovations of the ECUSA and return with zeal and humility to the Formularies as the foundation for a real forward movement of authentic Anglicanism. At the same time, it has the vocation of encouraging those who already use the classic editions of the BCP to do so with enthusiasm, grace and humility so that what they do and offer is attractive to those who seek to know God and worship him in spirit and in truth. Also it seeks to encourage all who use the classic BCP to have fellowship one with another and join in common mission and service. Further, it recognizes that a real sense of evangelization is needed in BCP churches – “let your light shine before men…” !
To assist in these goals the PBS of the USA uses a variety of means of communication – bi-monthly magazine, web sites, books, booklets, CD’s, messages by mail and e mail, and so on. (see websites for details)
The PBS of the USA is of course a voluntary society and a non-profit society. It has a Board composed of dedicated men and women and this Board meets twice a year and keeps in weekly contact by e-mail. It seeks to keep its administration to a minimum and so spends most of its money on getting its message out. Naturally, it looks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to inspire people to join the cause and to give financially and practically to the mission.
Whatever happens to the ECUSA in terms of its relation to the Anglican Communion, the mission of the PBS of the USA will remain reasonably clear. To keep in print and in use the classic editions of the one Book of Common Prayer (with the Ordinal & Articles attached) and to encourage congregations & jurisdictions (in the Alphabet of Affiliations which now exist and will probably do so for some years) to use it both as their Standard of Faith and also as their primary means of public worship.
The PBS of the USA does not itself engage in planting churches or calling congregations out of one jurisdiction into another. Rather, it seeks to serve all those who desire to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness and in spirit and truth, using the proven and sound means of the services and rites of The Book of Common Prayer (editions of 1662, 1928, 1962).
www.episcopalian.org/pbs1928 and www.anglicanmarketplace.com
P.O. Box 35220, Philadelphia, PA 19128-0220 1-800-PBS-1928
My first encounter with the Prayer Book Society was at the General Convention of ECUSA at Phoenix in 1991, where I assisted in the production of daily newssheet(s) providing theological comment on what was being debated. I had only been in the USA for 9 months and it was all new to me. Then it was called “The Prayer Book Society of the Episcopal Church.” It tended to act as though it had real influence in that Church (when it had very little); talked as though, by a simple return to the use of the BCP (1928), the ECUSA would be cured of all its ills; and used professional republican fund raisers to write begging letters, usually emphasizing the moral failures of leading Episcopalians.
Since 1995 or so, a deeper appreciation of the actual religion, faith and morality, of the Prayer Book, together with a practical and financial realism, have descended, I believe, upon the Board of the Society. So exhibitions and massive expenditure at the General Convention have ceased; production there of a daily newspaper alone or with the FinFNA has ceased; pretence that the ECUSA can easily be turned around has disappeared, and politicized letters begging for money no longer go out. Further, the Board has made major changes by (a) calling itself the PBS of the USA and enlarging its mission to include all Anglicans, outside and inside the ECUSA, and (b) by including in its mission statement a commitment not only to the 1928 edition of the BCP but to the 1662 & 1962 editions as well. By the latter, it states that it is one with the majority of the Anglican Communion of Churches for whom the Formularies of 1662 are their Standards.
Uniquely amongst the Prayer Book Societies of the Anglican Family, the PBS of the USA seeks energetically to preserve not only the BCP in print and in use but also all its clear doctrines (not only those of “Mere Christianity” and the Apostles’ Creed) as the teaching of Reformed Catholicism. In practice, this means that the Society assumes that the ordination of women is contrary to biblical and catholic truth and order, and that generous and gracious patriarchy/headship is to characterize bishops (“Father in God”) in church and fathers in Christian families.
In fact, the USA Society sees the three Formularies – BCP, Ordinal and Articles of Religion – as belonging together and therefore does not campaign merely for the text of the BCP to be in use but also for the Formularies to be in place and their reformed catholic teaching to be known, appreciated and propagated. It holds this to be good and right in itself but particularly apposite in the USA situation where only by a return to the foundations of the Anglican Way will there be both unity of Anglicans and advancement of the Anglican Way as Reformed Catholic Faith.
This means that the PBS of the USA has the distinct task of witnessing within the “would-be orthodox remnant of the ECUSA” to the need to set aside all the major innovations of the ECUSA and return with zeal and humility to the Formularies as the foundation for a real forward movement of authentic Anglicanism. At the same time, it has the vocation of encouraging those who already use the classic editions of the BCP to do so with enthusiasm, grace and humility so that what they do and offer is attractive to those who seek to know God and worship him in spirit and in truth. Also it seeks to encourage all who use the classic BCP to have fellowship one with another and join in common mission and service. Further, it recognizes that a real sense of evangelization is needed in BCP churches – “let your light shine before men…” !
To assist in these goals the PBS of the USA uses a variety of means of communication – bi-monthly magazine, web sites, books, booklets, CD’s, messages by mail and e mail, and so on. (see websites for details)
The PBS of the USA is of course a voluntary society and a non-profit society. It has a Board composed of dedicated men and women and this Board meets twice a year and keeps in weekly contact by e-mail. It seeks to keep its administration to a minimum and so spends most of its money on getting its message out. Naturally, it looks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to inspire people to join the cause and to give financially and practically to the mission.
Whatever happens to the ECUSA in terms of its relation to the Anglican Communion, the mission of the PBS of the USA will remain reasonably clear. To keep in print and in use the classic editions of the one Book of Common Prayer (with the Ordinal & Articles attached) and to encourage congregations & jurisdictions (in the Alphabet of Affiliations which now exist and will probably do so for some years) to use it both as their Standard of Faith and also as their primary means of public worship.
The PBS of the USA does not itself engage in planting churches or calling congregations out of one jurisdiction into another. Rather, it seeks to serve all those who desire to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness and in spirit and truth, using the proven and sound means of the services and rites of The Book of Common Prayer (editions of 1662, 1928, 1962).
www.episcopalian.org/pbs1928 and www.anglicanmarketplace.com
P.O. Box 35220, Philadelphia, PA 19128-0220 1-800-PBS-1928
African Primates & Bishops in relation to Holy Scripture
A starter to Bible Reading and Meditation
What was impressed upon me in watching African bishops at the last Lambeth Conference and then African Primates at several Primates’ Conferences (that I attended as a reporter) and when hearing them speaking at various places, was their devotion to the Holy Scriptures and to a seemingly straightforward reading of them.
I know that many of them also use the classic Book of Common Prayer (1662 edition) in either English or in local translations and actually know large portions of it off by heart, even as they know Bible passages off by heart. Yet – and at first I found this puzzling -- when they were stating the Anglican Way as an authentic form of Christianity they rarely spoke of the Formularies (the BCP, Ordinal and Articles) as a secondary authority. This is not because they do not believe that the latter mark out the basis and ethos of the Anglican Way; but because of their high view of the Bible as God’s Word written, and of its unique position as the supreme authority for faith and conduct. For them firstly and supremely the Anglican Way is a biblical way! So they carry their Bible with them everywhere. (However, as the Province of Nigeria has recently demonstrated, when the chips are down and confession is required then they do declare their unswerving commitment to the classical Anglican Formularies.)
It seems to me that these Africans share with the first Anglican Reformers, and particularly with Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury, a common approach to the Bible, which we in the West have generally lost and which would be called by present-day academics, a pre-modern approach.
It may be remembered that in the famous Preface to the first edition of The Book of The Common Prayer (1549) Cranmer actually defended the reform of the Lectionary and use of the Psalter as part of a major theme of the English Reformation – i.e., that the ordered reading of Holy Scriptures (one canon two testaments) daily morning and evening in the Offices is the center of reformed Catholic worship. There is no preaching in the Daily Office and a sermon is only required on Sundays and Feast Days at Holy Communion. So Scripture is independent of and prior to the church’s exposition (via creeds or its pastors) of the Scripture. The Church relates to Scripture first by reading it aloud and hearing it continually and constantly and only secondly in sermon, teaching and exhortation. Now the implication of this is most clear and it is this – the books of the Bible are not authoritative because the church or the preacher views them as such; no, the church views them in a certain submissive way because they are authoritative in and of themselves.
Here is what Cranmer wrote in Article VI “Of the Sufficiency of the holy Scriptures for Salvation:”
“Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read thereon, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be though requisite or necessary to salvation.”
Here it is clear! Scripture is authoritative precisely because of what it contains – the unique message of salvation, which is not found anywhere else.
Now today most of us – due to our education, the use of modern prayer books and teaching from those educated in modern seminaries – cannot think of the Bible (one canon with two testaments) as standing alone by itself as a objective gift from God. We want to think of it as only being authoritative when we (as academics or parish clergy or preachers or lay leaders) relate to it through a particular way or means of studying, interpreting and understanding it. There is much talk of hermeneutics, the science of interpretation, at all levels in churches these days. This felt need for a connection to or an approach towards the Bible before it can be word of God for us is common to conservatives and liberals, evangelicals and high churchmen, feminists and “gays” – most of us in fact. This is so even if it is in the apparently simple sense (at the ladies coffee morning bible study) of “beginning where we are” (a phrase that contains much, too much to be explored here!).
Now in saying that the African bishops seem to join Cranmer in being pre-modern, I am not suggesting that they are less intelligent than American bishops or for that matter Asian bishops. Rather I am saying that they still have this sense that the Bible is objectively the gift of God, is a unity and is supremely the authority for the Church for it is God’s word written. First, it is to be read prayerfully and submissively daily & weekly within the disciplined prayer-life of the Church; and in this the power of its narrative and content have to be allowed to make their impact.
Out of this way of relating to God and his Word written these bishops quote and cite Scripture as God’s word today and then are surprised that many in the West cannot follow them or even appreciate what they say. This is usually because their fellow Anglicans in the West feel the need for a mindset, a means, a theory, or even a complex therapeutic need by which to approach and then read the Bible. They shy away from this immediacy of relation.
This presence of a mindset is seen clearly in the recent book from the ECUSA National Office, To Set Our Hope on Christ, written by a team gathered by the Presiding Bishop to defend and commend the practice of covenanted same-sex unions. The Bible is only Word of God here when it produces the novel doctrines that the team holds to be true for them. Regrettably, this general mindset is also seen in the approach brought to Scripture by the so-called “orthodox” when they find there justification for such innovations as the ordaining of women as pastors of Christ’s flock and the blessing of second and third marriages of divorcees. The “orthodox” come to the Scriptures out of the pervasive rights culture and as this is their mindset as they read the Bible so they find ways of hearing the Bible agree with them – and behold, the Scriptures approve women clergy and remarriage of all divorcees in church.
Now of course there are some African bishops who have developed the modern way of relating to the Bible for many of them have attended western seminaries and universities. Thus they display the same characteristics as their western brethren. No doubt their number will increase as western values permeate Africa.
But back to Cranmer and to the Articles of Religion VI to VIII ( and see also the wonderful sermon on Scripture, written by Cranmer, in the First Book of Homilies). May I suggest that as Anglicans we should consider the recovering of the reformed catholic way of relating to God through Scripture – the daily reading of the OT and NT with the Psalms and Canticles in the daily Offices [ but PLEASE in a sound translation!]. Let the Word of God be the Word of God objectively to us and let its content be transferred to our souls. Let us not seek to control it by our subjectivity, that is via our chosen means of approaching it in order to interpret it! Let the Scriptures be the Word of God!
The Revd Dr Peter Toon February 4, 2006 drpetertoon@yahoo.com
What was impressed upon me in watching African bishops at the last Lambeth Conference and then African Primates at several Primates’ Conferences (that I attended as a reporter) and when hearing them speaking at various places, was their devotion to the Holy Scriptures and to a seemingly straightforward reading of them.
I know that many of them also use the classic Book of Common Prayer (1662 edition) in either English or in local translations and actually know large portions of it off by heart, even as they know Bible passages off by heart. Yet – and at first I found this puzzling -- when they were stating the Anglican Way as an authentic form of Christianity they rarely spoke of the Formularies (the BCP, Ordinal and Articles) as a secondary authority. This is not because they do not believe that the latter mark out the basis and ethos of the Anglican Way; but because of their high view of the Bible as God’s Word written, and of its unique position as the supreme authority for faith and conduct. For them firstly and supremely the Anglican Way is a biblical way! So they carry their Bible with them everywhere. (However, as the Province of Nigeria has recently demonstrated, when the chips are down and confession is required then they do declare their unswerving commitment to the classical Anglican Formularies.)
It seems to me that these Africans share with the first Anglican Reformers, and particularly with Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury, a common approach to the Bible, which we in the West have generally lost and which would be called by present-day academics, a pre-modern approach.
It may be remembered that in the famous Preface to the first edition of The Book of The Common Prayer (1549) Cranmer actually defended the reform of the Lectionary and use of the Psalter as part of a major theme of the English Reformation – i.e., that the ordered reading of Holy Scriptures (one canon two testaments) daily morning and evening in the Offices is the center of reformed Catholic worship. There is no preaching in the Daily Office and a sermon is only required on Sundays and Feast Days at Holy Communion. So Scripture is independent of and prior to the church’s exposition (via creeds or its pastors) of the Scripture. The Church relates to Scripture first by reading it aloud and hearing it continually and constantly and only secondly in sermon, teaching and exhortation. Now the implication of this is most clear and it is this – the books of the Bible are not authoritative because the church or the preacher views them as such; no, the church views them in a certain submissive way because they are authoritative in and of themselves.
Here is what Cranmer wrote in Article VI “Of the Sufficiency of the holy Scriptures for Salvation:”
“Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read thereon, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be though requisite or necessary to salvation.”
Here it is clear! Scripture is authoritative precisely because of what it contains – the unique message of salvation, which is not found anywhere else.
Now today most of us – due to our education, the use of modern prayer books and teaching from those educated in modern seminaries – cannot think of the Bible (one canon with two testaments) as standing alone by itself as a objective gift from God. We want to think of it as only being authoritative when we (as academics or parish clergy or preachers or lay leaders) relate to it through a particular way or means of studying, interpreting and understanding it. There is much talk of hermeneutics, the science of interpretation, at all levels in churches these days. This felt need for a connection to or an approach towards the Bible before it can be word of God for us is common to conservatives and liberals, evangelicals and high churchmen, feminists and “gays” – most of us in fact. This is so even if it is in the apparently simple sense (at the ladies coffee morning bible study) of “beginning where we are” (a phrase that contains much, too much to be explored here!).
Now in saying that the African bishops seem to join Cranmer in being pre-modern, I am not suggesting that they are less intelligent than American bishops or for that matter Asian bishops. Rather I am saying that they still have this sense that the Bible is objectively the gift of God, is a unity and is supremely the authority for the Church for it is God’s word written. First, it is to be read prayerfully and submissively daily & weekly within the disciplined prayer-life of the Church; and in this the power of its narrative and content have to be allowed to make their impact.
Out of this way of relating to God and his Word written these bishops quote and cite Scripture as God’s word today and then are surprised that many in the West cannot follow them or even appreciate what they say. This is usually because their fellow Anglicans in the West feel the need for a mindset, a means, a theory, or even a complex therapeutic need by which to approach and then read the Bible. They shy away from this immediacy of relation.
This presence of a mindset is seen clearly in the recent book from the ECUSA National Office, To Set Our Hope on Christ, written by a team gathered by the Presiding Bishop to defend and commend the practice of covenanted same-sex unions. The Bible is only Word of God here when it produces the novel doctrines that the team holds to be true for them. Regrettably, this general mindset is also seen in the approach brought to Scripture by the so-called “orthodox” when they find there justification for such innovations as the ordaining of women as pastors of Christ’s flock and the blessing of second and third marriages of divorcees. The “orthodox” come to the Scriptures out of the pervasive rights culture and as this is their mindset as they read the Bible so they find ways of hearing the Bible agree with them – and behold, the Scriptures approve women clergy and remarriage of all divorcees in church.
Now of course there are some African bishops who have developed the modern way of relating to the Bible for many of them have attended western seminaries and universities. Thus they display the same characteristics as their western brethren. No doubt their number will increase as western values permeate Africa.
But back to Cranmer and to the Articles of Religion VI to VIII ( and see also the wonderful sermon on Scripture, written by Cranmer, in the First Book of Homilies). May I suggest that as Anglicans we should consider the recovering of the reformed catholic way of relating to God through Scripture – the daily reading of the OT and NT with the Psalms and Canticles in the daily Offices [ but PLEASE in a sound translation!]. Let the Word of God be the Word of God objectively to us and let its content be transferred to our souls. Let us not seek to control it by our subjectivity, that is via our chosen means of approaching it in order to interpret it! Let the Scriptures be the Word of God!
The Revd Dr Peter Toon February 4, 2006 drpetertoon@yahoo.com
A Theological Conference at St. Luke’s, Seattle
Yesterday’s Formulation And Today’s Truth: The Pastoral Dynamics Of The Classic Anglican Formularies – A Theological Conference at St. Luke’s, Seattle - March 2nd to 4th, 2006.
Dear Friends in Christ, I am writing to invite you to set dates aside for St. Luke's first Theological Conference. St. Luke's will be hosting a Conference on The Classical Anglican Formularies - March 2nd to 4th, 2006. It is appropriate that this conference falls in March 2006 - exactly 450 years after the martyrdom of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury and key framer of the original Book of Common Prayer!
This conference is designed to inform and to encourage those in the Anglican Way, affirming the basis of our Faith as Reformed Catholics. Our conference speaker will be The Rev'd. Dr. Peter Toon, a well-respected Anglican Theologian. Dr. Toon is the Vice-President of the US Prayer Book Society - see: http://www.episcopalian.org/pbs1928
Dr. Toon taught at Oxford University (UK) and Nashotah House (USA) and has authored many books, articles, and "tracts for the times!" He is an engaging speaker with a passion to articulate the relevance of these historic formularies to our current Church situation and daily lives!
The Thirty-Nine Articles, with the Book of Common Prayer and The Ordinal represent the historic Formularies that frame classical Anglicanism. In a season of great upheaval in the Church internationally, it is important to understand and to affirm the distinctives of the Anglican Way as a Reformed Catholic path within the larger Body of Christ. This is not to exalt one Christian Tradition over another but to affirm diversity within the framework of Historic Belief.
Our hope is to affirm the Anglican Way as an historic, Biblically-orthodox tradition standing in contrast to the modernism that has ensnared much of North American Mainline Church life. The presentations will be offered in a positive manner, affirming the rich Biblical and historic legacy of the Anglican/Episcopal Tradition.Leaders and lay persons from Continuing and Convergence Anglican Traditions are welcome to attend. The presentations will reflect solid scholarship. However, these lectures will be presented in such a fashion that even those with limited theological understanding will benefit. We encourage strong lay participation to engage the core beliefs of our tradition.
Conference Agenda -
Dear Friends in Christ, I am writing to invite you to set dates aside for St. Luke's first Theological Conference. St. Luke's will be hosting a Conference on The Classical Anglican Formularies - March 2nd to 4th, 2006. It is appropriate that this conference falls in March 2006 - exactly 450 years after the martyrdom of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury and key framer of the original Book of Common Prayer!
This conference is designed to inform and to encourage those in the Anglican Way, affirming the basis of our Faith as Reformed Catholics. Our conference speaker will be The Rev'd. Dr. Peter Toon, a well-respected Anglican Theologian. Dr. Toon is the Vice-President of the US Prayer Book Society - see: http://www.episcopalian.org/pbs1928
Dr. Toon taught at Oxford University (UK) and Nashotah House (USA) and has authored many books, articles, and "tracts for the times!" He is an engaging speaker with a passion to articulate the relevance of these historic formularies to our current Church situation and daily lives!
The Thirty-Nine Articles, with the Book of Common Prayer and The Ordinal represent the historic Formularies that frame classical Anglicanism. In a season of great upheaval in the Church internationally, it is important to understand and to affirm the distinctives of the Anglican Way as a Reformed Catholic path within the larger Body of Christ. This is not to exalt one Christian Tradition over another but to affirm diversity within the framework of Historic Belief.
Our hope is to affirm the Anglican Way as an historic, Biblically-orthodox tradition standing in contrast to the modernism that has ensnared much of North American Mainline Church life. The presentations will be offered in a positive manner, affirming the rich Biblical and historic legacy of the Anglican/Episcopal Tradition.Leaders and lay persons from Continuing and Convergence Anglican Traditions are welcome to attend. The presentations will reflect solid scholarship. However, these lectures will be presented in such a fashion that even those with limited theological understanding will benefit. We encourage strong lay participation to engage the core beliefs of our tradition.
Conference Agenda -
Thursday March 2nd, 2006 (Evening only)
- 7 PM Opening Lecture, Response, and Question Period
- 8:45 PM Compline
Friday March 3rd, 2006 (All Day)
- 10 AM to 12 Noon - Clergy Interaction (interested lay leaders welcome, by invitation!)
- 2 PM to 4 PM - Clergy Interaction (interested lay leaders welcome, by invitation!)
- 7 PM - Lecture #2, Response, and Question Period
- 8:45 PM Evensong
Saturday March 4th, 2006 (All Day)
- 10 AM to 12 Noon - Lecture #3, Response, and Panel Discussion
- 2 PM to 4 PM - Lecture #4, Response, and Panel Discussion
- 4:30 PM - Choral Eucharist with Homily
DIRECTIONS TO ST. LUKE'S - Take I-5 to NE 45th Street Exit, turn west at NE45th Street. Follow signs to Ballard. This arterial weaves and becomes N.46th Street. After SR 99, the arterial goes down a long hill. At the bottom of the hill, the road turns left and becomes NW Market Street. Follow this to 22nd Avenue NW, turn right. St. Luke's is two blocks down on the right. Parking in back or on street.
Click for St. Luke's Map
Local Hotel Information –
- Holiday Inn Express 14115 Aurora Avenue N. (206) 365-7777
- Ramada Inn 2140 N. Northgate Way (206) 365-0700
- Best Western Inn 13700 Aurora Avenue N. (206) 361-3700
- Marriott Courtyard on Westlake 925 Westlake Ave. N. (206) 213-0100
Friday, February 03, 2006
A Call to a special and valuable kind of Conversation for Episcopalians and Anglicans in 2006
(a short preliminary essay addressed especially but not only to those who are thinking of attending the conference on the Anglican Standards/Formularies at St Luke’s, Seattle March 2-4)
Serious dialogue on important matters between Christians of differing backgrounds and convictions can be a good thing, especially when there is mutual respect and a common submission to Christ Jesus as Lord.
Likewise a kind of dialogue or conversation with important Christian teachers and theologians of the past can also be a good thing, especially when the present-day conversationalists genuinely wish to discover that which the worthies of the past were seeking to convey by what they wrote. Let us recall that Christian doctrine is not like the theories and hypotheses of the various sciences. A theologian of the fourth or tenth or sixteenth century may well know (have known) more about the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the truth of the Holy Scriptures than say a theologian of 2006, educated at Oxford and Harvard, knows. So there can be great benefit in seeking to understand and to converse with important teachers of doctrine, piety and holiness from yesterday.
In 2006 Episcopalians/ Anglicans in the West/North of the world, where regrettably the Anglican Way seems to be losing its true character and witness, are beginning to recognize that they can benefit from conversation with the mind and voice of the Church of England, when it spoke during a period of laying foundations and of formative influence. That is, they can learn from the English Church in the middle of the sixteenth century, through two of its Archbishops, Thomas Cranmer and Matthew Parker, who speak on behalf of the Church of their time through what we now call the Formularies of the Church of England and of the Anglican Way, that is through The Book of Common Prayer with The Ordinal and The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion. Between them they were primarily for these texts in their published form.
Regrettably too many of us in the West/North have neglected, during the last third of the twentieth century and on into the twenty-first, to read or use a genuine edition of the classic Book of Common Prayer (first edition 1549) and we have found all our sustenance in one or other of the modern books of alternative services (e.g., USA, 1979; England 1980 & 2000; Canada 1985) and modern paraphrases or dynamic equivalency versions of the Bible. Using these regularly has served to cut us off from our roots and plant us in modernity without anchors to the central message of the Scriptures and the traditions of the Anglican Way.
Further, the Ordinal has only rarely been used for ordinations and consecrations and so we have lost a sense of the Reformed Catholic doctrine of the ordained Ministry and of the office and duties of priests and bishops (no wonder we have CEO’s now!).
Finally, the Articles of Religion have been virtually wholly neglected except by a few conservative Evangelicals and devoted High Churchmen. Thus a sense of what genuine Reformed Catholicism is has not been planted in our churches.
There has been no conversation worthy of the name between the fathers of Reformed Catholicism and ourselves as modern Anglicans. And we are the losers for we have lost much of our genuinely Anglican ethos and character, and often filled the vacuum with either a generic evangelical/protestant church growth culture or a generic liberal, ecumenical culture, or a mixture of the two.
The Anglican Way of Reformed Catholicism is based upon the authority and supremacy of Scripture, but Scripture as received, preserved, and translated within the catholic Church, not Scripture interpreted by private judgment. It is the Way which preserves the doctrine and character of the Early Church through its commitment to creeds, dogma, the Threefold Ministry, Liturgical Worship, canon law, government by synods and so on. Yet it does not neglect evangelism and the call to growth in maturity and membership as it follows insights from the Lutheran and Swiss Reformations of the 16th century. In fact, it has been well said that the genius of the Anglican Way, as it originated in the Church of England between 1549 and 1604, has never been to grow its own theological nourishment, but rather to prepare what is provided from elsewhere (e.g., the patristic age, the medieval Church and the Continental Reformation) and to set it attractively and decently upon the table.
Thus it is very clear within the Anglican Way of Reformed Catholicism, by a study of what Cranmer and Parker actually wrote in the Formularies, what are the essentials of the Christian Faith and Religion and what are the adiaphora, the important yet secondary things that are not essential to salvation but useful for the good order of the Church on earth in a particular place and time. Therefore, Anglicans speak strongly only of those things which are truly central and essential both to Christianity as the Faith and for the existence of the one, holy, catholic an apostolic Church. Anglican comprehensiveness (in terms of churchmanship) exists within this framework of moderation which distinguishes the major from the minor and does not major on minors. The Anglican Via Media, as it is called, is not half way between Anabaptism (radical Protestantism) and Roman Catholicism; but it is considered moderation in terms of knowing what is essential and what, though good and useful, is not essential.
On a wide area of doctrine and piety, worship and discipline, Cranmer and Parker speak to us and we hear something rare in our times. For example,
Serious dialogue on important matters between Christians of differing backgrounds and convictions can be a good thing, especially when there is mutual respect and a common submission to Christ Jesus as Lord.
Likewise a kind of dialogue or conversation with important Christian teachers and theologians of the past can also be a good thing, especially when the present-day conversationalists genuinely wish to discover that which the worthies of the past were seeking to convey by what they wrote. Let us recall that Christian doctrine is not like the theories and hypotheses of the various sciences. A theologian of the fourth or tenth or sixteenth century may well know (have known) more about the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the truth of the Holy Scriptures than say a theologian of 2006, educated at Oxford and Harvard, knows. So there can be great benefit in seeking to understand and to converse with important teachers of doctrine, piety and holiness from yesterday.
In 2006 Episcopalians/ Anglicans in the West/North of the world, where regrettably the Anglican Way seems to be losing its true character and witness, are beginning to recognize that they can benefit from conversation with the mind and voice of the Church of England, when it spoke during a period of laying foundations and of formative influence. That is, they can learn from the English Church in the middle of the sixteenth century, through two of its Archbishops, Thomas Cranmer and Matthew Parker, who speak on behalf of the Church of their time through what we now call the Formularies of the Church of England and of the Anglican Way, that is through The Book of Common Prayer with The Ordinal and The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion. Between them they were primarily for these texts in their published form.
Regrettably too many of us in the West/North have neglected, during the last third of the twentieth century and on into the twenty-first, to read or use a genuine edition of the classic Book of Common Prayer (first edition 1549) and we have found all our sustenance in one or other of the modern books of alternative services (e.g., USA, 1979; England 1980 & 2000; Canada 1985) and modern paraphrases or dynamic equivalency versions of the Bible. Using these regularly has served to cut us off from our roots and plant us in modernity without anchors to the central message of the Scriptures and the traditions of the Anglican Way.
Further, the Ordinal has only rarely been used for ordinations and consecrations and so we have lost a sense of the Reformed Catholic doctrine of the ordained Ministry and of the office and duties of priests and bishops (no wonder we have CEO’s now!).
Finally, the Articles of Religion have been virtually wholly neglected except by a few conservative Evangelicals and devoted High Churchmen. Thus a sense of what genuine Reformed Catholicism is has not been planted in our churches.
There has been no conversation worthy of the name between the fathers of Reformed Catholicism and ourselves as modern Anglicans. And we are the losers for we have lost much of our genuinely Anglican ethos and character, and often filled the vacuum with either a generic evangelical/protestant church growth culture or a generic liberal, ecumenical culture, or a mixture of the two.
The Anglican Way of Reformed Catholicism is based upon the authority and supremacy of Scripture, but Scripture as received, preserved, and translated within the catholic Church, not Scripture interpreted by private judgment. It is the Way which preserves the doctrine and character of the Early Church through its commitment to creeds, dogma, the Threefold Ministry, Liturgical Worship, canon law, government by synods and so on. Yet it does not neglect evangelism and the call to growth in maturity and membership as it follows insights from the Lutheran and Swiss Reformations of the 16th century. In fact, it has been well said that the genius of the Anglican Way, as it originated in the Church of England between 1549 and 1604, has never been to grow its own theological nourishment, but rather to prepare what is provided from elsewhere (e.g., the patristic age, the medieval Church and the Continental Reformation) and to set it attractively and decently upon the table.
Thus it is very clear within the Anglican Way of Reformed Catholicism, by a study of what Cranmer and Parker actually wrote in the Formularies, what are the essentials of the Christian Faith and Religion and what are the adiaphora, the important yet secondary things that are not essential to salvation but useful for the good order of the Church on earth in a particular place and time. Therefore, Anglicans speak strongly only of those things which are truly central and essential both to Christianity as the Faith and for the existence of the one, holy, catholic an apostolic Church. Anglican comprehensiveness (in terms of churchmanship) exists within this framework of moderation which distinguishes the major from the minor and does not major on minors. The Anglican Via Media, as it is called, is not half way between Anabaptism (radical Protestantism) and Roman Catholicism; but it is considered moderation in terms of knowing what is essential and what, though good and useful, is not essential.
On a wide area of doctrine and piety, worship and discipline, Cranmer and Parker speak to us and we hear something rare in our times. For example,
- we tend to think of morality and ministry in terms of human rights, whereas they thought in terms of God’s order for man, his commandments and laws for man;
- we think of the immanence of God first (his presence everywhere) and of his transcendence secondly and in the light of his immanence (so we tend to panentheism and pantheism), but they begin with the Majesty of God, his glorious transcendence and see his presence in space and time in this light;
- we think in terms of equality for men and women in all areas life and regard “patriarchy” as a terrible thing, but they rejoice that God is the Father and that “headship” is given to the husband and father, as well as to the bishop, so that they shall exercise generous, gracious patriarchy in home and church;
- we think of having a relationship with God which we can in part negotiate, but they submit to a sovereign Lord who by grace regenerates, justifies, adopts us and make us his children to display good works to his glory; we tend to think of the weekly Eucharist as a kind of spiritual fast food that we take when we feel like it or when provided, but for them preparation for Holy Communion in repentance and faith is necessary for right reception;
- And we think that to read and meditate upon the Bible whenever we have time and the inclination is OK, whereas they recognized the daily duty of devout reading and meditating on Scripture with self examination.
To engage in this conversation we need carefully to use the classic BCP for a time (e.g. 1662 England, 1962 Canada, 1928 USA) especially the Daily Office; then a little later read carefully the Ordinal and Articles as we continue to use the BCP; and then ask the question; How did Cranmer and Parker actually approach, read and interpret Scripture and how does this differ from my approach or that of my church?
This is not a one evening dialogue but a steady conversation over months. But do not be put off. TRY it.
The Revd Dr Peter Toon Feb 3 2006 drpetertoon@yahoo.com
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Latin returning to Mass
By Julia Duin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published January 31, 2006
More and more Catholics are longing for Latin, the language of scholars, Gregorian chant and the Mass.
Some say it's all part of the general trend back to the classics of Western civilization. All the Rev. Franklyn McAfee knows is that when he announced earlier this month he was starting up free Latin classes on Saturday mornings at St. John the Beloved Catholic Church in McLean, more than 70 parishioners packed the first session.
One parishioner, former federal Judge Robert Bork, a recent convert to Catholicism, got there early to ensure himself a seat in front of Marion Smedberg, a Latin instructor from Reston.
The others, fingering Latin binders with one hand and clutching coffee or a doughnut in the other, crammed their way into a small classroom to learn "Et cum spiritu tuo" ("And with your spirit") as a response to "Dominus vobiscum" ("The Lord be with you").
By the second Saturday, the class had moved to the parish hall for the more than 80 people who wanted to learn the ancient language. Their assignment: learn the basic prayers by March 1, the beginning of Lent. Starting March 5, the church's popular 10:45 a.m. Sunday Mass will be in Latin.
"I want to sell it," says Father McAfee, pastor of St. John's. "I want them to love it as [Pope Benedict XVI] has said they should because it's their tradition, their roots."
Fans of the rite, who include film star Mel Gibson, say the Latin Mass lifts the human spirit, evokes a sense of eternity and draws worshippers' attention to Christ.
The Latin Mass, whose use has only recently blossomed after two decades of being squelched by many church officials, was front and center last April during burial rites for Pope John Paul II.
"People who saw the funeral and installation [of Pope Benedict XVI] heard a language not in common usage today," says the Rev. Paul DeLadurantaye, who teaches an introductory Latin course for the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College in Alexandria. "They said it was different and unique.
"People want to connect with the richness of the tradition of the church. But many priests are not well-versed enough to celebrate a Mass in Latin, and it takes a lot of work to introduce Latin to people."
But it can be done, especially since the new pope enjoys chanting the Latin Mass and preaching in the language.
Language for the Eucharist first appeared in Greek, the earliest language of the church, but by the third century, North African Christians were using Latin in their liturgy. The Western church, comprising what would become Europe, adopted the Latin Mass.
In the 16th century, the Catholic Church established the Tridentine Mass, named after the Council of Trent, as the official version. It has since been set to music by Faure, Mozart, Bach, Schubert and Palestrina, and many of its terms -- such as "mea culpa," meaning "It's my fault" -- have become part of the fabric of Western culture.
This Mass remained the normative rite until after the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s, which allowed the Mass to be translated into the language of each country. The Tridentine Mass, although never forbidden by the Vatican, was squelched by many bishops until 1988, when Pope John Paul II ordered the rite revived.
Pope Benedict has said "great harm" came out of the speed in which the Mass went from one language to another in less than a decade, along with other changes in the rite.
"I am of the opinion, to be sure, that the old rite should be granted much more
generously to all those who desire it," he said in his 1997 book "Salt of the Earth."
A newer Latin liturgy, the "Novus Ordo," also came out of the Vatican. That is the Mass St. John's parishioners are learning.
Father McAfee says one parishioner sent him a $10,000 check and another contributed $5,000 upon hearing Latin Masses are starting up.
"The younger people want to do it more than the older people," he says. "Converts are very open to it. Again, they want the whole thing. At St. Catherine's [his former parish in Great Falls], I converted two Jews because of that Mass."
St. John's will try the Latin Mass starting alternate Sundays. Other Latin Masses around the Arlington diocese include the 10:30 a.m. Sunday Mass at St. Catherine of Siena in Reston, first Sundays at St. Mary's in Alexandria, Wednesday nights at St. Andrew the Apostle in Clifton and first Fridays at St. Anthony mission in King George.
Moreover, first-graders and kindergarteners at two Catholic schools -- Our Lady of Hope in Potomac Falls and St. Veronica's in Herndon -- take mandatory Latin classes.
"When you worship God, you don't want to use something as common as street language, so you need to dress the language up," Father McAfee said. "It's like glossolalia -- speaking in tongues -- or it's like poetry and prose. The English Mass is prose, the Latin Mass is poetry. You need time to enter the words to understand their meaning.
"If a person's in love, and they have a choice between prose and a poem, they choose a poem. The liturgy is a love song between Christ and His church."
Now-deceased Arlington Bishop John R. Keating wrote a pastoral letter on reverence for the church that also encouraged the use of Latin, Father McAfee says.
"The younger priests are more apt to say it," he says. "They feel they've been cheated, and someone's taken away their heritage. But they're not teaching Latin in seminaries these days as much as they should be.
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published January 31, 2006
More and more Catholics are longing for Latin, the language of scholars, Gregorian chant and the Mass.
Some say it's all part of the general trend back to the classics of Western civilization. All the Rev. Franklyn McAfee knows is that when he announced earlier this month he was starting up free Latin classes on Saturday mornings at St. John the Beloved Catholic Church in McLean, more than 70 parishioners packed the first session.
One parishioner, former federal Judge Robert Bork, a recent convert to Catholicism, got there early to ensure himself a seat in front of Marion Smedberg, a Latin instructor from Reston.
The others, fingering Latin binders with one hand and clutching coffee or a doughnut in the other, crammed their way into a small classroom to learn "Et cum spiritu tuo" ("And with your spirit") as a response to "Dominus vobiscum" ("The Lord be with you").
By the second Saturday, the class had moved to the parish hall for the more than 80 people who wanted to learn the ancient language. Their assignment: learn the basic prayers by March 1, the beginning of Lent. Starting March 5, the church's popular 10:45 a.m. Sunday Mass will be in Latin.
"I want to sell it," says Father McAfee, pastor of St. John's. "I want them to love it as [Pope Benedict XVI] has said they should because it's their tradition, their roots."
Fans of the rite, who include film star Mel Gibson, say the Latin Mass lifts the human spirit, evokes a sense of eternity and draws worshippers' attention to Christ.
The Latin Mass, whose use has only recently blossomed after two decades of being squelched by many church officials, was front and center last April during burial rites for Pope John Paul II.
"People who saw the funeral and installation [of Pope Benedict XVI] heard a language not in common usage today," says the Rev. Paul DeLadurantaye, who teaches an introductory Latin course for the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College in Alexandria. "They said it was different and unique.
"People want to connect with the richness of the tradition of the church. But many priests are not well-versed enough to celebrate a Mass in Latin, and it takes a lot of work to introduce Latin to people."
But it can be done, especially since the new pope enjoys chanting the Latin Mass and preaching in the language.
Language for the Eucharist first appeared in Greek, the earliest language of the church, but by the third century, North African Christians were using Latin in their liturgy. The Western church, comprising what would become Europe, adopted the Latin Mass.
In the 16th century, the Catholic Church established the Tridentine Mass, named after the Council of Trent, as the official version. It has since been set to music by Faure, Mozart, Bach, Schubert and Palestrina, and many of its terms -- such as "mea culpa," meaning "It's my fault" -- have become part of the fabric of Western culture.
This Mass remained the normative rite until after the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s, which allowed the Mass to be translated into the language of each country. The Tridentine Mass, although never forbidden by the Vatican, was squelched by many bishops until 1988, when Pope John Paul II ordered the rite revived.
Pope Benedict has said "great harm" came out of the speed in which the Mass went from one language to another in less than a decade, along with other changes in the rite.
"I am of the opinion, to be sure, that the old rite should be granted much more
generously to all those who desire it," he said in his 1997 book "Salt of the Earth."
A newer Latin liturgy, the "Novus Ordo," also came out of the Vatican. That is the Mass St. John's parishioners are learning.
Father McAfee says one parishioner sent him a $10,000 check and another contributed $5,000 upon hearing Latin Masses are starting up.
"The younger people want to do it more than the older people," he says. "Converts are very open to it. Again, they want the whole thing. At St. Catherine's [his former parish in Great Falls], I converted two Jews because of that Mass."
St. John's will try the Latin Mass starting alternate Sundays. Other Latin Masses around the Arlington diocese include the 10:30 a.m. Sunday Mass at St. Catherine of Siena in Reston, first Sundays at St. Mary's in Alexandria, Wednesday nights at St. Andrew the Apostle in Clifton and first Fridays at St. Anthony mission in King George.
Moreover, first-graders and kindergarteners at two Catholic schools -- Our Lady of Hope in Potomac Falls and St. Veronica's in Herndon -- take mandatory Latin classes.
"When you worship God, you don't want to use something as common as street language, so you need to dress the language up," Father McAfee said. "It's like glossolalia -- speaking in tongues -- or it's like poetry and prose. The English Mass is prose, the Latin Mass is poetry. You need time to enter the words to understand their meaning.
"If a person's in love, and they have a choice between prose and a poem, they choose a poem. The liturgy is a love song between Christ and His church."
Now-deceased Arlington Bishop John R. Keating wrote a pastoral letter on reverence for the church that also encouraged the use of Latin, Father McAfee says.
"The younger priests are more apt to say it," he says. "They feel they've been cheated, and someone's taken away their heritage. But they're not teaching Latin in seminaries these days as much as they should be.
Too Optimistic – Thomas Oden on the ECUSA & other Mainline Churches
Today is published TURNING AROUND THE MAINLINE; How Renewal Movement are changing the Church (Baker Books) by Thomas Oden, well known writer, Methodist theologian, and retired professor of theology from Drew University. By “mainline” he means Presbyterian (PCUS), United Methodist, ECUSA, United Church of Christ, Lutheran (ELCA), American Baptists (northern not southern!) and United Church of Canada.
His book has the purpose of encouraging those in the mainline Churches, who still confess a basically biblical and orthodox faith (based on the Bible and ecumenical Creeds) to stay therein to confess the Faith and to witness. He thinks that the present, progressive, secularized leadership will in time break up and begin to disappear; and then those who remain will be able to restore these Churches to something like their original vocation and ethos. He is very optimistic about this and sees the various “renewal” movements in these Churches as most important in this regard.
His experience in being a minority within a mainline Church has been gained primarily within the United Methodist Church. So his long discussion of property issues – keeping the local church property for the faithful congregation – is based on Methodist rules and possibilities. Further, he accepts certain modern innovations (e.g. the ordination of women and the relaxed rules for marriage of divorcees in church) as compatible with what he calls orthodoxy, and this makes it easier for him to say what he says about stating and recovering the “faith” for it is a diluted “faith” that will be restored.
What he says about the Episcopal Church is somewhat outdated (for he wrote the book two years or so ago) and seems to be very dependent upon information from his friends in the American Anglican Council – no mention of Forward in Faith or the Prayer Book Society by him – and dependent on the views of people like the Bishop of Dallas. His assessment of the possibilities of restoring this Church to something like its original vocation, doctrine and ethos is in my judgment shallow, and that for several reasons. He does not take sufficiently into account:
(a) the importance of the Anglican Communion as giving or not giving legitimacy to this Church as truly Anglican;
(b) the fact that ECUSA is – though seemingly democratic in structure - usually treated by the courts in property issues as an hierarchal church (diocese before parish) and so parishes cannot keep property;
(c) the fact that the PECUSA officially gave up its historical, received Standards/Formularies in the 1970s and adopted new ones that contradicted those given up and so ceased to be truly Anglican as a confessing Church;
(d) many recent secessions of congregations are from the ECUSA into the arms of an Anglican province or diocese overseas and so are a sideways move not a full departure. So a new kind of schism has developed in the Anglican Family for which thee is no real equivalent in the other mainline Churches.
Thus to stay within ECUSA is not exactly similar to staying within Methodism or Presbyterianism or Lutheranism.
So it appears that the book has little of practical help to Episcopalians facing the June 2006 General Convention and whether or not to secede from the ECUSA before or after this event. Yet it contains all kinds of useful insights, theological and practical, that are worth knowing. And I can see it helping Methodists in particular who will probably be its primary readership.
The Revd Dr Peter Toon February 1, 2006
His book has the purpose of encouraging those in the mainline Churches, who still confess a basically biblical and orthodox faith (based on the Bible and ecumenical Creeds) to stay therein to confess the Faith and to witness. He thinks that the present, progressive, secularized leadership will in time break up and begin to disappear; and then those who remain will be able to restore these Churches to something like their original vocation and ethos. He is very optimistic about this and sees the various “renewal” movements in these Churches as most important in this regard.
His experience in being a minority within a mainline Church has been gained primarily within the United Methodist Church. So his long discussion of property issues – keeping the local church property for the faithful congregation – is based on Methodist rules and possibilities. Further, he accepts certain modern innovations (e.g. the ordination of women and the relaxed rules for marriage of divorcees in church) as compatible with what he calls orthodoxy, and this makes it easier for him to say what he says about stating and recovering the “faith” for it is a diluted “faith” that will be restored.
What he says about the Episcopal Church is somewhat outdated (for he wrote the book two years or so ago) and seems to be very dependent upon information from his friends in the American Anglican Council – no mention of Forward in Faith or the Prayer Book Society by him – and dependent on the views of people like the Bishop of Dallas. His assessment of the possibilities of restoring this Church to something like its original vocation, doctrine and ethos is in my judgment shallow, and that for several reasons. He does not take sufficiently into account:
(a) the importance of the Anglican Communion as giving or not giving legitimacy to this Church as truly Anglican;
(b) the fact that ECUSA is – though seemingly democratic in structure - usually treated by the courts in property issues as an hierarchal church (diocese before parish) and so parishes cannot keep property;
(c) the fact that the PECUSA officially gave up its historical, received Standards/Formularies in the 1970s and adopted new ones that contradicted those given up and so ceased to be truly Anglican as a confessing Church;
(d) many recent secessions of congregations are from the ECUSA into the arms of an Anglican province or diocese overseas and so are a sideways move not a full departure. So a new kind of schism has developed in the Anglican Family for which thee is no real equivalent in the other mainline Churches.
Thus to stay within ECUSA is not exactly similar to staying within Methodism or Presbyterianism or Lutheranism.
So it appears that the book has little of practical help to Episcopalians facing the June 2006 General Convention and whether or not to secede from the ECUSA before or after this event. Yet it contains all kinds of useful insights, theological and practical, that are worth knowing. And I can see it helping Methodists in particular who will probably be its primary readership.
The Revd Dr Peter Toon February 1, 2006
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