Nielsen’s Nook

I came across an interesting entry in The Anglican Tradition: a Handbook of Sources edited by G. R. Evans that caught my eye this morning while I was reading. A little water is customarily added to the wine during the consecration of the elements (BCP, 404). Buy why? How has this come to us and what is it attempting to communicate to those who participate in the Eucharist?

Part 3, §110, Evans directs us to the Council of Florence and the Decree for the Armenians:

Water is mixed in because, according to the testimony of the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church mentioned in the preceding discussions, it is believed that our Lord himself instituted this sacrament with wine mixed with water. Furthermore, this is a fitting representation of our Lord’s passion. … For we read that both, that is, blood and water, flowed from the side of Christ’ (Evans, 120-1, c.f., John 19:34).

Further more, Revelation 17:15 appears to equate the waters with the people and so the mixing of water and wine marks out the union that is celebrated at the Eucharist between Christ and His people.

For we see that the water represents the people and the wine manifests the blood of Christ. Thus, when wine and water are mixed in the chalice, the people are united with Christ, and the faithful people are closely joined to him in whom they believe.’ (Evans, 121)

I recently learned of the Anglican Society of the Holy Cross (SSC) and wanted to pass on this little historical tidbit to you. The following is quoted from the SSC Province of the Americas website:

SSC stands for Societas Sanctae Crucis - the Society of the Holy Cross. The Society was founded in London in 1855 by a small group of Anglo-Catholic priests led by Father Charles Lowder. At a time when the Catholic Revival in the Church of England was threatened by persecution and misunderstanding, these priests came together for support, mutual prayer and encouragement. Fr Lowder spelled out the objects of SSC:  ‘To defend and strengthen the spiritual life of the clergy, to defend the faith of the Church, and to carry on and aid Mission work both at home and abroad.  The members of this society, meeting together as they did in prayer and conference, were deeply impressed with the evils existing in the Church, and saw also, in the remedies adopted by St Vincent de Paul, the hope of lessening them.’

The Society has now spread throughout the world and is organised in autonomous Provinces under Provincial Masters elected by their Brethren.  Within each Province are various Regions headed by Regional Vicars, and the work of the Society at local level is carried forward in Chapters led by their Local Vicars.  Priests of the Society live under a common Rule and meet together in their local SSC Chapters every month or two for prayer, Mass and some kind of study or conversation.  Presiding over the Society worldwide is a Master-General who has a special responsibility to ensure an on-going fidelity among the Brethren to the spirit of the Society. The Americas Province is the province in the Western Hemisphere, with the majority of its members living in the USA and Canada.

SSC is not a devotional guild, but takes its stance upon a shared vision of ‘a disciplined priestly life fashioned after a definite spiritual rule.’  It is this Rule of Life which unites the Brethren in their various priestly ministries and lives. They are required to ‘consider their obligation to the Society as a close spiritual bond…which takes precedence to that of any other voluntary society.’  This obligation includes a commitment to attend local SSC Chapter meetings and annual Regional and Provincial Synods.  The life of the Society is experienced primarily through the local Chapter, and attendance at Chapter is of obligation unless prevented by genuine pastoral duties.

The fortunes of the Society have waxed and waned since the early days of the Catholic Revival, but for its members it has always been an important source of priestly formation, discipline and fraternity. Many of the best-known and best-loved priests of our Anglo-Catholic tradition have been brethren of SSC.  Priests of the Society can be recognized by the small gold lapel cross that they generally wear. On it is inscribed the motto of the Society - in hoc signo vinces - in this sign, conquer!

See also the article at Wikipedia.

I woke early and made some coffee and enjoyed the remainder of the vow of silence that we took each night during the retreat. That time to pray, think and write was a treasure to be sure.

Overall, I think the retreat was a success for me. I wanted to meet as many from the diocese as possible. I think I at least shook hands with everyone. I was pleased to have conversations with every member of the Commission on Ministry that was present and I think those conversations went well. It is also a great thing to know the faces of those around the diocese that are also in the process of ordination.

It is a long process ahead, like a high mountain looming overhead. We’ve broken camp and have begun our climb. May the Lord in his good pleasure deliver his servant to its summit. Amen.

Friday was our first full day. I did not sleep well Thursday night so Friday was also a long day.

Positvely, I have been able to meet many people on the Commission for Ministry, which guides and governs much of the road towards holy orders.

This time has been eye opening for me as I begin to fathom the girth of diversity in the Diocese and how comfortable Anglicans are with ambiguity.

I am working through the whiplash of realizing that a year ago I had an M.Div. from a respected seminary, had decent national and good regional ecclesiastical relations. Now I have only a few local relationships, no national ones and have a theological education that is insufficient at best.

Lord have mercy and deliver your servant through these murky unknown waters. Amen.

Last evening we arrived at All Saints Retreat Center in Pottsboro, Texas. Shortly after I arrived Cn. Michelle approached us and asked, “Who’s had the most recent traffic violation?” We all shot lightning like glances at each other as if to ask, “Is this the end of our pursuit of Holy Orders? Like this, really?”

I knew I’d likely be the lucky one, since I received my last speeding ticket only about 60 days ago (and was expunged subsequently via Defensive Driving). I was in fact the lucky one, and Cn. Michelle looked at me and said, “Great! You’ll be leading Evening Prayer.” Gulp! Later as I was walking to the front of the room to lead the service Bp. Lambert entered. Gulp!

Thankfully things went very well. All I can say is:

I waited patiently upon the LORD,
He stooped to me and heard my cry.

Please keep praying for me and all the others who begin the ordination process here this weekend.

Introduction

What follows is a piece that I needed to write for myself and those around us who love us and pray for us. If you are hunting for polemic, I pray you will be greatly disappointed here. Rather, this is a personal reflection about personal reasons that my family and I joined the Episcopal Church. It is an attempt to articulate these reasons which have led me away from pastoral ministry in the vibrant Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) to pursuing holy orders in The Episcopal Church (TEC) which is at the best in dire tumult.

Our confirmation in the Episcopal Church on June 1, 2008 was the culmination of a complicated process that started while we were serving in Russia from 1998-2002, flowed through Westminster Theological Seminary (WTS) and was tutored by John Calvin and other pre-modern scholastic reformers. This is a short documentary of self-realization and pilgrimage. It is one with which you will likely find all sorts of inconsistencies and yet it is my journey, together with my wife and daughter. I hope you will also find a sincere pursuit of the Lord Jesus who lives and reigns with the Father and Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Church has been the recipient of Christ’s redemptive work in history and is itself part of that redemptive history.  Every Sunday the story of Redemption is reenacted an proclaimed in Word and Sacrament.  But did you know that every year the Story of Redemption is told through the Church Calendar.

That’s what the Christian seasons are all about. From Christmas to Easter and back again, the Church calendar is a reenactment of the redemptive narrative that God spoke in the person of Jesus Christ in which we participate today. Fr. Bob Corley, Curate at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Dallas, has written a short article on the Church Calendar that I think you might find informative and helpful.

For those following the crisis in the Episcopal Church, the 2008 Global Anglican Futures Conference that concluded just last week has issued a Statement on the Global Anglican Future, outlining the direction they see as best for the Anglican Communion. The GAFCON members officially, launch the GAFCON movement as a fellowship of confessing Anglicans, publish the Jerusalem Declaration as the basis of the fellowship, and encourage GAFCON Primates to form a Council.

It looks like the orthodox have had some more success in Virginia, where a judge sided with eleven breakaway Episcopal churches in their fight to retain property after their split. Read the article at Christianity Today.

Presently, there is a crisis in Anglicanism. Large numbers of Bishops are currently meeting in Jerusalem for the first ever Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON 2008). They are meeting to discuss the future of the Anglican Communion and we pray give leadership to it at a time when it is being systematically ripped apart. I commend to you the blog of Fr Greg Brewer who is on the Board of the Anglican Relief and Development Fund and Rector of the Church of the Good Samaritan, Paoli, PA. His blog is a chronicle of his experience first hand at GAFCON. Dr Os Guiness spoke at GAFCON on the Gospel and Secularism. Here’s a quote from Fr. Brewer’s blog chronicle:

Dr. Os Guinness on “The Gospel and Secularism”: The whole modern world represents the greats opportunity for the Gospel since the apostles. It also represents the greatest challenge to the Gospel. Never underestimate the profound anti-Christian assumptions of secularism. Never have evangelicals had clearer views on the authority of Scripture, but never has evangelical behavior been more chaotic and permissive that it is today. Those who choose to look to contemporary culture to guide their faith decisions, lose the authority of Scripture and cut themselves off from Christianity around the world.” (This quote was edited for spelling)

You may listen to the address via streaming audio on the GAFCON website or playing it here locally using the link above.