Musings of an Anglican/Episcopal Priest

Month: January 2005

Prayers for the Candidates, 1552

Prayers for the Candidates, 1552 BCP:

O Mercyfull God, graunt that the olde Adam in these childryn maye be so buried, that the newe man maye be raysed up in them. AMEN

Graunt that al carnall affeccions maye dye in them, and that all things belonginge to the spirite may lyue and growe in them. AMEN

Graunt that they maye haue power and strength to have victorie and to triumphe agaynste the deuyll, the world, and the fleshe. AMEN

Graunt that whosoeuer is here dedicated to thee by our office and ministrie, may also be endued with heauenly vertues, and euerlastingly rewarded throughe thy mercye, o blessed Lord God, who doest lyue and gouerne al thinges worlde without ende. AMEN

173rd Convention of the Diocese of Tennessee

seal of the Diocese of Tennessee

The Diocesan convention was great for the future of the Diocese and for the faithful. We elected a great slate of candidates, and passed several resolutions. One granted parishes the the ability to redirect the portion of the apportionment that would would go to the National Church to other ministries approved by the Diocese. Additionally, convention voted to affirm the Windsor Report and support Bishop Herlong’s signing of the so-called “minority statement” issued after the House of Bishop’s meeting. A final resolution to join the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes surrvived an attempt to ajourn and was tabled with the understanding that a comittee would be appointed to study the Network and provide further information to uninformed congregations and laypeople before the issue is revisited next convention. Obviously events might over-take such a process, but I consider it a victory none-the-less.

This was my first Diocesan Convention (in general and as someone canonically resident in TN) and there were some great moments that I will give more detail about later. I am dead tired though–having only slept about 3 hrs last night–and I need to leave early in the morning to begin my field education at Holy Cross Church in Murfreesboro TN.
Blessed to Be a WitnessBen HarperDiamonds on the Inside4:11

Who are we? For a

Who are we?

For a long time I’ve been pushing the idea that identity is the most important marker for the Church in the postmodern era. Christians need to remember who they are, and particular tradtions of Christianity need to figure out what makes them particular, what is good, what is bad, what serves Christ and what doesn’t. This is part of the broader postmodern shift–our culture is in a huge flux, individuals are living into the ideal of the “protean man” and finding it wanting… they want to know who they are. Reclaiming our identity as Church is one way to testify to the Gospel to those who are in a place of ambiguity. More later.

A failing sense of charity. . .

Something that has been on my mind for quite a while came back tonight as our seminary had the opportunity to gather and listen to the presentation of Bishop Mark Dyer, the only American to serve on the Lambeth Commission on Communion. Last year I was struck by the charity displayed by the Metropolitan of the Antiochian Archdiocese, Philip Saliba as recieved back into the archdiocese a parish that had been planted as an Antiochian mission a little more than a decade ago, only to depart for the ROCOR, where it remained for several years. After reading the exchange of letters between the Priest of this parish and the Metropolitan, I was brought to tbe point of tears to see the generous spirit animating Metropolitan Philip’s response. At the time I thought I couldn’t imagine a “western” bishop being so Christ-like. I’m a little less cynical these days and will say only that I can’t imagine the majority of ECUSA bishops acting in such a charitable manner. I can only imagine that, were a continuing congregation to seek admission to almost any ECUSA diocese (if they’d want to at the moment), if they were accepted, their first visit would likly be from the Diocesan lawyer who would see that they signed the appropriate papers to ensure that their property was held in trust for the diocese and national church. Afterwards the Bishop would doubtless begin proceedings to remove thier priest to another parish or defrock them all-together. I’m not sure exactly what that imagined scenario says about my own biases and naivite (I have no doubt that Orthodox Bishops can be just as politically motivated and cruel as any ECUSA bishop), but I believe it says a lot about the health of our church at present, and the state of her leadership.

O Lord our God, Whose compassion is the first cause of our fearing and loving Thy Name, mercifully pour Thy grace into our hearts, that we, casting away what displeases Thee, may be united to Thee with an honest will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN

Waiting to DerailWhiskeytownStrangers Almanac3:54

Etymology. . .

In a recent conversation with an aquantance I mentioned the fact that the english word “Slave” is derivative of “Slav” and, by the hyper-sensitive standards of our day, should be avoided or even suppressed in our language. Well, needless to say, said person didn’t believe my etymology was correct. Well, here’s what the Oxford English Dictionary says, so maybe they’ll believe it:

[ad. OF. esclave (also mod.F.), sometimes fem. corresponding to the masc. esclaf, esclas (pl. esclaz, esclauz, esclos, etc.), = Prov. esclau masc., esclava fem., Sp. esclavo, -va, Pg. escravo, -va, It. schiavo, -va, med.L. sclavus, sclava, identical with the racial name Sclavus (see SLAV), the Slavonic population in parts of central Europe having been reduced to a servile condition by conquest; the transferred sense is clearly evidenced in documents of the 9th century.
The form with initial scl- is also represented by older G. schlav(e, sclav(e, G. sklave. In English the reduction of scl- to sl- is normal, and the other Teut. languages show corresponding forms, as WFris. slaef, NFris. slaaw, MDu. slave, slaef (Du. slaaf), MLG. and LG. slave (hence Da. and Norw. slave), older G. slaf(e, Sw. slaf).
The history of the words representing slave and Slav in late Gr., med.L., and G., is very fully traced in Grimm’s Deutsches Wörterbuch s.v. Sklave.]

Song for the DumpedBen Folds FiveWhatever & Ever Amen3:40

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