I request your presence at my ordination ceremony to the Sacred Order of Deacons in the
Reformed Episcopal Church taking place on Thursday evening, October 18th, in the year of our Lord 2007 at
The Cathedral of St. Matthias, 4142 Dayflower Dr., Katy, TX 77449 [Houston area].
Reception to follow in Johnson Hall.
In lieu of any gift, please consider a gift certificate from www.almy.com, to help with the costs of buying vestments.
Yes, this means I passed my exams. Thanks for praying, everyone! I understand, too, that many won't be able to make a mid-week ordination so please know that I understand & wanted to keep you informed. If you can make it I can fill in more details later.
3 comments:
Yo Chris,
Thank you for the blog! It's work : ) and what a great outlet for some good writing. Anyway, I have not fully read your first entry and still am working through it, but wanted to ask you on the sacrament...I keep going on a circle on the means of "grace" if sacrament partains grace to the person who takes of it, then can grace be manipulated...not physically, but if grace is unpredictable, not able to be earned, manipulated, caused is a better word..then how can the sacraments partain grace? I guess that just means that grace is part of the mystery that communion/sacrament is? help me out here brother...thanks
Faith can never be removed from the Sacrament. I know it is mysterious, but Anglicans generally believe that Christ is really in the Sacrament (notice I did not say elements), therefore it must contain grace. Yet the worthy reception of the Sacrament is necessary too. Say an Axe murderer or Guido the thug takes into his mouth the body of Christ...has he taken grace? Since he has not upheld his vows at Baptism and Confirmation, he probably partakes of condemnation rather than grace.
You're right, though. If Christ is physically present in the bread and wine, then grace can [and often has been] manipulated. But we cannot discard the historic practice of the Church because someone abused it. [Same for the office of Bishop and Priest and Deacon]
Let me say that Rome convened councils and made doctrinal decisions privately [without the whole Church] after the division of East & West. Many Anglicans simply try to be faithful to the undivided era of the Church. We reject Rome's late medieval innovations much like the Eastern Orthodox do.
Progressive Anglican-type are really not even catholic anymore. They cannot really uphold the creeds and councils that reject heresy and proclaim Christ's true identity. I cannot walk with them either.
I'd be glad to send you a paper I just wrote on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. If you have access to an Anglican Prayer Book read through the Communion service and see which parts stand out in your mind. I think you can read it at www.commonprayer.org
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Congratulations! I have read your blog before but have never posted. Again Congratulations!
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