OFFSPRING: The New Province in North America

QUOTE:

The constitution of the new province states:

As the Anglican Church in North America (the Province), being a part of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ, we believe and confess Jesus Christ to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no one comes to the Father but by Him. Therefore, we identify the following eight elements as characteristic of the Anglican Way, and essential for membership:

1. We confess the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired Word of God, containing all things necessary for salvation, and to be the final authority and unchangeable standard for Christian faith and life.

2. We confess Baptism and the Supper of the Lord to be Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself in the Gospel, and thus to be ministered with unfailing use of His words of institution and of the elements ordained by Him.

3. We confess the godly historic Episcopate as an inherent part of the apostolic faith and practice, and therefore as integral to the fullness and unity of the Body of Christ.

4. We confess as proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture the historic faith of the undivided church as declared in the three Catholic Creeds: the Apostles’, the Nicene, and the Athanasian.

5. Concerning the seven Councils of the undivided Church, we affirm the teaching of the first four Councils and the Christological clarifications of the fifth, sixth and seventh Councils, in so far as they are agreeable to the Holy Scriptures.

6. We receive The Book of Common Prayer as set forth by the Church of England in 1662, together with the Ordinal attached to the same, as a standard for Anglican doctrine and discipline, and, with the Books which preceded it, as the standard for the Anglican tradition of worship.

7. We receive the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion of 1562, taken in their literal and grammatical sense, as expressing the Anglican response to certain doctrinal issues controverted at that time, and as expressing fundamental principles of authentic Anglican belief.

8. We affirm the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) Statement and Jerusalem Declaration issued 29 June 2008.

In all these things, the Anglican Church in North America is determined by the help of God to hold and maintain, as the Anglican Way has received them, the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ and to transmit the same, unimpaired, to our posterity. We seek to be and remain in full communion with all Anglican churches, dioceses and provinces that hold and maintain the Historic Faith, Doctrine, Sacraments and Discipline of the one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

COMMENTARY:

While the list above is by no means exhaustive, it reveals the Catholic and Evenagelical nature of the new province in North America. May the Lord be pleased to bless it and to grant it His blessing, with the hope that one day he may lead it into unity with all those who hold to the faith of the undivided church.

OFFSPRING: Seven Sacraments

QUOTE:

How many sacraments are there? The number of sacraments is one of those things that theologians argue about, with the best of intentions, but to the confusion of many people in the church. This is unfortunate, because God is a God of order and peace and of confusion.

The word sacrament is a word used to describe God’s work, and not to limit. The Eastern branches of Christ church whose basic theological language is Greek, still mostly use St. Paul’s Greek word mystery, in the old sense of “the revelation of some truth that is unknowable until it is revealed”.

The list of seven sacraments is very useful for studying both the mercy of God and the needs of mankind. We must be careful, however, not to treat the number ‘seven’ as a magical number that limits God’s grace. The seven Sacraments consist of the two “dominical Sacraments” of Baptism and the Holy Communion; and the five “minors sacraments” of confirmation, Penance, matrimony, Holy orders, and the anointing of the sick. (An Outline of an Anglican Life, Louis Tarsitano, 1994)

COMMENTARY:

A major struggle of the western church since the time of the reformation has been the struggle over authority. What and who has authority to determine the church’s doctrine? Is it scripture alone? Is it Holy tradition? Is it Holy tradition informed by scripture? Is it scripture informed by Holy tradition? Depending upon whom we ask we will get different answers. Nevertheless, all catholic traditions such as Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Anglicanism have a wider view of authority than the post reformation scripture alone that was championed primarily by the Lutherans and the Calvinists. The catholic traditions look back to the early church and accept the teachings practiced by the whole church as authoritative because we believe that they were also given to us by the apostles in their teaching. In other words, the catholic view is that St Paul meant what he said in 2 Thes 2: 15: Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

The plain historical fact is that the church has always practiced seven liturgical sacraments. This practice then accounts for the catholic view of the seven sacraments as being brought into the life of the church under the auspices of the apostles. Tarsitano makes three brilliant points in his writing; first, he states that these arguments about end up truly confusing the people of God rather than helping them, and the reason for this is because many have been told that the tradition cannot be trusted. After all look at Rome and all of the tings they place under tradition. Papal infallibility, Papal supremacy, the Immaculate Conception, Purgatory, indulgences, mandatory celibacy fro priests, & c… However, the fact is also that these things were not of apostolic origin; they were added much later, mostly in the 12^th to 14^th centuries. Right from the earliest of days the church had other traditions that preceded these late inventions that we have every reason to believe are apostolic and in no way contradict the scriptures but rather expand and enhance them.

The seven sacraments are such a tradition. As such, Tarsitano secondly points out that they are “the revelation of some truth that is unknowable until it is revealed,” namely the mercy of God and the needs of man. In holy tradition salvation involves the whole person and the whole life. In these seven principle sacraments we see God’s work in physical reality, and experience the word of God explaining and applying it to our lives.

Thirdly, Tarsitano points to the two dominical or commanded sacraments of scripture, and the additional five minor sacraments employed by the church to deliver God's grace as they were taught by the apostles. all put together we find God condescended to meet our physical needs. In these seven sacraments we find the incarnational nature of Christianity at its fullest.

FATHERS: Iraneus & Holy Tradition

Fr. Stephen writes:

What is clear in Irenaeus’ teaching is that there was what he called the “Apostolic Hypothesis,” a framework of basic doctrine by which Scripture (first the Old Testament, later the New) should be interpreted. This consensus fidelium, or rule of faith, guided the Church century after century into its life, continually enlivened by the Holy Spirit. Though expressed in different ways at different times, the central goal was always the same: that the Church would teach the same Christ as it had received, and proclaim the same salvation it had always known.

The rest of the article is found here- read it!

http://fatherstephen.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/the-orthodox-reading-of-scripture/

OFFSPRING: The 3rd Party

QUOTE:

The third party of the English Church is called High-Church. They form, so to say, the Conservative body of the Church, whereas the Low-Churchmen may be termed to a certain extent the Radicals, and the Broad-Churchmen the Liberals.

These High-Churchmen lay a stress upon the Church, connect the Bible with the Church, respect the old Church-observances, e. g. the vigils, the feast and fast days, which have fallen into utter desuetude with the other parties of the Church. They see their clergymen as "Priests," and themselves to be considered a branch of the Catholic Church. The Church is their aristocratic pride, and they contribute large sums for building, beautifying, restoring, endowing churches. Hooker's Church Polity is their standard work. You will find on the shelves of those among them who profess theological learning, the works of their Bishops Andrewes, Laud, Beveridge, Bramhall, Overall, Nicholson, Wilson, Cosin, Bull, &c.

The Dissenters and their Chapels they disdain, and feel sorely grieved at the Low Church dissent creeping into the Church. Of the Broad Church they are ashamed, and feel deeply the defect of the English Church in not being able to excommunicate them. They love both the Prayer Book and the Thirty-nine Articles, either not perceiving the deep gulf between both, or bridging it by interpreting the Articles by the Prayer Book, as the Evangelicals interpret the Prayer Book by the Articles. No wonder that both parties, although building on the same substruction, come to a very different result. (Catholic Orthodoxy, J. J. Overbeck, 1866)

COMMENTARY:

Nearly 150 years ago, Overbeck identified the three parties that harbor in the sea which is Anglicanism. The first party is the Low-Church or radical party; this group would throw any part of Holy tradition that does not match their reformation mindset, and in its place conform the church to the contemporary, and individually minded evangelicalism of our day. The second, is the broad church party that is made up of the liberals; this group sees themselves as free to give preference to their own philosophies above the perfect truth handed down to the church in scripture and Holy tradition.

The 3^rd Party, which he identifies as the high-churchmen, is the group he connects with the Orthodox Catholicity, and those who possess the historic faith of the British Isles. This group connects the Bible with the Church, and give ecclesiology the proper role that is required alongside scripture. They love both the Prayer Book and the Thirty-nine Articles, & do not perceive a gulf between them, because they bridge any apparent disagreement by interpreting the Articles by the Prayer Book. In other words, they practice lex orandi, lex credendi. Furthermore, he contends that this is the very faith articulated by the Fathers of post reformation Anglicanism Bishops Andrewes, Laud, Beveridge, Bramhall, Overall, Nicholson, Wilson, Cosin, Bull, &c.

Time has not stood still, the 3 parties have continued to move forward, and today the majority of Anglicans worldwide would now fall into that party which Overbeck called the High-churchmen: Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, S.E. Asia, &c... make up over 74% of all Anglicans and each is High Church. It is conceivable that Anglicanism is closer today than it has ever been to attaining the Western Orthodoxy of the first millennium that is its heritage. Kyrie eleison.

FATHERS: The Liturgy Instructs

QUOTE:

Then the Priest prays, bowing:

O compassionate and merciful, long-suffering, and very gracious and true God, look from Your prepared dwelling-place, and hear us Your suppliants, and deliver us from every temptation of the devil and of man; withhold not Your aid from us, nor bring on us chastisements too heavy for our strength: for we are unable to overcome what is opposed to us; but You are able, Lord, to save us from everything that is against us. Save us, O God, from the difficulties of this world, according to Your goodness, in order that, having come to Your holy altar with a pure conscience, we may send up to You without condemnation the blessed Trisagion hymn, together with the heavenly powers, and that, having performed the service, well pleasing to You and divine, we may be counted worthy of eternal life.

Because You holy, Lord our God, and dwell and abide in holy places, we send up the praise and the Trisagion hymn to You, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to all eternity.

Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal one, have mercy on us.

Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal one, have mercy on us.

Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal one, have mercy on us.

(The Liturgy of St James- ca 50 AD)

COMMENTARY:

From its earliest days the church’s liturgy had multiple purposes, First, to worship and adore our Triune God, and second, it was to be a form of pedagogy. The liturgy teaches us dogma or doctrine.

In this short prayer we learn about the character of God: compassionate and merciful, long-suffering, and very gracious.

We learn that God is everywhere present, aware of all things, and able to act upon all things: from Your prepared dwelling-place, and hear us Your suppliants, and deliver us.

We learn about our frailty and need of rescue from the things that wrongfully attract us: deliver us from every temptation of the devil and of man.

We learn that we need to be saved: withhold not Your aid from us… for we are unable to overcome what is opposed to us; but You are able, Lord, to save us from everything that is against us. Save us, O God, from the difficulties of this world.

We learn that in our worship we are enjoined to the whole church on earth and in heaven: having come to Your holy altar with a pure conscience, we may send up to You without condemnation the blessed Trisagion hymn, together with the heavenly powers.

We learn that there is an eternal life with and in the midst of the triune God: having performed the service, well pleasing to You and divine, we may be counted worthy of eternal life.

To formulate a similar prayer would probably take a room full of theologians, and to teach these theological truths would take several catechism classes. However, in this tiny bit of Holy Tradition we get it all in one paragraph, WOW!

OFFSPRING: Temperance

QUOTE:

Temperance is, unfortunately, one of those words that has changed its meaning. It now usually means teetotalism. But in the days when the second Cardinal virtue was christened 'Temperance,' it meant nothing of the sort. Temperance referred not specially to drink, but to all pleasures; and it meant not abstaining, but going the right length and no further. It is a mistake to think that Christians ought all to be teetotallers; Mohammedanism, not Christianity, is the teetotal religion. Of course it may be the duty of a particular Christian, or of any Christian, at a particular time, to abstain from strong drink, either because he is the sort of man who cannot drink at all without drinking too much, or because he is with people who are inclined to drunkenness and must not encourage them by drinking himself. But the whole point is that he is abstaining, for a good reason, from something which he does not condemn and which he likes to see other people enjoying. One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting every one else to give it up. That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons--marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning. (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1943)

COMMENTARY:

Temperance is the lost virtue of our day. We are the intemperate people, with intemperate habits, and who specialize in the elimination of anything that comes close to abstinence from our vocabulary. Lewis however, may just have put his finger on the reason that this is so. It may be that our society has simply knee jerked to a Mohammedanism that has been made to pass for Christianity. Consider this, if you were the devil, how would you do battle with temperance? Probably by taking things that are not evil of themselves: marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema, and call them bad, and to be eliminated by our practice of temperance. Temperance however is not that at all, in fact, temperance is an exercise that makes a person the master over their passions rather than the slave of their passions. This exercise has always been part of the Christian life, and is in fact is the primary reason for fasting.

OFFSPRING: Chesterton and Tradition

QUOTE:

There is one thing I have never from my youth up been able to understand. I have never been able to understand where people get the idea that democracy was in someway opposed to tradition. It is obvious that tradition is only democracy extended through time. Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. Tradition refuses to submit to a small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. I cannot separate the two ideas of tradition and democracy; it seems evident to me that they are the same idea. We will have the dead at our councils. (G. K. Chesterton, ca, 1900)

COMMENTARY:

Few people can get at the heart of a matter as well as Chesterton. Here he demonstrates how underdeveloped and antiquated it is it is to ignore tradition. We in America have built our society on a new model we call democracy, yet, at the same time refuse to be democratic every time we act as revisionists. We suffer from the arrogance of the living. This arrogance is fueled by a little voice that forever tells us that we are smarter, better, and more able than those who went before. In succumbing to this voice, we undermine the protection that comes from democracy’s ability to prevent one small group from leading everyone into disaster. Tradition is a safety net that keeps us from the wiles of the manipulative oligarchs.