After the CANNet crash a couple of months ago, The Confessing Reader moved to a new site, with the same name.
All new postings have been made there since the move. However, CANNet will graciously continue to host this website as an archive.
My apologies for not redirecting people from here earlier.
After years of patiently trying to explain to those moderates and liberals and revisionsists who dismiss theological conservative Episcopalians (and others) with an imprecise and ignorantly pejorative use of the word, “fundamentalist”, I realized that such explanations were pointless. The pejorators couldn’t have cared less about precision and history. They were hanging onto a useful bludgeon with which to beat theological opponents into silence.
The Revd Mr Kenneth Aldrich makes a fair case for claiming the pejorative, at least in the sense it’s used by the heterodox detractors of evangelical and catholic Christian belief.
But the precisionist in me demands that I point out that historic, Niagara Conference fundamentalism and protestant theological liberalism as theologies are simply two sides of the same (erroneous and suborthodox) epistemological coin.
See also Lesslie Newbigin, Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt & Certainty in Christian Discipleship, on this point.
Tradition has it that Peblig was the son of the would-be Roman emperor Macsen Gwledig (Magnus Maximus) and his wife Elen or Helen. Macsen left Britain in 383 at the start of an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to seize the throne of the Western Empire. Sulpicius Severus describes Macsen’s wife as a devoted disciple of Martin, the ascetic bishop of Tours. If Peblig were indeed her son he may have embraced some of Martin’s teachings and monastic practices. Peblig (the Welsh form of Publicius) is remembered as the founder of the Church of St Peblig (Llanbeblig), within the walls of the Roman settlement of Segontium near the later Caernarfon. He seems to have played an important part in ensuring the survival of Christianity in that area of Cambria (Wales), since known as Gwynedd, in the troubled period during and after the withdrawal of the Roman legions from Britain.
Collect
O God, by whose grace your servant Peblig, kindled with the flame of your love, became a burning light in your Church in a time of confusion: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The above image is from the Llyfr Oriau Llanbeblig, the Book of Hours of the Church of St Peblig, created in the late 14th century. Other images from the Llyfr Oriau Llanbeblig (with captions in Cymraeg/Welsh) may be found here.
Peblig, Abbot, is commemorated in the sanctoral calendar of the Church in Wales.
Sumer is icumen in: Lhude sing cuccu!
Groweth sed and bloweth med
And springth the wde nu.
We’ve already had a number of days when the high temperature exceeded 90 degrees, we’ve had little rain for weeks and are in at least a moderate several-years’ drought (I’m afraid the well might even be running low). Summer according to the solar year began ten days ago, and we’re even past the old “Midsummer” of the Nativity of St John the Baptist (June 24).
But it isn’t really summer until I pull the first ripe tomatoes off the vines in the garden.
I had the first two of the season for this evening’s supper, not five minutes off the vine, still warm from the sun’s heat, with salt and pepper, olive oil and aceto balsamico. (Yes, I know it’s selfish, but I usually claim the first couple of tomatoes of the season, what with doing all the planting and weeding and harvesting.) Sandwiches with mayonnaise, and thick slices of tomato with fresh mozzarella cheese, will follow in due course.
They were Brandywines - a lovely heirloom variety. And there are a lot more where those came from (though a few green ones will likely give their lives for that Southern delicacy, the fried green tomato). The Cherokee Purples will be coming in soon. Already a couple of them are turning the dusky violet hue for which the variety is known. (I grow only heirloom tomatoes. They taste better than most hybrids and resist disease pretty well.)
And the corn is tassling, the cantaloupes are growing (Ambrosias - no better variety), and we’ve been harvesting cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini and okra for a couple of weeks.
Life is very good. But we desperately need rain.
O God, heavenly Father, who by your Son Jesus Christ has promised to all those who seek your kingdom and its righteousness all things necessary to sustain their life: Send us, we entreat you, in this time of need, such moderate rain and showers, that we may receive the fruits of the earth, to our comfort and to your honor; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
BabyBlueOnline’s interlinear commentary on the response of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Virginia to the draft Anglican covenant.
Though we are staring in the face the dissolution of the Anglican Communion as presently constituted, what with statements from the bishops of two of the Churches of the Communion that they will not attend the Lambeth Conference, intimations from the primate of a third Church that they will not attend, waiting on the part of the bishops of a fourth Church and now, according to David Virtue, a suggestion from the standing committee of the Diocese of Sydney in the Anglican Church of Australia that a separate episcopal conference for conservative bishops be held in parallel with the Lambeth Conference. Increasingly, because of such actions as these - in reaction, it should be noted, to various actions of The Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada, and the Archbishop of Canterbury - it appears that the Anglican Communion as presently constituted will be demonstrated to be incapable of interprovincial discipline and the proclamation of a common faith within a common praxis, that the Anglican Communion will fail to realize what many Anglicans believe to be our vocation as a conciliar evangelical and catholic communion of Churches.
Nevertheless, whatever form the communion between those Anglican Churches faithful to apostolic faith and praxis takes, work on an Anglican covenant remains a worthwhile pursuit. If the Communion doesn’t dissolve into two - a predominately Western/Global Northern “progressive” communion of Churches and a predominately Global Southern “conservative” communion of Churches - then the covenant represents the very real possibility of realizing our conciliar vocation. And if the Communion cannot or will not be held together, then a covenant will become a framework within which the conservative evangelical and catholic Anglican Churches will develop their communion with one another along conciliar lines.
I hope in the next days or weeks to offer my own thoughts about the content of such a covenant, as I continue to read through the relevant documents, including the draft text of a covenant submitted in February by the Covenant Design working group to the Primates Meeting.
Reading the essays in Gilbert Meilaender’s Letters to Ellen (the essays are framed as a mother’s letter to her daughter away at college), I came across a passage that speaks to what our attitude to a covenant should be. This part of the “letter” follows on the mother’s rejection of an acquaintance’s statement that college students needed to form themselves before entering into marriage, and that while premarital sexual activity would be common among college students, this was “far better than rushing them into marriage before they’re fully formed.” As you read Meilaender’s words on the meaning of marriage as covenant, note their relevance to the current move toward - and against - the creation of a covenant more closely “marrying” the Churches of the Anglican Communion to one another in Christ.
This strikes me now as an illustration of a much more wide-ranging principle. The covenant of marriage is just that - a covenant. It cuts deeply into our personal identity. It takes time and history seriously as the matrix in which we are formed and within which we must learn to be faithful. It accepts the fact that along the way we may often encounter what is unexpected and, indeed, could never have been planned or predicted. A seriously ill husband. A disabling accident. A lost job. A child. “Let it be to me according to you word,” Mary said, when her plans were rudely interrupted. The Christian life is supposed to be in large part learning to rise to the occasion, to accept the unexpected.
This is because Christians take time seriously. How could we not since God has entered it? If we suppose that we must be fully formed before we marry, what can be the significance of the marriage covenant? Only self-fulfillment, I suspect. Two people, knowing who they are and will be, come together for their mutual satisfaction. I don’t mean to underestimate the happiness that may bring to people, but it’s not the point of marriage for Christians. For us marriage should be an arena in which we are formed over time - in unpredictable and sometimes unwanted ways. We don’t stand outside the flow of time as if we could say for sure who we are and what we will be. We stand together within time, with only the image of God’s faithfulness to guide us, and then we enter a covenant in which God will begin to reshape us in that image.
Peter and Paul, the two greatest leaders of the early Church, are commemorated separately, Peter on January 18, for his confession of Jesus as Messiah, and Paul on January 25, for his conversion, but they are commemorated together on June 29 in observance of the tradition of the Church that they both died as martyrs in Rome during the persecution under Nero, in 64.
Paul, the well-educated and cosmopolitan Jew of the Diaspora, and Peter, the uneducated fisherman from Galilee, had differences of opinion in the early years of the Church concerning the mission to the Gentiles. More than once, Paul speaks of rebuking Peter for his continued insistence on Jewish exclusiveness; yet their common commitment to Jesus and the proclamation of the gospel proved stronger than their differences. Both eventually carried that mission to Rome, where they were martyred. According to tradition, Paul was granted the right of a Roman citizen to be beheaded by a sword, but Peter suffered the fate of his Lord, crucifixion, though with head downward.
A generation after their martyrdom, Clement of Rome, writing to the Church in Corinth, probably in 96, says: “Let us come to those who have most recently proved champions; let us take up the noble examples of our own generation. Because of jealousy and envy the greatest and most upright pillars of the Church were persecuted and competed unto death. Let us bring before our eyes the good apostles – Peter, who because of unrighteous jealousy endured not one or two, but numerous trials, and so bore a martyr’s witness and went to the glorious place that he deserved. Because of jealousy and strife Paul pointed the way to the reward of endurance; seven times he was imprisoned, he was exiled, he was stoned, he was a preacher in both east and west, and won renown for his faith, teaching uprightness to the whole world, and reaching the farthest limits of the west, and bearing a martyr’s witness before the rulers, he passed out of the world and was taken up into the holy place, having proved a very great example of endurance.”
Collect
Almighty God, whose blessed apostles Peter and Paul glorified you by their martyrdom: Grant that your Church, instructed by their teaching and example, and knit together in unity by your Spirit, may ever stand firm upon the one foundation, which is Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The propers for the feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul are published on the Lectionary Page website.
There is considerable doubt about the year of Irenaeus’ birth; estimates vary from 97 to 160. It is certain that he learned the Christian faith in Ephesus at the feet of the venerable Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, who in turn had known John the Evangelist. Some years before 177, probably while Irenaeus was still in his teens, he carried the Christian tradition to Lugdunum (Lyons) in southern Gaul (modern France).
His name means “the peaceable one” – and suitably so. The year 177 brought hardship to the mission in Gaul. Persecution broke out, and a mounting tide of heresy threatened to engulf the Church. Irenaeus, by now a presbyter, was sent to Rome to mediate the dispute regarding Montanism (an enthusiast heresy), which the bishop of Rome, Eleutherus, seemed to embrace. While Irenaeus was on this mission, the aged bishop of Lyons, Pothinus, died in prison during a local persecution. When Irenaeus returned to the city, he was elected bishop to succeed Pothinus.
Irenaeus’ enduring fame rests mainly on a large treatise, entitled The Refutation and Overthrow of Gnosis, Falsely So-Called, usually shortened to Against Heresies (Adversus Haereses). In it, Irenaeus describes the major Gnostic systems, thoroughly, clearly, and often with biting humor. It is one of our chief sources of knowledge about Gnosticism. He also makes a case for Christianity which has become a classic, resting heavily on Scripture and on the continuity between the teaching of the Apostles and the teaching of presbyters and bishops, generation after generation, especially in the great see cities like Antioch and Rome. Against the Gnostics, who held the flesh in little regard and exalted the spirit, he stressed two doctrines: that of the creation as good, and that of the resurrection of the body.
A late and uncertain tradition claims that he suffered martyrdom about 202.
Collect
Almighty God, you upheld your servant Irenaeus with strength to maintain the truth against every blast of vain doctrine: Keep us, we pray, steadfast in your true religion, that in constancy and peace we may walk in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The propers for the commemoration of Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, are published on the Lectionary Page website.
The icon is taken from the website of the St Hilarion Monastery in Austin, Texas.
The Revd Fr Alvin Kimel closes a season of his life and ceases blogging. God bless you, Al, and may he richly bless your ministry in the part of the vineyard where he has now placed you.
I know that many of us know the pain of the ecclesial wound that Al identifies. There is a deep pain in the soul that might not be healed until the End.
And, as readers may have surmised, writing has also become difficult for me. Even when I have ideas, the words simply don’t come. Or too many words come, obscuring what I want to say, so I simply hit the delete key, expunging what I had written without its ever having seen the light of day. A friend of many years and parishioner who is a theological revisionist on matters of human sexuality asked me the other day how I’m doing with regards to church matters. “I’m in an ecclesiastical depression,” I told him.
Events of the past few weeks have not helped matters in the Anglican Communion. Dr Williams issued episcopal invitations to the Lambeth Conference that would seem the action of an unworldly theologian and political naif who has taken too much advice from his Episcopal Church-favoring advisers in the Anglican Communion Office or of a brilliant theologian and archbishop who is too clever by half, even if his cleverness were turned toward the saving of the Anglican Communion. The bishops of at least two provincial Churches of the Anglican Communion; viz., Nigeria and Rwanda, have stated that they will not attend the Lambeth Conference. Archbishop Henry Orombi, the primate of the Anglican Church of Uganda, has also hinted strongly that such might be the case for the bishops of that Church. The bishops of the Anglican Church in the Southern Cone of the Americas and their presiding bishop, the Rt Revd Gregory Venables, are waiting before giving their final word and may very well elect not to go as well. And the archbishop and bishops of Sydney, in the Anglican Church of Australia, plan to attend but not to take communion with bishops from The Episcopal Church.
The hopes for a strengthened Communion of Anglican Churches, covenanted together in common faith, praxis and mission, discerning God’s truth in a conciliar and mutual manner seem very close to being dashed. Far better that Dr Williams had invited all the bishops of Anglican Churches in communion with the See of Canterbury - Martyn Minns, the AMiA bishops, Gene Robinson - and that he had allowed or better, had planned, for the Lambeth Conference to develop into an episcopal synod with real authority at the level of the Communion. A new communion of Anglican Churches may emerge from the present situation (indeed, it seems likely at this point), a communion centered in those vibrant Churches of the Global South, but without the centripetal force of communion with the ancient See of Canterbury I fear that the fissiparous nature of Anglican protestantism will assert itself, and we will see fractures between Churches and groups in that new communion on theological party lines. More on this later, if I can find the words.
I earnestly pray that my fears are groundless. I fervently pray for hope grounded in Jesus Christ and him alone to see a Communion of Anglican Churches emerge from the Communi0n of the past and the present, a renewed Communion held together by common faith, praxis and mission, served by personal communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
But I’m dictating to God, and God will renew us as he sees fit and in his own time - whether or not there is a Communion of Anglican Churches true to the catholic and apostolic faith.
Robert Leighton was born in 1611, the son of Dr Andrew Leighton, a Scots presbyterian physician who suffered persecution for his questioning of divine right episcopacy in his 1611 pamphlet, Zion’s Plea against the Prelacie. Robert studied at Edinburgh and on the continent (in Douai) where he was influenced by the piety and tolerance of the French Jansenists. In 1641 he became minister of Newbattle, but was highly critical of the Covenanting policy of those days. (The Covenanters were those Presbyterians who had bound themselves by the National Covenant of 1638 to oppose the imposition of the Scottish Prayer Book of 1637 on the Church of Scotland by King Charles the First and who opposed episcopacy in the Church of Scotland.) In 1652 Leighton was sent to negotiate with Cromwell the release of Scots prisoners taken in battle at Worcester. Through Cromwell’s influence he was appointed the following year as the Principal and Primarius Professor of Divinity of the University of Edinburgh, where he advised his students to follow charity and to eschew “the itch for polemical and controversial theology which is so prevalent and infectious”.
Despite his presbyterian principles, at the Restoration he was induced by King Charles the Second to accept a bishopric. Leighton chose appointment to Dunblane, the least remunerative diocese of the Church of Scotland, in the hope that he might use his episcopal office for the healing of the schism within the Scottish Church between presbyterians and episcopalians. He wrote that his “sole object has been to procure peace and to advance the interests of the true religion.” He struggled for several years to end the government’s persecution of the presbyterian Covenanters, determining at one time to resign his see over the matter.
A man of moderate views who sought to combine in his Plan of Accommodation the best of both presbyterianism and episcopacy, he was appointed as Archbishop of Glasgow in 1670. After four years he resigned the archbishopric following the failure of his efforts at reconciliation between the episcopalian and presbyterian factions in the Church of Scotland. He retired to the south of England, where he died in 1684.
A preacher who sought to preach “up the eternities” when other men preached “up the times”, he advocated regular scripture reading in church and expository preaching.
Collect
O God, our heavenly Father, who raised up your faithful servant Robert Leighton, to be a bishop and pastor in your Church and to feed your flock: Give abundantly to all pastors the gifts of your Holy Spirit, that they may minister in your household as true servants of Christ and stewards of your divine mysteries; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Robert Leighton, Archbishop of Glasgow, is commemorated in the sanctoral calendars of the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Church of Scotland.
Another brief biography of Archbishop Leighton may be found here.
A Reading from a homily of Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mainz
Today we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist. It is right that the births of our Lord and Saint John should be celebrated throughout the world because each is a profound mystery worthy of our contemplation. A barren woman gave birth to John, a virgin conceived Christ; in Elizabeth barrenness was overcome, in Blessed Mary the way of human conception was changed. It was through knowing her husband that Elizabeth brought forth a son: Mary believed the angel and conceived a child. Elizabeth conceived a child who was a human being: Mary conceived both God and man.
Great then is John. Indeed, the Saviour himself testified to John’s greatness when he said that ‘among those born of woman there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist’. He excels all, each and every one of us. He is greater than the prophets, he is superior to the patriarchs. Everyone born of woman is inferior to John, except the son of the Virgin who is greater still, as John himself said: ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, and I am not worthy to undo the strap of his sandal.’
In the birth of our Lord’s forerunner and in the birth of our redeemer there is this mystery: the prophet’s birth signifies our humility, but the Lord’s birth our ultimate exaltation. John was born as the days began to grow shorter: Christ was born in winter as the days were growing longer, because it was fitting that our status should grow smaller and the glory of God grow greater. John realised this when he said: ‘I must grow smaller and he must grow greater.’ John was sent ahead like the voice before a word, a lamp before the sun, a herald before a judge, a servant before his master, the best man before the bridegroom.
We have recognised the blessed forerunner of the Lord as a lamp which went ahead of the true light and who bore witness to the light so that all might believe through him. So let us have recourse to him and attend to his proclamation. Indeed his is the voice announced by the prophet Isaiah: ‘A voice cries out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight his paths. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And all flesh shall see the salvation of our Lord God.”‘
Let us, too, therefore, prepare a way for the Lord who is to come into our hearts. Let us remove the barriers of sin by confession and repentance; let us straighten the paths of our life which for too long have been undirected and devious; let us pave the way of true faith with good works. Let us rid ourselves of all arrogance and lift high our fainting hearts. Then, when all is in order, smoothed, and brought into harmony, we shall see the salvation of God as he is, for ‘his home is in peace and his dwelling in Zion’.
John the Baptist, the prophet and forerunner of Jesus, was the son of elderly parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah, and was related to Jesus through his mother Elizabeth, a cousin of Mary, Mother of our Lord.
John figures prominently in all four Gospels, but the account of his brith is given on in the Gospel according to Luke. His father, Zechariah, a priest of the Temple at Jerusalem, was struck speechless because he doubted a vision foretelling John’s birth. When his speech was restored, Zechariah uttered a canticle of praise, the Benedictus, which is one of the canticles in the Daily Office.
The Gospel according to Luke tells us that when Mary, pregnant with Jesus, went “with haste” to her cousin Elizabeth’s house, John leaped in Elizabeth’s womb upon her hearing Mary’s greeting, recalling king David’s dancing before the Ark of the Covenant as it was brought up to Jerusalem.
John lived ascetically in the desert. He was clothed with camel’s hair, girded with a leather belt, and ate locusts and wild honey. He preached repentance and called on people to prepare for the coming of the Messiah and the Kingdom of God, baptizing his followers to signify their repentance and new life. Jesus himself was baptized by John in the Jordan.
John had many followers, some of whom became Jesus’ disciples. Because of his denunciation of the sins of Herod, especially Herod’s incestuous marriage, John incurred the enmity of Herodias, Herod’s wife, and was imprisoned. Through Herodias’ plotting with Salome, her daughter, Herod was led to promise a gift to Salome, who demanded John’s head. John was thereupon executed.
John is remembered during Advent as a prophet, and at Epiphany as the baptizer of Jesus. The Gospel according to John quotes the Baptist as saying to his followers that Jesus is the Lamb of God and prophesying, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
Collect
Almighty God, by whose providence your servant John the Baptist was wonderfully born, and sent to prepare the way of your Son our Savior by preaching repentance: Make us so to follow his teaching and holy life, that we may truly repent according to his preaching; and, following his example, constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The propers for the commemoration of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist are published on the Lectionary Page website.
The celebration of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist is transferred to June 25 this year because June 24 fell on a Sunday (cf the Book of Common Prayer, 1979, p.16 (”2. Sundays”).
Most readers are no doubt aware that many fundamentalist protestant churches (most of them independent churches) accept only the Authorized Version, or “King James Version”, as a legitimate English translation of the Bible and reject all later translations as false. A variety of arguments are marshalled in support of this position as an ecclesiastical practice (as opposed to the preference of some individuals for the Authorized Version based on language alone), ranging from scholarly arguments based on comparisons between the textual manuscripts from which the Authorized Version and later translations were prepared; to arguments based on the contention that newer English translations of the Bible support “unbiblical” doctrines, whether Roman Catholic or liberal protestant; to arguments that the Authorized Version was divinely inspired.
The divine inspiration of a translation of the Holy Scriptures is not a new idea. The Orthodox Churches of the East accept the Septuagint as the authoritative version of the Old Testament (rather than Hebrew manuscripts like the Masoretic Text) because they believe this Greek translation to have been inspired by God and therefore without error. While I am not a supporter of the “King James Only” position, I appreciate the fact that the Authorized Version is an ecclesiastical translation, prepared by the Church - in this case, by bishops, theologians and pastors of the Church of England, with a fair degree of comprehensiveness in their theological outlook (moderate puritans and Calvinists to high Anglicans and “Arminians”, like Launcelot Andrewes). I am also mindful that the Roman Catholic Church has produced ecclesiastical translations, like the Jerusalem Bible and the New Jerusalem Bible, and that these translations have been given given episcopal imprimatur and have been pronounced nihil obstat.
I don’t feel that I have a dog in the Bible-translation fights, but I am compelled to ask:
Are ecclesiastically- directed translations of the Holy Scriptures, whether by a single particular Church (as with the Authorized Version and the New Jerusalem Bible) or representatives of several Churches (as with the New English Bible of 1961) ipso facto more faithful than those produced by groups of scholars under the direction, not of churches, but of parachurch organizations (like the National Council of Churches) or simply steering committees of scholars and theologicans without specific and direct ecclesial accountability?
Consider, and discuss amongst yourselves. Though the author (Adam Nicholson) doesn’t even describe himself as a confessing Christian, I oddly became more cautiously convinced that such is the case after reading God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible a couple of years ago. (If you haven’t read it, by all means do so.) I don’t mean to sound atavistic, and I don’t think that it’s merely because my early Christian formation was in the context of the resonant scriptural passages of the Authorized Version, but I have begun tentatively to think that, without forbidding the use of later translations, English-speaking Churches should privilege the reading and study of the Authorized Version or the New Jerusalem Bible or the New English Bible until our Churches – our Churches, not scholarly committees, however devout and orthodox the scholars may be – authorize and oversee new translations (or preferably, a single translation prepared and overseen by as many Churches as can join in the project).
(It bears pointing out that the Authorized Version is still approved for liturgical reading in The Episcopal Church - and, I suspect, in every other Anglican Church.)
Bear with me through the following paragraphs, as I indulge my interest in weird religious groups. The discussion actually has something to do with the rest of this post (well, perhaps only tenuously) and explains the title.
While cruising the internet the other day, I discovered a rationale for using only the King James Bible that I hadn’t heretofore seen, on the webpages of a group who rejoice in the name, the Cambrian Episcopal Church of the Grail, who purport (don’t these groups always) that they practice the true form of Christianity, the “Grail Religion”, and that they are purportedly led by (or in fellowship with) the Desposyni, a name given to lateral and lineal descendants of Jesus. (They also don’t seem to be Cymraeg or to have any connection with Wales at all, despite the name.) The doctrines of this “Grail Church” are summarized on their webpages and include such teachings as “Godkind is organized as a Family: Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit with the Celestial Host” and “the Feminine Principle in Godkind is manifested in the Person of the Holy Spirit, who is also known as Sophia in the Septuagint, the Bible of the Early Church” and “Jesus Christ was phallic in marriage and had to be married, according to the Hebrew prophets, to be the true Messiah”. They also teach that “Creation is a part of the Body of Godkind: God is the Head and the Cosmos - “the Uni - verse” (one Word) - is His Body”. Reminiscent of the gnostic Gospel of Philip, the Grail Church includes among their sacraments “the bridal chamber”.
The Cambrian Episcopal Church of the Grail seems to have some sort of Anglican provenance, despite their rejection of apostolic episcopal succession in favor of a (theoretical) “Caliphate” – their word – of Jesus’ own descendants, given that they recommend use of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer of The Episcopal Church and, while they specifically accept the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas as Jesus’ own words, they also teach that “the canonical New Testament does not contain all of the teachings of Jesus, only those essential to personal salvation (John 20:30-31)” (seemingly derived from Article VI of the Articles of Religion).
Or perhaps their Grail notions just make them Anglophiles - or better, Britophiles.
Having just a hint of the groups teachings and practices, you might not think they would be among the “King James Only” groups.
But think again.
In a
Rather, the authority of the Authorized Version rests on two assertions: (second) that the translation is a “Bible of the Covenant” for the peoples of the British Isles; and (first) that King James, a Stuart monarch in a lineage with “sacred roots”, was a Grail King.
Try that out on your neighborhood “Independent, Fundamental, King-James-Only” congregation some time. Or better yet, on your New Age “Grail spirituality” Episcopalian friends.
Etheldreda (Æthelthryth, or Audrey), daughter of the king of East Anglia, was born in Suffolk in the seventh century. After two arranged and unconsummated marriages she retired to Coldingham to become a nun under her aunt Ebbe. Etheldreda founded a double monastery (a religious house for vowed men and women) at the Isle of Ely in 673 and served as abbess.
Etheldreda restored an old church at Ely, reputedly earlier destroyed by Penda, the pagan king of Mercia, and built her monastery on the site of the present Ely cathedral. For seven years she lived an austere life of penance and prayer, eating only one meal a day, wearing woolen clothes instead of linen, and watching each morning between matins and dawn (it was customary for monks and nuns to retire to their beds again after matins). She was joined in this wealthy family monastery by a succession of sisters and nieces. Etheldreda died in 679 of plague, which also carried off several other nuns in her community. A tumor she had developed on her neck as a result of the plague was interpreted as a divine punishment for her vanity in wearing necklaces in her younger days.
Seventeen years later her body was found incorrupt, and the bishop Wilfrid and Etheldreda’s physician, Cynefrid, were among the witnesses. The tumor on her neck, which had been incised by Cynefrid before her death, was found to have healed. Her body was placed in a stone sarcophagus of Roman workmanship (found at Grantchester) and translated by her sister, Seaxburh (Sexburga), her successor as abbess of Ely, in 695. Etheldreda’s shrine was much frequented, and she became the most popular of the Anglo-Saxon women saints.
Ely was destroyed by Viking invaders in 870 and was refounded by Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester and a Benedictine monk and reformer, in 970 as a monastery for monks only. It was so lavishly endowed by him and by King Edgar that it became the richest abbey in England, save Glastonbury. Etheldreda’s shrine remained and was enriched by a gift of Emma, wife of King Canute. Ely became a bishopric in 1109. The shrine was destroyed in King Henry the Eighth’s dissolution of the monasteries, in 1541.
Etheldreda is traditionally depicted in art as an abbess, crowned, with a pastoral staff and two does, who were said to have supplied the Ely community with milk during a famine.
Collect
Eternal God, who bestowed such grace upon your servant Etheldreda that she gave herself wholly to the life of prayer and to the service of your true religion: grant that we, like her, may so live our lives on earth seeking your kingdom that by your guiding we may be joined to the glorious fellowship of your saints; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Etheldreda, Abbess of Ely, is commemorated in the sanctoral calendar of the Church of England.
The collect is taken from the Singing the Song website, where the propers for the commemoration of Etheldreda, Abbess of Ely and patroness of the Diocese of Ely, may be found.
Alban is the earliest Christian in Britain who is known by name and, according to tradition, the first British martyr. He was a soldier in the Roman army stationed at Verulamium, a city about twenty miles northeast of London, now called St Alban’s. He gave shelter to a Christian presbyter who was fleeing from persecution and was converted by him. When officers came to Alban’s house, he dressed himself in the garments of the presbyter and gave himself up. Alban was tortured and martyred in placed of the presbtyer, on the hilltop where the Cathedral of St Alban’s now stands. The traditional date of his martyrdom is 303 or 304, but recent studies suggest that the year was actually 209, during the persecution under the emperor Septimius Severus.
The site of Alban’s martyrdom soon became a shrine. King Offa of Mercia established a monastery there about the year 793, and in the high Middle Ages St Alban’s ranked as the premier abbey in England. The great Norman abbey church, begun in 1077, now serves as the cathedral of the diocese of St Alban’s, established in 1877. It is the second longest church in England (Winchester Cathedral is the longest, by six feet), and it is built on higher ground than any other English cathedral. In a chapel east of the choir and the high altar, there are remains of the fourteenth century marble shrine of St Alban.
Bede the Venerable gives this account of Alban’s trial: “When Alban was brought in, the judge happened to be standing before an altar, offering sacrifice to devils…’What is your family and race?’ demanded the judge. ‘How does my family concern you?’ replied Alban; ‘If you wish to know the truth about my religion, know that I am a Christian and am ready to do a Christian’s duty.’ ‘I demand to know your name,’ insisted the judge. ‘Tell me at once.’ ‘My parents named me Alban,’ he answered, ‘and I worship and adore the living and true God, who created all things.’”
Collect
Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyr Alban triumphed over suffering and was faithful even to death: Grant us, who now remember him in thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to you in this world, that we may receive with him the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The propers for the commemoration of Alban, First Martyr of Britain, are published on the Lectionary Page website.
The icon of St Alban is taken from the webpage “Icons in Anglicanism” and is by the hand of iconographer Dr Elizabeth Hudgins.
Fillan (Faelan, Fulan), a common Irish name, was borne by several saints. The eighth-century Fillan was of Irish birth, became a monk and accompanied his uncle Congan to Scotland. He was a solitary at Pittenweem, Fife, where he was chosen as abbot. After some years he resigned and retreated to Glendochart. His name is associated also with Lochalsh, Renfrewshire and Strathfillan in the vicinity of Killin and Crianlarich, where an abbey bearing his name was built. A well with his name has long been associated with cures for mental ailments. His memory was held in great affection, and relics, especially his staff and bell, played an important part in later Scottish history.
Collect
O God, by whose grace your servant N., kindled with the flame of your love, became a burning and a shining light in your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Fillan is commemorated on this day in the sanctoral calendar of the Church of Ireland.
Bernard Mizeki was born about the year 1861 in Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique). In his early teens he escaped from his native land and arrived in Capetown, where he was befriended and converted by Anglican missionaries. He was baptized on March 9, 1886.
In 1891 Bernard Mizeki volunteered as a catechist for the pioneer mission in Mashonaland and was stationed at Nhowe. In June, 1896, during an uprising of the native people against the Europeans and their African friends, Bernard was marked out especially. Though warned to flee, he would not desert his converts at the mission station. He was stabbed to death, but his body was never found, and the exact site of his burial is unknown.
A shrine near Bernard Mizeki’s place of martyrdom attracts pilgrims today, and the Anglican Churches of Central Africa and of South Africa honor him as their primary native martyr and witness.
Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, who kindled the flame of your love in the heart of your holy martyr Bernard Mizeki: Grant to us, your humble servants, a like faith and power of love, that we who rejoice in his triumph may profit by his example; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The propers for the commemoration of Bernard Mizeki, Catechist and Martyr, are published on the Lectionary Page website.
An icon of Bernard Mizeki and another brief biography may be found here.
Basil was born about 329, in Caesarea of Cappadocia, into a Christian family of wealth and distinction. Educated in classical Hellenism, Basil might have continued in academic life, had it not been for the death of a beloved younger brother and the faith of his sister, Macrina. He was baptized at the age of twenty-eight, and ordained a deacon soon after.
Macrina had founded the first monastic order for women as Annesi. Fired by her example, Basil made a journey to study the life of anchorites in Egypt and elsewhere. In 358 he returned to Cappadocia and founded the first monastery for men at Ibora. Assisted by Gregory Nazianzus, he compiled The Longer and Shorter Rules, which transformed the solitary anchorites into a disciplined community of prayer and work. The Rules became the foundation for all Eastern monastic discipline. The monasteries also provided schools to train leaders for Church and State.
Basil was ordained presbyter in 364. In the conflict between the Arians (supported by an Arian emperor) and orthodox Christians, Basil became convinced that he should be made Bishop of Caesarea. By a narrow margin, he was elected Bishop of Caesarea, Metropolitan of Cappadocia, and Exarch of Pontus. He was relentless in his efforts to restore the faith and discipline of the clergy and in defense of the Nicene faith. When the emperor Valens sought to undercut Basil’s power by dividing the See of Cappadocia, Basil forced his brother Gregory to become Bishop of Nyssa.
In his treatise, On the Holy Spirit, Basil maintained that both the language of Scripture and the faith of the Church require that the same honor, glory, and worship is paid to the Spirit as to the Father and the Son. It was entirely proper, he asserted to adore God in liturgical prayer, not only with the traditional words, “Glory to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit”; but also with the formula, “Glory to the Father with the Son together with the Holy Spirit”.
Basil was also concerned about the poor, and when he died, he willed to Caesarea a complete new town, built on his estate, with housing, a hospital and staff, a church for the poor, and a hospice for travelers.
He died at the age of fifty in 379, just two years before the Second Ecumenical Council, which affirmed the Nicene faith and completed the creed’s article on the Holy Spirit.
- from Lesser Feasts and Fasts, with (minor) additions
Collect
Almighty God, you have revealed to your Church your eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace that, like your bishop Basil of Caesarea, we may continue steadfast in the confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; for you live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.
The propers for the commemoration of Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea, are published on the Lectionary Page website.
“Joseph, a Levite born in Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means son of encouragement) sold a field he owned, brought the money, and turned it over to the apostles” (Acts 4:36-37). This first reference in the New Testament to Barnabas introduces one whose missionary efforts would cause him to be called, like the Twelve, an apostle. As a Jew of the Diaspora, he had much in common with Paul. When Paul came to Jerusalem after his conversion, the disciples were afraid to receive him. It was Barnabas who brought Paul to the apostles, and declared to them how, on the road to Damascus, Paul had seen the Lord and had preached boldly in the name of Jesus (Acts 10:27). Later, Barnabas, having settled in Antioch, sent for Paul to join him in leading the Christian Church in that city.
Barnabas and Paul were sent by the disciples in Antioch to carry famine relief to the Church in Jerusalem. Upon their return, the Church in Antioch sent them on their first missionary journey, beginning at Cyprus. At Lystra in Asia Minor, the superstitious people took them to be gods, supposing the eloquent Paul to be Hermes, the messenger of the gods, and Barnabas to be Zeus, the chief of the gods, a testimony to the commanding presence of Barnabas. The association of Barnabas and Paul was broken, after their journey, by a disagreement about Mark, who had left the mission to return to Jerusalem. After attending the Council of Jerusalem with Barnabas, Paul made a return visit to the Churches he and Barnabas had founded in Asia Minor. Barnabas and Mark went to Cyprus; Barnabas is traditionally honored as the founder of the Cypriot Church.
It seems that Barnabas continued his journeys for the Gospel, because Paul mentions him several times in his letters to the Galatians, the Corinthians, and the Colossians. Tradition holds that Barnabas was martyred at Salamis in Cyprus.
Collect
Grant, O God, that we may follow the example of your faithful servant Barnabas, who, seeking not his own renown but the well-being of your Church, gave generously of his life and substance for the relief of the poor and the spread of the Gospel; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The propers for the commemoration of Saint Barnabas the Apostle are published on the Lectionary Page’s website.
An icon of St Barnabas may be found at the website of the Holy Transfiguration Monastery.
