"the burning babe" -- by robert southwell, sj (d. 1595)

As I in hoary winter's night
Stood shivering in the snow,
Surprised I was with sudden heat,
Which made my heart to glow.
And lifting up a fearful eye
To view what fire was near,
A pretty babe all burning bright
Did in the air appear;

Who, scorched with excessive heat,
Such floods of tears did shed,
As though his floods should quench his flames
Which with his tears were fed.

"Alas," quoth he, "but newly born
In fiery heats I fry,
Yet none approach to warm their hearts
Or feel my fire, but I!

"My faultless breast the furnace is,
The fuel wounding thorns;
Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke,
The ashes shame and scorns;

"The fuel justice layeth on,
And Mercy blows the coals;
The metal in this furnace wrought
Are men's defiled souls:

"For which, as now on fire I am
To work them to their good,
So will I melt into a bath
To wash them in my blood."

With this he vanished out of sight
And swiftly shrunk away,
And straight I called unto mind
That it was Christmas day.

I nicked this from Armavirumque, the New Criterion Blog, which I recommend to you in general.

holy innocents

Today's collect is germane to the tedious discussion here. It is also particularly appropriate to remember in prayer today the innocent victims of war, and the unborn victims of abortion. There are none more innocent than the latter.

We remember this day, o God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by the order of King Herod. Receive we beseech thee, into the arms of thy mercy all innocent victims; and by thy great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish thy rule of justice, love, and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one god, for ever and ever. Amen.

michael novak, almost three years ago, on war in iraq

We need to review a few of those circumstances in a new light. But let us first note that war is not always to be evaded. Sometimes it is morally obligatory.

It would have been morally wrong, for instance, for the United States to have fallen back and defended only the continental United States during World War II. Agreed?

In any case, the Vatican itself encouraged the humanitarian intervention in Kosovo, and has expressly approved the war against the terrorists, although not the war against Iraq.

But in what way is the regime of Milosevic in Kosovo less horrific than the barbaric practices of Saddam Hussein in Iraq? (There are many personal testimonies to the unendurable tortures Saddam has inflicted on tens of thousands of families in Iraq.)

Read the whole thing here. I am really not sure what I think about the war in Iraq. What I know is that I am not a pacifist. I think true pacifism is untennable as a Christian position. In this respect, Michael Novak brings up an important point, with which I agree: that, sometimes, violence is morally obligatory. Usually morally obligatory violence involves defending the helpless. Its all fine and good to turn the other cheek when you are yourself attacked. But what about when the defenseless are attacked, and you have the power to stop it, albeit violently? What if your wife or your child were attacked? Would you really passively resist the assailant, or would you fight him tooth and nail? Would you be WRONG to resist him violently? I cannot see that you would. Maybe I am wrong. And maybe this is not the situation regarding the US invasion of Iraq, or for that matter of any particular war. But that is far from obvious to me. Saddam Hussein was, after all, a brutal tyrant. And just because there are lots of other brutal tyrants whom the US has NOT attacked does not mean that the US is necessarily unjustified in its attacking one of them. Now again: before you get all up in arms about my being "pro war" -- remember: I am not saying that the US WAS justified in attacking Iraq; but rather just that it is not clear to me that the US was NOT justified, as almost everyone around me seems to assume with a "Well, duh" degree of insouciance.

To be clear: if you are a pacifist, please explain your counterintuitive belief that, e.g., if your family were attacked by pirates intent on rape and murder, you would be morally wrong to use violence in defending your family. If you are not a pacifist but believe the US invasion of Iraq was unjustified, it might be helpful if you would say what circumstances did not obtain with regard to Iraq that otherwise would have justified an invasion. And remember: I am asking about MORAL justification. I don't care about international law and that sort of thing. And I'm also not asking isolationists to exaplain themselves. I think I understand isolationism, in a way that I do not understand pacifism. (I disagree with the isolationists on other grounds -- but that's for another day.)

And to be clear about the intuition I am trying to illuminate, it is this: that killing tens of thousands of unarmed civilians, systematically instituting and ordering that others be tortured and raped, that these are sufficient for morally justifying one's violent overthrow. Maybe not; but if not, why not?

pope benedict's urbi et orbi

“I bring you good news of a great joy, for to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:10-11).

Last night we heard once more the Angel’s message to the shepherds, and we experienced anew the atmosphere of that holy Night, Bethlehem Night, when the Son of God became man, was born in a lowly stable and dwelt among us. On this solemn day, the Angel’s proclamation rings out once again, inviting us, the men and women of the third millennium, to welcome the Saviour. May the people of today’s world not hesitate to let him enter their homes, their cities, their nations, everywhere on earth! In the millennium just past, and especially in the last centuries, immense progress was made in the areas of technology and science. Today we can dispose of vast material resources. But the men and women in our technological age risk becoming victims of their own intellectual and technical achievements, ending up in spiritual barrenness and emptiness of heart. That is why it is so important for us to open our minds and hearts to the Birth of Christ, this event of salvation which can give new hope to the life of each human being.

Wake up, O man! For your sake God became man” (Saint Augustine, Sermo, 185. Wake up, O men and women of the third millennium!

At Christmas, the Almighty becomes a child and asks for our help and protection. His way of showing that he is God challenges our way of being human. By knocking at our door, he challenges us and our freedom; he calls us to examine how we understand and live our lives. The modern age is often seen as an awakening of reason from its slumbers, humanity’s enlightenment after an age of darkness. Yet without the light of Christ, the light of reason is not sufficient to enlighten humanity and the world. For this reason, the words of the Christmas Gospel: “the true Light that enlightens every man was coming into this world” (Jn 1:9) resound now more than ever as a proclamation of salvation. “It is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of humanity truly becomes clear” (Gaudium et Spes, 22). The Church does not tire of repeating this message of hope reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council, which concluded forty years ago.

Men and women of today, humanity come of age yet often still so frail in mind and will, let the Child of Bethlehem take you by the hand! Do not fear; put your trust in him! The life-giving power of his light is an incentive for building a new world order based on just ethical and economic relationships. May his love guide every people on earth and strengthen their common consciousness of being a “family” called to foster relationships of trust and mutual support. A united humanity will be able to confront the many troubling problems of the present time: from the menace of terrorism to the humiliating poverty in which millions of human beings live, from the proliferation of weapons to the pandemics and the environmental destruction which threatens the future of our planet.

May the God who became man out of love for humanity strengthen all those in Africa who work for peace, integral development and the prevention of fratricidal conflicts, for the consolidation of the present, still fragile political transitions, and the protection of the most elementary rights of those experiencing tragic humanitarian crises, such as those in Darfur and in other regions of central Africa. May he lead the peoples of Latin America to live in peace and harmony. May he grant courage to people of good will in the Holy Land, in Iraq, in Lebanon, where signs of hope, which are not lacking, need to be confirmed by actions inspired by fairness and wisdom; may he favour the process of dialogue on the Korean peninsula and elsewhere in the countries of Asia, so that, by the settlement of dangerous disputes, consistent and peaceful conclusions can be reached in a spirit of friendship, conclusions which their peoples expectantly await.

At Christmas we contemplate God made man, divine glory hidden beneath the poverty of a Child wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger; the Creator of the Universe reduced to the helplessness of an infant. Once we accept this paradox, we discover the Truth that sets us free and the Love that transforms our lives. On Bethlehem Night, the Redeemer becomes one of us, our companion along the precarious paths of history. Let us take the hand which he stretches out to us: it is a hand which seeks to take nothing from us, but only to give.

With the shepherds let us enter the stable of Bethlehem beneath the loving gaze of Mary, the silent witness of his miraculous birth. May she help us to experience the happiness of Christmas, may she teach us how to treasure in our hearts the mystery of God who for our sake became man; and may she help us to bear witness in our world to his truth, his love and his peace.

pope benedict

merry christmas

V. Blessed is the womb of the Virgin Mary, which bore the Son of the everlasting Father.

R. And blessed are the paps which gave suck to Christ the Lord.

the visitation

One thing about today is that it is the feast of St. Thomas the Apostle (whom: pray for us!). Another thing is that in the hecticity, to invent a word, of the post-semester, I forgot that. And so when reading the office, I read the regular readings. I'm sorry to have missed St. Thomas, but I am happy to have read the Gospel reading from Luke 1. Here are some edifying and choice bits:

and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:

And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

And then our Lady spake the Magnificat.

"skhole" (in greek) = leisure

"The colleges of Britain's prestigious Oxford University will lose their
800-year-old right to choose their undergraduates amid government pressure to
admit more students from state schools and lower social classes....

The university admitted that as a result, colleges will lose autonomy and
individuality, according to the newspaper."

Read the whole thing here. Bye bye mortar board and gown. Hello sports jersey and backward baseball cap.

fireside chat with the rector

What fun. The Reverend Father is back by his fireside, chatting, pickling himself in gin, and correcting the impudence of his curate. Follow along!

dna evidence exonerates two falsely convicted men in virginia

Friends, the fact that some innocent people are executed in the US from time to time should be reason enough to abolish the death penalty. Supposing its only one or two every twenty years, still.....

RICHMOND, Dec. 14 -- Newly tested DNA evidence from rapes committed perhaps more than 20 years ago have exonerated two Virginians who had served several years behind bars, according to a statement by Gov. Mark R. Warner that is scheduled to be released later today.

One of the defendants served 20 years in prison for a rape in Alexandria that the new testing shows he did not commit. The other assault was in Norfolk.

The revelations are the result of modern-day testing Warner ordered more than a year ago of biological samples that had been collected in thousands of violent criminal cases dating back to the 1970s and 1980s. Those samples were collected before leaps in the forensic science.

....

The results from Virginia are sure to add fuel to the national debate about the use of DNA technology, the reliability of evidence in criminal cases and the presence of innocent people waiting to die on death rows across the country.

Read the whole thing here.

please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered

You may have seen these before, but I hadn't. From an email.

These sentences actually appeared in church bulletins or were announced in church services:


Ø The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.



Ø The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water." The sermon tonight "Searching for Jesus."



Ø Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the recreation hall. Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.



Ø Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don't forget your husbands.



Ø The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.



Ø Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say "Hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.



Ø Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.



Ø Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.



Ø For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.



Ø Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.



Ø Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Jack's sermons.



Ø The Rector will preach his farewell message after which the choir will sing "Break Forth Into Joy."



Ø Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.



Ø A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.



Ø At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What Is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.



Ø Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.



Ø Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.



Ø Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.



Ø The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.



Ø Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow.



Ø The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.



Ø This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.



Ø Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B.S. is done.



Ø The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.



Ø Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.



Ø The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.



Ø Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.



Ø The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday: "I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours

violence between whites and arabs in australia

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Young people riding in vehicles smashed cars and store windows in suburban Sydney late Monday, a day after thousands of drunken white youths attacked people they believed were of Arab descent at a beach in the same area in one of Australia's worst outbursts of racial violence.

Sunday's attack -- apparently prompted by reports that Lebanese youths had assaulted two lifeguards -- sparked retaliation by young men of Arab descent in several Sydney suburbs, fighting with police and smashing 40 cars with sticks and bats, police said. Thirty-one people were injured and 16 were arrested in hours of violence.

....

Horst Dreizner said a car had rammed into his denture store and he feared the violence would escalate. ''Personally, I think it is only the beginning,'' he said in a telephone interview.

Read the whole thing here. Not good. A thousand years of darkness may be upon us. I tend to agree with Horst Dreizner. I think there is a big incompatibility between Western and Islamic cultures, and whenever you have the two living close together, you are going to have violence. Of course that's not to condone it; and perhaps its cynical of me, but Western Civilization seems to be clashing more and more with Islamic Civilization more and more and more. If you think my assessment is overly pessimistic or cynical, here's a question: how do you stop it? And before you say something like "integrate!" or "educate!", you must realize the massive complexities of integrating communities, and you must realize that segregation is the natural order of things. Integration is unnatural. That is, of course, not to say that it is undesirable, but just that left to their own devices, people like to live near people who are like them. And overcoming natural inclinations such as those is not easy. A thousand years of darkness.....

st. lucy (december 13)

A virgin and martyr of Syracuse in Sicily, whose feast is celebrated by Latins and Greeks alike on 13 December.

According to the traditional story, she was born of rich and noble parents about the year 283. Her father was of Roman origin, but his early death left her dependent upon her mother, whose name, Eutychia, seems to indicate that she came of Greek stock.

Like so many of the early martyrs, Lucy had consecrated her virginity to God, and she hoped to devote all her worldly goods to the service of the poor. Her mother was not so single-minded, but an occasion offered itself when Lucy could carry out her generous resolutions. The fame of the virgin-martyr Agatha, who had been executed fifty-two years before in the Decian persecution, was attracting numerous visitors to her relics at Catania, not fifty miles from Syracuse, and many miracles had been wrought through her intercession. Eutychia was therefore persuaded to make a pilgrimage to Catania, in the hope of being cured of a hæmorrhage, from which she had been suffering for several years. There she was in fact cured, and Lucy, availing herself of the opportunity, persuaded her mother to allow her to distribute a great part of her riches among the poor.

The largess stirred the greed of the unworthy youth to whom Lucy had been unwillingly betrothed, and he denounced her to Paschasius, the Governor of Sicily. It was in the year 303, during the fierce persecution of Diocletian. She was first of all condemned to suffer the shame of prostitution; but in the strength of God she stood immovable, so that they could not drag her away to the place of shame. Bundles of wood were then heaped about her and set on fire, and again God saved her. Finally, she met her death by the sword. But before she died she foretold the punishment of Paschasius and the speedy termination of the persecution, adding that Diocletian would reign no more, and Maximian would meet his end. So, strengthened with the Bread of Life, she won her crown of virginity and martyrdom.

Prayers to St. Lucy:

Relying on your goodness, O God, we humbly ask You, through the intercession of Saint Lucy, Virgin and Martyr, to give perfect vision to our eyes, that they may serve for your greater honour and glory. Saint Lucy, hear our prayers and obtain our petitions. Amen.

Hear us, O God our Saviour, and grant that through the intercession of St. Lucy, virgin and martyr, we may learn a loving devotion to You. Amen.

nice to see christianity still scares (tucker carlson)

I got this from my room mate. I don't have any idea what the original source was. Google didn't help.

People often make jokes about Episcopalians being boring, and unfortunately they're usually right. I know this because on most Sundays I sit through an Episcopal Church service with my wife and children. It's a reassuringly predictable experience, always exactly an hour long. And you'll never meet nicer people. If you needed someone to hold your wallet, or if you were lost in an unfamiliar neighborhood and had to duck into a stranger's house to use the bathroom, you could do a whole lot worse than to meet up with an Episcopalian. No one has better manners.

And that may be the problem. There's a notable lack of urgency in most Episcopal churches. Jesus may have promised he'd come back someday, but in the Episcopal Church you don't get the feeling he really meant it. Nor do you hear a lot about sin. Lust, hatred, gluttony, pride, envy -- those are dramatic emotions. Drama makes Episcopalians uncomfortable. The typical sermon leaves the impression that all would be well in this world if only people could manage to be reasonable with each other. Gentlemanly. Thoughtful.

There's nothing necessarily bad about any of this. (I remain an Episcopalian, with no plans to change.) But every once in a while, as I shift in my pew listening to one of our unusually well-educated preachers expand on the Aramaic understanding of discipleship, I do wish Jesus would come back, preferably in a massive ball of fire through the ceiling of the church. Spiritually, I'm nowhere near ready to face something like that. But it'd be worth it for the shock value.

All of which is to say, I welcome the controversies this season over Christmas. Every time a school district bans Christmas carols, every time the ACLU dispatches a busload of lawyers to fight a nativity scene, every time the ADL declares the Christian Right "dangerous," it's a reaffirmation that the faith is not dead. Dead religions don't give people the creeps. They don't make atheists mad. They don't keep Alan Dershowitz up at night. But Christianity still does. What a relief. It's nice to see that our faith still scares people.

a reminder

Don't forget to visit the Inclusive Worshipper. What fun!

demonic, but kind of beautiful

Today I was distracted in the library by a book about Sioux religion called Lakota Belief and Ritual. It seems to be a redaction of some of the material from the early part of the 20th century collected by anthroplogists who recognized that white people had pretty succefully destroyed Indian culture.

Don't get me wrong: the Indians in many ways lived a depraved existence, given over to massacring each other, to stealing each others food, women and children, and to devil worship. But there is something melancholic and beautiful about the words of one old heathen chief to some anthropologist who had come to learn what he could about a dying culture from one of the last people to understand and practice it. Augustine in De Doctrina Christiana comes to mind: "...the Gentiles were turned from the corruption of a multitude of false gods, which Scripture frequently and justly speaks of as fornication, to the worship of the One God: not that they might now fall into bondage to sings of a useful kind, but rather that they might exercise their minds in the spiritual understanding of such."

Anyway, here is what the old Indian said:

It was this ceremony that was performed when an Oglala chose a Hunka or an Ate. They used to perform this ceremony, but now the people have forgotten it. Only the old men remember it. I know the ceremony and I can perform it. I am a Hunka and an Ate many times. I can wear so many red stripes that they would hide my face. I do not wear them any more, because the young people have forgotten what they mean, and they do not show proper respect for them.

....

Since that time when a person is made a Hunka it is done with this ceremony. The secrets of the ceremony are mysterious (wakan). They are not good now. No one cares for them now. They will be lost when the Hunkayapi are all dead. I will tell them to you. You may write them, for the spirits of the ancient times no longer visit the people. They will do me no harm. If they do, I am an old man and ready to die.

....

These are the secrets of the Hunkayapi. You must not talk of them with anyone except a Hunka or Ate. My friend I have told you the secrets of the Hunkayapi. I fear that I have done wrong. But the spirits of old times do not come to me any more. Another spirit has come. The Great Spirit of the white man. I do not know him. I do not know how to call him to help me. I have done him no harm, and he should do me no harm. The old life is gone, and I cannot be a young man again.

polly toynbee: 'narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion'

Read the whole thing here. And say a prayer for Polly Toynbee to be delivered from blindness and confusion. One is reminded of Kierkegaard's assurance (as though it were necessary) that the Gospel is indeed foolish and offensive. But, poor Polly Toynbee, like Gotthold Lessing in Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, we will always find that we cannot leap the 'broad, ugly ditch' separating time and eternity. We cannot leap it because our legs are old and our head heavy. We desperately, desperately need Aslan, or less figuratively, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.


Of all the elements of Christianity, the most repugnant is the notion of the Christ who took our sins upon himself and sacrificed his body in agony to save our souls. Did we ask him to? Poor child Edmund, to blame for everything, must bear the full weight of a guilt only Christians know how to inflict, with a twisted knife to the heart. Every one of those thorns, the nuns used to tell my mother, is hammered into Jesus’s holy head every day that you don’t eat your greens or say your prayers when you are told. So the resurrected Aslan gives Edmund a long, life-changing talking-to high up on the rocks out of our earshot. When the poor boy comes back down with the sacred lion’s breath upon him he is transformed unrecognisably into a Stepford brother, well and truly purged.

....

Over the years, others have had uneasy doubts about the Narnian brand of Christianity. Christ should surely be no lion (let alone with the orotund voice of Liam Neeson). He was the lamb, representing the meek of the earth, weak, poor and refusing to fight. Philip Pullman - he of the marvellously secular trilogy His Dark Materials - has called Narnia “one of the most ugly, poisonous things I have ever read”.

....

Lewis said he hoped the book would soften-up religious reflexes and "make it easier for children to accept Christianity when they met it later in life". Holiness drenches the Chronicles. When, in the book, the children first hear someone say, mysteriously, "Aslan is on the move", he writes: "Now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don't understand but in the dream it feels as if it had enormous meaning ..." So Lewis weaves his dreams to invade children's minds with Christian iconography that is part fairytale wonder and joy - but heavily laden with guilt, blame, sacrifice and a suffering that is dark with emotional sadism.

Children are supposed to fall in love with the hypnotic Aslan, though he is not a character: he is pure, raw, awesome power. He is an emblem for everything an atheist objects to in religion. His divine presence is a way to avoid humans taking responsibility for everything here and now on earth, where no one is watching, no one is guiding, no one is judging and there is no other place yet to come. Without an Aslan, there is no one here but ourselves to suffer for our sins, no one to redeem us but ourselves: we are obliged to settle our own disputes and do what we can. We need no holy guide books, only a very human moral compass. Everyone needs ghosts, spirits, marvels and poetic imaginings, but we can do well without an Aslan.

from the inclusive worshipper

From my new favorite blog:

I’m also upset that, even after my complaints, the Episcopalians continue to hold services on Wednesday evenings that don’t follow the chapel’s inclusive language guidelines. If they won’t be inclusive then they should be kicked out, it’s that simple. Some of them are very narrow-minded and their neo-puritan fundamentalism shouldn’t be tolerated here. It makes my blood boil even writing about it. I’m going to have to complain to the dean until something gets done.

the greatest blog yet contrived by the mind of man

Drop whatever you are doing and read The Inclusive Worshiper!

sewanee: the university of the anything-but-south!

A small liberal arts university with a striking campus of sandstone buildings on the Cumberland Plateau in southeastern Tennessee, Sewanee (pronounced suh-WAH-nee) was founded by Episcopal bishops just before the Civil War and began classes in 1868.

Still owned by 28 Episcopal dioceses in the Southeast, it is a genteel place with a tradition of academic excellence, particularly in disciplines like English and religion. It is home to the Sewanee Review, a prestigious literary quarterly. For decades, all men wore ties and coats to class, and some still do. Members of the honor society, called the Order of Gownsmen, used to wear their academic gowns routinely to class. Some still do, occasionally.

Some alumni chafed as these traditions were relaxed, and many became alarmed as objects they held dear were removed to the archives or disappeared altogether. First, university officials removed the state flags from the nave of All Saints' Chapel in the mid-1990's, saying that it would improve the acoustics. Some of the flags contained Confederate imagery.

Read the whole thing in the New York Times (of all places).

if the anglican use society took over ewtn, the weather report might be something like this...

Brilliant! If only... if only... *sigh*.

From the Rome Report.

That reminds me: Whist in San Antonio, MM and I went to Our Lady of the Atonement Anglican Use Parish for Saturday mass. Very impressive. Especially the triptych behind the altar, a picture of which I cannot seem to find online. See MM's blog for fuller, more trenchant commentary.

I thought the Anglican Use, at least as accomplished at Our Lady of the Atonement, was an improvement on both the BCP as well as on the Roman Rite -- especially the Novus Ordo ubiquitously implemented. It catholicizes the standard BCP liturgy (a good thing) with a more robust emphasis on Eucharistic sacrifice as well as the Communion of Saints (woefully lacking in the BCP). And it beautifies the Roman Rite with Cranmerian idiom -- and I imagine with general High Church Anglican liturgical niceness, although we were only there for a Low Mass and so couldn't really tell.

Think of the potential! These churches, of which there are currently only a handful, should be spread across the land. The robustness of Roman doctrine and devotion, coupled with the beauty of Anglican liturgy. A new day could dawn over the rather saturnine American ecclesiastical landscape, with its current backward emphases on Anglican (non)doctrine and (non)devotion, and Roman liturgical (non)beauty.

c.s. lewis: 'priestesses in the church?'

“I should like balls infinitely better,” said Caroline Bingley, “if they were carried on in a different manner … It would surely be much more rational if conversation instead of dancing made the order of the day.”

“Much more rational, I dare say,” replied her brother, “but it would not be near so much like a Ball.” We are told that the lady was silenced: yet it could be maintained that Jane Austen has not allowed Bingley to put forward the full strength of his position. He ought to have replied with a distinguo. In one sense, conversation is more rational, for conversation may exercise the reason alone, dancing does not. But there is nothing irrational in exercising other powers than our reason. On certain occasions and for certain purposes the real irrationality is with those who will not do so. The man who would try to break a horse or write a poem or beget a child by pure syllogizing would be an irrational man; though at the same time syllogizing is in itself a more rational activity than the activities demanded by these achievements. It is rational not to reason, or not to limit oneself to reason, in the wrong place; and the more rational a man is the better he knows this.

Read the whole thing here.

Buy the whole thing here.

this is wild

Late last month, Jon Jacobs, an independent filmmaker from Miami, became the first person in the history of online gaming to spend $100,000 on a single virtual item when he bought a space station in the game "Project Entropia."

Read the whole thing here. To sum up, a guy has paid $100,000 in real-world money to own a space station in an online computer game. And its an investment. He expects the space station to generate over a million (real-world) dollars a year in revenue for him. These are strange days.

++rowan to muslims: that's what its all about

The following is from an address by the Archbishop of Canterbury to Muslims at Islamic University in Islamabad. Excellent. I urge you to read the whole thing. Originally from the Anglican Communion News Service.


Imagine someone watching, over a period of about one year, the things that happen in a Christian church. They would be aware that one day of the week had special significance. Particularly if they were observing what happens in a historically Christian country, they would notice that Sunday is seen as important for meeting and praying. They would see that Christians met to sing and speak to a God whom they describe as the maker of all things and the judge of all things, and that they knelt or bowed in the presence of this God, thanking him and acknowledging their failures and wickedness. They would see that extracts from a holy book were read in public and that instruction was given by leaders of the congregation in how to understand this book. They would perhaps notice that most of the prayers ended with words referring to someone called Jesus Christ, and describing him as ‘Lord’. They would see that at different seasons Christians celebrated the birth of Jesus and also commemorated his death and his miraculous return from death. Sometimes they would hear prayers and blessings mentioning ‘the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’. And finally, they would see that new members were brought into the community by a ceremony of pouring water on them or immersing them in water, and that the most regular action performed by communities of different kinds was the blessing and sharing of bread and wine. They would notice, perhaps with bewilderment or even shock, that this sharing of bread and wine was described as sharing the body and blood of Jesus.

In what I wish to say, I am trying to think what questions might arise for someone looking at Christians from the outside in the way I have just imagined. These may or may not be the questions you have. But perhaps the attempt to answer these questions will help bring other questions more clearly into focus.

Let me begin with the most obvious features of Christian prayer. We pray ‘through Jesus Christ our Lord’. And the best-known of all Christian prayers begins with the words ‘Our Father in heaven’. These belong together. Probably the most important Christian belief is that we are given the right to speak to God in exactly the same way that Jesus did, because the life, the power, the Spirit, that filled Jesus is given to us also.

We believe that Jesus, Son of Mary, is fully a human being. But we believe more than that. Because of the divine authority that he shows in his power to teach and to forgive, as our gospels describe it, we say also that the whole of his human life is the direct effect of God’s action working in him at every moment. Some of our teachers have said that his human life is like iron that has been heated in the fire until it has the same power to burn as the fire does.

We call him the Son of God. But we do not mean by this that God has physically begotten him, or that he is made to be another God alongside the one God. We say rather that the one God is first the source of everything, the life from which everything flows out. Then we say that the one God is also in that flowing-out. The life that comes from him is not something different from him. It reflects all that he is. It shows his glory and beauty and communicates them. Once again, our teachers say that God has a perfect and eternal ‘image’ of his glory, sometimes called his wisdom, sometimes called his ‘word’, sometimes called his ‘son’, though this is never to be understood in a physical and literal way. And we say that the one God, who is both source and outward-flowing life, who is both ‘Father’ and ‘Son’, is also active as the power that draws everything back to God, leading and guiding human beings towards the wisdom and goodness of God. This is the power we call ‘Holy Spirit’.

happy thanksgiving

"Thanksgiving" in Greek is, of course, "Eucharist". Today, I was reading about the meaning of the Eucharist in the Pseudo-Denys. Here is some of what he says about the importance and meaning of incence processions:

We must, then, in my opinion, pass within the All Holy Mysteries, after we have laid bare the intelligible of the first of the votive gifts, to gaze upon its Godlike beauty, and view the Hierarch, divinely going with sweet fragrance from the Divine Altar to the furthermost bounds of the holy place, and again returning to it to complete the function. For the Blessedness, supremely Divine above all, even if, through Divine goodness, It goes forth to the communion of the holy who participate in It, yet It never goes outside its essential unmoved position and steadfastness; and illuminates all the Godlike in due degree, being always self-centred, and in nowise moved from its own proper identity; so, too, the Divine initiation (sacrament) of the Synaxis, although it has a unique, and simple, and enfolded Source, is multiplied, out of love towards man, into the holy variety of the symbols, and travels through the whole range of the supremely Divine description; yet uniformly it is again collected from these, into its own proper Monady, and unifies those who are being reverently conducted towards it. In the same Godlike manner, the Divine Hierarch, if he benignly lowers to his subordinates his own unique Hierarchical science, by using the multiplicities of the holy enigmas, yet again, as absolute, and not to be held in check by smaller things, he is restored to his proper headship without diminution, and, when he has made the intellectual entry of himself to the One, he sees clearly the uniform raisons d'être of the things done, as he makes the goal of his philanthropic progress to things secondary the more Divine return to things primary.

Read all of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.

a nice picture

I thought this was a nice picture of ECUSA's Presiding Heresiarch. Hoozah.

'southern exposure' from the ny times

As community after community across the South opened its arms to the displaced, small-town papers were awash in stories about middle-class whites who had obviously made homeless and penniless evacuees the first black guests ever to sit at their tables and sleep on their sheets. These breakthroughs might seem especially emblematic of change in Southern white racial attitudes, but my guess is that there were a lot of these “firsts” registered as well in homes above the Mason-Dixon line where Hurricane Katrina victims found shelter.

Hurricane Katrina should also have demonstrated to skeptical blue-staters that the South’s vaunted religiosity amounts to more than a convenient vehicle for political manipulation of the ignorant, unthinking masses. Black and white survivors told story after story of reciting the Lord’s Prayer or the 23rd Psalm as the storm raged around them, and though left penniless, homeless and uninsured, they expressed both gratitude and absolute confidence that the Lord would protect and provide.

If the Hurricane Katrina experience reveals that the South remains in many ways what Mr. Zinn described as a “marvelously useful” mirror where other Americans can see some of their nation’s most egregious flaws magnified, it also suggests that in looking southward these days they should recognize some of its most admirable virtues writ large as well.

Read the whole thing here. Via T19.

primates of the global south to ++rowan cantuar on his comments in cairo

J-Tron hoped I would say something about the Global South's response to the Archbishop of Canterbury's comments in Cairo.

Some of the more interesting and incisive bits I have pasted below (read the whole thing here).

In general, both this piece and the previous statement from the Most Reverend Fathers gathered in Egypt reads like it could have been written in the Patristic Age. These seem to be men steeped in God's self-revelation. They seem to know it, to love it, and to commend it with a refreshing lack of self-awareness or the niceties of overly political scrupulousness.

Both the previous statement and this one strike me as profoundly catholic. Note the appeals to the consesus fidelium of the Holy Catholic Church, the appeals to apostolic authority, and the recognition that ++Wiliams's own archepiscopal authority, as primus primorum inter pares, is derivitive therefrom.

I love their uncompromising fidelity to the Truth of the Gospel, confirmed by Catholic witness, as well as their unfaltering confidence in the Bible as the Word of the Lord.

With regard to the last paragraph (below), about which J-tron asked specifically, I disagree that the Communions mentioned are "equally part of the... Catholic... Church." It strikes me as a careless statement, though one born of a sensitivity to the predominance of truly catholic disciplines and charismata among the Baptists and Pentacostals (primarily Biblical literacy and the "gifts of the Spirit"). Though cursory reflection on the matter confirms the greater relative importance of the Apostolicity of the Historic Episcopate for true catholicity, its also true that the more Catholic Communions could stand to learn a lot from our Free Church brethren about true evangelicalism and evangeliocentricity. I just wouldn't have used the word "equally". I don't think its accurate. But neither will I get my knickers in a knot over it. The shortcomings of Baptists and Pentacostals in terms of polity (and, indeed theology) are largely the byproducts of ignorance. ECUSA, on the other hand, is swiftly becoming willfully apostate.

The essence of libertinism is the severing of the grace of Christ from his moral commandments. This, we believe, is at the heart of our present divisions. Although it is right to be reminded both of the grace of God in Christ and of our own frailty and sinfulness, neither the greatness of grace nor the sinfulness of sin can be advanced as reasons for failing in our duty to guard the gospel. The church is, after all, “a pillar and buttress of truth” (I Timothy 3.15) and “Your word is truth” (John 17.17).

....

We welcome your pastoral example of coming amongst us as presiding Primate of the Anglican Communion. We recognize the limitations on your office, as the Communion has few legal structures. We agree with you that a Communion Covenant is needed. However, we are troubled by your reluctance to use your moral authority to challenge the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada to call for the immediate cessation of any blessings of same sex unions and on any ordinations of those in such unions in every diocese in the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada. The apostle Paul never invoked law for his churches (indeed there was no canon law at that time), but he nevertheless exhorted them to be of one mind with him and to conform their lives to apostolic tradition (II Thessalonians 2.15). We do not see why you cannot warn these churches now, based on the Windsor Report and your own convictions about unity, that they will not be invited to Lambeth 2008 unless they truly repent.

....

We appreciate your sharing the testimony of your own pilgrimage of faith, including your early encounter with Russian Orthodoxy. We agree there is much to learn from other traditions, such as the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Baptists and Pentecostals, who are equally part of the one holy, catholic and apostolic church. We are sure you must feel the shame caused by the brokenness within our own Communion when you interact with these churches ecumenically.

whose kairos moment is it anyway?

Much has been made of ++Akinola's comments in Pittsburgh about the need for North America's Anglicans to decide whether they are "ECUSA or Network". First of all, as I've admitted before, ++Akinola seems never to miss an opportunity to vituperate. Unlike some, though, I find him charming; and I think his bombasticisms are more trenchant than they are anything else.

The most interesting comment among the following are those from the Bishop of Springfield. Rome has a very serious opportunity here to repair a major breach in unity and reach out to, I dare say, thousands of Anglican clergy and laity. She may, though, opt not to damage her relationship with ECUSA (and Canterbury, if it comes to it). But at some point Rome will have to acknowledge the fact that it is the Anglicans, led by ECUSA, who have delivered the heaviest body blows to that front of eccumenical dialogue, first with the ordination of women, also with GC 2003, but more generally and significantly, with its contented, decades-long slide into secular humanism - indeed, in a number of high profile instances, I don't think 'atheism' is too strong a word. At some point, Rome will have to acknoweldge that ECUSA is no longer recognizably Christian, and that ECUSA certainly has nothing but a superficial commitment to catholicity.

More moderate liberals than Spong will haved to acknoweldge that it is his ideological program, his view of authority, the autonomy of human reason, and the privileging of the natural and social sciences over the Revelation at the center of Christian doctrine and practice which has fueled the moral victories the more moderate liberals claim for their own party. Make no mistake: it is (at best) a vague and vaguely benevolent Unitarianism that is winning the day in ECUSA. I cannot tell you how many ECUSA priests I have heard and heard of expressing incredulous condescenscion at the suggestion that Christian belief outght to be bound by the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds, or even such basal notions as Christ's divinity. The most rudimentary Christian doctrine is regardeed by clergy as an anachronistic threat to the self-evident trappings of civilized society: most usually the interchangeability of the genders and libertinism with regard to sexuality.

Make no mistake. Today we are moral conservatives faced wth a choice between conclusions incompatible with the faith of our spiritual fathers and mothers, a faith we purport to share with them. Tomorrow the same choice will have to be made by others, as other conclusions are drawn from the premises underlying the new morality: premises mostly about the epistemic priority of the social sciences over Christian Revelation and the interpretive authority of the Church Catholic. Today it is the Christian gay lobby who exploit the findings of Psychology sans God. Why, tomorrow, should it not be the Polygamy lobby or the apologists of 'open marriages'?

"Choose this day..." indeed.

Read the whole thing here.

Outspoken Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, leader of the global Anglican Communion's most populous province, drew a standing ovation at the 2,400-strong "Hope and a Future" Conference in Pittsburgh when he said: "Bishops of the Network must realize time is no longer on their side…This is your kairos moment to make up your mind exactly what you want to do. Many of you have one leg in ECUSA and one leg in the Network…We here have all broken communion with ECUSA,” he said, referring to six other Anglican primates (provincial leaders) on stage with him. “If you really want the global South to stand with you, you must let us know exactly where you stand: Are you ECUSA or are you Network?"

....

"To be sure," he added, "several congregations have departed, and several others will depart sometime before General Convention in 2006. I would not hazard a guess on what will happen after that [convention]--especially because nobody knows what votes will emerge. As [the Rev. Canon] Kendall Harmon [of South Carolina] has warned repeatedly, Network congregations must plan for the likely scenario in which General Convention sends very mixed signals and does not explicitly reject the Windsor Report."

....

“I think to a large extent [Akinola] was reinforcing the fact that the Episcopal Church has voted itself into irrelevance,” said Quincy Episcopal Bishop Keith Ackerman, a bishop of the traditionalist Forward in Faith, North America (FIF-NA), which forms a non-geographical convocation in the Network. “Its failure to repent and its willingness to proceed with a business-as-usual mentality has caused conscientious primates to recognize that [ECUSA] has separated itself from mainstream Anglicanism. Those Americans who do not want to be part of a protestant sect as opposed to being a part of a worldwide Communion have to make a decision,” Ackerman told TCC.

....

“I’m not completely sure what Archbishop Akinola meant,” said Springfield (IL) Episcopal Bishop Peter Beckwith, another prelate aligned with the Network. “If he believes we should all leave now, I would disagree as I think it would be premature. We need to stay at least until after General Convention 2006 and probably until after [the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops]—mainly because that was the timetable the Windsor Report established. And though I would have had that timeframe be much less, there is good reason to be patient. On the other hand, I…made a decision a long time ago to go with the ACN. At best, my communion with ECUSA and Frank Griswold and company is impaired. I do not support him or `815’ in any way…

“After ’05 or ’08, if ECUSA chooses to continue to `walk apart,’ I would expect the ACN to be the official Anglican presence in the USA,” Beckwith told TCC. “If Canterbury and/or the primates do nothing in response to ECUSA’s inappropriate action or inaction [at General Convention], I would expect the global South to leave the Anglican Communion. At that point I will have a choice to make, and I believe my decision would be to go with the global South.”

“But just to add another possible significant dimension: What would happen if Rome would offer an Anglican Rite with the same basic polity and theology we have now?” Beckwith asked. “Isn’t it possible God will use this mess for greater unity in His Body?”

....

In his concluding remarks on Saturday, Bishop Duncan described the overarching theme of the conference as "Choose This Day" (whom you will serve).

"The choice is for Jesus Christ, True God and True Man," he said, as opposed to something less or counterfeit, as he believes ECUSA is offering. The choice is for "truth over accommodation, accountability over autonomy, mission over sullen inaction," Duncan told the gathering of Episcopalians/Anglicans from 77 dioceses and several extramural bodies.

The choice, he said, is one of "sacrifice and self-oblation" and "courage." He asked his listeners if they were willing to abandon their plans and agenda, to give up "homes, relationships, identities and influence" for the sake of "God's plan for us.”

....

“The plain sense of the archbishop’s words was the old exclusive franchises are no more. A new day is dawning,” Duncan said.

bishop ackerman on hope and a future: i am an anglo-catholic

‘I AM’ has certain remarkable precedence in the Old Testament. It is not a credal statement, but rather is an ontological one. When certain descriptive words follow this statement of being, however, we are faced with not only a diversity of definition, but also an identity which may be subject to change by an institution or by the person who is claiming the word as descriptive of who or what that person is.

In the late 1800s to say that one was an Anglo-Catholic was to make a claim that was subject to near prosecution or persecution or ridicule depending upon where the claimant lived. In the immediate pre-1928 period and pre-World War II era, to claim to be an Anglo-Catholic would not always mean persecution, but could mean exclusion, and sent chills through the spines of bishops who often feared open rebellion in ‘moderately High Church’ settings. And yet, for parishes and dioceses, which had been formed by the heirs of the Oxford Movement, it always meant much more. It even meant more than incense every Sunday, regular Confession hours, Holy Day Masses, and Eucharistic vestments. It meant a way of thinking – a way of praying – a way of approaching the Mystery of the Word made Flesh (which was proclaimed daily at Mass at the Last Gospel.) More than that, it meant the Guild of All Souls, the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, the Living Rosary of Our Lady and St Dominic and living a Rule of Life under the auspices of an episcopal Religious Order with a Spiritual Director. It was not so much being against the majority expression of Anglicanism as it was living out the implications of an authentic English Catholic heritage which sometimes only existed in the minds of some, but more often than not was expressed by the pious faithful in the pews. For this movement was shaped in the trenches in what would be the forerunner of social activism, ministering in exile, as it were, in slums and docks where others refused to serve. Apart from being life filling by virtue of an environment of grace and peace whereby Christ was literally in the center, it was gracious and fun. Countless stories of ‘how boring church was growing up’ were not generally expressed by Anglo-Catholics. From the Asperges or Vide Acqua to the ‘Last Gospel’, every sense was stimulated. The style was gracious and though often eccentric, the faithful and priest seemed to exude a sense of awe themselves in the ‘Magnus Mysterium’.

Humor was great because there was so much to laugh about, and if we forgot, we could just read the ‘Fun in Church’ series from Trenton, New Jersey. And one knew exactly ‘the place to go’ when they traveled, because all good Anglo-Catholics memorized the names of those Shrines from St Mary the Virgin in New York City to the Advent of Christ the King in San Francisco, with marvelous stops in between. There was a type of Anglo-Catholic sub-culture, if you will, in the Episcopal Church, and it was like a family reunion when the American Church Union sponsored meetings, rallies, and missions, often led by the Archbishop of Capetown or the Bishop of Fond du Lac.

In spite of its marvelous eccentricities, and the apathy or disdain of the majority, this sub-culture made an impact on the wider Church. Prayer Book Studies, Liturgical Renewal, and a lessening of Catholic prejudice brought a new age for Anglo-Catholics, who could not believe that the centrality of the Eucharist, crucifixes, Stations of the Cross, and ashes on Ash Wednesday were slowly creeping into the Church along with icons (pre-computer ‘Icon’ days), Eucharistic vestments, and chanting.

Claiming to be an Anglo-Catholic suddenly was not so unusual, and having Eucharistic vestments often became the mark of the ‘card-carrying member’. And yet, for many Anglo-Catholics it was not the dawn of a new day. It was a shift in scenery. As new rites and rearranged sanctuaries came, the essence was not necessarily changed, for the piety remained. However, for some Anglo-Catholics something was not right. For those who had longed for the day when they could be seen as more than a somewhat credible minority, something was gone. As people left, and parishes closed or sought life with a new entity, fun was gone. For many it was like having the rug pulled out, and those who had celebrated a gracious, fun-loving faith felt a new exclusion. It was like sharing a unique gift, and having the recipient forget the giver.

Thus the ‘tolerated minority’ became a ‘divided minority’. Unfortunately in a Church that suddenly could accept anything, claiming inclusivity, the traditional Anglo-Catholic could not be accepted. Moreover, Anglo-Catholics themselves were divided. Which Roman usage should we follow? Should it be Trent (Anglican or American or Knott Missal) or Vatican II (Rite II or the Roman Missal itself)? Where should the Altar be? (East or West?)

A new breed of denominationalism even came into being – ‘Affirming Catholicism’ where a Province can alter faith without consulting anyone else, but can ‘look Anglo-Catholic’, and can even ‘vote out’ those who maintain what had hitherto been believed in all places, and still is by the majority of Catholic Christianity. ‘Will the real Catholic please stand up?’ This ‘affirming’ expression began to look and smell Anglo-Catholic, but who was at the altar changed, and what was said from the pulpit was greatly revised.

No one laughs anymore. People sometimes look out of the corner of their eye to see whether people now bow, genuflect or intentionally do nothing at the ‘incarnatus est’. The new question is: ‘What is the difference between a ‘renewed’ Anglo-Catholic and a ‘Low Churchman?’ The ‘renewed’ Anglo-Catholic knows why he doesn’t do the things that the Low Churchman won’t do. But it’s not fun anymore.

The joy is gone. The traditional Anglo-Catholic who worked the docks in England, who ploughed the fields in the Biretta Belt, and worked the streets of the cities as the only ‘white collar’ on the block, is now a curmudgeon. The future is fully in the hands of God. There are many, however, who do not look back, but look forward, carrying the gift, which they received like a fragile torch on a windy night. These caretakers have never believed that they could change the gift, but look forward to a day that is like the darkened church at the Great Vigil, waiting for the gift. Very few Anglicans ever celebrated the Vigil – just a handful of Anglo-Catholics here and abroad. These celebrants still gather and await the chant ‘The Light of Christ.’ And as the Light spreads in a darkened church building, in a darkened ‘National’ Church, in a darkened world, we await the words, ‘Thanks be to God.’

The Rt. Revd K.L. Ackerman, SSC

From All Too Common. Comment here.

Originally here.

the blogroll

Two new blogs, beloved.

First (the most beautiful blog ever): Theology of the Body. Anglican and Catholic.

Second: The Rome Report. There are many, I am sure, who will be watching this blog quite closely.

Both are in the links section.

what ++rowan said

The church overall, the church of England in particular, the Anglican communion has not been persuaded that same-sex sex can be holy and blessed. Were it to decide that by some process unimaginable to most of you it would be by an overwhelming consensus. Only at that point would it be possible to say in the name of the church, this is holy and blessed. So I take my stand with the church of England, with the communion, with the majority of Christians through the ages.

I have in the past raised questions about this. I was a theological teacher for 17 years and along with other theological teachers raised this issue and discussed it. I have advance[d] ideas on this in the past, but the fact remains that the church is not persuaded, and the church is not Williams’ personal political parties, or any particular persons. I am loyal to the church which has asked me to serve, and I myself hold if I am asked about doctrine and discipline, this is what the church upholds. So, the authority that I accept has to be the authority of the whole body and that part of the body which is the Church of England and the Anglican communion has made its determination.

Read the whole thing here, at Global South Anglican. Via Titusonenine.

can someone explain the persistence of the 'donatist!' cry?

In Pittsburgh, several bishops will perform on-the-spot confirmations during Saturday's closing ceremony, mostly for conservatives who do not desire the ministrations of liberal bishops in their home dioceses.
ACN spokesman Douglas LeBlanc said confirmands have already been vetted by their pastors and local ACN representatives.
"We realize that some [liberal] bishops may be annoyed by this pastoral care," he said, "but we did not create the problem that requires it."
The Rev. Ruth Meyers, professor of liturgics at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., said Episcopal conservatives may be unwittingly agreeing with Donatism, a fourth-century heresy.
"It determined that the validity of a liturgical act depends on the minister who administers it," she said.
The early church refuted Donatism, she said, and St. Augustine, she added, "would have said the unworthiness of a minister does not affect the validity of the sacrament, as the true minister is Christ."

Read the whole thing here.

Via Titusonenine. This accusation of Donatism is persistent and ridiculous. As far as I know, no one is contesting the validity of the other party's sacraments. They're just being careful about the sacrament. One doesn't want to mock or blaspheme the sacrament by receiving it with / from those with whom one is out of charity. And please note that I am NOT saying that one or the other party is correct. I am only saying that the conservatives are not Donatists just because they refuse the ministrations of some party.

the plight of iraqi christians

One 43-year-old Christian man, married with three children, "was killed last week because he didn't pay," said Dominican Father Mekhail Nageeb of Nineveh, near Mosul. He spoke in a telephone interview with Catholic News Service Nov. 2.

After a group of unidentified men went to the man's workplace to extract money from him, "he tried not to pay and he ran out, so they killed him," said the Iraqi-born priest, who is the Dominicans' superior in Mosul.

Father Nageeb said he knows about "more than 10 or 15 people" in Mosul who have been forced to pay exorbitant sums of money to anonymous groups who have threatened to kill the victim or abduct family members.

The amount of money terrorists demand from an individual can run anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000, he said, forcing many to sell their homes, furnishings, properties or beg relatives or neighbors for cash. Others, he said, simply flee Iraq for a brief period in the hopes of escaping the threats.

"It's a really catastrophic problem now," he said.

Read the whole thing here. From A Conservative Blog for Peace.

the beginning of the end

All of this unrest in France is most disturbing. Pray for the conversion of the Moslems.

Almighty and everlasting God, who desirest not the death, but alwas the life of sinners; mercifully receive our prayer, and deliver the Moslems from blindness, and gather them into Thy holy Church, to the praise and glory of Thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

two interesting articles

One is Fr. Kimel's continuing assertion of Anglicans' essential non-catholicity. (Wherin he continues his synecdochical broadsides against J-Tron, and Aff Cath's catholic aesthetics disguising a protestant core.)

The other is more on P.Ben's life preserver, such as it is: RC Archbishop Myers of Newark. First posted by Fr. Harmon.

My problem with Fr. Kimel's argument is that he picks out those elements of Anglicanism which are essentially protestant and declares them to be essentially Anglican. He has not, so far as I am aware, addresses the traditional Anglo-Catholic claim that Anglo-Catholicism is THE true and proper expression of Anglicanism. Such a claim makes the contemporary situation, at least in ECUSA, rather like the situation in Constantinople during much of the 4th century, the situation in which St. Gregory Nazianzus emerged as "the Theologian". The extent to which Anglicans are not Anglo-Catholics is the extent to which they are bad Anglicans. And I don't mean that the extent to which Anglicans do not "self-identify" as Anglo-Catholics is the extent to which they are bad Anglicans. Rather, the extent to which they depart from the coherent and contiguous teaching of catholic Anglicanism from Henry VIII and Richard Hooker, through the Nonjurors and Caroline Divines, the Tractarians, to Charles Gore and Michael Ramsey, is the extent to which they are bad Anglicans.

st. malachy's prophecies

Is the world going to end soonish? Maybe. According to the prophecies of St. Malachy, there could be only one more pope after Benedict XVI:

In extreme persecution, the seat of the Holy Roman Church will be occupied by Peter the Roman, who will feed the sheep through many tribulations, at the term of which the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the formidable Judge will judge his people. The End.

If the calculations of everyone are correct, Benedict should be "the glory of olives". Hmmm....

Read more here and here.

November 3rd is St. Malachy's feast.

all souls

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercies of God, rest in peace.

Rest eternal grant unto them, o Lord. Let light perpetual shine upon them.

Amen.

judge alito, not surprisingly, seems to be a roman catholic

The family attends mass at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament several miles away in Roseland, and Mrs. Alito teaches religious education classes there.

Read the whole thing here.

anne rice in the blogosphere

Anne Rice left the following comment here. Fascinating. God be praised.

Make what you will of this novel, but know that for me it was serious from the beginning. I believe in Him. I wrote it for Him. This is where my life, novels and all, has led. It's the book I never found; the book I want to read; the book I want to give. It's the Jesus of the gospels in time and space. If I make you think of Him for the first time in your life as real, then I will have succeeded. If I make you feel you were there for a little while, then I have succeeded. If I make you believe in Him as the Son of the Virgin Mary, visited by shepherds who saw angels, and Magi with gifts, then I have done all right. It's worth the risk. I don't want to make a mistake for all eternity. I want to get it right. Anne Rice, Nashville hotel, on tour for Christ the Lord.

south to south encounter document

I have to say, in general, I am pretty impressed with the document. I had been worried (1) that they were going to announce a new Anglican Patriarch of Alexandria or something, or relatedly (2) that they were going to come up with some plumb-line Evangelical Confession without signing onto which no one could be in communion with them. The document is one of the more catholic-leaning things I have seen to come out of Anglicanism. It even uses the phrase "apostolic succession" in reference to the bishops roll in guarding the Church's apostolicity. Hoozah. Also note the inspiration of the blood of the martyrs in the paragraph on violence. It also seemingly strikes at the right balance in its commendation of both Scripture and "the historic teaching of the Church" as the proper checks of catholicity on innovation. I say well done. We have both avoided disaster here, and we have a clear, incisive, theologically articulate, catholic document. Hoozah.

global south encounter document

Beloved, I cautiously take this document to be a little bit of good news. It seems that they are endorsing the principles of the Windsor Report, and turning away from the confessional proposals about which we had been hearing, especially from Nigeria.

The Third Anglican Global South to South Encounter Communique
October 30th, 2005 at 5:37 pm
A Third Trumpet from the South

TRUMPET III

The Third Anglican Global South to South Encounter

Red Sea (Egypt), 25-30 October 2005

The Third Anglican South-to-South Encounter has graphically demonstrated the
coming of age of the Church of the Global South. We are poignantly aware
that we must be faithful to God’s vision of one, holy, catholic and
apostolic Church. We do not glory in our strengths but in God’s strength. We
do not shrink from our responsibility as God’s people because of our
weaknesses but we trust God to demonstrate His power through our weakness.
We thank God for moving us forward to serve Him in such a time as this.

A. Preamble

1. A total of 103 delegates of 20 provinces in the Global South (comprising
Africa, South and South East Asia, West Indies and South America),
representing approximately two-thirds of the Anglican Communion, met for the
3rd Global South to South Encounter from 25-30 October 2005 at Ain El-Sukhna
by the Red Sea in Egypt. The theme of the Encounter was “One, Holy, Catholic
and Apostolic Church: Being A Faithful Church For Such A Time As This”.

2. We deeply appreciated the Archbishop of Canterbury for the time he spent
with us, his listening ear and encouraging words. We took to heart his
insight that the four marks of the Church are not attributes we possess as
our own right, nor goals to attain by human endeavour, but they are
expressed in us as we deeply focus on Jesus Christ, who is the Source of
them all (John 17:17-21).

3. We were really warmed by the welcome that we received here by the
President, the government and the people of Egypt. We valued the great
efforts made by the state security personnel who are making the land of
Egypt a secure and safe place to all her visitors. We were touched by the
warm hospitality of the Diocese of Egypt.

4. We have witnessed in Egypt a wonderful model for warm relations between
Christians and Muslims. We admire the constructive dialogue that is
happening between the two faiths. We appreciated the attendance of the Grand
Imam of Al-Azhar, Dr Mohammed Said Tantawi, the representative of Pope
Shenouda III and other religious leaders at the State Reception to launch
our Encounter. We were encouraged by their wise contributions.

B. We Gathered

5. We gathered to seek the face of God, to hear His Word afresh and to be
renewed by His Spirit for total obedience to Christ who is Lord of the
Church. That is why the gathering was called an “Encounter” rather than a
conference. The vital question we addressed was: What does it mean to be
one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church in the midst of all the challenges
facing the world and the Church?

6. The world of the Global South is riddled with the pain of political
conflict, tribal warfare and bloodshed. The moral and ethical foundations of
several of our societies are being shaken. Many of our nations are beset by
problems of poverty, ignorance and sickness, particularly the HIV and AIDS
that threaten millions, especially in Africa. In addition to that, thousands
of people have suffered from severe drought in Africa, earthquakes in South
Asia, and hurricanes in the Americas – we offer our support and prayers to
them.

7. Apart from the world condition, our own Anglican Communion sadly
continues to be weakened by unchecked revisionist teaching and practices
which undermine the divine authority of the Holy Scripture. The Anglican
Communion is severely wounded by the witness of errant principles of faith
and practice which in many parts of our Communion have adversely affected
our efforts to take the Gospel to those in need of God’s redeeming and
saving love.

8. Notwithstanding these difficult circumstances, several parts of our
Communion in the Global South are witnessing the transforming power of the
Gospel and the growth of the Church. The urgency of reaching vast multitudes
in our nations for Christ is pressing at our door and the fields are ready
for harvest.

9. Surrounded by these challenges and seeking to discover afresh our
identity we decided to dig deeper into God’s Word and into the tradition of
the Church to learn how to be faithful to God’s gift and call to be His one,
holy, catholic and apostolic people. We deliberately chose to meet in Egypt
for two reasons:

a. Biblically, Egypt features prominently in the formative period of the
calling of God’s people (Exodus 19). Moreover, Egypt was part of the cradle
that bore the entry of the Savior into the world (Hosea 11:1; Matthew
2:13-15).

b. Meeting by the Red Sea, we could not help but be inspired by the historic
crossing of God’s people into the realm where He purposed to make them a
“light to the nations” (Isaiah 42:6). Part of that blessing was fulfilled
when Alexandria became a center of early Christianity, where church fathers
formulated and held on to the Christian faith through the early centuries.

C. We Discovered Afresh

10. We discovered afresh the depth and richness of our roots in the one,
holy, catholic and apostolic Church. Carefully researched papers were
presented at the Encounter in the context of worship, prayer, Bible Study
and mutual sharing. We recognize the dynamic way in which the four marks of
the Church are inextricably interwoven. The salient truths we encountered
inspired us and provided a basis for knowing what God requires of us.


The Church is One

11. The Church is called to be one. Our unity is willed by our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself, who prayed that we “all might be one.” (John 17:20-21) A
great deal of confusion has arisen out of misunderstanding that prayer and
the concept of unity. For centuries, the Church has found unity in the
Person and teaching of Jesus Christ, as recorded in Scripture. We are one in
Him, and that binds us together. The foundation and expression of our unity
is found in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.

12. While our unity may be expressed in institutional life, our unity is
grounded in our living relationship with the Christ of Scripture. Unity is
ever so much more than sharing institutionally. When we are “in Christ,” we
find that we are in fellowship with others who are also in Him. The fruit of
that unity is that we faithfully manifest the life and love of Christ to a
hurting and groaning world (Romans 8:18-22).

13. Christian unity is premised on truth and expressed in love. Both truth
and love compel us to guard the Gospel and stand on the supreme authority of
the whole Word of God. The boundary of family identity ends within the
boundary of the authentic Word of God.


The Church is Holy

14. The Church of Jesus Christ is called to be holy. All Christians are to
participate in the sanctification of their lives through submission,
obedience and cooperation with the Holy Spirit. Through repentance the
Church can regain her rightful position of being holy before God. We believe
concurrently that holiness is imparted to us through the life, ministry,
death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ (Heb 10:21-23). He shares
His holiness with us and invites us to be conformed to His likeness.

15. A holy Church is prepared to be a “martyr” Church. Witness unto death is
how the Early Church articulated holiness in its fullest sense (Acts 22:20;
Rev 2:13, 12:11).


The Church is Catholic

16. The Catholic faith is the universal faith that was “once for all”
entrusted to the apostles and handed down subsequently from generation to
generation (Jude 3). Therefore every proposed innovation must be measured
against the plumb line of Scripture and the historic teaching of the Church.

17. Catholicity carries with it the notion of completeness and wholeness.
Thus in the church catholic “when one part suffers, every part suffers with
it” (1 Cor 12:26). The local church expresses its catholicity by its
devotion to apostolic teaching, its attention to prayer and the sacrament,
its warm and caring fellowship and its growth through evangelism and mission
(Acts 2:42-47).


The Church is Apostolic

18. The Church is apostolic in its doctrine and teaching. The apostolic
interpretation of God’s salvation plan effected in Christ Jesus is binding
on the Church. God established the Church on the “foundation of the apostles
and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone” (Eph 2:20).

19. The Church is apostolic in its mission and service. “As the Father has
sent Me, so I send you.” (John 20:21) In each generation He calls bishops in
apostolic succession (Eph 4:11-12) to lead the Church out into mission, to
teach the truth and to defend the faith. Accountability to God, to those God
places over us and to the flock is an integral part of church leadership.

D. We Commit

20. As a result of our Encounter, we emerge with a clearer vision of what
the Church is called to be and to do, with a renewed strength to pursue that
vision. Specifically, we made commitments in the following areas.


The Authority of the Word of God

21. Scripture demands, and Christian history has traditionally held, that
the standard of life, belief, doctrine, and conduct is the Holy Scripture.
To depart from apostolic teaching is to tamper with the foundation and to
undermine the basis of our unity in Christ. We express full confidence in
the supremacy and clarity of Scripture, and pledge full obedience to the
whole counsel of God’s Word.

22. We in the Global South endorse the concept of an Anglican Covenant
(rooted in the Windsor Report) and commit ourselves as full partners in the
process of its formulation. We are seeking a Covenant that is rooted in
historic faith and formularies, and that provides a biblical foundation for
our life, ministry and mission as a Communion. It is envisaged that once the
Covenant is approved by the Communion, provinces that enter into the
Covenant shall be mutually accountable, thereby providing an authentic
fellowship within the Communion.

23. Anglicans of the Global South have discovered a vibrant spiritual life
based on Scripture and empowered by the Spirit that is transforming cultures
and communities in many of our provinces. It is to this life that we seek to
be formed and found fully faithful. We reject the expectation that our lives
in Christ should conform to the misguided theological, cultural and
sociological norms associated with sections of the West.


Mission and Ministry

24. Churches in the Global South commit to pursue networking with one
another to add strength to our mission and ministry. We will continue to
explore appropriate structures to facilitate and support this.

25. Shared theological foundations are crucial to authentic fellowship and
partnership in mission and ministry. In that light, we welcome the
initiative to form the Council of Anglican Provinces of the Americas and the
Caribbean (CAPAC). It is envisaged that CAPAC will not only provide a
foundation on the historic formularies of Anglican faith but also provide a
structure with which member churches can carry out formal ministry
partnerships with confidence.

26. Global South is committed to provide our recognition, energy, prayers
and experience to the Networks in the USA and Canada, the Convocation of
Nigerian Anglicans in the USA, those who make Common Cause and the
Missionary District that is gathering congregations that circumstances have
pressed out of ECUSA. We are heartened by the bold witness of their people.
We are grateful that the Archbishop of Canterbury publicly recognized the
Anglican Communion Network in the USA and the Anglican Network in Canada as
faithful members of the Anglican Communion.

27. As for the other provinces and dioceses around the world who remain
steadfastly committed to this faith, we look forward to further
opportunities to partner with them in the propagation of the Gospel. We will
also support those orthodox dioceses and congregations which are under
difficult circumstances because of their faithfulness to the Word. We
appreciate the recent action of the Primate of the Southern Cone who acted
to stabilize the volatile situation in Recife, Brazil.

In this regard, we take this opportunity to acknowledge the immense
contribution of the Primate of South East Asia to the development of the
Global South and to the preservation of orthodoxy across the worldwide
Anglican Communion.


Theological Education

28. In order to provide teaching that preserves the faith and fits our
context, it is crucial to update the curricula of our theological
institutions in the Global South to reflect our theological perspective and
mission priorities. We note from the All Africa Bishops Conference their
concern that far too many Western theological education institutions have
become compromised and are no longer suitable for training leaders for our
provinces. We call for the re-alignment of our priorities in such a way as
to hasten the full establishment of adequate theological education
institutions across the Global South so that our leaders can be
appropriately trained and equipped in our own context. We aim to develop our
leaders in biblical and theological training, and seek to nurture indigenous
theologians. We will provide information on institutions in the Global
South, and we will encourage these institutions to explore ways to provide
bursaries and scholarships.


The Current Crisis provoked by North American Intransigence

29. The unscriptural innovations of North American and some western
provinces on issues of human sexuality undermine the basic message of
redemption and the power of the Cross to transform lives. These departures
are a symptom of a deeper problem, which is the diminution of the authority
of Holy Scripture. The leaders of these provinces disregard the plain
teaching of Scripture and reject the traditional interpretation of tenets in
the historical Creeds.

30. This Encounter endorses the perspectives on communion life found in
sections A & B of the Windsor Report, and encourages all Provinces to comply
with the request from the Primates’ Communiqué in February 2005 which
states:

“We therefore request all provinces to consider whether they are willing to
be committed to the inter-dependent life of the Anglican Communion
understood in the terms set out in these sections of the report.”

31. The Windsor Report rightly points out that the path to restoring order
requires that either the innovating provinces/dioceses conform to historic
teaching, or the offending provinces will by their actions be choosing to
walk apart. Paragraph 12 of the Primates Communiqué says:

“Whilst there remains a very real question about whether the North American
churches are willing to accept the same teaching on matters of sexual
morality as is generally accepted elsewhere in the Communion, the underlying
reality of our communion in God the Holy Trinity is obscured, and the
effectiveness of our common mission severely hindered.”

32. Regrettably, even at the meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council
(ACC) in Nottingham in 2005, we see no evidence that both ECUSA and the
Anglican Church of Canada are willing to accept the generally accepted
teaching, nor is there evidence that they are willing to turn back from
their innovations.

33. Further, the struggles of the Communion have only been exacerbated by
the lack of concrete progress in the implementation of the recommendations
of the Windsor Report. The slow and inadequate response of the Panel of
Reference has trivialized the solemn charge from the Primates and has
allowed disorder to multiply unnecessarily. We recognize with regret the
growing evidence that the Provinces which have taken action creating the
current crisis in the Communion continue moving in a direction that will
result in their “walking apart.” We call for urgent and serious
implementation of the recommendations of the Windsor Report. Unscriptural
and unilateral decisions, especially on moral issues, tear the fabric of our
Communion and require appropriate discipline at every level to maintain our
unity. While the Global South calls for the errant provinces to be
disciplined, we will continue to pray for all who embrace these erroneous
teachings that they will be led to repentance and restoration.


Spiritual Leadership

34. Our on-going participation in ministry and mission requires godly and
able spiritual leadership at all times. We are encouraged that many
inspirational leaders in our midst bear witness to the Scriptures and are
effectively bringing the Gospel to surrounding cultures. We commit ourselves
to identify the next generation of leaders and will seek to equip and deploy
them wherever they are needed.

35. We need inspirational leaders and accountability structures. These
mechanisms which we are looking into must ensure that leaders are
accountable to God, to those over us in the Lord, to the flock and to one
another in accordance to the Scriptures. This last aspect is in keeping with
the principle of bishops and leaders acting in council. In this way, leaders
become the role models that are so needed for the flock.


Youth

36. The Global South emphasizes the involvement and development of youth in
the life of the Church. The youth delegates encouraged the whole gathering
by the following collective statement during the Encounter:

“Many youths in the Global South are taking up the challenge of living in
moral purity in the face of the rising influence of immoral values and
practice, and the widening epidemic of HIV and AIDS. Young people will be
ready to give their lives to the ministry of the Church if she gives them
exemplary spiritual leadership and a purpose to live for. Please pray that
we will continue to be faithful as the Church of ‘today and tomorrow’. It is
also our heart’s cry that the Communion will remain faithful to the Gospel.”


Poverty

37. As the church catholic we share a common concern for the universal
problem of debt and poverty. The inequity that exists between the rich and
the poor widens as vast sums borrowed by previous governments were not used
for the intended purposes. Requiring succeeding generations of people who
never benefited from the loans and resources to repay them will impose a
crushing and likely insurmountable burden. We welcome and appreciate the
international efforts of debt reduction and cancellation, for example, the
steps recently carried out by G8 leaders.

38. A dimension of responsible stewardship and accountability is the clear
call to be financially self-sustaining. We commend the new initiative for
financial self-sufficiency and development being studied by the Council of
Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA). This is not only necessary because of
the demands of human dignity; it is the only way to have sustainable
economic stability.


HIV and AIDS

39. A holy Church combines purity and compassion in its witness and service.
The population of the world is under assault by the HIV and AIDS pandemic,
but the people of much of the Global South are hit particularly hard because
of poverty, lifestyle habits, lack of teaching and the paucity of
appropriate medication. Inspired by the significant success of the Church in
Uganda in tackling HIV and AIDS, all our provinces commit to learn and apply
similar intentional programmes which emphasize abstinence and faithfulness
in marriage. We call on governments to ensure that they are providing
adequate medication and treatment for those infected.


Corruption

40. The holy Church will “show forth fruits that befit repentance” (Matt
3:8). Many of us live in regions that have been deeply wounded by
corruption. Not only do we have a responsibility to live transparent lives
of utmost honesty in the Church, we are called to challenge the culture in
which we live (Micah 6:8). Corruption consumes the soul of society and must
be challenged at all costs. Transparency and accountability are key elements
that we must manifest in bearing witness to the cultures in which we live.


Violent Conflict

41. Many of us from across the Global South live juxtaposed with violent
conflict, most egregiously manifest in violence against innocents. In spite
of the fact that the conflicts which grip many of our provinces have
resulted in many lives being lost, we are not defeated. We find hope in the
midst of our pain and inspiration from the martyrs who have shed their
blood. Their sacrifice calls us to faithfulness. Their witness provokes us
to pursue holiness. We commit ourselves to grow to become faithful witnesses
who “do not love their lives even unto death” (Rev 12:11).

E. We Press On

42. We emerge from the Encounter strengthened to uphold the supreme
authority of the Word of God and the doctrinal formularies that have
undergirded the Anglican Communion for over four and a half centuries.
Communion requires alignment with the will of God first and foremost, which
establishes our commonality with one another. Such expressions of the will
of God which Anglicans should hold in common are: one Lord, one faith, one
baptism; Holy Scripture; apostolic teaching and practice; the historic
Creeds of the Christian Church; the Articles of Religion and the doctrinal
tenets as contained in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Holding truth and
grace together by the power of the Holy Spirit, we go forward as those
entrusted “with the faith once delivered” (Jude 3).

43. By the Red Sea, God led us to renew our covenant with Him. We have
committed ourselves to obey Him fully, to love Him wholly, and to serve Him
in the world as a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). God
has also helped us to renew our bonds of fellowship with one another, that
we may “stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man in the faith of the
Gospel” (Phil 1:27).

44. We offer to God this growing and deepening fellowship among the Global
South churches that we might be a servant-body to the larger Church and to
the world. We see ourselves as a unifying body, moving forward collectively
as servants of Christ to do what He is calling us to do both locally in our
provinces and globally as the “scattered people of God throughout the world”
(1 Peter 1:1).

45. Jesus Christ, “that Great Shepherd of the sheep” (Heb 13:20, Micah 5:4),
is caring for His flock worldwide, and He is gathering into His one fold
lost sheep from every tribe and nation. We continue to depend on God’s grace
to enable us to participate with greater vigour in Christ’s great enterprise
of saving love (1 Peter 2:25, John 10:14-16). We shall press on to glorify
the Father in the power of the Spirit until Christ comes again. Even so,
come Lord Jesus.

The Third Anglican Global South to South Encounter

Red Sea, Egypt, 25-30 October 2005