A blog promoting Anglican history, culture and spirituality in the Catholic tradition and in communion with Rome.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Monsignor Andrew Burnham on what the Anglican patrimony is all about
Msgr Andrew Burnham of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and former Anglican Bishop of Ebbsfleet writes about what the Ordinariate liturgy would look like here. My comments on what he wrote will be in a later post. His essay was distributed to attendees of the 2011 Anglican Use conference in Texas, USA.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Asking for your prayers...
The provincial office of the Episcopal Church of the Philippines recently announced that the Most Rev. Edward Malecdan, Prime Bishop has been diagnosed with colon cancer and will undergo radiation therapy for one month.
Please include the Most Rev. Malecdan in your prayers. May the Divine Physician restore him to health that he may witness the Gospel for more years to come.
Please include the Most Rev. Malecdan in your prayers. May the Divine Physician restore him to health that he may witness the Gospel for more years to come.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
The new English translation of the Mass may yet revive English in our isles
So much has been written about the decline of the English language in the Philippines. While the nation remains the 3rd largest Anglophone nation on the planet with 57% of the 92 million Filipino population functional in it. However literacy in the language is declining. Literacy would mean that being Filipino can be expressed in the English language. When a Filipino uses the language, another English speaker should see, hear and fell the Filipino speaking or writing and not just a poor imitation of the former American colonial master.
Of course many people are using English for specific purposes (e.g. for call center jobs, employment abroad, for tourism and hospitality jobs etc) but the use of the language to build the nation, its culture and, its ethos is declining. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has decided to implement the new translation of the Mass in English starting Advent 2012. This would give the parish priests one year or so to orient their congregations.
I just listened via live streaming the Ordinary of Our Lady of Walsingham, Monsignor Keith Newton deliver his keynote address to the 2011 Anglican Use Conference in Texas, USA. While on the subject of the Ordinariate liturgy, Mgr Newton said that the Ordinariate has decided to stick with traditional English in its future liturgy now aborning. The reason is that this English usage will preserve the Anglican patrimony in the Roman Catholic Church and enrich the culture of today's multicultural England. Mgr Newton admits and we have to agree that the Anglican patrimony is extremely hard to define even in England. The use of the traditional will make it easier. This is unlike in the USA, where the Anglican Use has options for contemporary English use. This insistence on traditional English struck me since as Mgr Newton says many of the Ordinariate groups when they were in the Church of England used the Roman Novus Ordo with its more to be desired English translation. The shift to the traditional use will require adjustment from these congregations. Mgr Newton also said that the Ordinariate prefers the Revised Standard Version (RSV) Bible to be used at Mass and the prayers. The Catholic Church in England has long opted for the Jerusalem Bible but the RSV represents continuity from the Anglican tradition. (Rome has used the Jerusalem Bible since 1966 in its English liturgies) I myself have been reared and nurtured in the Oxford Anglican and Catholic versions of the RSV with the Catholic one having Cardinal Heenan's imprimatur. The RSV has nurtured me in my study of English. While the Jerusalem Bible is good, I learned my English from English language teachers taught by Episcopalians, thus the partiality to English language translations made in England.
The CBCP is rightly concerned about Filipinos being habituated to the English 1973 Mass translation and that a sudden shift to the more literal new translation will be a shocker. But I believe it is a necessary shift since the new English translation will help recover tradition (although the new translation is in contemporary English) and Catholic faith among our people. Also it would help revive the English language in the country. Why do I say so?
Mgr Newton points out that the language used in worship enriches the use of that language in daily life. The good monsignor believes that the Ordinariate may preserve and conserve something good and beautiful in the English language. This does not preempt the fact that the English language evolves and coins new terms. English is a dynamic language which borrows and innovates, but it is not a good idea to throw what is good in the past.
The English language was brought to the Philippines by the American colonizers and not a few of the teachers were Episcopalian. In a real sense English in the Philippines is an Anglican/Episcopal patrimony which needs to be conserved and promoted. The ECP has been completely Filipinized but it has an obligation to celebrate the English language it received more than a century ago. But English is not just an Episcopal inheritance. Irish and American Roman Catholic priests also taught the language and by the late 1920s the Ateneo de Manila had garnered the reputation of being a good school to learn excellent English.
The old Roman Missals were an example of good traditional English. The Latin of the Mass was on the left page and the correct English (traditional) translation on the right.
Was Mgr Newton correct in saying that the language used in worship builds the culture of the nation? Your thoughts please.
Of course many people are using English for specific purposes (e.g. for call center jobs, employment abroad, for tourism and hospitality jobs etc) but the use of the language to build the nation, its culture and, its ethos is declining. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has decided to implement the new translation of the Mass in English starting Advent 2012. This would give the parish priests one year or so to orient their congregations.
I just listened via live streaming the Ordinary of Our Lady of Walsingham, Monsignor Keith Newton deliver his keynote address to the 2011 Anglican Use Conference in Texas, USA. While on the subject of the Ordinariate liturgy, Mgr Newton said that the Ordinariate has decided to stick with traditional English in its future liturgy now aborning. The reason is that this English usage will preserve the Anglican patrimony in the Roman Catholic Church and enrich the culture of today's multicultural England. Mgr Newton admits and we have to agree that the Anglican patrimony is extremely hard to define even in England. The use of the traditional will make it easier. This is unlike in the USA, where the Anglican Use has options for contemporary English use. This insistence on traditional English struck me since as Mgr Newton says many of the Ordinariate groups when they were in the Church of England used the Roman Novus Ordo with its more to be desired English translation. The shift to the traditional use will require adjustment from these congregations. Mgr Newton also said that the Ordinariate prefers the Revised Standard Version (RSV) Bible to be used at Mass and the prayers. The Catholic Church in England has long opted for the Jerusalem Bible but the RSV represents continuity from the Anglican tradition. (Rome has used the Jerusalem Bible since 1966 in its English liturgies) I myself have been reared and nurtured in the Oxford Anglican and Catholic versions of the RSV with the Catholic one having Cardinal Heenan's imprimatur. The RSV has nurtured me in my study of English. While the Jerusalem Bible is good, I learned my English from English language teachers taught by Episcopalians, thus the partiality to English language translations made in England.
The CBCP is rightly concerned about Filipinos being habituated to the English 1973 Mass translation and that a sudden shift to the more literal new translation will be a shocker. But I believe it is a necessary shift since the new English translation will help recover tradition (although the new translation is in contemporary English) and Catholic faith among our people. Also it would help revive the English language in the country. Why do I say so?
Mgr Newton points out that the language used in worship enriches the use of that language in daily life. The good monsignor believes that the Ordinariate may preserve and conserve something good and beautiful in the English language. This does not preempt the fact that the English language evolves and coins new terms. English is a dynamic language which borrows and innovates, but it is not a good idea to throw what is good in the past.
The English language was brought to the Philippines by the American colonizers and not a few of the teachers were Episcopalian. In a real sense English in the Philippines is an Anglican/Episcopal patrimony which needs to be conserved and promoted. The ECP has been completely Filipinized but it has an obligation to celebrate the English language it received more than a century ago. But English is not just an Episcopal inheritance. Irish and American Roman Catholic priests also taught the language and by the late 1920s the Ateneo de Manila had garnered the reputation of being a good school to learn excellent English.
The old Roman Missals were an example of good traditional English. The Latin of the Mass was on the left page and the correct English (traditional) translation on the right.
Was Mgr Newton correct in saying that the language used in worship builds the culture of the nation? Your thoughts please.
Monday, July 4, 2011
The new English translation of the Roman Missal, Ordinariate liturgy
Will the new translation cause Mass confusion?
The Catholic Bishops of Conference of the Philippines will implement the new English translation of the Mass starting Advent 2012. This will give enough time for the bishops to familiarize their flocks on the new translation. A catechetical guide has been published authored by liturgist Fr Anscar Chupungco to help priests familiarize their congregations.
The new translation has been in the works since 2000 when Pope John Paul II ordered a new translation that corrects errors in the 1973 translation. The 1973 translation was a "sense" translation while the new one is a more literal translation from the Latin. The US Catholic Bishops conference has published sample texts here.
The new translation is more faithful to the original Latin. For example in the words of consecration it uses the word "Chalice" instead of "Cup" which the 1973 translation uses and which all editions and versions of the Book of Common Prayer use. The 1549 BCP translates "calix" as "cuppe". This is more faithful since the meaning of "cup" has changed since 1549. While "calix" literally translates to "cup", the nuance has changed since when Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer translated the Latin of the Mass into English. "Cup" now is so banal and we can expect to get one at Starbucks or any coffee shop!
Nonetheless the new English translation is in contemporary English. The Roman Catholic Church never had a public English Mass liturgy in what Anglicans still call as "Traditional Language". The closest Anglophone Roman Catholics ever had were the English translations in their Latin Roman Missals. The left pane of each page (often beautifully illustrated) had the Latin said at Mass and the right pane had the English in traditional usage. These pre Vatican II Missals often used a traditional language similar to what Anglicans used. The English used is quite close to equivalent BCP texts. But Vatican II reforms did away with all of these. Traditional English almost disappeared from the Anglophone Roman Catholic's mindset. This made Anglophone Roman Catholicism culturally poorer.
Anglicans on the other hand struggled with the issue of Traditional and Contemporary English that use of either is an option in the liturgy. The contemporary use as much as possible tries to be faithful to the traditional one.
Filipino bishops are worried that since for over 40 years, Filipino Catholics have been used to the 1973 translations, a quick shift to the new translation may confuse. But this can be overcome by effective catechism. I hope parish priests are up to the challenge. But some traditionalists are much concerned that Fr Chupungco is the author of the prescribed catechism. They note that Fr Chupungco is liturgically trendy!
The proof of the pudding is if people will respond to "The Lord be with you" with "And with your spirit" which is faithful to the Latin and was first translated into this form by Cranmer in 1549.
The Ordinariate liturgy
Father Aidan Nichols' essay on the Ordinariate liturgy continues here. Fr Nichols gives a historical survey which is required reading for those into Liturgy. What is interesting is that he writes that the Ordinariate liturgy has taken much from really Anglican sources
"There were no comparable difficulties attached to the other texts in the proposed English book: the daily Offices of Mattins and Evensong (to which, following the example of the 1928 proposed Prayer Book, an Office of Compline and a Day Hour were added; the Litany; the Lectionary (for the Office as well as for the Mass), and rites for marriage and funerals – though the inclusion in the latter of explicit prayer for the departed (and not simply for the bereaved) was strengthened by the addition of the Sarum rites for the commendation of the dead person which followed on the Requiem Mass. The calendar proposed was the current seasonal calendar of the Church of England, itself of Sarum origin, together with the cycle of festivals as found in the 1970 General Calendar of the Roman rite, and a number of English or British commemorations, in excess of those in the National Calendar for England and Wales (though not necessarily exceeding the total number if saints in the local calendars of English and Welsh [and Scottish] dioceses were to be added together). There was one unusual feature of the Office of Mattins. Following contemporary Church of England precedent, the second reading at Mattins could be drawn from post-biblical sources. In the context of the Latin church, the Roman rite Office of Readings is an obvious source for these, but the book drafted for the English Ordinariate contains an alternative cycle for Sundays and feasts taken from insular sources. A number of these are taken from patristic writers (Bede, Aldhelm), mediaeval sources (John of Ford, Mother Julian, Nicholas Love), and English Catholic martyrs (Fisher, More, Campion), but the larger number derive from the Anglican patrimony (the Caroline divines and their Restoration successors, the Tractarians with particular reference to Newman, and a selection of later Anglo-Catholic writers). It is, as it were, a testimony to what might have been had the English Reformation proceeded on Catholic lines, as did the Catholic Reformation in much of Continental Europe. No Baptismal liturgy or liturgy for Confirmation has been provided, on the twofold ground that Anglicanism has not produced a version of such a liturgy which has endeared itself to its faithful, and also that there is something especially fitting about the use in an Ordinariate of the rites of the Roman liturgy for Christian initiation, as a sign of belonging to the wider Latin church (and thus to the Catholic Church as a whole). The same congruence might well be ascribed to the use of the Ordination rites of the mainstream Latin church."
The question is whether the Mass books of other Ordinariates will be similar to the English one. What happens to the American Anglican Use? We have to keep posted on these developments.
The Catholic Bishops of Conference of the Philippines will implement the new English translation of the Mass starting Advent 2012. This will give enough time for the bishops to familiarize their flocks on the new translation. A catechetical guide has been published authored by liturgist Fr Anscar Chupungco to help priests familiarize their congregations.
The new translation has been in the works since 2000 when Pope John Paul II ordered a new translation that corrects errors in the 1973 translation. The 1973 translation was a "sense" translation while the new one is a more literal translation from the Latin. The US Catholic Bishops conference has published sample texts here.
The new translation is more faithful to the original Latin. For example in the words of consecration it uses the word "Chalice" instead of "Cup" which the 1973 translation uses and which all editions and versions of the Book of Common Prayer use. The 1549 BCP translates "calix" as "cuppe". This is more faithful since the meaning of "cup" has changed since 1549. While "calix" literally translates to "cup", the nuance has changed since when Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer translated the Latin of the Mass into English. "Cup" now is so banal and we can expect to get one at Starbucks or any coffee shop!
Nonetheless the new English translation is in contemporary English. The Roman Catholic Church never had a public English Mass liturgy in what Anglicans still call as "Traditional Language". The closest Anglophone Roman Catholics ever had were the English translations in their Latin Roman Missals. The left pane of each page (often beautifully illustrated) had the Latin said at Mass and the right pane had the English in traditional usage. These pre Vatican II Missals often used a traditional language similar to what Anglicans used. The English used is quite close to equivalent BCP texts. But Vatican II reforms did away with all of these. Traditional English almost disappeared from the Anglophone Roman Catholic's mindset. This made Anglophone Roman Catholicism culturally poorer.
Anglicans on the other hand struggled with the issue of Traditional and Contemporary English that use of either is an option in the liturgy. The contemporary use as much as possible tries to be faithful to the traditional one.
Filipino bishops are worried that since for over 40 years, Filipino Catholics have been used to the 1973 translations, a quick shift to the new translation may confuse. But this can be overcome by effective catechism. I hope parish priests are up to the challenge. But some traditionalists are much concerned that Fr Chupungco is the author of the prescribed catechism. They note that Fr Chupungco is liturgically trendy!
The proof of the pudding is if people will respond to "The Lord be with you" with "And with your spirit" which is faithful to the Latin and was first translated into this form by Cranmer in 1549.
The Ordinariate liturgy
Father Aidan Nichols' essay on the Ordinariate liturgy continues here. Fr Nichols gives a historical survey which is required reading for those into Liturgy. What is interesting is that he writes that the Ordinariate liturgy has taken much from really Anglican sources
"There were no comparable difficulties attached to the other texts in the proposed English book: the daily Offices of Mattins and Evensong (to which, following the example of the 1928 proposed Prayer Book, an Office of Compline and a Day Hour were added; the Litany; the Lectionary (for the Office as well as for the Mass), and rites for marriage and funerals – though the inclusion in the latter of explicit prayer for the departed (and not simply for the bereaved) was strengthened by the addition of the Sarum rites for the commendation of the dead person which followed on the Requiem Mass. The calendar proposed was the current seasonal calendar of the Church of England, itself of Sarum origin, together with the cycle of festivals as found in the 1970 General Calendar of the Roman rite, and a number of English or British commemorations, in excess of those in the National Calendar for England and Wales (though not necessarily exceeding the total number if saints in the local calendars of English and Welsh [and Scottish] dioceses were to be added together). There was one unusual feature of the Office of Mattins. Following contemporary Church of England precedent, the second reading at Mattins could be drawn from post-biblical sources. In the context of the Latin church, the Roman rite Office of Readings is an obvious source for these, but the book drafted for the English Ordinariate contains an alternative cycle for Sundays and feasts taken from insular sources. A number of these are taken from patristic writers (Bede, Aldhelm), mediaeval sources (John of Ford, Mother Julian, Nicholas Love), and English Catholic martyrs (Fisher, More, Campion), but the larger number derive from the Anglican patrimony (the Caroline divines and their Restoration successors, the Tractarians with particular reference to Newman, and a selection of later Anglo-Catholic writers). It is, as it were, a testimony to what might have been had the English Reformation proceeded on Catholic lines, as did the Catholic Reformation in much of Continental Europe. No Baptismal liturgy or liturgy for Confirmation has been provided, on the twofold ground that Anglicanism has not produced a version of such a liturgy which has endeared itself to its faithful, and also that there is something especially fitting about the use in an Ordinariate of the rites of the Roman liturgy for Christian initiation, as a sign of belonging to the wider Latin church (and thus to the Catholic Church as a whole). The same congruence might well be ascribed to the use of the Ordination rites of the mainstream Latin church."
The question is whether the Mass books of other Ordinariates will be similar to the English one. What happens to the American Anglican Use? We have to keep posted on these developments.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Talks on Anglicans and the Catholic Church at UP
Please keep posted on a series of talks on the ecumenical developments between Anglicans and Roman Catholics at the University of the Philippines. Coming soon!
And at the end of each talk will be a service of Evensong!
And at the end of each talk will be a service of Evensong!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
A Prayer for the Ordinariates from the Ordinariate Portal
Eternal Father, we place before you the project of forming the Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans seeking full communion with the Catholic Church.
We thank you for this initiative of Pope Benedict XVI, and we ask that, through the Holy Spirit,
the Ordinariates may become:
families of charity, peace and the service of the poor, centres for Christian unity and reconciliation, communities that welcome and evangelize, teaching the Faith in all its fullness, celebrating the liturgy and sacraments with prayerful reverence and maintaining a distinctive patrimony of Christian faith and culture.
the Ordinariates may become:
families of charity, peace and the service of the poor, centres for Christian unity and reconciliation, communities that welcome and evangelize, teaching the Faith in all its fullness, celebrating the liturgy and sacraments with prayerful reverence and maintaining a distinctive patrimony of Christian faith and culture.
Drawing on that heritage we pray:
Go before us, O Lord,
in all our doings
with thy most gracious favour,
and further us
with thy continual help;
that in all our works, begun,
continued and ended in thee,
we may glorify thy holy name,
and finally by thy mercy
obtain everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
in all our doings
with thy most gracious favour,
and further us
with thy continual help;
that in all our works, begun,
continued and ended in thee,
we may glorify thy holy name,
and finally by thy mercy
obtain everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Our Lady of Walsingham:
Pray for us as we claim
your motherly care.
Pray for us as we claim
your motherly care.
Saint Therese of the Infant Jesus:
Pray for us as we place this
work under your patronage.
Pray for us as we place this
work under your patronage.
Blessed John Henry Newman:
Pray that Christ’s Heart
may speak unto our hearts.
Pray that Christ’s Heart
may speak unto our hearts.
Saints & Martyrs of England,
Wales, Scotland & Ireland:
Pray for us and accompany
us on our pilgrim way.
Wales, Scotland & Ireland:
Pray for us and accompany
us on our pilgrim way.
_____________________________
And we in the Philippines seek the intercession of
Blessed Pope John XXIII, Blessed Pope John Paul II, Bishop Charles Henry Brent, Father John Staunton,
Pray for us to God!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Filipino Episcopalians debate about purgatory while Catholics no longer bother about it!
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| This is how the Medievals thought about Purgatory! |
Here is how one Filipino Episcopal priest has it
"Luther did not oppose the idea. he only opposed the wrong means on how to pass through it. Purgatory is not for the lost, only for believers already on the way to heaven yet have to take the long journey to life because of their attachment to the world that they live in and a world they are leaving. Purgatory is connected to fire purification, which is really meant the fiery trial a Christian has to experience due to sanctification."
Thanks to depictions by countless artists throughout the ages, many Catholics and Protestants think Purgatory is a place where there is fire to cleanse sinners. This has led to many misconceptions but the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1030-1032) states that Purgatory is a condition rather than a place and states Scriptural references that support this understanding. Blessed Pope John Paul II restated the teaching in a papal audience. The Church however teaches that there is a "cleansing fire" in Purgatory and tradition is that this is understood not in a metaphorical sense but in a real sense. Mystics have understood this as a purifying inner fire, an understanding that Pope Benedict XVI appears to endorse.
The Thirty Nine Articles of Religion of the Church of England in Article XXII explicitly reject the doctrine of Purgatory as being without "warrant in Scripture" However, the Articles are not binding on Anglicans as the CCC is upon Catholics. For many Episcopalians, the Articles are of historical interest. Thus there is a wide spectrum of belief among Anglicans as as the debate on Pinoy Episcopalians would suggest, many still adhere to the idea that Purgatory is indeed a condition where souls are purified. However many Episcopalians will still have difficulty in accepting the Roman Catholic belief on indulgences. This is at the root of medieval abuses that brought upon the Reformation. A famous Anglican, CS Lewis accepted belief in Purgatory in the way the Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman understood it.
But as I had posted I am amazed that Filipino Episcopalians debate about Purgatory when Filipino Roman Catholics hardly bother about it! In fact I have never heard the doctrine being the subject of a Sunday Mass homily in the last 20 years! It must be that the subject is too pre Vatican II and it deals with the afterlife rather than this life. And many priests don't want to scare the worshipers out of their wits with talk of eternal damnation and purification!
Some Roman Catholic priests tend to believe that we are experiencing Purgatory right now, since we have a corrupt government and we ourselves are party to this and we have cut down all the trees and so we are in an environmental mess etc. Perhaps that is true but it misses out on what the Church teaches about it and the real costs of God's purifying love.
And so it takes our Anglican brethren to remind Roman Catholics of this teaching, at least to me. I have not bothered with that doctrine ever since I was received into the Church 25 years ago!
Monday, June 20, 2011
Know thy Mass!
This was from my Anglo-Catholic "lola" who bought it in 1952 when she was studying in Minnesota. If I am not mistaken, Anglo Catholics in the American Episcopalian biretta belt used the American Missal which is an almost exact translation of the Roman Missal. In fact I was able to follow the Tridentine Mass in a Cubao Catholic parish using her Missa Anglicana and this catechetical comic book!
Nonetheless, forty one years after Vatican II's reforms on the Mass, most people have no clue on what is happening in the Mass. No wonder they text during the service. The Mass itself has ceased to be an occasion for catechism, but rather as a ho hum service which is most likely even made worse by bad homilies. But pre Vatican II Mass books for the laity had always a bit of catechetical information on what the Mass rubrics really mean. The pre Vatican II Mass books are much much closer in ethos to the Anglican Book of Common Prayer than the Mass books and Missalettes Roman Catholic have today. Both the Roman Missal and the BCP had a didactic function and that is to hand in the Faith (in Latin "Traditio")
In the scanned image above, the comics explain the Creed. This is an act of what is called in Latin as "renditio" which means to "hand over". We hand over our understanding of the Faith at this point of the Mass.
All these need to be recovered in both the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches. It is not surprising that modern Anglican prayer books and liturgies have taken cue from what Reformation historian Diarmaid MacCulloch calls "What the post Vatican II Roman Catholic Church threw out"
The saving grace is that Anglicanism preserved much of what the Roman Church threw out. And all hopes are with Anglicans on both sides of the Tiber to reflect and restore all these things of beauty and Faith.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Newman's Collect
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| Blessed John Henry Newman as an Anglican priest |
However there is a collect for Evening Prayer written by Newman years before he even contemplated becoming a Roman Catholic which has been largely forgotten in the Philippines and virtually unheard of in the Catholic Church in the Philippines
And here it is
Support us all day long
"O LORD, support us all the day long of this troublous life, until the shades lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over, and our work done. Then, Lord, in thy mercy, grant us safe lodging, a holy rest, and peace at the last; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
This prayer was once said during Evensong at Brent School, according to Dr Rafael B Rodriguez, former President of Trinity College (now Trinity University of Asia) in Quezon City. However over the years as Dr Rodriguez told me, the prayer has been relegated to the sidelines.
This is unfortunate for it is one of the best, night time prayers I have ever said. My grandfather has
it written down longhand probably from memory in his wartime (1942-1945) diary. It provided him with the comfort and peace of God during those troubled times.
John Henry Newman lived up to his calling as a cardo, Latin for hinge, that links the Anglican and Roman Catholic faith together.
Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, pray for us to God!
What the Pope did to the BCP, TEC parish swims the Tiber and the Photoshop argument
What the Pope did to the BCP
Dr William Oddie has written something that makes for interesting reading at the Catholic Herald. Dr Oddie writes that the Pope has made the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) (well much of it) into a Catholic liturgy! This was something no one would have thought possible as late as 30 years ago.
Evensong is now sung at Roman Catholic places of worship in England, the United States, Canada and Australia, and soon, the Philippines. We prayed this office at the University of the Philippines. What was considered quite Protestant is now wedded with a traditional Roman Catholic devotion, the Benediction. Evensong is now the Ordinariate's evening office . Dr Oddie sums up what I have consistently reminded my Anglican/Episcopal friends. Anglicans will restore to the Roman Catholic Church what has been lost or forgotten.
Reformation historian Diarmid MacCulloch was more blunt. He was quoted saying that "The Anglican Communion preserved much of what the post Vatican II Catholic Church threw out"
And here writes Dr Oddie "these Anglican converts are bringing with them derives from Catholic sources that we have lost or at least temporarily mislaid"
Well that is what it really is. The BCP is as everyone knows was influenced by older Catholic liturgies such as the Sarum Use and the reforms of the Roman Breviary by Cardinal Quiñones of Spain. While Archbishop Thomas Cranmer made sure that the denial of Catholic belief in the Mass was explicit, this was placed in a liturgical setting that resembled the Mass, but really wasn't. And only the theologically astute among the churchgoers could detect the difference. Thus the Anglican Eucharist could be celebrated with Tridentine panoply, or even in the most Protestant way of celebrating the valid Catholic mass called the Novus Ordo, which the present Pope calls the "Ordinary Form". While the former may impress 21st century Tridentine traddies, the latter does give them apoplexy!
Thus this are Anglican treasures being shared to the Catholics. I wonder if the Catholics will appreciate these?
This we will have to see. In the meantime I was shocked to hear from a Filipino cradle Catholic that he thought the Evening Prayer we were saying was a Protestant invention!
Episcopal Parish swims the Tiber
St Luke's Episcopal Parish near Washington DC in Blandensburg, Maryland has decided to join the Catholic Church. The parish becomes the second Episcopal parish after Mt Calvary Parish in Baltimore to join the Catholic Church after Anglicanorum coetibus was published. St Luke's is now under the pastoral care of the Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Wuerl. The parish was under the Episcopal Bishop of Washington John Chane who graciously supported (with the Catholic Archbishop of Washington), the parish discernment process. The parish will continue to worship in their church building, which will be leased to them by the Episcopal diocese with an option to purchase.
Both St Luke's and Mt Calvary will be Ordinariate bound and they will undergo a formation program before formally being received in the Church.
Why women cannot be priests: An image processing analogy!
Both the Catholic and Evangelical wings of the Anglican Communion are against the ordination of women as priests since it has no Scriptural basis and is not in accordance with the ancient tradition of the undivided Church.
Women's ordination is a very divisive issue in the Anglican Communion. However a majority of provinces allow it, with some provinces providing "alternative episcopal oversight" to parishes who don't agree with it.
The consecration of women bishops (which naturally follows if women become priests) has ignited more discord in the Church of England and threatens an irreparable Anglican split if no arrangements are made to protect the conscience of people who can't accept this.
Catholics and the Orthodox hold on to the "alter Christus" argument why women can't be priests. They believe that the Christ who sacrificed himself for us was a man, therefore the priest who offers the same sacrifice on the altar should be a man. The Evangelicals hold on to the "headship of the family" argument which says that the head of a natural order such as the family is a man and by extension, the church should be headed by a man.
Nonetheless I received an email from an Anglican who tends to accept the Catholic argument. He says that since the priest images Christ at the altar, a woman simply can't do. Then he gives the Photoshop argument. If we image process a man, and we expect him to look or do things like a man, then we don't do much to the image. But if we image process a woman and we expect him to look or do things like a man, then we have to tweak the image!
And no wonder why some people are never comfortable with the sight of a woman priest or bishop. She in those vestments made for men, will look male!
Dr William Oddie has written something that makes for interesting reading at the Catholic Herald. Dr Oddie writes that the Pope has made the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) (well much of it) into a Catholic liturgy! This was something no one would have thought possible as late as 30 years ago.
Evensong is now sung at Roman Catholic places of worship in England, the United States, Canada and Australia, and soon, the Philippines. We prayed this office at the University of the Philippines. What was considered quite Protestant is now wedded with a traditional Roman Catholic devotion, the Benediction. Evensong is now the Ordinariate's evening office . Dr Oddie sums up what I have consistently reminded my Anglican/Episcopal friends. Anglicans will restore to the Roman Catholic Church what has been lost or forgotten.
Reformation historian Diarmid MacCulloch was more blunt. He was quoted saying that "The Anglican Communion preserved much of what the post Vatican II Catholic Church threw out"
And here writes Dr Oddie "these Anglican converts are bringing with them derives from Catholic sources that we have lost or at least temporarily mislaid"
Well that is what it really is. The BCP is as everyone knows was influenced by older Catholic liturgies such as the Sarum Use and the reforms of the Roman Breviary by Cardinal Quiñones of Spain. While Archbishop Thomas Cranmer made sure that the denial of Catholic belief in the Mass was explicit, this was placed in a liturgical setting that resembled the Mass, but really wasn't. And only the theologically astute among the churchgoers could detect the difference. Thus the Anglican Eucharist could be celebrated with Tridentine panoply, or even in the most Protestant way of celebrating the valid Catholic mass called the Novus Ordo, which the present Pope calls the "Ordinary Form". While the former may impress 21st century Tridentine traddies, the latter does give them apoplexy!
Thus this are Anglican treasures being shared to the Catholics. I wonder if the Catholics will appreciate these?
This we will have to see. In the meantime I was shocked to hear from a Filipino cradle Catholic that he thought the Evening Prayer we were saying was a Protestant invention!
Episcopal Parish swims the Tiber
St Luke's Episcopal Parish near Washington DC in Blandensburg, Maryland has decided to join the Catholic Church. The parish becomes the second Episcopal parish after Mt Calvary Parish in Baltimore to join the Catholic Church after Anglicanorum coetibus was published. St Luke's is now under the pastoral care of the Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Wuerl. The parish was under the Episcopal Bishop of Washington John Chane who graciously supported (with the Catholic Archbishop of Washington), the parish discernment process. The parish will continue to worship in their church building, which will be leased to them by the Episcopal diocese with an option to purchase.
Both St Luke's and Mt Calvary will be Ordinariate bound and they will undergo a formation program before formally being received in the Church.
Why women cannot be priests: An image processing analogy!
Both the Catholic and Evangelical wings of the Anglican Communion are against the ordination of women as priests since it has no Scriptural basis and is not in accordance with the ancient tradition of the undivided Church.
Women's ordination is a very divisive issue in the Anglican Communion. However a majority of provinces allow it, with some provinces providing "alternative episcopal oversight" to parishes who don't agree with it.
The consecration of women bishops (which naturally follows if women become priests) has ignited more discord in the Church of England and threatens an irreparable Anglican split if no arrangements are made to protect the conscience of people who can't accept this.
Catholics and the Orthodox hold on to the "alter Christus" argument why women can't be priests. They believe that the Christ who sacrificed himself for us was a man, therefore the priest who offers the same sacrifice on the altar should be a man. The Evangelicals hold on to the "headship of the family" argument which says that the head of a natural order such as the family is a man and by extension, the church should be headed by a man.
Nonetheless I received an email from an Anglican who tends to accept the Catholic argument. He says that since the priest images Christ at the altar, a woman simply can't do. Then he gives the Photoshop argument. If we image process a man, and we expect him to look or do things like a man, then we don't do much to the image. But if we image process a woman and we expect him to look or do things like a man, then we have to tweak the image!
And no wonder why some people are never comfortable with the sight of a woman priest or bishop. She in those vestments made for men, will look male!
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