[The Rector said…] “Here is a book. It is so much paper, pasteboard, cloth, and ink. Yet it brings from one mind a value to thousands of minds. It is sacramental, an outward and visible sign of inward value. A book may make you cry or laugh. Really it is the author who does so. The book is the effective means of conveying truth from the mind of the author to the reader.
“So with our food. A few acres of land will sustain a man’s life. How? Does he eat the earth? No! But he prepares it and plants wheat. He gathers the wheat, grinds it into flour, bakes bread and eats the bread. The loaf has gathered up the chemical elements in the earth and air and sunlight, and conveys them to man to sustain his life. The loaf is a sacrament: it is the outward token of invisible values.
“God’s grace toward man, His love toward man, are universal. But He has established certain ways by which men may be assured of God’s favor. Jesus Christ ordained the Sacrament of Baptism by which men are incorporated into His Kingdom.
“Jesus Christ died for men. That men might receive the value of His life and death. He instituted the Sacrament of the Holy Communion.
“The consecrated bread and wine are made the very sacraments of the value created for men by the death of Christ on the Cross, and they are the very means by which the power and efficacy of His body broken and His blood shed are conveyed to each individual soul.
“Of course, he who receives them must receive them with a heart prepared to accept them for what they are. There is no magic in them. The individual must be prepared to welcome Christ, His power and love, into his life. The Bread and Wine then become the food for the soul, by which we become partakers of Christ’s most blessed Body and Blood.
“Then the sacrament, instead of being an unusual and exceptional method,” said the Doctor, “is merely the most natural method, having a counterpart in every process by which life is upbuilt.”
“That is quit true,” answered the Rector. “The exceptional element is not the method, that is, the charging of bread and wine with some further function, but the exceptional thing is the nature of the value that is conveyed by them. Christ instituted this method and pledged His word that in the Holy Communion there should be the value created by His death on the Cross for men.”
[The Episcopal Church: Its Message for Men of Today, George Parkin Atwater; New York: Morehourse-Gorham Co., 1950; 85-87.]
Category Archives: the episcopal church
We are called…
Because we are called to love one another, we seek to learn from the wisdom and the experiences of God of those who have come before us over the past two millennia.
Because we are called to love one another, we give ourselves to be made into the image of God for the sake of those we encounter in our daily lives.
Because we are called to love one another, we strive to be formed as God intends in order to pass on this wisdom and these experiences to those who will come after us.
The foundation for the developing Rule of Life for the ImagoDei Society and the Red Hook Project.
The Apostles Creed (pp. 76-81 )
“… I believe in the Holy Catholic Church: The Communion of Saints: The Forgiveness of Sins: The Resurrection of the Body: and The Life everlasting. Amen.”
“I am not sure that I understand all that it means,” said the Doctor.
“Possibly not at the first reading,” agreed the Rector, “for there are several phrases here whose meaning is not quite apparent. A little patient study, however, will make them plain. I always explain these phrases to those who enter my confirmation classes.
“You must understand, Doctor,” continued the Rector, “that this Creed is centuries old. It is the collective judgment of the Christian Church as to the fundamental facts. It is as much a corporate expression of the whole Church as it is a personal expression. An individual might not understand all the bearings of these facts. He would scarcely be expected to believe the Creed as the independent conclusions of his own thinking. He might never have discovered some of these facts by himself. The heart of the Creed is this. First, that God is the Father: that Jesus Christ is His Son and was born into this world and died for men; and that the Holy Spirit of God is now active and present to bring men into relation with God. If all that you feel about God and Christ is toward these conclusions, then you may, with real integrity, say you believe facts of the Apostle’s Creed. No man can do more than believe toward this great expression of fundamental Christianity.”
“But it does not explain anything,” urged the Doctor.
“It does not. But it is an expression of allegiance toward God and Christ. The teaching Church instructs the attentive mind. But this teaching, as I said, imposes no obligation except as all truth demands credence by its very nature. What I mean is that in the Episcopal Church you do not commit yourself beforehand to a body of doctrine which prevents your own thinking. The Creed does not restrain your liberty of thought, but enlarges it by giving you some basis of fact upon which thought may exercise itself. You have complete intellectual freedom in the Church.
Nothing but sex please, we’re vicars . . .
This guy, Richard Morrison, of the Times (UK) puts it all into perspective very well in his commentary, entitled, “Nothing but sex please, we’re vicars . . .”
His concluding paragraph (I recommend reading the whole thing!):
The tragedy for the Church is that it is missing a huge opportunity. There are millions of young people out there who are disaffected from mainstream politics but equally dissatisfied with the mindless consumerism and callous selfishness of modern life. You can see that from the numbers flocking to espouse green causes, or to work for charities this Christmas. With so many youngsters thinking deeply about what’s right and wrong for the world, this should be a golden age for Christianity — the most revolutionary of religions. But while the Church renders itself a laughing-stock over sex, it hasn’t got a hope of converting the young. At the moment some leading clerics come across as befrocked weirdos with one-track minds. And I’m not talking about their belief in God.
We can’t help ourselves…
We can’t help ourselves, can we? Liberals or conservatives, our collective pathology just won’t let us compromise and resolve our differences in ways that show forth the very different Way of Christ.
Here’s the thing… we read the reactions to Canon Glasspool’s election from around the world that are pretty much just the same opinions repeated from those for and those against. Maybe I’m just perceiving things wrongly, but show me the proof that we are actually making things better for those with the most to lose. …Show me the something different that actually works to resolve and heal
and that looks much more like the Gospel rather than socio-politics. The distrustful world yawns and stays away while we keep doing the same things again and again. But, I’m surely wrong, right?
Thinking Anglicans gives a good overview of what the chattering classes and the declaring classes have to say.
The Prayer Book and Public Worship (pp. 42-46)
“The printed prayers are no less sincere, then?” asked the Doctor.
“Not necessarily so,” replied the Rector. “Any prayer may be insincere. Sincerity is not in the prayer whether written or spoken, but in the heart of him who utters it. You may be quite as lacking in the spirit of worship in merely listening to a prayer as in reading it. It depends upon an inner condition that is quite apart from the method
“Some men have the gift of prayer; others have not. There is no greater burden placed upon a minister than to utter before a congregation a prayer that really carries upward the hearts and minds of the people.”
“But do the written prayers accomplish that?” asked the Doctor.
“They at least enlist every particle of the spiritual energy of the people,” said the Rector. “They make the act of prayer a positive act of the person, rather than a mere act of attention. And more than that, they cover every need, every aspiration, every sorrow, every hope of human life. Every person who attends church comes with his particular burden, his especial need. The prayers range over every phase of spiritual experience. They bring comfort to the sorrowing, hope to the burdened, courage to the tempted, joy to the despondent, and forgiveness to the penitent. Everyone who comes to Church with sincerity finds in the prayers some message to his own soul. The congregation in Church is like a group of voyagers on an ocean liner. Each is going on a different errand, for a different purpose, animated by a different motive. Yet for a time they share the same great pathway of an ocean voyage and mould their varied purposes into one great experience. Our services are like that. For a time all sorts and conditions of men share a great spiritual voyage in the service, in which each finds something which blends with his individual purpose. The prayers are so sublime, so free from any but the highest sanctions, so full of the needs of our common human nature, so complete in their religious expression, that no one need seek help there and not find it.
“Moreover…
Change
There is a very good post from Mark Harris, member of Executive Council of The Episcopal Church, on his blog PRELUDIUM, entitled, “Moving from corporate governance to incorporated governance.”
Is the change they perceive/believe taking place really the change that is actually happening? I disagree with Fr. Harris, I think. I posted a response on his blog, and it is below ——-
This is a good post, but I want to detail some thoughts that keep rolling through my mind as I read more and more stuff from the generation currently in power. I will say from the beginning that I could be absolultely wrong, so your responses are requested and welcomed. I’m sincere in this and don’t want to come across as accusatory or demeaning, even though I will probably sound like it.
To start, I read and hear again and again from Gen X/Y’ers that Baby Boomers keep insisting that they understand, but they absolutely do not – they don’t listen.
What I hear in this post is the insistence that there is a move afoot from an Episcopal form of governance to what might be closer to some form of egalitarian or “congregationalist” governance seated in the Executive Council. And that the justifications for such a change are being formed by the Baby Boomers in power as if coming out of what they perceive to be going on within the younger generations (notions of “Networked Societies,” being an example).
It also sounds to me too much like the Baby Boomer imperative of opposition to whatever currently is and the inclination to tear it down in order to rebuild it into their own image regardless of the consequences. I think this is a generational inclination that comes near to being an obsession.
I think that many Baby Boomers assume they understand the inclinations of later Gen X and Y’ers in their Postmodern thinking and being. It seems to me that this is often more about the taking of Gen X/Y, Postmodern sensibilities and trying to find a way to force them into hipper forms of justification for “Age of Aquarius,” Modernist sensibilities. Do Baby Boomers really understand? When I hear Gen X/Y’ers who are away from Baby Boomers, they say, “No!.”
I wonder whether for too many Baby Boomers, the idea of taking off the rose colored glasses warn by their generation to honestly understand Postmodernism or the younger generations’ sensibilities and way of dealing with the world and one another can occur. I don’t know.
This is an issue, I think, for Baby Boomers. Postmodernism is the way of thinking and understanding for later generations. Baby Boomers may well understand this objectively, but perhaps not subjectively. It is very difficult for anyone to jump out of their fundamental formational model of conceiving (enculturation). So, Baby Boomers make connections between aspects of Postmodernism and their “Age of Aquarius” notions too often wrongly. This may be more than simply the common differences experienced between generations.
Postmoderns are certainly living into “Networked Societies” and do not respond to authority in the same way as do Moderns, but Baby Boomers in their anti-establishmentarianism and rejection of the strong informing force of times past seem to insist that this means there is justification in the usurpation of power from established norms.
The problem is that Baby Boomers are now “the Man,” and later generations are rebelling in their own way against them and their way of thinking – which includes the strange sense of egalitarianism that results in the pulling down of anything they don’t like. How about younger generations actually preferring traditional language, liturgy, music, and architecture?
The war between the “Conservatives” and the “Progressives” in TEC, as an example, is really a battle between people of a generation. Most Postmoderns I know think it is a lot of ridiculous they way you all are acting that results in the tearing apart of TEC and traditional Anglican sensibilities. That’s just what I hear.
Executive Council may well take upon itself new powers and new authorities not specifically granted to it, but what is described here as a glorious happening is not really a Postmodern reaction, but a very generationally specific Modernist one.
The Active Worship of the People (pp 24-25, 28-30 )
From chapter 2, “The Active Worship of the People.”
“The Episcopal Church, while it gives large opportunity for quiet and searching meditation, emphasizes the active type of worship. The Church feels that the people need the opportunity of expressing their repentance, their gratitude, their faith, their praises. Nothing drives an idea or emotion inward so effectively as to express it outwardly… To utter your faith, to give it words, drives it into your soul. To express it is to bring an emotion, a spiritual state, into the light, so that its roots may grow with the energy absorbed from without.” [explained the Rector]
“That’s true,” asserted the Doctor, “but how does it apply to your service?”
“You need only follow the service to see that it provides for the outward expression of every religious emotion of the worshippers. They are not a group of people gathered to hear, an audience, but a group of people gathered to participate, a congregation. They, and not the minister, perform the act of worship. He is but the leader, the director. The worship ranges through every need of the soul, and for each need there is some corresponding expression.
“For this reason, our people stand during certain parts of the service. Standing is the natural attitude during praise. We sit during instruction and kneel for prayer. To sit during an entire service is to allow the passive side of one’s nature to predominate. But worship is an active participation in the expressive acts of the service. The attitude of the body reinforces and stimulates that attitude of the mind. The people participate in worship. They are not a body of listeners.”
“It is like the difference between singing in a great chorus and merely hearing a solo,” added the Judge… [pp 24-25]
“Then it isn’t enough that people just go to church,” said the Doctor. “They aught to be” – here he hesitated for a word – “they aught to be involved in it.”
“Exactly,” affirmed the Major, “that’s the word. Many go who are not involved.”
“I was tempted last Sunday evening to go to a church which held out as an attraction a whistling quartette. I am afraid I didn’t go to worship.”
“Such a perversion of worship is not worthy,” pronounced the Judge. “It may attract crowds, but it cheapens religion. The practice of religion ought to be simple, intelligible, and even popular, in the best sense of the word, but it does not consist of attracting crowds by a promise of novelty or entertainment.”
“But a stranger unfamiliar with your worship has no chance. He does not know what to do,” urged the Doctor.
“But he may learn,” replied the Rector. “It is not so difficult as you imagine. Every accomplishment is the result of practice. You could not play in an orchestra by merely owning a violin. Every art is a result of effort. Worship is a great art. One must become skilled in it. The first step is to know the methods and to become familiar with the Book of Common Prayer. This is quite easy. A very little attention and the instruction which every Church provides will do this.
“The next step is more difficult. It is to grasp what the worship is intended for, and how you may spiritually take part in it. That requires knowledge and experience. But it is supremely worth while.
“When one grasps only the idea that the people read a few pages from a book, then he charges the Church with formalism.”
“That’s what I did exactly,” admitted the Doctor. “It seemed a form.”
“That’s a very superficial judgment. The Episcopal Church cares nothing for forms as such. That which seems a form is merely a framework which supports the substance of worship. The worship is like a great oratorio, in which each attendant has a part. Each musician, however, in an orchestra has a score with notes upon it. If he recites the notes as do-re-me it would be formal, tiresome and without interest. But he plays them. That gives inspiring music. So the worshipper fills the forms with feeling, aspiration, hopes, prayer, and praise.”
“But does not that mean a height of worship in which the ordinary man cannot reach?”
“Not at all. Every man living may share to some extent in the oratorio of worship. He may not always analyze and dissect it, but the substance of it will inspire him. And what you call the forms merely direct, suggest, stimulate, and guide. We have no use for forms as such.”
“Then you believe in educating the people in appreciation of the substance of worship?”
“Why not? It is a most vital matter. We send our children to school, then to college, and often to universities, that they may enlarge their mental outlook. Is it not worth while to train the people to use their spiritual powers to the utmost?”
“Will the service of the Church do that?” asked the Doctor.
“No,” asserted the Rector, “no more than the text books will educate you. You must cooperate. The service is a means, not an end. It is a method, not a result. But every Sunday and every service is a step in the process. Our text book is the Book of Common Prayer.” [pp 28-30]
[The Episcopal Church: Its Message for Men of Today, George Parkin Atwater; New York: Morehourse-Gorham Co., 1950.]
One thing I like about the approach taken or demonstrated by the characters in this book, which reflects the times of course, is that they have no hesitancy for correction when one of them is mistaken. They are not cow-towed by demand of “feel-goodism.” If the Doctor is mistaken, they simply say so. The intent is to make sure the person understands, not to make the person feel good about himself. Of course, with understanding comes a better self-impression and confidence.
To “love my neighbor as myself” isn’t about me feeling all good about myself and proud of myself so that I am then able to be nice to other people, but about having a proper understanding of who and what I am in the scheme of things, before God, and in conjunction with everyone else in the light of God’s provision for us. And, I think common worship and prayer go a long way in helping us understand all that. IMHO, and of course I’m just thinking out loud.
Convention wrap-up made the TEC press
So, in the Episcopal Life Online edition this morning, in the section reporting on what is happening at diocesan conventions, here is this “paragraph” (sentence) among the discription of what happened at the Long Island convention:
“The bishop announced the creation of a three-year Red Hook, Brooklyn Project, a model community and liturgical ministry as well as residence where the spiritual needs of people can be met.”
That’s me. I am privileged to begin a project to situate the doings of the Church (liturgy/worship, discipleship/formation, the cure of souls, good works) within the contexts of Postmodernism and Post-Christendom among generations that are primarily unchurched and unimpressed with the institutions of American Christianity.
Leadership like babies
“The world of grown-ups used to be called conservative until the supply-siders and neocons jumped the shark.” Andrew Sullivan, today as a comment on the Froma Harrop review of Bruce Bartlett’s new book, “The New American Economy: The Failure of Reaganomics and a New Way Forward“, entitled, “The Party of Fiscal Babies.”
“Welcome to the world of grownups, where tax cuts don’t magically pay for themselves — and where middle-class people must pay more for middle-class benefits. When it comes to addressing deficits, Democrats may be lax adolescents, but Republicans are total babies.”
This is a description of our current day situation that well describes my sense and feeling about the political zeitgeist and cultural proclivities that make it all possible – too many of us are acting like children… whining babies determined to have our way come hell or high water, even if Rome burns in the process.
Sadly, I really get the impression that this kind of childishness in attitude and sometimes in behavior has infiltrated leadership levels within much of American Christianity, too, and within that which impacts my spiritual and religious existence the most – The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. I don’t get that impression from the new bishop of Long Island, and I am very thankful for it.