The big American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature meeting
happens this weekend in Washington. We’re going…all of us. It’ll be an
adventure.

Anybody else going?

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Here’s another one of those cool projects in the back of my head that I’ll
probably never get around too… As I’ve mentioned before, my main problem
with the common theology of the Anglican Missal and Breviary is that it is
fundamentally Scholastic. I’ve said before and I’ll say again that I believe
one of the major directions that the English Reformers took was to
explicitly reject Scholastic theology but to retain a non-Scholastic, more
monastic flavored catholicism.

So here’s my idea: a book designed not as a replacement but as a supplement
to the Offices of the BCP that would offer suggestions on the ordines and
content of the Offices, primarily drawn from pre-Scholastic English monastic
sources. Thus, it would include recommendations for Office Hymns, a modified
kalendar, the various little offices (Dead, Holy Cross, BVM), and other
assorted stuff. Again, the intent would not be replacement but
supplementation, to help people see their offices in a new way and think
about what it means to be part of catholic tradition.

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I love all the wrangling and discussion now that the Democrats have control over Congress. Especially speculation about all the new directions we can go in. It’s very amusing.

Nobody’s calling for the government control of main utilities. Nobody’s calling for the dissolution of the corpoate structure. Nobody’s calling for the redistribution of the country along ethnic or religious lines. The Democrats and Republicans are only arguing about the redistributions of relatively small percentages around the national budget. The truth is an open secret: We have the best damn one-party political system in the world…

Greetings and a blessed Martinmas to you all. Things still press heavily around the household and I haven’t gotten out online as much as I’d like. However, a Martinmas greeting seems in order. Despite the unseasonably warm weather we’re having here, Martinmas served for the Gallican church the same function that St Andrew’s day does in the Roman and later traditions: the harbinger of Advent, the Winter Lent. Even the RCL in it’s warm fuzzy modernity seems to recognize this and the mass readings will begin taking an eschatological turn until Advent is upon us again.

So, with Bach ringing in our ears, it’s time to “Bestelle dein haus”–get your house in order; the Approach is almost upon us. The tension of holding together the historical Approach at Bethlehem and the eschatological Approach at the End of Time is best accomplished through the mediation of the spiritual Approach, the coming of Christ into the heart of each believer.

Let us follow, then, Martin’s words and example and–furthermore–the path he exemplified. As the Father of Gallican Monasticism he passed down an orthodox Christianity strongly rooted in the best traditions of Stoicism, emphasizing the cultivation of virtue as the preeminent path into the mind of Christ.

Greetings and a blessed Martinmas to you all. Things still press heavily around the household and I haven’t gotten out online as much as I’d like. However, a Martinmas greeting seems in order. Despite the unseasonably warm weather we’re having here, Martinmas served for the Gallican church the same function that St Andrew’s day does in the Roman and later traditions: the harbinger of Advent, the Winter Lent. Even the RCL in it’s warm fuzzy modernity seems to recognize this and the mass readings will begin taking an eschatological turn until Advent is upon us again.

So, with Bach ringing in our ears, it’s time to “Bestelle dein haus”–get your house in order; the Approach is almost upon us. The tension of holding together the historical Approach at Bethlehem and the eschatological Approach at the End of Time is best accomplished through the mediation of the spiritual Approach, the coming of Christ into the heart of each believer.

Let us follow, then, Martin’s words and example and–furthermore–the path he exemplified. As the Father of Gallican Monasticism he passed down an orthodox Christianity strongly rooted in the best traditions of Stoicism, emphasizing the cultivation of virtue as the preeminent path into the mind of Christ.

Well, now… It seems that (+)+Schori is gonna do this thing head-on: she’s
invited ++Akinola, ++Gomez, ++Nzimbi, and ++Akrofi to come chat while
they’re visiting Falls Church this November. It will be *very* interesting
to see what kind of response she gets.

This was a savvy move; we’ll see how the African/Southern Primates play
it…

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M and I have been thinking and figuring and have addressed the issue of what
to do on Sundays. That is, where the girls and I should attend. Being a
clergy spouse complicates things–and they only get more tangled since I
need to do discernment myself; to my mind it would be a clear conflict of
interests to seek discernment through any parish where M works. Add to that
the issue of her moving parishes every so often and our desire for a stable
worshipping community for the girls. So, I think the girls and I may join
the cathedral.

We went there for Evensong and Eucharist on Sunday; I hadn’t been to
Evensong in a while–not since leaving the North–and it was nice to hear
it. Both liturgies were Rite I which I also appreciated. Unfortunately, the
celebrant blew through the canon of the Mass as if it were a speed-reading
contest and in his haste managed to skip entirely over the Prayer of Humble
Access… Nevertheless, God was duly worshiped and we were both edified and
communed. We’re still exploring this, but this may be the best solution to
our dilemna.

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I’m not a fan of the make-over “reality” tv shows. From the few I’ve had the misfortune to catch, I see what I consider a fundamental flaw in the process. Typically, the show begins by showing a person whose wardrobe has not been updated since the late ’80s. Yes, scary. By the end of the show, the person has been “transformed” into a hip, cutting-edge, fashionable modern person. My suspicion, however, is that in another twenty years, you could haul up the very same person and see some one whose wardrobe has not been updated since the early ’00s… My fear is that the trimmings change but the essence is left untouched.

I’ve been thinking about this especially as it applies to liturgy. My class has really helped my focus certain aspects of my liturgical thought especially as it applies to liturgical change in parishes. The point I’ve
found myself making over and over again to my students is this: there are no liturgical changes in a congregation–there are theological changes that have liturgical implications and repurcussions. We don’t do–or *shouldn’t* do liturgy or liturgical actions or rites because they’re “cool” or even “neat”–i.e., the trimmings, we do them because they are the communal expression of the local church’s theology–i.e., the essence. Because of this, one of the most important jobs that church leaders (which means clergy, vestry, and anyone who cares enough about the church to spend their time reading geeky religion blogs like this one) have is basic
catechesis–what do we do and why do we do it. We have to teach people the Gospel–that’s key–but also the the communal implications of the Gospel and how those implications about God and us come together in the liturgy. If “liturgical changes” are made they can and all too often are simply cosmetic and even if they mimic an authentic spiritual tradition without the theological heart and core they’re just as useless as a tv makeover.

Here endeth the sermon.
For now.

I just finished reading the Aeneid again. I do believe it’s an unwritten law that great Classical epics have to have abrupt endings… Virgil had the bad timing to die before he finished; I wonder what Homer’s excuse is for the Odyssey.

As with the Odyssey, I’m struck by the liveliness of the world that Aeneas and his buddies inhabit. Everywhere there are gods, sacred springs, nymphs, demi-gods, etc. It’s a fully populated world and a world in constant contact with the divine. Certainly the average Roman of the time didn’t necessarily think of their world that way–I’m thinking particularly of Seneca’s comment that nobody seriously believed that a man held the world on his
shoulders–but the worldview that Virgil paints is a very compelling one.

To a degree, I wonder how his conception of a world permeated with deity fed into the monastic worldview. Virgil was huge with the monks as Leclercq notes (Aside: if you have any interest in things monastic or contemplative
or historical you *must* read Leclercq’s _Love of Learning and Desire for God_ if you haven’t already…). There’s something of the medieval hagiographical material that feels much like how Virgil’s world feels. How dead our worldview feels in comparison…

Things here have been quiet; life off-line has not been.

M is taking a leave of absence from her parish. Our bishop is being very supportive and is going to assist her in locating a more healthy parish setting. In the long run, this is going to be a very good thing; in the short term it’s going to suck as we’re back down to one salary with expenses intended for two.

One bit of good news both financially and otherwise is that I’ll be teaching the main intro class for my secondary field next term and am looking forward to that. And yes, de doctrina *will* be a required text…

So–please keep us, and especially M, in your prayers as we negotiate this time.