Sat - August 26, 2006

What Did Jesus Mean by Unity?


Archbishop Rowan Williams has a somewhat misguided view of unity.

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Fri - July 21, 2006

A Wonderful, if Melancholy, Meditation


By the kindness of a friend I recently was blessed with my first trip abroad and with a greater purpose than mere tourism (though we did a bit of touring).... The monastery is fairly unique in the Orthodox world - a common monastery - that is having both men and women - with the women quartered on one side of the village lane and the men on the other.... There is far too much to the monastery’s life to write about at this moment for readers of Pontifications, but I would offer the suggestion that you try reading anything of Fr. Sophrony’s that you happen to find.

...But I offer my visit to the monastery as a prelude to my thoughts - partly because I went to the monastery first and then made the tourist trek that is the subject of my thoughts at the moment - and partly to say that my thoughts are cast against the backdrop of a week’s quiet prayer and reflection in one of the holier places in our Western world.

...My visit also coincided with the Episcopal Church’s General Convention, an event that probably received better coverage in the English papers than in those of the U.S. - Anglicanism not being a mere footnote in British history. Reading of the Episcopal Church’s descent into chaos (indeed “chaos” was the word used in the Times to describe the convention) while at the same time touring some of her Mother Church’s great cathedrals made for extended meditations.

...But I don’t know how to look for “Catholic” England other than to remember the murdering butchery of Henry VIII (he had the monks at Walsingham drawn and quartered), and the countless brave Jesuits who labored for the Catholic faith long after England had fallen under the dark shadow of Cromwell.

My meditation was on how falsely the story of Anglicanism had been related to me when I was an Anglican - both in adult inquirers’ classes and in seminary itself - the myth of the 3 Branch theory of the Church and other stories.

...And there are doubtless many believers who remain - indeed the holy monastery I visited is evidence that the Christian faith cannot be extinguished. Perhaps the most poignant part of my visit was to take a short ride outside of Oxford to see the home of C.S.Lewis and to visit his grave and the Church in which he worshipped.... The parish bulletin’s lead article was all about “labyrinths” and how neat they were and the spirituality associated with them - mostly new-age nonsense.

...I prayed for Episcopalians at home who now have to hear about “Mother Jesus” from the highest levels, and Anglicans across the world who have to sort their way through.

...At Walsingham, where Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox all have shrines to the Mother of God, I overheard a group of school children who were on a daytrip to the shrine (I do not know from what school).... May the faith of the fathers of Britain shine again in that green land - Aidan, Cuthbert, Theodore, Bede, good men and women who kept the faith and knew the way home.

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Sun - July 2, 2006

Too Good to Pass Up



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Fri - June 9, 2006

Returning to a Community of Faith


So as the General Convention of the ECUSA prepares to meet (starting tomorrow), they have published their Blue Book, which contains all of the various resolutions and committee reports.... I could go on for ever about the various items which are being proposed as part of the "Rites of Passage: Liturgies for Transformations in the Lives of God's People" book which will presumably be available soon at a bookstore near you.

...Given the nature of the prayer and the context in which it was located (right after the "Release from Prison" - I'm surprised they don't have a service for escape from prison, but we won't go there), I'm assuming this refers to someone who had renounced the Episcopal Church in some fashion and either gone to another denomination, or perhaps became a Buddhist for a while.... In Orthodoxy (as it is, essentially in Roman Catholicism), the understanding is that in order to return to the Faith after having turned your back on it, you need to be formally received back according to long standing liturgical traditions.... In Orthodoxy, unless you were simply attending a different Orthodox Church, you would need to be Chrismated.... We find in the earliest Church councils (starting at Nicea), that canons were produced governing what to do with folks who had followed various heresies and had left the Church. To the Orthodox, to leave for another Christian denomination de facto means following some form of heresy, so to return would require some sort of Chrismation.

...What this all speaks to is the deplorable lack of an ecclesiology within the ECUSA in particular, and Anglicanism in general.

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Tue - May 30, 2006

Diseases and Their Progression


The first one is exceptional in its honesty about evangelicalism, its beliefs, and provides sufficient information for predictions to be made about the future of Anglicanism.

...Jensen's honest about evangelicalism's beliefs is not that others haven't also been honest.... To Virtue, orthodoxy means "Biblical Orthodoxy," which is the delusion, held by most evangelical/fundamentalists, that they are adhering to what the Bible says. What they often fail to account for is that they are really adhering to a set of teachings that can be defended to some degree by careful selection of Scriptural passages. So, in fact, this "Orthodoxy" is right/correct (Ortho) only in that it meets with the views held by some subset of the Protestant reformation.

...Each of these statements has some degree of truth underlying them, and then a whole lot of baggage and error of rather modern pedigree.... It is a matter of historical fact that the Church existed before the New Testament had its first letters written. So, although the OT Scripture were authoritative, clearly there was a whole collection of new teachings that went beyond the Scripture.... The Church has always held Scripture in high regard, and looks to it as a primary source of revelation.... That change is that the Holy Spirit was sent upon the entire Church to serve as guide (note - entire Church, not just some small group folks in the West).

...We can continue with the sin/guilt/substitionary atonement question. Clearly, based on Scripture, the writings of the Fathers, and the Liturgies that have come down to us the understanding of our sinful nature has always been a part of Christianity. However, the unique focus on the penal substitution model of the atonement is more a late medieval focus. Yes, this model has its basis in Scripture, but it is only a model, and does not capture the fullness of the Gospel message. One of the unfortunate outcomes of the exclusive use of this model is the basic belief that as Christians we basically remain entirely corrupt, and only get into heaven because of a declaration of our righteousness, not that we ever become actually righteous. One of the unfortunate results of this view will be addressed below, and reflects a huge omission on the part of Bp.

..."Only through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross can there be forgiveness and redemption."... In fact, at one point, he makes another rather alarming statement that we are called to "submission in repentance and faith, bringing salvation from the guilt of sin and so freedom to live the Christian life and the promise of life eternal."... Once again, there seems to be no place here for the resurrection.... Jensen is at all incorrect here, at least as far as his description of evangelicalism. In most confessions I've seen, although they acknowledge the resurrection, it appears to be more of an afterthought.

...Jensen states, that being an evangelical makes you part of the true church, how it is that this evangelical assembly squares its theology with the ancient Christian approach of elevating Pascha (Easter) above all other days. You would think that if evangelical theology were correct that the Church would have always celebrated Good Friday as the most important day of the year. We'd all receive Good Friday baskets or some such, and Easter would be an afterthought for those people not too tired out by the Good Friday celebrations.

The other piece missing here is a good theology of the incarnation. You see, the faith once received believes in the transformation of human nature due to God's assumption of that nature. The faith once received believes that we can partake in the divine nature of God. All of this is quite frankly missing from evangelicalism, and this is a huge, gaping hole that leads to further errors and problems.

...We are told that the Church is the very Body of Christ, as well as being the pillar and bulwark of truth.... Jensen, and presumably his fellow evangelicals, it is a fellowship of believers ministering to one another.... Jensen informs us that a proper evangelical will elevate the Gospel above the Church.... How can one be elevated above the other. The Church is yet another way in which we participate in the hypostatic union of God and Man which leads to our very transformation.... Yet, because of a limited view of atonement, and an even more limited view of the incarnation, evangelicals miss that point. One key problem is that the Church can no longer serve as the pillar of truth - simply because the Church appears to be merely all those individuals who share a common belief system.... Jensen himself notes that Arminians and Calvinists exist side by side within this Church - and yet they disagree on some serious fundamentals.

...I'd be interested in seeing how simple worship squares with the worship we see throughout Scripture. In fact, the last images of worship that we see in the pages of Scripture are in the Revelation to John. These images, like all other images of worship in Scripture, are images of incense and robes, and candles, and bowing, and movements.... In fact, God places a great deal of emphasis on worship, especially in the Old Testament, and apparently it is continuously going on in Heaven.... Jensen seems to like the idea of "liquid" church, where the only thing of importance is that it shouldn't be entirely individualistic.... His reading of Scripture has informed him that we need to minister to one another, but that is as far as it goes. Since his theology is lacking a good understanding of the incarnation, and a good understanding of the Church as the Body of Christ, he doesn't have a lot of good ammunition.... Jensen's world we will ultimately see a decline in corporate worship, if for no other reason than nobody within the evangelical world has much of an argument for it.... Jensen points out that another key piece of evangelicalism is individual judgement. So, if the individual judges that he doesn't need to be engaged in a visible church body of some sort, I would gather his judgement trumps the rather vague beliefs on this subject apparently held by all good evangelicals.

...Peter refers in his letters to the priesthood of all believers , echoing a similar phrase in the Old Testament. Clearly we are all, as were the ancient Israelites, called to the priesthood at some level.... Peter is not introducing anything new, as much as most evangelicals seem to want to believe that he is. Even though everyone is called to be a priest - to make sacrifices to God, that does not eliminate for people to hold the formal office of priest - which, of course, we see throughout the New Testament era and beyond.... Jensen thinks we can see the elimination of priests in worship services and the like.... Jude , which points back to a time in ancient Israel when there were some who felt that they, too, didn't need a special office of priest.... So here we have what is really another case of evangelicalism not having a proper theology, and it results in error, and a rather severe error.

So, within evangelicalism, we have a group that prefers individual judgement, that seems to ignore passages of Scripture when those passages don't square with their individual theology, and who seek the freedom to worship as they see fit. Compare and contrast this to modernists who do pretty much the same thing. The only difference, really, is that modernists ignore larger chunks of Scripture than evangelicals do.... Yes, certainly, but you see it has been my belief that the reformation is directly responsible for the modernist infection of Western Christianity. The reformation so elevated individual judgement and individual interpretation of Scripture, and so lowered the importance of a visible Church and of an orderly God derived worship, that they opened the door for subsequent generations to simply continue the effort.

...Well, you see, even if all of the modernists are given the boot and are no longer part of the larger communion, I think you have only delayed the necessary progression of a disease.... Most of them have openly acknowledged that they have to join with the evangelicals and pretend that the errors I mention above (along with the many more that come with the package) don't really matter. So, in another 50 years or so, likely even sooner, we'll see the same sorts of things again. The only real solution, IMO, is for Anglicanism to return to its real roots.... A return to its roots as a member of the one True Church - not a loose organization consisting of a bunch of like-minded members, but rather a visible Kingdom on Earth where all worshiped and worked together.

Posted at 11:05 AM     Read More  

Wed - December 21, 2005

The War on Christmas


First we had the Jews against Anti-Christian Defamation, and now we have an atheist in the London Telegraph entering the fray. I'll let you read these stories - the opinion piece is really exceptional, so there is nothing that I can add to it. What is amazing is that we have atheists and Jews, joining the battle on the side of either orthodox or evangelical Christians, against...... You know, the folks who were raised Christian, show up at Church once in a while (usually Christmas, btw, which isn't even the biggest day of the year in the Church, but these folks wouldn't know that), but quite frankly have no more belief in God than even Mr. Heffer has.... However, these people don't even have the courage to admit that they really aren't Christian anymore. After all, if you really believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, you'd think you would, at the least, not be ashamed of it.

...However, my point here is not to pick on secular Christians, as if they are something new on the scene. Frankly they have been around since the time of Ananias and Sapphira , and it only has become worse since Constantine and the legalization of Christianity.... Then, those of us in the Church can return to observing Advent, celebrating Christmas by worshiping, and stop having to deal with the secular Christians regarding Christmas.... Nicholas on his feast day which seems better than celebrating some made up Coca Cola advertising gimmick), no more explaining to the children why we try to wait and begin celebrating Christmas on Christmas day (so we aren't one of those who announce, on the feast of the Nativity of the Lord of all Creation, "thank God that's over"). Once again, Christmas, as important of a holiday as it is, will be placed in the correct perspective, as the second, or maybe even third most important feast in the Church, not the first.

What is the most important feast in the Church? Well, if you're not a secular Christian then you know. If you are, you may know only because somebody mentioned it to you, but you likely don't.... The incarnation of our Lord was a huge event, but nothing is more important than the Resurrection itself. If you're not clear why that is, e-mail me following the link below and I can help you out.

Posted at 10:43 AM     Read More  

Thu - December 15, 2005

Okay, Enough Dr. Toon


Dr. Peter Toon, one time president of the Prayer Book Society here in the U.S. In a recent essay , Dr. Toon raises some points to which I have much more specific problems.

In this essay, Dr. Toon looks to the Tractarian movement as a bad thing, to which I can only agree in that it did not go far enough. The Tractarians, at times, seemed more interested in defending their right to exist within the Church of England, than they really did in converting the C of E to its Catholic roots. Dr. Toon would disagree, and, often in his writings calls people back to the reformed roots of the Church of England.... To speak of the reformed roots of the Church of England is to consider the Church to have been founded at the time of the reformation, rather than more than a millennia earlier.

...Dr. Toon also decries things of the AngloCatholic movement as "ritualism", an attempt to dismiss the entire movement with a slur as opposed to engaging the reality that such "ritualism" was the norm in the universal Church, which Dr. Toon repeatedly in his writings claims to support. What Dr. Toon really supports is a brief 350 year period within the Church of England as being the measure of what the Church should be. He is, in many ways, just another fundamentalist, except that what he holds most dear is not Scripture, but rather the Book of Common Prayer, and more importantly the 39 articles.

...I would recommend that Dr. Toon study the Old Testament a bit more, and realize that God, Himself, established ritual as a necessary part of Worship.... He did not establish hour long sermons and temples which placed the pulpit and the preacher as the center point of worship. If you doubt that this is what reformed theology leads to, just look at any large Church built during the first 200 years or so after the reformation.

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Tue - December 13, 2005

Update


Well, I had grand plans to do some critical review of John Ortberg and Rick Warren's books, but really don't have time to do the sort of methodical work that is warranted.... As time permits I'll try to address those specifically.

Posted at 09:48 AM     Read More  

Tue - February 22, 2005

Oops


So, this friend of mine was in San Francisco this Lent, and elected to attend the Lenten program at Grace Cathedral. Now, Grace is not exactly the center of Christian Orthodoxy, so this was pretty brave of him.

...A bit more transpired, but the upshot was that these people, some, if not most, who were life-long Episcopalians, had no idea that things like prayer and fasting belong to the long history of Christian orthodoxy, and to Jewish orthodoxy before that. In fact, the practices predate Zen, as Zen, or the Japanese form of Buddhism dates only back to the 5th century.

Of course, as we've discovered during our study, even the conservative members of our own orthodox parish, are not necessarily familiar with these practices and the long history they have. I suspect, and actually have suspected, that this lack of knowledge about historical Christianity, and failure to pass along the traditions, have created a religiously illiterate generation. This illiteracy then leads to a situation where people can be led astray because they understand something to be missing from their spiritual lives, but never realized that it has been available all along. We've had two years of Lenten programs now which rely on pop Christian authors who, themselves, are just beginning to discover the very principles which governed Christianity through most of its first two millennia. They go on to construct their own views and beliefs, seemingly unaware of the vast treasure of past teaching on these matters from Church Fathers and others. Often time, when down in the details, these new beliefs are either simply wrong or both wrong and dangerous.

...Then they become merely conservative, holding on to those things they remember from growing up.... Worse, is someone who has discovered, for instance, that Zen has these disciplines focused on enlightenment, and off these Christians go to pursue non-Christian religions.

Posted at 02:09 PM     Read More  

Sat - February 7, 2004

Well, another battle lost.


We, the 30th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, are deeply saddened by the actions of the 74th General Convention of the Episcopal Church in abandoning the "historic faith and order" (Preamble of the Book of Common Prayer) as part of the Anglican Communion. In confirming the election of a person sexually active outside of holy matrimony and in choosing to bless sexual relationships outside of holy matrimony, the Episcopal Church has denied the plain and simple teaching of scripture, and has acted apart from the family of the Anglican Communion in its moral teachings on marriage and sexuality.

We are further saddened that the Presiding Bishop of ECUSA, Frank Griswold, and those bishops who participated in the consecration have ignored the heartfelt plea of the Communion not to proceed with the scheduled consecration of Canon Gene Robinson. They have ignored the clear and strong warning of the detrimental consequences for the unity of the Communion which was contained in the Statement from the Primates Meeting of October 15 and 16 which was unanimously assented to by the thirty-seven Primates present including the Presiding Bishop of ECUSA.

...Resolved that we, the 30th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, deeply regret the wounds to our Communion and to our members experienced since the 74th General Convention of The Episcopal Church.

...What was highlighted at today's convention, and during conversations regarding these resolutions, is that a significant percentage of those who hold that what happened at the 74th convention were wrong hold that simply because we acted without the consent of the Anglican communion.

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Tue - January 27, 2004

Revealing


Seriously, though, we had a good time reading the real message of the book which is more about the need for repentance, and the final glory which awaits those who follow Christ, than it is about almost anything in the Left Behind series. At the very end of chapter 22, we see the warning about what will happen to those who either add to, or take away from, the words of the prophecy of that book. Some groups use this as a club to beat up on the Roman Catholic Church over the historically absurd accusation that they added the deuterocanonicals to the Bible during the reformation.... After all, the words of the prophecy are all about repentance, obedience to God, doing good works, and persevering to the end, the result of which is eternal life in the presence of God.... People who have, through the centuries, taught a variety of heresies that either all are saved, or certain behaviors are not sin (think the serpent in the garden as the first example), or that belief in Jesus is not necessary for salvation, are just some examples of those who are taking away from the words of the prophecy, and are therefore teaching a different Gospel.

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Fri - December 5, 2003

Interpreting Sodom and Gomorrah



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Sat - November 22, 2003

Answering Questions


He points out that most AngloCatholics, who claim to hold to orthodoxy, need to examine themselves.

...Bishop Ackerman asked very pointed questions, like, how many people say the daily office?... How many AngloCatholics exhibit the joy that we should have given the glorious experience of heaven we get at a well done High Mass, with the grace that we receive through the Sacraments (especially the one Sacrament virtually ignored by all other Anglicans, confession)? If Jesus knocked on the door to our heart today, would we invite him into a messy house with nothing to eat, with no amenities?

Of course, the main point of this talk was to make it clear to us that the road to recovery in the ECUSA is not argumentation so much as conversion (after all, St.... I think there was an undercurrent to his talk, however, that needs to be brought out as well. This undercurrent was made clear today as I read a letter from our Standing Committee. I had applied to serve on our Diocesan nominating committee, as our Bishop announced his retirement after General Convention. My concern was that orthodoxy be represented on the nominating committee, so that our choices for Bishop might also include someone who represented some level of orthodoxy.... However, there were some 65 applicants for the 15 available slots, and the Standing Committee felt that there were others better qualified, and that the committee would reflect the variety of views present within the Diocese.... Reflecting on the letter, and on Bishop Ackerman's talk, it reminded me that perhaps one of the greatest demonstration of our faith is the willingness to accept that our part in the "war", if you will, is on our knees. We don't need to necessarily serve on committees, go to General Convention, have our fingers in every aspect of Diocesan or National life. Granted, these activities are important, and if called, we should serve, but the majority of the soldiers in any battle of Christianity are kneeling before the throne of God with prayer books in hand (or rosary, or breviary, or ...). It is there, before the throne, when we join with the martyrs under the throne asking "How long?", that the true test of our faith is made.

Posted at 11:56 AM     Read More  

Wed - August 6, 2003

Mark 8:35-38



Posted at 12:53 PM     Read More  

Uh, Definition Please?


“I believe that the spirit that was here at the convention … will continue in the church, and that spirit pulls us together,” Bishop-elect V. Gene Robinson said on NBC’s “Today” show.

“I’m certain there will be a few for whom this will be so troublesome that they cannot stay, but I will be doing everything I can and I believe the entire Episcopal Church will do everything we can to work with these folks,” he said, adding that reconciliation is in the church’s “very best tradition.”

...If we are to stay within the ECUSA, then we must accept that Gene is a validly consecrated Bishop, and that the faith that he holds - a faith that celebrates divorce and celebrates disordered human relations - is somehow the historic Christian faith. Although he, and others of like mind, would disagree, we are perilously close to arguing that a faith with no truth is the same as the historic faith that was based on he who is truth.

...Scripture uses the relationship between man and woman as a vibrant symbol of the relationship between Christ and his Church, between God and man. Scott Hahn, a theology professor at Franciscan University, loves to say (and I love to quote): "God writes the world the way we write words." God expresses fundamental truths about Himself, and our relationship to Him in the world itself.... The becoming of one flesh two beings who in their natures are different, the bringing forth of life from this union, these are some of those reminders. God has protected ordered relations in Scripture because these relations speak of God and man, and man's salvation. To argue that Gene's lifestyle is acceptable is tantamount to arguing that man may save himself (a form of Pelagianism), or that God is not interested in man (some sort of Deism?).

...Even if investigative teams are not dispatched to diocese that do not accept openly gay clergy, even if I am permitted to catechize with the historic faith, I will ultimately be forced to answer a question from my children. I know I will, because children see through the fog that well meaning adults can often cast around things.... They will ask why he is bishop even though it would seem to contradict Scripture and Tradition.... They will see, I fear, my tacit approval of his form of the faith.... My children may never ask the question, they may only see that Christianity really doesn't stand for anything. And Gene, and those of like mind, will have led one more little one down the garden path to perdition.

Posted at 11:53 AM     Read More  

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