just because.... part 2

just because...

the divine liturgy of saint james

Read the whole Divine Liturgy of St. James here. Experts tell me that this is one of, if not THE, oldest liturgy in use in Christendom. Some say it came from St. James the Just, the brother of the Lord. Most agree that it dates at least to the middle of the third century, and possibly rather earlier, though of course it has evolved in some ways down through the centuries. It was edited down, for example, by St. John Chrysostom. It already takes several hours to celebrate this liturgy. I wonder what it was like BEFORE its several redactions for the sake of brevity. The liturgy is used most widely among the Orthodox at Jerusalem, and is the principle liturgy of several Eastern Churches, including both the Syrian Orthodox Church, and the Syrian Catholic Church (in communion with Rome).  Here is an excerpt:

DEACON:  Let none remain of the catechumens, none of the unbaptized, none of those who are unable to join with us in prayer.  Look at one another.  The doors.   All erect; let us again pray to the Lord.

THE PRIEST SAYS THE PRAYER OF INCENSE:  Sovereign Almighty, King of Glory, who knowest all things before their creation, manifest Thyself to us calling upon Thee at this holy hour, and redeem us from the shame of our transgressions; cleanse our mind and our thoughts from impure desires, from worldly deceit, from all influence of the devil; and accept from the hands of us sinners this incense, as Thou didst accept the offering of abel, and Noah, and Aaron, and Samuel, and of all Thy saints, guarding us from everything evil, and preserving us for continually pleasing, and worshipping, and glorifying Thee, the father, and thy only-begotten Son, and thy all-holy spirit, now and always, and forever.

THE READERS BEGIN THE CHERUBIC HYMN:  Let all mortal flesh be silent, and stand with fear and trembling, and meditate nothing earthly within itself.  For the King of kings and Lord of lords, Christ our God, comes forward to be sacrificed, and to be given for food to the faithful.  And the bands of angels go before Him with every power and dominion, the many-eyed cherubim, and the six-winged seraphim, covering their faces and crying aloud the hymn, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.

THE PRIEST, BRINGING IN THE HOLY GIFTS, SAYS THE PRAYER:  O God, our God, who didst send forth the heavenly bread, the food of the whole world, our Lord Jesus Christ, to be a Saviour, and Redeemer, and Benefactor, blessing and sanctifying us, do Thou Thyself bless this offering, and graciously receive it to Thy altar above the skies.  Remember in Thy goodness and love those who have brought it, and those for whom they have brought it, and preserve us without condemnation in the service of Thy divine mysteries:  for hallowed and glorified is Thy all-honored and great name, Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to all eternity.

PRIEST:  Peace be to all.

DEACON:  Sir, pronounce the blessing.

PRIEST:  Blessed be God, who blesseth and sanctifieth us all at the presentation of the divine and pure mysteries, and giveth rest to the blessed souls among the holy and just, now and always, and to all eternity.

check out the climate ark on mt. ararat

I went to GreenPeace's website for the previous post, and this story was just too good to pass up.

Judeo, Christian and Muslim religions all include the story of a great flood and Noah's Ark. It's said that as the flood subsided Noah released a dove, and the dove returned with an olive branch to show land had been found. To this day the Ark and the dove are symbols of hope.

On Mount Ararat, where some say Noah's Ark came to rest, 208 doves (one for each country) were released to dedicate the replica ark by greenpeace activists. These doves and replica come with a message called the 'Ararat Declaration'. The declaration demands that world leaders act to protect the basic human rights of life and health, both of which will be at risk for millions of people from the effects of climate change.

Read the rest. Apparently you can reserve a place for yourself and your loved ones on the Climate Ark. Or you can just send a picture. That will help keep global temperatures down, for sure. What a strong symbol for the governments of the world!

executive council prepares for communiqué response

From ENS. Read the whole thing.

[Episcopal News Service] The Executive Council, the Episcopal Church's governing body between General Conventions, began its four-day meeting June 11 in New Jersey learning that a draft of a response to the Anglican Communion Primates' latest communiqué was ready for their consideration.

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After the Executive Council made TEC a founding member of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (formerly the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights) expressly in violation of General Convention's centrist stance on abortion, I'm not sure I trust them to do anything worthwhile in responding to the Primates. Don't look for a ground-shaking change of direction here.

The Executive Council meeting, at the Sheraton hotel in Parsippany, New Jersey, began with three hours of committee meetings on the morning of June 11 and another two hours in the late afternoon with the plenary session in between. Council had dinner with representatives of the host Diocese of Newark.

When the Windsor bishops held meetings in Texas, I read all kinds of snide comments from Anglican leftists about how the location of the meeting pretty much told them what would be said. I don't hear much of the same about this meeting in Newark.

During her remarks to the plenary session, Jefferts Schori told Council that recently she has been contemplating how language can be used to allow for "true conversation" -- what she called "non-violent language" -- or how "violent language" is used instead for "leaping to judgment."
The church, Jefferts Schori said, must consider how it interacts with the world. "How do we keep the space open so that we can truly learn from each other?" she asked.

If she spent as much time contemplating, oh, I don't know, the book of Romans or something, maybe we'd get somewhere useful. Surely the proclamation of boundaries inherent in having a sovereign God who makes demands on our behavior constitutes some manner of 'violent speech', impinging upon our freedoms to do whatever-the-heck we please. PB Schori will doubtless discourage any talk of 'commandments' or 'moral imperatives', since these are so obviously so violent as to be un-Christian. But I'm glad she's spending time thinking about how to "keep the space open." Apparently that's becoming a bigger and bigger problem for liberal parishes and dioceses. Since PB Schori is so worried about climate change, maybe we can work out an arrangement to share our churches with, say, GreenPeace. I bet the Executive Council could arrange that . . . on a weekend . . . when no one's looking.

wrap-up of the albany diocesan convention

ENS basically has it right. There were attempts by Albany left-wingers to table the abortion resolution, and some heated floor discussion from the right-wingers as to which among the many good reasons to support that resolution ought to be THE reason. The motion to table was defeated by a count of about 110 to 170, and the resolution itself passed overwhelmingly by voice. So the Albany convention is pretty solidly pro-life. What it will mean practically to disassociate our diocese from the decision by the Executive Council to join the RCRC has yet to be decided - do we try to direct our diocesan contribution away from any support of the RCRC? 815 wouldn't swallow that, surely. So it may be a straw resolution, a way to get the diocese on record as being pro-life.

the general trouble with much protestantism in a nutshell

From O Ye Jigs and Juleps, by Episcopalian Virginia Cary Hudson; written in 1904 when she was 10 yrs. old.

Holton Street is where I have my worse [sic] trouble. That is another part of town. That is where the Campbellites live. They asked me to their old church party and my mother made me go. And I wore my hat and it was summer, and Alice Coleman laughed because I had on my hat. I said to her, I said, "You shouldn't go in church without your hat." And she said, "You should too." and I said, "You shouldn't," and she said, "You should," and I said "You shouldn't," and she said, "Who said so?" and I said , "St. Paul said so," and she said, "He didn't" and I said, "He did," and she said, "He didn't" and I said, "He did," and she said, "Fooie on St. Paul," and that is when I slapped her. Once for St. Paul, and I slapped her for the whole state of Christ's Church universal and then I pinched her for myself. That slapping was righteous indignation, but that pinch was my own and the devil's idea.

If we get to the point where we choose our own theologies above what the scripture actually says, we're saying "Fooie on St. Paul." May we then be slapped.

the latest from jordan hylden at 'first things'

Read it all here. An excellent overview of where we are, and where we might be heading. Pace folks like Father Matt Kennedy, who are apoplectic over the Lambeth Invitations, under the assumption that an invitation to Lambeth constitutes membership in the Communion, Mr. Hylden clearly lays out the thinking behind Archbishop Rowan's actions to date (if ArchBp. Rowan hasn't laid them out clearly enough himself hitherto), actions which are NOT merely placating of TEC and her heresies.

The idea all along is that the ratification of the forthcoming Covenant, once it has cleared Lambeth and the Anglican Consultative Council, will determine which Provinces will contitute the Anglican Communion from now on (not Lambeth Invitations; not some fiat from Cantuar or the Primates). What the most belicose of the conservatives fail to recognize is that TEC's actions hitherto HAVE, in point of fact, been within the bounds of our ecclesial life in the Anglican Communion. The most fundamental problem to date is how the bounds of our ecclesial life in the Anglican Communion have (and have not) been set -- not with TEC's actions per se. (TEC's actions ARE problematical, but only because the bounds of our ecclesial life have permitted those actions. Hence the bounds are the more fundamental problem.) The Covenant is meant to address this most fundamental problem.

If things fall apart before Lambeth and many the Belicose Conservatives (e.g. Nigeria) don't turn up, then the Covenant (and the future Communion) will be handed to the liberals on a silver platter. As Mr. Hylden writes:

In light of all this, one might think that orthodox Anglicans would by now have embraced the covenant process the way a drowning man grasps a life preserver—and indeed, many prominent conservatives, represented most ably by Archbishop Gomez and the theologians of the Anglican Communion Institute, have done so. But not everyone has. In fact, it may turn out to be the case that many Anglican conservatives will soon decide to abandon the Lambeth Conference and the covenant process altogether, tipping the vote count leftward and thereby allowing the liberals, quite improbably, to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

via cnn

In answer to a question about religion and abortion, while Rudy Giuliani was trying to explain why he's in favor of legal abortion, lightening struck the building in which he was speaking, and shut off his microphone.

Indeed.

Read it all here.

kids and money

Watch this little series of interviews about teenagers and money in Los Angeles. Its from the NY Times. Our culture is messed up.

I think Lauren Greenfield (the director) is onto something. Check out her other projects here -- they all look pretty shrewed.

People (most recently Peter Kreeft) get onto me about liking Postmodern stuff. But Lauren Greenfield's work just goes to show how Christians can partner up with with Postmodern types. (I don't know Ms. Greenfield, but it wouldn't surprise me if she were an incredibly hip, Yale educated, ironical feminist.) But she clearly understands that there is something wrong about our culture -- something that is destructive of kids, and girls in particular (check out "Thin" at Ms. Greenfield's website). Christians are well positioned to see this; what's amazing is how few self-described Christians actually do.

Well done, Ms. Greenfield. Christians: learn from her.