…is my latest piece up at the Cafe.
It’s a plea for the new hymnal—study for which was authorized by General Convention—to include a full complement of Office hymns, and to identify them as such. Too, it’s time for a new translation into contemporary English and I’m urging that, like the Prayer Book itself, these be released into the public domain.
We are the heirs of a long and profound liturgical tradition. We must remain good stewards of these riches.
In case you were wondering, the Daily Office contains:
Too, there are the stealth additions—Canticles 1/12, 2/13, and 14.
Do all members of the average Diocesan Conference, or of the House of Laity, live seriously and loyally by the Prayer Book pattern? Unless or until they do, those bodies are theologically incapable of making decisions of any real weight.
In the seventeenth century, individual liberty of conscience was firmly guarded, yet the “opinion of the Church” had real meaning. To-day it has not; not because individual Christians lack integrity or courage, but because they are not acting as, are not being, the Church. Our need is the same: spiritual guidance according to the Caroline pattern, based on the Catholic ascetical theology which the Prayer Book pattern embodies. To attain efficiency, we must either be true to our adult spirituality, or we must constitute a Sacred College through which the Archbishop of Canterbury can exercise total power!
Martin Thornton, English Spirituality, 238-9.
Just got back from a couple days away on work. I see there have been some interesting things happening over at the Episcopal Cafe upon which I would have commented had I not been otherwise occupied.
In particular I’m looking at:
More later as time allows…
If TEC is beginning to gear up to start to plan to prepare to form committees to appoint study groups to undertake the work of thinking about a new hymnal, then it makes sense for us’ns to start thinking about hymnal contents as well.
There are, of course, two major contents to Episcopal hymnals: service music and hymns.
As far as hymns go, I’ll let them off with but a single comment—we need good and suitable Office hymns…
But today, I’d like to think a little around the issue of service music. Two things are sparking this:
I’m not suggesting anything specific here but rather lifting up two items from the front-matter of the Plainsong of the Mass book:
Officially approved to be released today is that ten sisters and the chaplain will indeed be received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church next Thursday, September 3rd. The timeline for the chaplain’s ordination into the Roman priesthood is still on the fuzzy side due to communication between various groups, but is looking good.
I’m sorry to see them go, but certainly wish them all good things in their new church home!
Released today from our testers in the 0-7 age range.
Of the contenders the winner and still most requested venue for high liturgy is (drum-roll please…)
St Paul’s K-Street!
Mt Calvary receives an honorable mention in the coffee-hour category.
Of course, we also haven’t hit All Souls or Ascension & St Agnes yet…
(I’m still “away” but I couldn’t let this go unremarked…)
From the Independent by way of TOD, bls and Dean Knisely:
Thousand of protesters took to the streets, waving the orange flags of the opposition. Before long, looting began. Buildings were set on fire. But the turning point came when a crowd moved from the main square towards the presidential palace. Amid the confusion, someone panicked and gave the order to the troops guarding the palace to open fire. Scores died. The leaders of the army decided they’d had enough and stormed the palace, causing the president to flee.
A typical African coup d’état? Not quite. Certainly there were allegations of corruption in high places. The president had bought a private jet – from a member of the Disney family – for his own personal use. He was accused of unnecessary extravagance, of mismanaging public funds and confusing the interests of the state with his own. But something else had whipped up the protesters in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, earlier this year, when the government of Marc Ravalomanana was overthrown in the former French colony.
The urban poor were angry at the price of food, which had been high since the massive rise in global prices of wheat and rice the year before. Food-price rises hit the poor worse than the rest of us because they spend up to two-thirds of their income on food. But what whipped them into action was news of a deal the government had recently signed with a giant Korean multinational, Daewoo, leasing 1.3 million hectares of farmland – an area almost half the size of Belgium and about half of all arable land on the island – to the foreign company for 99 years. Daewoo had announced plans to grow maize and palm oil there – and send all the harvests back to South Korea.
Wow—why didn’t we see this coming? Oh wait, we did…
You might believe internet propoganda and think that that 45% of the population (9 million and change at last estimate) are Christian; about half of those Roman Catholic, we have some 120,000 Anglicans in the area. Americans, however, are better informed and know that Madagascar is populated entirely by animated animals who make popular movies, so it’s all good.
I’m glad the Anglican Communion isn’t being distracted by little things like this and is hard at work on restructuring around genital issues.
(And lest you have any qualms, have no fear; this item is entirely unrelated to the whole neo-colonialism thing. No relation in any way.)
I just can’t work up the interest to look at many church politics items, recently. I think it may be a periodic numbness from exposure to its unhealthy radition. I won’t say church politics isn’t imporant for church folks—we have a responsibility to keep an eye on what’s going on—but not all the time…
We went on a mini-vaction to Washington DC over the weekened and, looking at the two churches we really wanted to visit, the one closest to a metro stop was St Paul’s K Street. We arrived late due to work on the blue-orange lines, but enjoyed a pleasant Rite I Sung Mass by Fr. Nathan Humphrey; apparently if we’d gone to the Solemn High Mass later, we would have run into Fr. Cramer too. We had to run back to check out of our hotel so ducked out with just a hasty word to Fr. Humphrey and the music director who recognized us from our mutual time at Smokey Mary’s. On the subway, M asked Lil’ G how she had liked the service. She responded, “It was really nice to go to real church again.” Her favorite part was the chanted Lord’s Prayer.
There’s just something to be said for beauty, especially in the addition of music.
Ah well.
More later, perhaps…
Two interesting things:
Former Episcopalians often have quite a lot to say about Episcopal and Anglican dealings. Their words are often voluminous, often colorful, and not often “edifying”. It’s in light of these realities that I was interested to read a more measured take on the actions of General Convention from a Former Episcopalian now Roman Catholic, our favorite online Cistercian, Br. Stephen. While I don’t agree with everything he says there, of course, I did find his perspective and analysis quite interesting.
On the other hand, I do believe we’ve just been identified as the Antichrist by noted anglo-paplist Fr. Hunwicke:
The essence of the concept of the Antichrist is that he, the ultimate manifestation of evil, is skilfully dressed up so as plausibly to appear the genuine article. It occurs to me that the movement known as Affirming Catholicism is exactly this. The enthusiasm and the technical mastery with which they deploy their props – the lace, the monstrances, the music, the incense, the 39 buttons down their soutanes – are simply deceptions of the Evil One, designed to draw away the faithful from their Redeemer.
I mustn’t let my rhetoric run away with me. Some of them are decent and well-meaning, but misguided, people. I am not their judge; I shall stand before the same tribunal as they do. But there are some of them who have a virulent hatred of us. They do not say “These people who reject women priests are decent and good Catholics with whom I would wish to collaborate in every possible way because – except in this one issue – we share the same faith; and I wish them well because – although they’re just making this one mistake – they can share with us our mission to spread the Catholic Faith within the Church of England”. They want to see us persecuted, they want to see us denied a place within the Provinces of Canterbury and York. Their hatred of us seems visceral.
Now that’s where the devil really is.
Actually, I believe that I do and have said “These people who reject women priests are decent and good Catholics with whom I would wish to collaborate in every possible way because we share the same faith…” so I guess that makes me a well-meaning but misguided soul.
(Personally, I take real issue with the notion that “catholicity” is identical with the Neoscholasticism of the past hundred-and-change years, but now’s not the time for that particular discussion.)
Fr. Hunwicke is, of course, correct: the devil is in visceral hatred of other humans—especially fellow Christians no matter what their “party”. It’s unfortunate how often that point gets missed, and how often the opposite gets pushed on blogs.