Metropolitan Hilarion's Message to Dallas Seminary

You may have heard that His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk visited Dallas Seminary on Feb. 11, 2011.

Here is the message given by His Eminence to Dallas Theological Seminary faculty [not chapel or any other broad audience].

photos here.

Where?

Where were they? Where were all the priests and religious this past Saturday?


I show up at 7:30 am. The Cathedral of Guadalupe in downtown Dallas. It's the day I've been waiting for. I show up to show my solidarity with all those who oppose abortion. I board a local Catholic School bus along with dozens of other faithful to pray the rosary and march around the Routh Street Women's Center. As the bus pulls away I hear from the back,

"Well, Father's here...we can begin our rosary now."

For a second I thought she meant to begin it.

"Father?!" came the cry a little louder. "Let's start the rosary!"

Good thing I know the rosary, eh? That was better than, "Ah well, let me see if I can remember how it begins..."

Thus began a day filled with being confused for a Catholic priest. Well, I was the only one dressed for the part on that bus.

As the rosary got going, I was enthused to say the least. The roaring responses lifted me out of my skin. These souls were serious about the mission of the day!

Next the bus stopped and the door burst open. We marched around the block drifting to our own cadences...yet all still in prayer...and in unison. When we reached the front windows of the clinic I could see folk moving about inside. All our voices seemed to rise higher at this moment.
Once more around the block and back on the bus to the Cathedral.

I had many encounters throughout the day that I am still processing. I am left with two puzzles. Was I the only Anglican priest there? Could that really be true? I know of another, for sure.

Then I began to wonder where all the Catholic priests were. Where all the religious? I saw many Bishops, some priests inside the Cathedral, a scattering of religious...perhaps a few from each monastic rule. It was not what I expected.

That may be due to many factors. I remember seeing Catholic priests [as well as mainline clergy] marching alongside the civil rights protesters in the 1960s. Did the press skew my memory to think that combination was normal?

Anywho, I think I get why there were so few Anglican/Episcopal clergy present.

Were Catholic diocesan priests not able to attend because they were busy with parish life and leadership? Where they making pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. to march on the mall? I'm still kind of wondering. I don't know. I don't presume to know why, either. I just do not know the answer and, yes, I rather bothers me.

I intended to show solidarity...not lead other men's flocks in prayer.

Predestination and Grace

A friend of mine posted here and here recently on the issue of Eastern Orthodoxy's stance on Predestination and Grace. Click through to read his full posts.

I find it hard to agree with him, but he puts things out for everyone to examine.

He quotes from a gathering of Eastern Patriarchs that issued a statement [though not a conciliar statement]. From this Synod came the Confession of Dositheus.

“We believe the most good God to have from eternity predestinated unto glory those whom He has chosen, and to have consigned unto condemnation those whom He has rejected; but not so that He would justify the one, and consign and condemn the other without cause.”“But since He foreknew the one would make a right use of their free-will, and the other a wrong, He predestinated the one, or condemned the other.”“And we understand the use of free-will thus, that the Divine and illuminating grace, and which we call preventing [or, prevenient] grace, being, as a light to those in darkness, by the Divine goodness imparted to all, to those that are willing to obey this — for it is of use only to the willing, not to the unwilling — and co-operate with it, in what it requires as necessary to salvation, there is consequently granted particular grace.”“This grace co-operates with us, and enables us, and makes us to persevere in the love of God, that is to say, in performing those good things that God would have us to do, and which His preventing grace admonishes us that we should do, justifies us, and makes us predestinated.”“But those who will not obey, and co-operate with grace; and, therefore, will not observe those things that God would have us perform, and that abuse in the service of Satan the free-will, which they have received of God to perform voluntarily what is good, are consigned to eternal condemnation.”“We believe a man to be not simply justified through faith alone, but through faith which works through love, that is to say, through faith and works. But [the idea] that faith can fulfill the function of a hand that lays hold on the righteousness which is in Christ, and can then apply it unto us for salvation, we know to be far from all Orthodoxy. For faith so understood would be possible in all, and so none could miss salvation, which is obviously false. But on the contrary, we rather believe that it is not the correlative of faith, but the faith which is in us, justifies through works, with Christ.”“But to say, as the most wicked heretics do and as is contained in the Chapter [of Cyril's' Confession] to which this answers — that God, in predestinating, or condemning, did not consider in any way the works of those predestinated, or condemned, we know to be profane and impious.”

No one wants to be called a Heretic. Nobody likes it because it sounds like a denial of genuineness or scholarship or sincerity or that the said Heretic is not actually a Christian. I am reposting his stuff here because the ACNA has been challenged by the OCA, via His Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah, to eschew our Reformed Heresies. This will most likely be the very last one to drop...if it ever does.

I simply cannot read the Anglican Collects from the Book of Common Prayer without feeling the strong tap on the shoulder from Orthodoxy and Catholicism....Synergy!

Horton hears "according to who?"

Here is the latest article asking the "age old question" of authority. If you don't subscribe to Modern Reformation just email me and I'll send you a .pdf of the thing.

Be sure to read the full response to the Michael Horton's comments here. Bryan Cross's response in the journal is truncated due to space.

Can Anglicans be Catholic?

thanks to the VeritasSeminar from Sydney AUS.

More Ackerman...on Ecclesiology

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REC DOW clips

Bishop Keith Ackerman.

Find others here.

Very Positive Developments in the ACNA!

clipped from a Fr. Foster in Ft. Worth. Add his blog to your list and enjoy this entry from last Saturday.
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Very Positive Developments in the ACNA!: "The Living Church has a report on the recently concluded ACNA annual meeting. It reports a number of encouraging bits of news (italicized emphasis added by me).

Officials of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), which launched a year ago as an alternative to the Episcopal Church, are reporting significant progress in their efforts to share Eucharist with other churches and to do evangelism alongside messianic Jews.

In a report delivered at the ACNA’s annual meeting in Amesbury, Mass., on June 9, ecumenism task force chairman Ray Sutton listed a series of recent milestones that show how the ACNA is forging connections outside mainline Protestantism.

Dialogues with the Orthodox Church in America have reportedly knocked down one of the centuries-old barriers that have kept Anglican and Orthodox Christians from sharing Eucharist. The big concession: when sharing Eucharist, the ACNA would confess that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and not add the phrase and the Son, as Western Christians traditionally do in a formulation called the Filioque.

RWF: When I appeared before the Commission on Ministry to receive final approval to be ordained a priest the chairman asked me if I believed everything in the Nicene Creed. (It is good that they ask that question around here multiple times during the ordination process!) I told him I believed every single word of it with all my heart. But, I added, if the price of unity was the Orthodox Churches was our jettisoning the Filioque clause I would do it in a heartbeat as the West really had no business adding it unilaterally in the first place. So I consider this a great step in the right direction. May God hasten their efforts!

What’s more, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod has lined up four meetings with ACNA representatives at seminaries later this year as the two denominations explore potential for Eucharistic sharing.

RWF: After I came to know Christ our Savior in my twenty-third year among the first works of theology I read were Luther's three great essays of 1521. Brother Martin's thought has deeply marked my own. (I will wager that I am the only clergyman in the diocese of Fort Worth who has taken a four-week 'Footsteps of Luther' study tour in Germany.) I would be absolutely delighted if this dialogue with the Missouri Synod bore fruit.

The ACNA is also inviting 17 messianic Jewish groups to a September summit to explore “how we can do ministry together,” Sutton said.

“We could get their congregations together with our congregations to fellowship, to pray and to seek ways that we be able to evangelize together among Jews and Gentiles,” said Sutton, rector of the Church of the Holy Communion in Dallas. “I think it will be a powerful witness for Jew and Gentile to stand together and proclaim Christ to our constituencies. It’s what happened in the New Testament.”

RWF: Interesting. May many people of all backgrounds coming to saving faith through this initiative.

Sutton’s report, which delegates received with rousing applause, comes as former Episcopal congregations now affiliated with the ACNA seek to establish a distinct, non-Episcopal identity. In addition to building bridges with other Christian communities, the ACNA aspires to define itself as a dynamic movement by planting 1,000 new churches within its first five years.

The ACNA is growing, albeit not as fast as some would like. Archbishop Robert Duncan, in his state-of-the-church address to about 100 delegates and bishops from across North America, noted that the church has swelled from 703 congregations a year ago to 811 now.

RWF: And now the bombshell:

Prospects for further growth, Sutton said, include welcoming as many as 150 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America congregations that are considering a move to the ACNA.

RWF: WOW! I wonder how this affects plans for the North American Lutheran Church.

The theologically conservative ACNA continues to tread in controversial waters as it carves a niche. Evangelizing Jews, for example, would put the ACNA at odds with most mainstream Jewish groups, which oppose the practice as an affront to Jewish identity. Also, whether to ordain women to the priesthood remains “an issue that divides us,” Duncan acknowledged in his address. Women’s ordination was on the agenda for panel discussion at the June 10-11 College of Bishops meeting, which was closed to lay delegates and press.

For now, the ACNA shows little appetite for internal conflict. Content to tolerate diversity of practice on women’s ordination, delegates to the Provincial Council avoided the issue and characterized their movement as more about unification, rather than fragmentation, within Anglicanism.

“We’re coming together, not splitting apart,” said the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, founding missionary bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a mission of the Province of Nigeria. “The Reformed Episcopal Church is now here after having been apart for 130 years. So we’re actually seeing the reversal of the fragmentation thing.”

Preserving certain strong relationships within the Anglican Communion proved to be a priority at All Saints Anglican Church, Amesbury, as the ACNA marked its first anniversary. The Rev. Lynne L. Ashmead, a deacon and the ACNA’s registrar, cautioned that dioceses need to follow specific record-keeping protocol in conformity with Communion-wide standards. Delegates likewise signaled deference to the Province of Rwanda when they affirmed the Anglican Mission in the Americas as a “ministry partner” that would remain under Rwandan jurisdiction rather than the ACNA’s.

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Cœtibus

As you probably know, the Vatican announced last month that it was preparing a document in response to Anglicans wanting into the Roman Catholic Church. That document, called Anglicanorum Cœtibus, was released yesterday. This has also been called the Apostolic Constitution for an Anglican Personal Ordinariate. Yes, you may need a dictionary.

I offer some initial thoughts, not simply on the document and its prospects, but on the responses from several Anglican commentators. Several men have quickly commented that certain points of Cœtibus, being "crucial to me [them]," do little to improve upon what is already in place with the Pastoral Provision, aka the Personal Prelature. Some further point out that this new structure is not an "ecumenical advance."

First, this offer from Benedict XVI is not up for me to scrutinize on an individual level. There will be no revision to the arrangement except from within. It is fruitless to point out key statements that don't satisfy our aggravation that Rome still does not recognize us for what we claim to be. I think that many misapprehensions were due to the misguided hopes that Benedict would create a Uniate Anglican Church with an Anglican Rite liturgy. He has done neither. Those who accept the offer will become Roman Catholics allowed to retain much, definitely not all, of their Anglican heritage within the structure of the Roman Rite. It is different than the Personal Prelature, but I'll leave that do another post to describe.

Second, this offer is not directed, in the case of nearly every detractor, at those who never longed to be Catholic. In other words, this offer is a response to those that HAVE wanted [including numerous appeals to the Holy Father] to be Catholic but chose not to convert for several reasons. The offer is surprisingly wide enough to include some detractors, but is primarily directed at those that have made appeals to Rome for a structure rather than converting individually. Here is a short list of their reasons for not converting yet. Please tell me if there are other substantial reasons for them not converting [albeit desiring so], and whether the new offer doesn't appease them.

If I convert as an individual from my Anglican Church to a Roman parish I will...

• lose many dear friends because they may not join me
• lose my Priest who has been my confessor and director
• lose my congregation because they might not follow me (in the case of Priests)
• leave my congregation to someone else that could damage their souls (in the case of Priests)
• lose the right to practice as a Priest (in the case of Priests)*
• lose the numinous power of Anglican liturgical patrimony
• lose my wonderful building (still true in many cases)
  

For those who never longed for unity with the See of Rome there really isn't much sense in responding. You did not plead with Rome for a quiet pool to be carved beside the restless waters. That image of the Shepherd is what I believe the Pontiff has done.

*Some will be allowed to be ordained as Catholic Priests

Nashotah podcasts

see here
http://ancientfaith.com/specials/in_the_footsteps_of_tikhon_and_grafton

"In the Footsteps of Tikhon and Grafton" — Nashotah House to Host Anglican-Orthodox Ecumenical Conference with St. Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary

This upcoming conference has not had much press coverage. Strangely since the inaugural convention of the ACNA in June I have heard very, very little about it. Any news about, or from, the conference will be a delight to this blogger.

ACNA, new Church, new challenge...

St. Ignatius on Discipleship, conclusion

Conclusion

When Protestants examine Ignatius’ writings, it is hoped they can see his zeal for Christ and his Church. He did not separate discipleship from ecclesiastical unity. Perhaps they can be distinguished, but never separated permanently. In fact, Baptism and the Eucharist served as two key events in the process of discipleship that highlighted the new Christian’s commitment to the faith of our Lord. We showed this by Ignatius' repeated refrain of unity in the liturgical aspects of baptism and taking the Holy Eucharist. He did not desire death for personal reward; rather he viewed his death in light of the lives he left behind in the Churches of Asia Minor. He mainly concerned himself with his peoples’ discipleship through unity. His death for Christ was the example he hoped to leave for them. His death was true imitation of his mentors Paul and John, his peer Polycarp, not to mention the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not simply view Christ’s death as an example of Divine love. His view of the atonement goes back to the cross. But it was natural for him to see continuity between the obedient, even willing, sacrifice of Christ and the apostles and other apostolic fathers. Only if the Churches of Ignatius’ bishopric were united would his own death be a bona fide martyrdom. Then indeed would he be a true disciple.¹ His death would unite those he left behind for the mission he left to them [clearly imitating the Lord]. Ignatius could not sever the cord between true discipleship and faithfulness to the apostles' teaching on Christ either. As with many things we learn about in the Church, discipleship is not disconnected from the community nor its unity...perhaps it can be distinct but not separated.

1 Willard M. Swartley, “The Imitatio Christi in the Ignatian letters,” Vigiliae Christianae 27 no. 2 (1973): p. 103.

St. Ignatius on Discipleship, part 5

Discipleship and Christology

Ignatius’s statements about the person of Christ echo the scriptural polemics against Docetism and incipient Gnosticism. There is no certain answer concerning the number of heresies he was attacking.¹ Certainly we can see that he fought Docetism. No less prominent at the turn of the first century was Gnosticism. One of the elements in his passionate desire for martyrdom may well have been an attempt to differentiate himself from his Gnostic-docetic milieu.² His writings follow the pattern of the apostle John, who linked 'loving the brethren' to proper Christology. Imitation entered Ignatius’ understanding of his death only in regard to the person of Jesus Christ.³

Ephesians 4:2-3 “Therefore in your concord and harmonious love, Jesus Christ is sung. And do ye, man by man, become a choir, that being harmonious in love, and taking up the song of God in unison, ye may with one voice sing to the Father through Jesus Christ, so that He may both hear you, and perceive by your works that ye are indeed the members of His Son. It is profitable, therefore, that you should live in an unblameable unity, that thus ye may always enjoy communion with God.” Unquestionably, Ignatius here describes the relationship of loving the brethren, an act of faithful discipleship to Christ, to one’s ability to believe correctly about the Son of God. Therefore those who believe wrongly about Christ manifest this in improper action within the community.

Ephesians 5:1 “who are so joined to him as the Church is to Jesus Christ, and as Jesus Christ is to the Father, that so all things may agree in unity.” Here he simply argues for the unity of the Church from the basis of Christ’s unity with the Father. We are to understand that to be a logical relationship. If you are living according to Christ, it will look like the union of Christ to his Father.

Ephesians 11:1 “being stones of the temple of the Father, prepared for the building of God the Father, and drawn up on high by the instrument of Jesus Christ, which is the cross, making use of the Holy Spirit as a rope, while your faith was the means by which you ascended, and your love the way which led up to God.” This symbol captures the overall scheme Ignatius uses to illustrate his concept of salvation. Man and God have responsibility and actions in his view. It is Trinitarian and highlights the idea of human activity in salvation. The description retells his thought on the place of the church in God’s program. Since the word "stones" is plural we are reminded that he is addressing a congregation...not an individual. A group could not perform this obedience unless it is unified.

Ephesians 17:1-2. “For this end did the Lord suffer the ointment to be poured upon His head, that He might breathe immortality into His Church. Be not ye anointed with the bad odor of the doctrine of the prince of this world; let him not lead you away captive from the life which is set before you. And why are we not all prudent, since we have received the knowledge of God, which is Jesus Christ?” Reception. He implores them here to adhere to the doctrine of their mentors. Notice how this doctrine is to be handed down, but not to be developed. So that unity with the bishop connects the believers to the true heritage of the Church, the Apostles.

Magnesians 1:1-2. “For as one who has been thought worthy of the most honorable of all names, in those bonds which I bear about, I commend the Churches, in which I pray for a union both of the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ, the constant source of our life, and of faith and love, to which nothing is to be preferred, but especially of Jesus and the Father, in whom, if we endure all the assaults of the prince of this world, and escape them, we shall enjoy God.”

Magnesians 7:1. “therefore the Lord did nothing without the Father, being united to Him.” Again he points out the glaring emphasis on the unity of the Father to the Son, as an example for us to follow in our Christian lives.

Magnesians 7:2. “There is one Jesus Christ, than whom nothing is more excellent. Do ye therefore all run together as into one temple of God, as to one altar, as to one Jesus Christ, who came forth from one Father, and is with and has gone to one.” His inclusion of ‘ones’ here highlights the unity between God and between the believers.

Magnesians 8:2. “There is one God, who has manifested Himself by Jesus Christ His Son, who is His eternal Word, not proceeding forth from silence and who in all things pleased Him that sent Him.” The concept of silence could be treated independently as a paper topic. The Father sends the Son in who is his word, not in silence, but in full expression. God’s love is expressed fully in the sending of the Son, the word. The father is not silent, for the word is going forth, incarnating in the flesh.

Magnesians 13:1-2. “Study, therefore, to be established in the doctrines of the Lord and the Apostles, that so all things, whatsoever ye do, may prosper both in the flesh and spirit; in faith and love; in the Son, and in the Father, and in the Spirit; in the beginning and in the end; with your most admirable Bishop, and the well-compacted spiritual crown of your presbytery, and the deacons who are according to God.” This description encapsulates the thesis of Ignatius’ letters to the Churches. It warns of false doctrine, calls for unity of the body, and includes submission to Christ-appointed leadership.

Trallians 6:1-2 “I therefore, yet not I, but the love of Jesus Christ, entreat you that ye use Christian nourishment only, and abstain from herbage of a different kind; I mean heresy. For those [that are given to this] mix up Jesus Christ with their own poison, speaking things which are unworthy of credit, like those who administer a deadly drug in sweet wine, which he who is ignorant of does greedily take, with a fatal pleasure leading to his own death.” In one of his clearest examples of polemics against heresy, Ignatius parallels the concept of accepting new teachings to taking a poisonous drink, enjoying its pleasure yet ignorant of its harm. A lot of scholars claim that doctrine was not firmly developed by this time. Ignatius shatters that ultra-modern & liberal assumption. One cannot 'mix' purity with impurity and create orthodox doctrine. The deposit of faith, the rule of faith, the 'faith once delivered' was already being defended against poison.

Trallians 9:1-2. “Stop your ears, therefore, when any one speaks to you at variance with Jesus Christ, who was descended from David, and was also of Mary; who was truly born, and did eat and drink. He was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate; He was truly crucified, and [truly] died, in the sight of beings in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth. He was also truly raised from the dead, His Father quickening Him, even as after the same manner His Father will so raise up us who believe in Him by Christ Jesus, apart from whom we do not possess the true life.” Here Ignatius outlines the proper understanding of the Son incarnate. The connection to his earthly lineage affirms his unity. No one who believes otherwise can be truly a Christian. Docetism clearly embodies the heresy refuted here. Docetism asserts/ed that Jesus 'merely appeared' to his disciples to return to them from the grave. Stop your ears when you hear it!

Romans 3:2. "For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." For our God, Jesus Christ, now that He is with the Father, is all the more revealed [in His glory]. Christianity is not a thing of silence only, but of [manifest] greatness.” Again silence is contrasted with the Son. Since the Son is glorified with the Father, the church carries on the word with the assistance of the Spirit.

Romans 7:3. “I desire the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became afterwards of the seed of David and Abraham; and I desire the drink of God, namely His blood, which is incorruptible love and eternal life.” This Eucharistic prayer conveys the link between the body and blood of the Son and the incorruptible divine nature. When we take the Holy Communion, we sup on the medicine of immortality.

Philadelphians 9:2 “But the Gospel possesses something transcendent [above the former dispensation], viz., the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, His passion and resurrection. For the beloved prophets announced Him but the Gospel is the perfection of immortality. All these things are good together, if ye believe in love.”

Philadelphians 11:3 “May the Lord Jesus Christ honor them, in whom they hope, in flesh, and soul, and faith, and love, and concord! Fare ye well in Christ Jesus, our common hope.”

Smyrneans3. “For I know that after His resurrection also He was still possessed of flesh, and I believe that He is so now. When, for instance, He came to those who were with Peter, He said to them, "Lay hold, handle Me, and see that I am not an incorporeal spirit." And immediately they touched Him, and believed, being convinced both by His flesh and spirit. For this cause also they despised death, and were found its conquerors. And after his resurrection He did eat and drink with them, as being possessed of flesh, although spiritually He was united to the Father.”

Smyrneans5:1-2. “Some ignorantly deny Him, or rather have been denied by Him, being the advocates of death rather than of the truth. These persons neither have the prophets persuaded, nor the law of Moses, nor the Gospel even to this day, nor the sufferings we have individually endured. For they think also the same thing regarding us. For what does any one profit me, if he commends me, but blasphemes my Lord, not confessing that He was [truly] possessed of a body? But he who does not acknowledge this, has in fact altogether denied Him, being enveloped in death.”

Smyrneans 6:2 “Let not high place puff any one up: for faith and love are everything, to which nothing is to be preferred. But consider those who are of a heretical opinion with respect to the grace of Christ which has come unto us, how opposed they are to the will of God. They have no regard for love; no care for the widow, or the orphan, or the oppressed; of the bond, or of the free; of the hungry, or of the thirsty.”

1 A. A. K. Graham, “Their word to our day, IV. Ignatius of Antioch,” The Expository Times 80 (Jan. 1969): p.102.

2 Ibid., p.108.

3 Daniel N. McNamara, “Ignatius of Antioch on his death, discipleship, sacrifice, and imitation,” (Ph.D. diss. McMaster University, 1978) p. 248.

Convince Me

Fox recently began a new series called Lie to Me. I've been a big Tim Roth fan so tried this new show. Its premise surrounds Roth's character, a man that has made a science of body language. His research finds that your facial expressions, twitches, nervous ticks, mannerisms...all your quirks tell whether you are being honest or not. He has studied uncivilized cultures to prove that his thesis is universal to humankind [except perhaps himself, but we're only two shows into the season]. It's a cool kind of show where he comes off looking like a magician because he can tell whether you are lying in any situation. Your body will not let you lie without visible protest. It's just a certain as not being able to hold your eyes open during a sneeze! He observes those protests to prove that you lie.

That got me thinking. Bear with me a moment. I have a handful of friends and such that seem content to go down with the TEC ship. I have always puzzled over this. For me, the Episcopal Church really never drew me more than it repelled me. I simply never envisioned myself there. But I know loads of folk that are content to remain for whatever reason. Why do you do this? I'm not saying that you shouldn't, I know you have enough pressure on you. But I do have an unsettled feeling about your stance.

So let me put it this way. Pretend I am just where I was 5 years ago [& I'll note that I most certainly am not]. Back then I was not happy with my Church nor it's views of doctrine and worship. I was looking not only for a place to raise children, but a place to seek vocation to life-long ministry. Convince me that you are happy and fulfilled and genuinely convinced that there is a future for your Church. Describe that future to me. Convince me that I should go no other direction but to bind myself to the Episcopal Church. I really want to know what you'd tell a recruit to the ministry.

You may say, "Well, noting how you came to this question through a TV show call Lie to Me, I already think you'll try to pick apart everything I say and call it a lie!" Not true. Roth's character exonerates just as many people as he exposes. I just wonder what you'd tell me about such a monumental decision.

Feast of Blessed Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop & Martyr

The Collect

ALMIGHTY God, by whose grace and power thy holy Bishop and martyr Ignatius triumphed over suffering and despised death: Grant, we beseech thee, that enduring hardship, and waxing valiant in fight, we may with the noble army of martyrs receive the crown of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle
Romans 8:35-39.

WHO shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Gospel
St. John 12:24-26. VERILY, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.


Today, Feb. 1st, is the Western observance of the Feast of our blog's Patron Saint. Check out some good reads on his importance.

http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/270.html

http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/IGNATIUS.HTM

http://www.magnificat.ca/cal/engl/02-01.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_of_Antioch

St. Ignatius on Discipleship, part 3

Discipleship and Eucharist

Ignatius employs creative bread and wine metaphors to relate the Eucharist to discipleship. For the early Church, only those who were fully accepted into the community through Baptism partook the Eucharist. Some misunderstand his language regarding being part of a new Eucharist. His language of becoming ‘pure wheat of God’ sounds too much like he considered himself to initiate a perpetual sacrifice in the lives of Christian martyrs. No doubt he felt that his own death was somehow connected to Christ’s. But his words on the holy Eucharist convey his belief, like baptism, that individuals participate in obedience only under the bishop.

Ephesians 13:1. ‘Take heed, then, often to come together to give thanks to God, and show forth His praise. For when ye assemble frequently in the same place, the powers of Satan are destroyed.’ The form ‘eucaristw’ in early Christian literature is closely connected to the idea of Eucharist. Of the times it seems on to refer only to thanksgiving to God, this occurrence should be seen to refer to the Lord’s Table, at which the faithful come together. This connects discipleship again to the community of faith. We come together, not in solitary, to give thanks and taking the elements.

Trallians 8:2 “Wherefore, clothing yourselves with meekness, be ye renewed in faith, that is the flesh of the Lord, and in love, that is the blood of Jesus Christ.” Faith and Love!

Philadelphians 4:1. ‘Take ye heed, then, to have but one Eucharist . . . that so, whatsoever ye do, ye may do it according to [the will of] God,’ and ‘I have confidence of you in the Lord, that ye will be of no other mind. Wherefore I . . . exhort you to have but one faith, and one preaching, and one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ; and His blood which was shed for us is one; one loaf also is broken to all, and one cup is distributed among them all: there is but one altar for the whole Church, and one bishop, with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow-servants.’ Clearly the point to these two lines is unity. Just as baptism could not occur outside the Church, the Eucharist was disallowed unless the community was present under the head of the bishop. He connects the bread to Christ’s body, referring to the action of breaking the bread and passing it to one another. Apparently there was only one loaf to begin with, describing the unity of Christ’s person. Even by taking the cup and breaking the bread, they displayed their discipleship through obedience. For the Eucharist could not be considered worthy of God unless it was administered by the bishop. How do this apply to Christian discipleship? Suppose believers want to explain their faith to their neighbors, yet without the stigma of the assembly. Could they use the sacraments to display the gospel to those interested? No because the gospel must remain in the Church lest it be invalidated. For those actions would be outside the ordained manner of worship, thus disobedient.

Smyrneans 7:1. ‘They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again.’ In this interesting polemic against false teachers, Ignatius describes to the Smyrneans how heretics did not come to the table to celebrate the gospel because they did not believe correctly about Christ. The implication is that those who believe the message will obediently join the Church’s worship. Correct discipleship affirms correct doctrine. Apparently this applies to the preceding verse in that those who cannot follow the teaching of the apostles corrupt the gospel and disobediently incur wrath.

Smyrneans 8:1. ‘Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it.’ This verse simply extends the sacrament to anyone whom the bishop has entrusted the sacred rite. Perhaps in this way, the Eucharistic celebration could be employed on the mission field by someone commissioned by the Bishop, like a parish Priest.

When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, ²¹ for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. ²² Don't you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the Church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not! 1Corinthians 11:20-. The Eucharist is the proclamation of the gospel in Corinthians. The gospel and the Eucharist are the property of the Church.

"Do, or do not. There is no 'try.'"

The Vatican says that Anglicans must choose sides...protestant or Catholic. We usually call ourselves both!
"Does it [Anglican Church] belong more to the churches of the first millennium -Catholic and Orthodox - or does it belong more to the Protestant churches of the 16th century?"

If Rome is willing to live by those qualifications [1st Millennium vs. 16th century dogma] then we have something to talk about. I'm not trying to push an ultra-protestant agenda, but I'm being hopeful that Rome is willing to unify around the first Millennium of our common Faith.

"He [Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Pontifical Council of Christian Unity] said he hoped that the Lambeth conference, an event which brings the worldwide Anglican Communion together every 10 years, would be the deciding moment for Anglicanism."

Him don't know much about Lambeth, do he?

"Cardinal Kasper, who has been asked to speak at the Lambeth Conference by the Archbishop of Canterbury, said: "We hope that certain fundamental questions will be clarified at the conference so that dialog will be possible."

When said questions are not clarified, it is hoped that they will countenance the GAFCon structure. It will be a long, long summer.

Orthodox? You keep using that word...

C. Michael Patton, a classmate of mine back in seminary days, has a conversation going on about the kind of Orthodox we claim to be. I have pointed my readers to his blog before. When I posted on my choice to seek orders in the Anglican Church, he was kind enough to point his readers over here, and besides I read his blog daily--Usually good reading (but then, not all posts are Michael's!).

Chime in over at Parchment & Pen.

Kind of reminds me of that famous quote from Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride.
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. "
Classic.