For the Life of the World (a sermon on Matthew 5:43-48)

 

I had the privilege to lead Morning Prayer, deliver the homily, and give the pre-consecrated Sacrament to the people of St. Andrew’s, Rome, whose rector is Fr. Austin Goggans, this past Sunday, July 5th.  He had given me the Propers for Independence Day, so I had the privilege of speaking about Jesus’ call to love our enemies.  This is the written manuscript of my sermon (some parts were changed while I was up there)

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The Gospel lesson for today is Matthew 5:43-48

All you need is love, or so many say, including the Beatles.  In the most recent days, we have seen thousands of hashtags with the phrase ‘love wins’ on them.  And I agree, but with a caveat, in that the love that Jesus talks about in our Gospel lesson today is different from the love that culture speaks of (most of the time).

For us, our natural love is Eros– it’s based on reciprocity and attractiveness.  It’s the love that cries out, “I want no other” when you lay eyes on your wife or husband.    Eros is where we get the word erotic– this is a romantic love.  As soon as one falls in love, one feels a strong desire to shower the beloved one with every conceivable gift. It can be a flower. It can be a beautiful object. It can be anything that truly benefits the beloved. Love is inventive and is constantly concerned about the good of the beloved. Italian expresses this strikingly: Ti voglio bene. (I wish you well). Dietrich von Hildebrand called this intentio benevolentiae (the desire for the good of the other). Not only does the lover harbor this wish, but he also wants to be the giver himself, “I wish you every possible good thing and moreover, I want that these should be given through me.”  There is nothing wrong with Eros.  Eros is the reason most of us are here (wink).  But Jesus is telling us to move beyond Eros.

The word Jesus uses for love in this passage in the Greek is Agape.  Agape is a love that doesn’t flow naturally from us.  We can have Eros for our Beloved, we can have Phileo for our friends, Storge for our family, but Agape, that is something that is truly a gift from God we can choose to use.  Agape love is hard love.  Agape love is love that occurs when we allow God to work His Love through us.

So you are to agape your Enemies– but how, well the whole previous chapter in 5 tells us–  carry their pack two miles instead of one, turn the other cheek, etc, etc.  The love of enemies which Jesus demands is the attitude of the children of the new people of God to whom the future belongs.  According to Kittel, “They should show love without expecting it to be returned, lend where here is little hope of repayment, give without reserve or limit.  They should do good to those who hate them, giving blessing for cursing and praying for their persecutors.

Let’s set this straight– this is not Jesus calling for some utopian existence here on Earth that essentially sounds like John Lennon’s song “Imagine.”  We are guaranteed that even those we love will persecute, but Jesus says– do it anyway.  When we love our enemies and bless those who persecute us, we do it for the life of the world, we do it to save their own souls.  Loving our enemies makes them a human to love and not just a cause to fight.  And isn’t that why the church exists.  Fr. Lee Nelson posted this the other day:

The Church which exists for its own sake, consumed with its own business, concerned only for her own members, is a church which has fallen short of her vocation. She is a body which gets sick because as opposed to giving life, she sucks the life out of you. The Church, as Archbishop William Temple said, “is the only society on earth which exists for nonmembers.” We exist so that our communities may flourish, so that our neighbor can get a leg up, and have opportunities previously unavailable to them. We exist to give freedom to the debtor, truth to the one who walks in error, life to the one who walks in death. Our most sacred offering, what happens on the altar this [morning], yes we receive great grace from the Eucharist, but it is given for the “life of the world.”

Folks, as Christians, we have been looking at this all wrong.  We have been told by the prevailing culture that we are in a culture war.  We have fought and lost because we have lost our main calling– to love God and to love our neighbors, even the one who plays loud music, and has a barking dog, and has a party every weekend.  Even that neighbor.  And what we are doing is not fighting them for ‘God and country’ but planting seeds of goodness, charity, and hope in a culture that has either lost those completely or changed the definition.  Through the Church, Jesus is planting seeds in this garden, which is our culture.  Makato Fujimura states in his book Culture Care:

“We want to change the metaphor of culture from a territory that is to be fought over to a garden that is to be nurtured. . . May our work be seeds into the soil of culture. Better yet, may these conversations strengthen our hands to cultivate that soil, so that the good seed can take root deeply and flourish. May our cultural garden, our cultural orchard, become a place of shelter for many creatures, including our own grandchildren.”

This is not us winning our salvation, or defining our lives by works-righteousness, no, this is participating in the life of God for the life of the world.  This is allowing God’s mission to work through us.  By his act of forgiveness on the cross, God through Jesus has instituted for humanity a new order which removes and supersedes the old world rank.  This new order, on which Jesus, who is the true and perfect Israel, is King, has gathered those not just in one nation-state, but all people who confess he is Lord and is baptized into Him.

Loving our enemies, as Jesus states in the Gospel, is a distinguishing mark of who we are as Christians.  If we don’t do that, then we are no better than the tax collectors or the heathens.  A distinguishing characteristic of those changed by the Gospel and put into Christ should be our ability to love without the other person reciprocating.  A couple of years ago there was a huge controversy about Chik-fil-a and their stance on same-sex marriage.  Dan Cathy’s refusal to support gay marriage was broadcast nationwide. As expected, many of us retreated to our pre-existing trenches. We declared whether or not we’d ever eat a Chick-fil-A sandwich again. We stood by the restaurant in appreciation or boycotted it in disgust. We did what we are too good at: opposing our enemies.

While we were busy fighting, Cathy slipped unnoticed into potentially hostile territory—but not for a counter-attack. Campus Pride director, gay activist, and openly gay man Shane Windmeyer, “came out” as Cathy’s friend describing how Cathy had reached out to hear more about LGBT concerns regarding his company.

In the midst of this unprecedented dialogue, Windmeyer writes, “Dan expressed a sincere interest in my life, wanting to get to know me on a personal level. He wanted to know about where I grew up, my faith, my family, even my husband, Tommy. In return, I learned about his wife and kids and gained an appreciation for his devout belief in Jesus Christ and his commitment to being ‘a follower of Christ’ more than a ‘Christian.’ Dan expressed regret and genuine sadness when he heard of people being treated unkindly in the name of Chick-fil-A, but he offered no apologies for his genuine beliefs about marriage.”

Loving our enemies is learning to truly care for them, for who they are, even in the midst of disagreement over things like what they stand for and, in a lot of times, what they do.  Jesus finally says,  “Be perfect even as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  Now, perfect taken out of context here could mean sinless or without error.  It does not mean that here. The Revised English Bible says, “There must be no limit to your goodness, as your heavenly Father’s goodness knows no bound.”  Let us be perfect in love, always striving to let Christ’s likeness shine through our lives to those around us, so that they may see good works and praise our father in heaven.

Christ’s call to love our enemies and bless those who persecute us extends to all people.  This extends from ISIS to the activist to the KKK to the Black Panther to the teenage neighbor to the elderly couple.  May we continue to plant seeds of goodness through our love in the ground of this culture.  May we stand for the truth, but continue to love those who persecute us.  May we put no conditions on our love so that those around us may meet the unconditional love of Christ.  As St. Francis said, “We are called to heal wounds, to unite which has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way.”  That my friends is love.   It’s more than acceptance, and more than tolerance, it’s a seeing beyond the rhetoric to realize that we are all broken, wounded, and lost and are desperately in need of what Christ offers through His Church:  wholeness and healing.

So we end with a practical reason to love you enemies you make a friend out of that whole experience.  You may make a convert.  Or it may all blow up in your face.  But the one thing you will be doing is being faithful to Jesus and you will be doing it all for the life of the world.

Thoughts upon a Confession

This last week I participated in a clergy retreat for my diocese.  As part of optional offerings, the chaplain for the retreat offered the sacrament of confession & absolution to any who desired it.  I, being a bad catholic, had never made a confession.  These were/are my thoughts immediately afterwards.

God removes the sin of the one who makes humble confession, and thereby the devil loses the sovereignty he had gained over the human heart.

Saint Bernard

I expected to break down in tears, or be moved, as I am one who always has an emotional experience in things of grace, but I didn’t.  There was no charismatic experience for me.  I felt completely normal, and yet, acknowledged that a profound act had occurred in my life.  Honestly, acknowledging my sins by writing them down as far back as I could go was a very cathartic experience in and of itself.  It wasn’t bravery that led me to go to confession, to confess the most dirty and damned parts of my life, and neither was it guilt, but it was a desire to air to God Almighty and another person my faults, my own grievous faults.  These were things that had held me down for years, things I had never told another living soul, for fear that my cover would be blown and the deep and darkest parts of my heart exposed to those I love the most.

I entered the chapel, kneeled in front of the makeshift altar where Our Lord resided in the Blessed Sacrament, and faced my Maker, so to say.

“Bless me Father, for I have sinned”

so true.  so very true.

” I confess to God Almighty; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and to you, Father, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, and deed, by my fault, by my own fault, by my own most grievous fault.”

As I said these words I saw Jesus there comforting me, and I knew that what I was about to say would grieve Him, and I hated it, but I knew that He is quick to forgive.

As I stated this was my first confession, and then went into my litany of iniquity.  I assume that most people believe that their confession is always worse than others, but I know, that if it wasn’t for grace that the gracious priest would’ve ran from the room screaming. But as I said them, a weight began to lift, each and ever thing listed, was put out there, for God to hear even though he already knew.

“For these and all my other sins, which cannot now remember, I am very sorry, I promise to do better, I beg God to forgive me, and you Father, to give me penance, advice, and absolution”

And then I heard words, and ideas, and counsel.  I was comforted as if Jesus Himself was comforting in that moment.  And then I heard those wonderful words–

God the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of your son, you have reconciled the world to yourself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins. Through the ministry of the church, may God grant you pardon and peace. And I absolve you of your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

He then told me to take my list, to go to the fireplace, and to burn it.  As God had burned away my sins with His love and grace, so I burned my list of failure, of not-good-enough, of rebellion, and promised to make a better start, knowing that I will fail again, and that Abba will be there to pick me up again, dust off my knee, and hope that I will learn something from it.

Cultivating the Eyes of Simeon

Gospel Passage: LUKE 2:22-40

1st Sunday of Christmas (12/28/2014) at Resurrection Anglican Church, Woodstock, GA 30188

This last Advent has been truly a season of ‘waiting and anticipation’ as we awaited the arrival of our newest child, Norah-Jane Brigid Marie.  Most of our children have been born around 38-39 weeks, and NJ decided to wait until almost 42 weeks to greet us with her arrival.  That almost month in between 38 and 42 was gut-wrenching.  Fr Gene even said he felt like I entered Lent a little early during that time.  Katie and I literally tried every thing in the book to naturally induce labour— and nothing seemed to work.  I was at my wit’s end and was beginning to think that labour would never happen.  But Katie knew that something was just not right.  So we found out the baby’s position was just a little off, made some changes, visited the chiropractor, had some adjustments, and at her appointed time, when the conditions were right for her but not within our time frame, she graced us with her presence.  Our long-awaited child arrived, in a tiny, red head package.  And what an highly anticipated, yet completely unexpected package, she was and is.

Today’s Gospel reading goes along those same lines.  We join the Holy Family as they are entering the temple for the Virgin Mary’s purification offering that occurred  40 days after the birth.  This mention in the Gospel shows that Christ didn’t come as one against the Law, but was under the law, as our passage in Galatians stated today: But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,  to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

A little history of the purification: according to the Mosaic law a mother who had given birth to a man-child was considered unclean for seven days; moreover she was to remain three and thirty days “in the blood of her purification”…When the time (forty or eighty days) was over the mother was to “bring to the temple a lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or turtle dove for sin“; if she was not able to offer a lamb, she was to take two turtledoves or two pigeons; the priest prayed for her and so she was cleansed. (Leviticus 12:2-8)

Back to our text, we see the Holy Family entering the temple with their offering of “two turtledoves or two pigeons” or the sacrifice required for those who were poor, and are greeted by a man named Simeon.   From the Gospel, we see that Simeon was a righteous and devout man, and was looking for the Messiah like a a good devout Jew in 1st Century 2nd Temple Judaism. For Simeon, the consolation of Israel was a corporate event that encompassed all of Israel, not an individual salvation for him or for others.

John Piper puts it this way:

The consolation Jesus brings in fulfillment of Simeon’s hopes is the application of God’s tenderness to a war-weary people. It is the application of God’s pardon for a sin-sick and guilty people. When Jesus was born, the voice of God became flesh and dwelt among us. And what the voice said was, “Console, console my people.”

As the family enters the Temple, and Simeon spots them, he sees what he has been waiting for his entire life, what Scripture says was promised to him by the Holy Spirit:  the Messiah.

What amazes me in this text is that Jesus first revealing as the Messiah, the Long Awaited One, was not made to the rich or powerful, but to the old, poor, and weary.  Jesus was revealed to shepherds and old prophets, not to the Emperor or the Chief Priest.  This infant was already being the revolutionary, already reconstituting Israel around Himself, with a group of rag-tag followers.

So Simeon begins to sing a song, a prophetic song:

“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,

according to your word;

for my eyes have seen your salvation

that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and for glory to your people Israel.”

When Simeon saw Jesus and Mary, he pronounced a king among the peasants, a Messiah from the poor.  Simeon finds what he has hoped for– it wasn’t on his schedule and it wasn’t what he expected. 

Simeon makes an odd request in that song, at least, for us to be considering just a few days removed from Christmas Day and in the midst of this joyful season– “Lord now let your servant depart in peace.”  Simeon is asking permission to die.  For those of us in the Western world, we distance ourselves from death as much as possible.  Some of us, we know, have lost a loved one in the past year and that makes this Christmas especially difficult. And most of us are reminded of those we have loved and lost by a stanza from a hymn, a favorite ornament on the tree, or some fleeting but vivid memory of Christmas past. Well, Simeon is no different. He’s an old man, and has been around the block more than a few times, and so we can imagine that he has tasted love and loss, joy and despair, hope and fear, just like you and me. And so he sings of death simply because he can’t help it; because he, like us, lives with it everyday. 

So I was mistaken earlier — Simeon does not ask for death; rather, he accepts it courageously and confidently in the light of God’s promised salvation. And he does so, again, only upon seeing and holding God’s promise in his hands, only after touching and feeling the promise of life which God granted to him through Christ… and which God grants also to us.

He then goes on and announces what wasn’t expected– this servant would suffer.  He wasn’t going to be greeted in the streets by the thousands as the Messiah, but was “appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed.”  Simeon here is announcing the Suffering Servant prophesied in Isaiah centuries before this moment.

And then comes Anna, another prophetess and servant in the temple, who acknowledges what Simeon is saying and begins to announce it herself.  I’ve pondered why Luke neglects to record what Anna says, but from all that we can tell, it was a praise over the coming of the Messiah.  Anna’s praise, along with Simeon’s song, continues the spontaneous prayer and praise that has accompanied Jesus from Zachariah to Elizabeth to Mary herself.

Here we see the vocation of Jesus being fore-tolled and practiced even as an infant– this is God’s peace entering the world and already shaking things up.  This is Immanuel — God with us– being announced and taking center stage.  This is the Paschal Lamb entering the temple to be consecrated to God.  This is the Messiah, who fulfills the law to the nth degree, being put under the law.  Simeon sees this in our Gospel passage, Simeon & Anna sense this through the power of the Holy Spirit.

But this Messiah isn’t just for Israel, but for all people including Gentiles.  This is a Messiah who isn’t coming as a military general or kingly ruler, but is a suffering servant found in this little child who is bringing together a new Israel around himself which is now the Church. This is the announcement of God’s rule to the world in the body of a small poor infant child.   If Simeon hadn’t the eyes to look in unlikely places for God, then he wouldn’t have seen what he was promised.  Simeon had to be open to his expectations to being shattered for God to reveal Himself to him.

I want to bring up another Feast that is happening today– the Feast of the Holy Innocents.  You see, if we go back to what is happening in the world around Jesus, we see him proclaimed as the Messiah in the Temple and that meant he was ‘the King of the Jews.’  Herod, the ruler of land at that time as an emissary of Ceasar, was not happy to be challenged. So he ordered all infant boys, two years or younger, in Bethlehem to be slaughtered.  They are commonly referred  to as the ‘holy innocents’ and the first Martyrs for Christ.  You may ask, how does that go with our Gospel lesson today?  We have been talking about unexpected surprises and having eyes to see Jesus.  For many of us, we are saddened by the loss of life caused by war, genocide, and abortion.  Many of us have felt the loss of young lives in our lives or had loved ones taken in what seemed like too soon.  There are women in our congregation and in our community who have lost children to miscarriage.  For them, we can only sit, weep, and then pray that God reveals He is there, in the midst of that suffering.  God is there, in an unexpected way, for you.  May we pray for all the holy innocents, the victims & the loved, as we await the coming of Christ to make all things right.

In our modern lives, it’s so easy to be distracted by our phones, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.  We are all connected with information, yet we are not really connected anymore.  We retreat to our computers, or our gated communities, or our political allegiances, or our country clubs, and I wonder, are we missing finding Jesus, are we missing finding God’s peace? 

Perhaps we are distracting ourselves so much that we are not seeing Jesus in our neighbor. 

Perhaps we are on our phones too much that we don’t see Jesus in our family.

Perhaps we are distracted just enough that we are failing to recognize Jesus in the Eucharist.

Perhaps we are so consumed with our daily lives that we aren’t looking for Jesus when we need him the most.

The song of Simeon is a both/ and.  It’s about finding our salvation in the most unexpected places and about sitting in the shadow of death singing songs of joy and gladness.  It’s about accepting our present reality in hope of the ‘consolation’ that is promised by God.   It’s about looking for Jesus.

Jesus is presenting himself to us today not just in this building but out in the streets and parks, workplaces and homes.  Jesus is arriving, in his own time, to us and presenting himself to us in packages that are long awaited, but not what we expect, unless we open our eyes to see. 

One of my favorite Anglican bishops, Frank Weston, put it this way back in 1923 in the closing address to the Anglo-Catholic Congress:

You have begun with the Christ of Bethlehem, you have gone on to know something of the Christ of Calvary—but the Christ of the Sacrament, not yet. Oh brethren! if only you listen to-night your movement is going to sweep England. If you listen. I am not talking economics, I do not understand them. I am not talking politics, I do not understand them. I am talking the Gospel, and I say to you this: If you are Christians then your Jesus is one and the same: Jesus on the Throne of his glory, Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus received into your hearts in Communion, Jesus with you mystically as you pray, and Jesus enthroned in the hearts and bodies of his brothers and sisters up and down this country. And it is folly—it is madness—to suppose that you can worship Jesus in the Sacraments and Jesus on the Throne of glory, when you are sweating him in the souls and bodies of his children. It cannot be done.

There then, as I conceive it, is your present duty; and I beg you, brethren, as you love the Lord Jesus, consider that it is at least possible that this is the new light that the Congress was to bring to us. You have got your Mass, you have got your Altar, you have begun to get your Tabernacle. Now go out into the highways and hedges where not even the Bishops will try to hinder you. Go out and look for Jesus in the ragged, in the naked, in the oppressed and sweated, in those who have lost hope, in those who are struggling to make good. Look for Jesus. And when you see him, gird yourselves with his towel and try to wash their feet.

Will we allow Jesus into our hopes and dreams in the midst of all the unfulfilled promises?  Are we looking for Jesus amongst the glitter and glam of modern life or should we be looking for him in the dirty, grimy, and unsafe places?  Do we have the eyes and faith that Simeon had, the eyes and faith to recognize God’s redemption in unlikely bodies?  Are we willing to open our hearts to God’s Peace found in Jesus even if it means it’s not how we expect?

God’s Peace arrived in an odd package so many years ago– a small child, born to a Virgin, in a small city, in a small country.  That my friends is incarnation– God with us, God for us, God one of us.  God’s arrival is unexpected, long awaited, but always on time. 

May he grant us patience as we await His arrival in our lives and may we have eyes that see where He is already active in our lives.  Jesus is here for you.  May you open your eyes to see Him.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  AMEN.

Reclaiming a Catholic Mission for Anglicanism

After I posted my first article on here defining Anglo-Catholicism as I see it, I now hope to show that I believe a catholic understanding of the Anglican faith will lead us to be more attuned to the needs of the world.  As a deacon, I am called to be the icon of Christ the Servant to the world that I live in– at work, with my neighbors, in my family.  Along with the Bishop, as a deacon, we show the world what the suffering servant is and what it really means in our dismissal:  Go forth in peace to love and serve the Lord. 

In his closing address to the Anglo-Catholic Congress in 1923, Bishop Frank Weston called Anglo-Catholics which historically in the late nineteenth century, were the ones heading to the inner city and the slums to set up missions and hospitals, and plant religious orders.  They were the ones that served the sick and dying in Memphis (see Constance and her Companions, the Martyrs of Memphis) and established parishes in the East End of London.  But by this time in 1923, it was being lost (as in our day if you look at established Anglo-Catholic churches here in the States), and there was no longer a missionary zeal associated with our movement.  I am Anglo-Catholic in practice because I believe that with high ceremony and liturgy comes a higher calling to live our lives as Eucharisticaly as possible.  If we are to fight for historic Catholic Faith in the Anglican Church then we are to also strive for Historical Catholic Mission and Movement as we have seen in the early church, in great saints like S. Augustine of Canterbury & S. Patrick, and in the known and unknown saints who died in the slums serving the least of these. That is why I’m Anglo-Catholic and why I will fight for the Faith Once Delivered.

So yes, it’s more than just ceremony and pomp and circumstance.  It’s more than what colour the vestments are or how many candles you have on the altar.  I believe all those things are important, but if we lose the heart of Jesus for the poor and marginalized in our communities and parishes, if we forget that we do all of this because it shows a bigger God to the world, and not just *because*, then it’s all for naught.  Our heart has to match our action in our adoration for Jesus wherever He may be found.

The whole address is a great work, but this section hits me harder than most:

But I say to you, and I say it to you with all the earnestness that I have, that if you are prepared to fight for the right of adoring Jesus in his Blessed Sacrament, then you have got to come out from before your Tabernacle and walk, with Christ mystically present in you, out into the streets of this country, and find the same Jesus in the people of your cities and your villages. You cannot claim to worship Jesus in the Tabernacle, if you do not pity Jesus in the slum.

Now mark that—this is the Gospel truth. If you are prepared to say that the Anglo-Catholic is at perfect liberty to rake in all the money he can get no matter what the wages are that are paid, no matter what the conditions are under which people work; if you say that the Anglo-Catholic has a right to hold his peace while his fellow citizens are living in hovels below the levels of the streets, this I say to you, that you do not yet know the Lord Jesus in his Sacrament. You have begun with the Christ of Bethlehem, you have gone on to know something of the Christ of Calvary—but the Christ of the Sacrament, not yet. Oh brethren! if only you listen to-night your movement is going to sweep England. If you listen. I am not talking economics, I do not understand them. I am not talking politics, I do not understand them. I am talking the Gospel, and I say to you this: If you are Christians then your Jesus is one and the same: Jesus on the Throne of his glory, Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus received into your hearts in Communion, Jesus with you mystically as you pray, and Jesus enthroned in the hearts and bodies of his brothers and sisters up and down this country. And it is folly—it is madness—to suppose that you can worship Jesus in the Sacraments and Jesus on the Throne of glory, when you are sweating him in the souls and bodies of his children. It cannot be done.

There then, as I conceive it, is your present duty; and I beg you, brethren, as you love the Lord Jesus, consider that it is at least possible that this is the new light that the Congress was to bring to us. You have got your Mass, you have got your Altar, you have begun to get your Tabernacle. Now go out into the highways and hedges where not even the Bishops will try to hinder you. Go out and look for Jesus in the ragged, in the naked, in the oppressed and sweated, in those who have lost hope, in those who are struggling to make good. Look for Jesus. And when you see him, gird yourselves with his towel and try to wash their feet.

What Do You Mean by Anglo-Catholic?

One of the parishioners at my parish came into my office a week or so ago and asked me this question.  IN the process of working on moving tables in our parish hall, I mentioned to him that I considered myself an Anglo-Catholic.  Coming from a Presbyterian background, he had never heard this term and I bumbled through a quick history lesson, but came to these points, which are so much more eloquently put than I did in that moment:

What is Anglo-Catholicism?
A Response in Six Parts

by the Revd John D. Alexander, SSC
Rector of S Stephen’s Church, Providence, Rhode Island
formerly of the Church of the Ascension, Staten Island, New York

1. A High View of God. Anglo-Catholic worship at its best cultivates a sense of reverence, awe, and mystery in the presence of the Holy One before whom even the angels in heaven veil their faces.

2. A High View of Creation. At the same time, we delight in the beauty of God’s creation. The Anglo-Catholic view of the world is highly sacramental,seeing signs of God’s presence and goodness everywhere in the things that he has made. In worship, we gather up the best of creation—as reflected in art, craftsmanship, music, song, flowers, incense, etc.—and offer it all back up to God.

3. A High View of the Incarnation. Our salvation began when Christ took flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary. God became man in order to transform human existence through participation in his divine life. The Collect for the Second Sunday after Christmas expresses the Anglo-Catholic vision perfectly:

“O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ…”

4. A High View of the Atonement. An authentic Anglo-Catholicism looks not only to Christ’s Incarnation but also to his Sacrifice. The image of Jesus on the cross reminds us of the depth and horror of human sin, and of the price that God has paid for our redemption. Anglo-Catholic spirituality entails a lifelong process of turning from sin and towards God. Many Anglo-Catholics find the Sacrament of Penance an indispensable aid in this process.

5. A High View of the Church. We come to share in the divine life of the risen and ascended Christ by being incorporated through Baptism into his Body, the Church. Thus, we regard the universal Church neither as an institution of merely human origin, nor as a voluntary association of individual believers, but as a wonderful mystery, a divine society, a supernatural organism, whose life flows to its members from its head, Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

6. A High View of the Communion of Saints. The Church, moreover, consists not only of all Christians now alive on earth (the Church Militant), but also of the Faithful Departed, who continue to grow in the knowledge and love of God (the Church Expectant), and of the Saints in Heaven, who have reached their journey’s end (the Church Triumphant). We have fellowship with all who live in Christ. Anglo-Catholicism thus affirms the legitimacy of praying for the dead, and of asking the Saints in Heaven for their prayers.

7. A High View of the Sacraments. We believe that Jesus Christ really and truly communicates his life, presence, and grace to us in the Seven Sacraments, thus enabling us to give our lives to God and our neighbor in faith, hope, and love. Holy Baptism establishes our identity once for all as children of God and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven (although we can by our own free choice repudiate this inheritance). And in the Holy Eucharist, Christ becomes objectively present in the Blessed Sacrament of His Body and Blood. Eucharistic adoration is thus an integral component of Anglo-Catholic spirituality and devotion.

8. A High View of Holy Orders. Since the days of the Oxford Movement, Anglo-Catholicism has borne witness that the threefold ministry of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons in Apostolic Succession is God-given. The validity of our sacraments, and the fullness of our participation in the life of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, depend upon our faithful stewardship of this divine gift. For this reason, innovations threatening the authenticity of our apostolic orders must be resisted at all costs.

9. A High View of Anglicanism. We affirm that the Anglican Churches are truly part of Christ’s Holy Catholic Church. The prophetic vocation of Anglo-Catholicism has been to bear witness to the catholicity of Anglicanism. Yet it can be an uncomfortable vocation that requires us to take unpopular stands against developments that threaten this catholicity. Since the days of the Oxford Movement, our standard has been the faith and practice of the ancient, undivided Church. Our vocation as Anglo-Catholics remains one of holding ourselves, and our Anglican institutions, accountable to the higher authority of the universal Church.

Advent 2014 | our challenge

Advent 2014: Clean Water for Every Community from ARDF on Vimeo.

As a parish, we are going to be taking on the challenge this year of raising money to provide ‘clean water for everyone’ in partnership with the Anglican Relief and Development Fund.  Each child in REZkids will be given an advent calendar, a tip sheet, and a ‘mite box’ to start saving to provide clean water to people around the world in Jesus’ name.

So this Advent, bring your change to church, and we will work to show the love of Jesus through His Church to the world.