Walsingham Wanderings

OPC 2011 Convocation

2011-06-20T11:21:00.005-05:00

I just returned from the Order's first-ever convocation held at the Mother House in Atlanta, Georgia. I flew down there to be with my brothers and sisters as we welcomed our new bishop visitor, The Rt. Rev. Dorsey Henderson (Upper South Carolina, Retired), and to prayerfully discuss the foundation of our rule of life. It was a busy, tiring time which proved fruitful for the increase of our Order. I am deeply thankful to our abbot who pulled off a successful gathering.

Our new bishop visitor received several renewal of vows, including my own, during a ritual mass held at The Church of our Savior in Highlands Park. I was honored to receive the gray scapular which signifies that the Order feels I am ready to make solemn profession as I continue my journey as a monastic.

Defining a rule of life for a community, I am learning, is a lengthy process. Even with a clear vision, there are many different lenses which look through that shared experience yielding a panoply of opinions. I think that wrestling with those deep questions of monastic formation, constitutional, and even legal considerations prove to be healthy for all involved. As with anything done in committee, there has to be a give-and-take approach with Christ serving as the goal of equilibrium.

While we did not officially pass our test rule, we did take a giant step forward as a community towards fulfilling both the vision of our founder as well as the hopes and dreams of every member. Once we have settled on our rule, we will commit to living under those guidelines for the period of one year. After all, one can only test the Spirit by the fruits. I pray that as we move forward together, we shall taste the delicious fruits of the Holy Spirit doing a new thing in the Episcopal Church today. Thanks be to God.

Walsingham Explained

2011-06-03T13:21:00.004-05:00

I recently came across this graphic explaining the image of Our Lady of Walsingham and was somewhat fascinated by it. More detailed information can be obtained by clicking here.

The Yo-Yo Creed

2011-06-02T12:57:00.003-05:00

I believe that I’m on a string, a yo-yo string. I'm good at letting go, sometimes and most always, to my detriment. It’s good to let go. It’s good to feel the heavy-laden release itself from my grasp. I can bind things so tightly, round up so neatly that I forget the big picture. What's bound on earth can be loosed, though it's extremely tempting to stay bound up. It is so easy for me, so natural in fact, that I can hardly notice what I am doing. “Where is God in all of this”, I ask. Indeed, my cry of dereliction goes unheeded. Letting loose; unbinding a strangle-hold that grips and winds itself round about my soul is the prescription needed.

Life’s little challenges often present themselves as gigantic tasks—obstacles barring me from believing that anything is possible. That truthy-feeling is flighty, revealing a false sense of creation. The truth that I’ve come to know as holy and real is true and lasting freedom. Why? Because I keep getting pulled back towards God every time I wander. Each time I bind, I feel the tug-of-war to let go. Back and forth, so it seems, is the rhythm of faith. Doubt, as we know, is not the opposite of faith. Apostasy is faith’s contrarian.

Whether or not string-bound, I am still there holding on. The string cannot break; dirty with years of rubbed playing, but nonetheless strong as the day it was made.

Credo.

I believe.

I am a believer.

I am believed.

Amen.

The Revised Anthonite Vigil Office

2011-05-18T08:37:00.001-05:00

Revised and expanded, the Anthonite Vigil Office has been published by St. Anthony's, OPC Press. You can order your copy today by visiting Lulu.com.

Identity Chaos

2011-04-18T11:03:00.007-05:00

"Creation Primordial Chaos," Judy Racz. Oil on canvas

It is a widely accepted phenomenon that out of chaos comes new creation. At least that's how I find comfort amid the seemingly endless cycles of life. For me, the struggle for identity in this world has often been fraught with "peaks and valleys," that permeate the ordinary. The fact remains, however, that creation--even ex nihilo--stirs about constantly. The birth pangs, the tumult, and the pain are all part of the process. Who said new creation was pleasurable? Creation, as we know it, is forever on-going, moving in a dance towards its final fulfillment. Until that glorious day, we face our tombs each day. Resurrection, albeit painful as the predessory death was, still affords us hope.

The quietness of my blog lo these past few months has given me ample time in my own "tomb." Dark were the days as I swirled about, blowing through chaos like it was only natural to endure. Enduring one's death is not a badge of honor to be worn proudly. And now, I can safely say, that the vastness of the heavy stone door is yielding, something new is about to emerge. New but scarred; alive but keenly aware of death. Perhaps that's the idea.

While there's absolutely no use in spilling one's soul via the internet, suffice it say that I'm alive and well. I'm emerging and finally creating again.

Just last week I spent some time with a dear old friend of mine, a Roman priest who has watched me grow from afar. The power of the sacrament of Reconciliation was the medicine required for my soul--grace worked as it has since the beginning. Father Joe, never shy with his prayers, helped me break through that damn stone door. Thanks be to God. And now we look ahead...to paraphase T.S. Eliot, we return to the beginning and know the place for the first time.

New Dreams, New Years

2011-01-11T17:51:00.000-06:00

Dreams come in all shapes and sizes. Some shatter abruptly, like a soap bubble without any warning. Others blossom unexpectedly and in odd places. Either way, dreaming new dreams is deeply human, speaking to the core of our nature. I once was a big dreamer, but now I settle for the little ones.

I don't make resolutions, I seldom could keep them. But I will say this about 2011, pray please let this year be good, healthy, and above all bring joy. I'll settle for joy any day of the year.

Still, She Rings

2010-12-07T20:11:00.002-06:00

My latest creation for Hampden-Sydney College. I wrote the script which was narrated by Lt. Gen. Samuel V. Wilson (US Army-Ret), the 23rd President of Hampden-Sydney. Shaun Irving '97 of Orrio in Richmond did the filming, editing, and production.

Still, She Rings
by Chad M. Krouse '02

Bounding pass these gates,
generations of boys have entered;
Hailing from the world over
to learn the secrets in store.
To the pride of Garnet and Gray,
legions of men have left,
off to change the world.

Upon these hallowed grounds, the bell rings
bouncing from the greats of old:
Cushing,
Venable,
Cabell,
Morton,
Atkinson,
Bagby.

All roads lead to her,
guarded by the benefactors of past and present.
Her voice carries over the slate rooftops:
“To class, to class!”
To her loyal sons she bids warmly:
“Come home, come home.”

Through every season tolling,
rain or snow you can bet,
Her pledge is true,
set the professor’s standard and the bane of other’s alarms--
Ne’er to be missed,
in haste most go.
Her song is simple,
Her cry is heeded.
And still,
she rings.

Singing Yes

2010-11-28T16:26:00.002-06:00

Mary said "yes."

She sings the nature of this upside-down Kingdom:

casting down the mighty from their thrones
as the lowest of society is lifted high. Yes.

The hungry are filled with good things,

but those who are rich will be sent away empty-handed. Yes.

Those on the margins of the world will now be brought in

to celebrate at the great banquet of the Lamb. Yes.

The cycles of poverty, social injustice,

and hatred will be destroyed forever. Yes.

The peaceable Kingdom will triumph

for eternity as Christ fulfills all in all. Yes.

Today I say, let it be so.
Amen.

Published: The Anthonite Vigil Office

2010-11-21T21:36:00.002-06:00

The Anthonite Vigil Office is now available for sale on Lulu. All proceeds will go to support the ministry of the Order. Click on the Lulu icon above to buy a copy.

The Harvest Office

2010-11-20T17:04:00.005-06:00

The Harvest Office

Hugh's Day: A Sermon

2010-11-17T15:08:00.003-06:00

Hugh of Lincoln November 17, 2010
Luke 12:35-44
Titus 2:7-14

In the early summer of 2009, I managed to make two pilgrimages while living and studying in England. One was to the famed appearance of Our Lady in Walsingham in the Norfolk region; the other was to the shrine of Saint Hugh of Lincoln inside the massive Lincolnshire cathedral. Both hold a special place in my spiritual formation that shall never be forgotten.

The flat midlands of Lincolnshire afford the eye great, distant vistas of Britain. From the train down from Mirfield, I could see far in the distance the towering cathedral of Lincoln floating above the town as it sat quietly atop a massive hill. Consecrated in 1092, the existing cathedral as we know it today was restored and enlarged in 1192 under Hugh’s episcopacy. The western front is a rather interesting blend of Norman and Roman architecture that reflects the long history of the faithful of Lincolnshire, one of the largest dioceses in England. With the double-stroller off and kids in tow, we headed into the town of Lincoln like bewildered pilgrims worn down by two very spirited children. Like good Episcopalians, we found a nice pub for lunch. Fortified and feed, we climbed the massive hill towards the cathedral. All along the way, I responded to numerous objections from the family: “if you’ve seen one cathedral Chad, you’ve seen them all.” But after spotting a confectionary shop, I knew I could buy back their loyalty during this forced uphill march. After all that it took to get here, I found myself asking the question: what is it about Hugh?

Born around 1140 into a noble family in the Burgundy region of France, Hugh was the youngest of three sons. His mother, Anne, who died relatively young, was known for her particular care of the poor and sick. The sight of seeing his mother wash the sores of local lepers seared young Hugh. Following his mother’s death, Hugh’s father William enrolled Hugh at a local Austin Canons’ monastery for his education—a common practice amongst the nobility at the time. Hugh’s devout and highly restrictive education formed him at young age. At fifteen, he made his profession as a canon and was later ordained deacon at nineteen. Soon afterwards, Hugh was given charge over a parish where he tasted pastoral strife. But something else was stirring deep within him.

Not far from Hugh’s parish rose the Chartreuse mountains, often snow-capped and vivid with color. High in the Chartreuse range bore a monastery and order of the same name, the Carthusians. This highly austere and secluded monastic order was founded by Bruno who followed the reforming spirit of Cluny. Known for their great silence, the Carthusian order is a community who blends the eremitical way of life with that of enclosed brotherhood. Few Carthusians were ever elevated to the episcopacy and few managed canonization by the Church, something that is a point of pride for them because theirs is a life hidden in Christ through prayer, silence, study, and liturgy. All of these drew Hugh to the mountains to see the great charterhouse known still as Le Grande Chartreuse. At twenty-three, Hugh joined the order and was destined for a life of contemplation and silence in the alpine mountains of France. Or so he thought.

Ten years into his life of solitude and prayer, the missionary spirit rose up in the Order as King Henry II of England sought to pay penance for his unfortunate role in the death of his archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas a Beckett. Henry sought to found three houses in England and the Carthusians were chosen to be one of the three. Hugh was appointed prior of the new house and sent off to England. Hugh’s reputation was quickly spreading on the island. When he secured a land grant from the King of England for the new monastery, he bought the existing huts and houses from the peasants and then in turn gave them their dwellings back which were carted off and sold again by the peasants. Hugh was not going to go the way of the Benedictines and Cistercians who were well known across the land for their often unscrupulous entrepreneurial zeal. Not long into his priorate at Witham, Hugh was elected Bishop of Lincoln and later ordained to the episcopate in Westminster Abbey.

Again I ask the question: what is it about Hugh? Or still, what does Hugh have to say to us today? Here you have a monk who is bishop. He refused to indulge the lavish lifestyle prominent amongst his brother bishops at the time. He lived under the strict discipline of his order, much to the annoyance of many secular clergy around him. He was unrelenting in his care for the poor and even washed the sores of lepers in his Episcopal mansion—something his momma would have been proud to see. Above all, Hugh’s humility and tact is something that many politicians today should heed; for his cheerfulness and love of God’s people made it difficult for the ruling powers to oppose him. In our age of divisive, hate-filled rhetoric which alienates and polarizes the citizenry, Hugh would not hesitate to direct our eyes to the millions of children who have no health insurance, those who are homeless and jobless. Hugh would tend our sores and wash our feet, and that is something worth celebrating today. Hugh, quite simply, had a way with people that drew them closer to the love of God in Christ. His example and witness to us echoes our readings from Luke and Paul’s epistle—where striving for the Kingdom of God begins with how we conduct our own lives in accordance with Christ. Hugh was Christ’s hands, voice, and love made present to all who came near.

Back at the cathedral, I managed to squeeze our large American stroller through the tiny doors of the western porch. Once inside, I was awestruck by the grandeur and simplicity of one of Hugh’s lasting memorials. While he never saw the cathedral completed, its foundation serves as just one of many of the saint’s legacies for the Kingdom. As I moved to the far east-end, back behind the great choir and high altar, I saw what I had longed to see—the shrine of Hugh. I dropped to my knees, touched the shrine, and made the sign of the cross. Hugh’s spirit was palpable, and my prayer to Christ was that I may follow the good example of such a humble servant to draw others to God.

Click here to see my post from last year with photos from the pilgrimage.

OPC on the Discovery Channel

2010-10-26T18:06:00.002-05:00

Recently on the Discovery Channel's program "Auction Kings," Brother Charlie presents the host with an extremely rare find, a 17th Century edition of The Book of Common Prayer. The book was given to the Order of St. Anthony the Great as a way to help our order raise funds for ministry. Brother Charlie is a gem and represented our Order well. I give thanks for his ministry and witness in our Church.

Click here to view the clip of Br. Charlie.

Here, I Cry

2010-10-22T19:03:00.000-05:00

I stood proudly once,
twenty odd feet towering above
where the wind pushed me higher.

Towers of steel forged by experience
could withstand the idle assaults
that came.

Nearby glances were thought
empowering, nay
sweetly on my heart.

And the fall came.
All at once.

Those memories seem vain nowadays;
twisting the ego tightly round a
hellish nail.

Chill'd nights,
sleepless nights,
cast the daze upon my face.

Nothing escapes.
Nothing holds.

And my cries go unheard.

The Barb of the Nazarene

2010-10-17T12:21:00.006-05:00

Hooks of love caught the world (i am)

from the heights above (breaks barriers of hate),

while feeding the fishy souls (and men);

catches and releases (drawn to his wounds)

from the barb of the Nazarene (live again).

Lost in Wonder, Love, and Praise: the Liturgy of the Lamb

2010-10-14T00:21:00.001-05:00

The Church of the Advent, Photo by Br. Ciaran Anthony DellaFera, BSG

Turning the corner past Boston's famous bar, Cheer's, I could hear the English Change Ringing bells tolling down the avenue. In a methodical count, the peal sang out into the crisp air, bouncing off the otherwise silent brahmin neighborhood. The day could not have better, clear skies with a light breeze. Boston Common was already spilling over with tourists, runners, and the like. Sunday was prime time for Bostonians to be out and about.

The spire from one of the gem's of The Episcopal Church began to come in focus, and my pilgrimage was nearing its climax. And there it was, on the corner of Brimmer Street in the posh company of Beacon Hill, sits The Church of the Advent. I arrived with ample time for exploration before Solemn High Mass was to commence at 11:15 a.m. My heart was racing.

Now it goes without saying that every pilgrim erects a construct of expectations--whether spoken or not--of how the people and place will receive the hungry. I must admit that I had a few in mind that Sunday morning, and upon my own discovery, were proven to be unfounded. The prevalent stereotype of "spikery" in Anglo-Catholicism was at the forefront of my mind en route to mass that morning.

Opening the door to the sanctuary was a bit otherworldly--the incense from the previous mass was thick in the air and I had an immediate, striking sense of the Divine. I could smell it. The twenty-five or so choristers were practicing a beautiful setting of the Kyrie, and the mixture of male and female voices struck a deep impression right at the threshold. Inside, I grabbed a choice seat with a good view of the altar so that I could soak up all that I was about to encounter. I sat and surveyed the interior beauty of this gem. The sunlight that morning was piercing the clerestory windows, amplifying the smokey vaults of the ceiling. This was going to be something unlike any ordinary Rite II liturgy.

I discovered a pleasant, harmonious blending of Rite I from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer along with what could only be described as Sarum additions. I got a kick from seeing pasted inserts on the inside back cover of the Book of Common Prayer revealing several of the additional texts. Underneath the Hymnal was a card with the Angelus and antiphons to the Blessed Virgin Mary printed on both sides. The hymnody came from The Hymnal, 1982 and was juxtaposed with mass settings in Latin and Greek--the Kyrie, Gloria, etc. The Gospel was chanted, we genuflected at the appropriate place in the Nicene Creed, and we all said the Angelus following the liturgy complete with the ringing of the Angelus bell.

Ceremonial aside, what I feeling inside was simply exciting. The power of liturgy to transport you both out-of-time and in-time was not only made possible during the mass but was actually experienced, as evidenced by my goose-bumps. This was a feeling I have not felt for some time. One of the unintended consequences of liturgical training in seminary is that you tend to have a harder time worshipping in the broader church--one has to work extra hard to suppress feelings about liturgical mishaps and the like.

Following mass, I wondered about the sanctuary still reeling from the heavenly banquet but wanting somehow to capture that same feeling through photographs. There were several shrines about the place, but one in particular just sang out, Christ the Great High Priest.

There he was, crowned and adorned in the priestly chasuable with hands outstretched to me. "I love you," he says, "come to me and I will refresh you." The hands beckoned a hungry, hurting world to take Christ's burden of love and justice, of true freedom in eternal life. The eyes were piercing the holiness around me, drawing me into an intimate space of Christ's presence transcending the temporal. Never before have I felt that way before a shrine, not even Walsingham herself I dare say.

Reentering the atmosphere, I climbed down the stairs for coffee hour and found myself making new friends over a glass of sherry in the garden. Ah. This was my kind of parish. I say that I was lost, off in wonder, love, and praise; its more likely that I discovered that I was found to be in a place where the liturgy of the Lamb draws both the familiar and the odd together, making new creation. What a treat for a Sunday.

On the Mission of the Church

2010-10-13T19:42:00.000-05:00

"Mission is putting love where love is not."

St. John of the Cross

Documentary: The Saint of 9/11

2010-10-06T10:04:00.002-05:00

Fr. Mychal Judge, OFM (1933-2001)

The Order of Saint Anthony the Great is exploring the life and witness of Mychal Judge, the New York Fire Department Chaplain who died at the World Trade Center on September 11th. A Franciscan and a priest, Mychal's life was filled with joy, pain, love, and self-giving.

One of Father Mychal's favorite prayer's sums up his theology:

Lord, take me where you want me to go;

Let me meet who you want me to meet;

Tell me what you want me to say

And keep me out of your way.

The documentary film, The Saint of 9/11, captures both the eternal joy and love of the friar along with inner turmoil that so often accompanies holy people. Click on the title of the film to watch it, it's worth your time.

The American Inquisition

2010-10-02T17:27:00.022-05:00

If asked, my parents could tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing the day JFK was shot. Likewise, I can tell you exactly where I was on the morning of September 11, 2001. It's something that never leaves me. At the time, I was a senior at Hampden-Sydney College, and like most college students, managed to roll out of bed late and head to The Commons for breakfast, half alert to the comings and goings of the wider world.

I didn't even make it upstairs to the dinning hall that morning. Walking inside the Tiger Inn, the campus watering hole, I saw scores of other students surrounding the televisions inside. And there it was on the tube, the smoking twin towers of the Big Apple red hot with tragedy billowing from within. Shocking does not even begin to describe the feelings going through my body. The live video feed had a numbing, disorienting affect on me. The eerie silence of the usual bustling restaurant hit each student as they opened the doors on that crisp September morning. Something was horribly and unusually wrong. It was palpable.

Later that day, the Dean of Students called and asked me to accompany him on a visit to a mutual friend and administrator who had just learned of his beloved aunt's death in the World Trade Center attacks. As we sat with Ryan, it was clear to us that no words could bring back his aunt; our presence was simply that of loving compassion. The usually large former football player sat quietly smaller on the edge of the sofa. Nothing made sense anymore.

While I was safe in central Virginia that day, the events of our national tragedy are forever burned into my conscience and it still haunts me.

Hope, however, did find a way. By sunset, students from Hampden-Sydney organized a massive prayer rally on the football field for those who needed to begin their own process of understanding. It started first with prayer. Standing hand-in-hand, the college community surrounded the entire field in a unified prayer for peace, reconciliation, and healing. I was proud to be apart of a community that was willing to struggle in corporate unity for Christ amidst the day's horrific events.

More recently, the news surrounding a proposed Islamic Center near Ground Zero in Manhattan reveals that the Nation's wounds have not healed. Pogroms, of sorts, erupted across the country in sacrilegious protest. How bold of them, some opined, it's the enemy right in our back yard! The hysteria and media hype that ensued for weeks was akin to ripping the band-aid off fresh wounds still deeply felt by millions of Americans. Christian extremists were quick to charge that God had demanded Islam's holy book, The Qur'an, be burned in protest. Pundits spun the stories and debate on every possible side grew to an alarming pitch.

It also reveals that the soul of America is too cramped. Too narrow and claustrophobic, America's capacity for healing and reconciliation needs to be widened, stretched out. The western mind categorically rejects weakness and vulnerability in order to champion a form of social Darwinism that inevitably does great harm to the soul. Christ said as much.

In the post-resurrection narratives of Jesus found in the Gospels, he disarms and assuages his scared disciples with the words, "Peace." Retributive justice is not on Christ's mind. Visibly bearing the wounds of the crucifixion, Jesus' glorified body does not erase the painful lacerations inflicted by his death sentence. They are there, unambiguous to the human eye. Why? Because God does not erase the course of human history--it's too incarnational. Even Francis of Assisi prayed to receive the blessing of Christ's wounds because they were to serve him as the sovereign reminder of God's power to heal through brokenness.

I fear, though, that history is beginning to repeat again in the twenty-first century. The Spanish Inquisition of the fifteenth century sought to control and maintain Christian orthodoxy under the sentence of death. Conversion by the sword is fleeting and fickle, history proves that this is not how we celebrate progress. And now in 2010, the orthodox standards are being drawn from a clouded state of mind tantamount to an inquistion on American soil.

A narrow and cramped soul disavows anything contrary to what a pollster statistically proves. American ingenuity has all but disappeared, and the financial markets are reeling for the time being. "In God We Trust," is the motto found comically on our currency. More Americans, I suspect, place trust in the almighty dollar than they do with The Almighty One. We blame politicians and political parties for not fixing our problems. Changing the parties in charge of either the White House or Congress since 9-11, so it seems, has not solved much of anything.

Still, I don't lose heart.

Simply put, we should not put our faith in this or any government for salvific results; we should look to our faith communities to process through the hurt and anger of our woundedness to find answers for our way forward. We have to reconcile ourselves to ourselves and to others. Healing takes time. It is clear that in the space of the past nine years, very little healing has occurred. This can change and we can serve as instruments of that process.

Wounds, thank God, can and do heal. They can serve as painful reminders of the past, or they can transform us into blessings for the future. That decision, for now, is ours to make.

A Fisherman's Tale

2010-09-24T19:02:00.012-05:00

Funeral Liturgy for Charles G. Michael

Friday, September 24, 2010

St. Peter's Episcopal Church

Isaiah 25:6-9, Psalm 121, Romans 8:31-39, John 11:21-27

"Martha said to Jesus, 'I know that he will rise again in the resurrection
on the last day.' And Jesus said to her, 'I am resurrection, and the life.
Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.'" (John 11:24-25)

On September 3, 1925, the world was forever changed. That day is a special day for so many of us, it is the day Charles Granville Michael came into the world. He would grow up to change the world in only the way that he could--quietly, patiently, with love and gentleness.

Early in his life, he came to know words like sacrifice and offering, words that my generation is only now beginning to understand. Charlie was determined to join the war effort and secured a phony birth certificate in order to reach the legal age to join the US Navy. At the tender age of 16, he left the comfort of home in Grayson, Kentucky, said goodbye to his mom and dad, and set out for a world adventure. He would tell you that he was too young, too naive, and too green. But he heard the call of service and deep in his bones he had to answer it. Following the bombing in Pearl Harbor, Charlie was sent to the Pacific theater where he served faithfully for 8 years rising to be a bombardier flight pilot. If you never saw the anchor tattoos on his forearms, you would never know of his daring journey in the Navy. He never, ever talked about it.

This past June, when the cancer was visibly taking over, I was able to spend a lot of time with him. I prodded him for information and stories about the war. I even asked him if he ever had any regrets, to which he broke down and said that he knew so many men who died and could not let it go. We never spoke about it again.

Following the war, Charlie returned to the tri-state area to build a life for himself. The beautiful Nancy Mary Philip caught his eye and they married. For 52 years, Charlie and Nancy would tear up the square dance circuit in a beautiful dance of true love and companionship. Because of whatever happened during the war, Charlie refused to take the Government's GI Bill. He was determined to earn his own way in the world, again on his terms. He found work at a local steel shop, Steel Products, and began as the low man on the totem pole, welding and fabricating steel out in the hot, hellish heat on the shop floor.

He dabbled in television and small electronic repairs, as it feed his fascination with circuitry and engineering. This would later serve him well as he invented train engine testers that were quickly purchased by CSX. He had no formal training in any of this, for he had an insatiable hunger for knowledge--he wanted to know intimately why and how things worked. It fed his scientific mind. Charlie was smart and his inquisitive mind was going to serve him well. Yes he would make mistakes, but he would mull them over and learn from what they had to teach him.

Eventually he was able to buy ownership of Steel Products and expanded the business. His success model was simple: he lived the 'golden rule.' He was quite proud of the fact that his men never unionized--he knew exactly what it was like to work in the shop and prided himself on knowing from bottom to top what each man was required to know and do. He cared deeply for his men and treated them like extended members of his family.

Charlie's family was growing too. With a son, Peter, and daughter Pam, the Michael family, I imagine, was the American family of the 50's and 60's. When he could keep Nancy from secretly re-carpeting the house or control his emotions when he'd discover a house filled with new furniture, he managed to build a family and a business, grounded on his life of faith.

Charlie was a fisherman. He loved to fish. It didn't matter to him what he'd be catching, so long as the fish were biting. Fishing, he believed, was the reward of patience. Sure it was time away from the demands of work, but it was his way of putting the world in perspective--focusing on learning what Mother Nature had to teach about creation.

A son, a brother, a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a great-grandfather, Charlie cast his net wide into the world and all the while helping to shape a small part of it in the process. His was a life of seeing Christ in every person he met. No one ever felt like a stranger to him. I doubt there is anyone here today that did not get a hug, a friendly kiss, or his incredible smile greeting them every time you met him. From bishops to star football coaches to the local wait staff at Bob Evans, Charlie treated every one, every one as a sacred, special human being without exception. Life, for Charlie, was about living and loving, giving of himself to others because this was all he knew. Even in death, Charlie has given his body for medical research; those lessons learned at such a young age stuck with him all his life.

Jesus was a fisherman too. He cast his nets and caught the whole world. Time and again when the disciples failed to understand Jesus, he implored them to cast their nets to other side, only to pull in a tremendous catch. Jesus was no stranger to death either. The story of Lazarus is, I believe, one of the more intimate stories of Jesus in the Gospel accounts that has something to say to us today about life and death about living and loving. Jesus wept at the tomb of his dear friend, grief and suffering--something so profoundly human--overcame Our Lord. But, something even more deeply powerful was in store for Lazarus: resurrection. After four days of lying in the tomb, Lazarus was called forth to leave behind the sealed tomb thereby showing the glory and power of God.

Death, we know, is not our end. If the Easter story ended on Good Friday then the whole Christian narrative would be radically different. But it does not end at the cross. Death is forever swallowed up by life. The Easter proclamation forever marks us as people of life and light. When we dip our toes into the waters of Baptism, Christ makes an eternal claim on our lives. That claim does not end in death. Death is but a means, it is not our ultimate destination.

Paul, in his letter to the Romans makes clear to the Christian community that

God's love for us is manifest in the person and work of Jesus Christ. "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. No matter how hard we try, no matter what challenges we face, God's love abides.

We live to see the beatific vision, to be face-to-face with the risen Christ, raised by Him as citizens of the Kingdom of God. To delight in the heavenly banquet that Isaiah so eloquently describes, is the feast of our lives brought to fulfillment in the heavenly Jerusalem. And our invitation is wide open to all of God's children. Life conquers death. The light of Christ overcomes the darkness. And especially now, we struggle to live into that reality each and every day of our lives.

But the Good News is quite simply this: "Even at the grave we make our song Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia." What Christ has accomplished for us is eternal life, it's worth singing about today and everyday. Yes the Easter life can be a struggle at times, but we don't have to go it alone. We have Christ, the Lord and Author of Life who binds us together in the earthly Church. When we break bread and join in fellowship with one another, we find the source and summit of our lives made whole in Christ.

Charlie's theology was very simple and yet powerful. He always told me to live my life by giving others their flowers now, and not at their graves. Let people know that you love them, he said, and show it. This is how he lived his life. This is his powerful story, told to us by his many, many deeds.

My sisters and brothers, today we are those seedlings, little flowers nourished by Christ through Charlie's witness. May we live to be the sweet perfume of the Holy Spirit, radiating life, beaming love to every one, everywhere. Amen.

Poem: A Travel Advisory for Pilgrims

2010-09-20T19:20:00.003-05:00

A Travel Advisory for Pilgrims of Love in a Time of Terror
By Heather Murray Elkins

Pack only what you need and are willing to share.

Leave every weapon except Truth at the border.

When it comes to currency be wise.

Avoid gold

Carry copper instead

The guard dogs of Ceasar can't track its trace until it's too late.

Any penny is a common wealth, and two cents builds trust.

Every true sense of liberty (hammered by wisdom and wired with the Gospel)

Conducts electric vision

With malice toward none, charity toward all...

The hidden assets of the widow's might.

Pope pays tribute to Newman's contributions

2010-09-19T19:55:00.001-05:00

Farewell Good and Faithful Servant

2010-08-23T19:22:00.007-05:00

Easter 2008, Pappaw, Chad, and Tucker

His name is Charlie. He's my Pappaw. He's dying of cancer, it has spread to the bone and has now left him in a morphine-induced state of life. Hospice is 'on-call' and we are ready. A veteran of the Pacific theatre of World War II, he fibbed about his age in order to join the war effort--he was a Naval bomber pilot. He never speaks much about his military service, in fact if it weren't for the poorly inscribed anchor tattoos on his forearms, you would never know about it.

Charlie is an extraordinary gift to the world, a child of God whose faith in people and in Our Lord was unswerving. His wife Nancy, married for 51 years, was the love of his life. He had everything and worked to build it with honest, hard work. Steel Products, a small custom steel fabrication company, was the fruit of that labor. Following the war, he did not accept the government's handout with the G.I. Bill. He did not want any payment for his service in the Navy. He claimed that he knew others that needed the money more than he did (which was also a fib).

So he saved and built his own first house along with a family in Huntington, West Virginia. He saved some more and eventually bought his ownership in the steel business. He saved even more and expanded the business while growing a reputation for quality service 'after the sale.' A devout Episcopalian, he spent the better part of his entire life in faithful service to St. Peter's Episcopal Church in the west end of Huntington--giving money, time, and dedication to seeing the mission of Christ happen in an otherwise impoverished part of town. Charlie was the sort who preferred to stay behind the scenes, he didn't care much for lavish attention or even who got credit for anything. He just liked to do it. And he did an awful lot of doing.

I cannot recall a single momentous occasion in my own life where he was not present. Pappaw was seemingly always there. Family was a top priority for Charlie. Another priority was Marshall University athletics, football in particular. He was quick with a joke to lighten the mood and was ready to lend his listening ears too. He simply loved people and he loved to learn. Everyday presented Charlie with something new, something to learn, and something to praise God for His handiwork in everything.

His life leaves me gasping. Is he a modern-day prophet, the quiet example-setting sort? How could such an ordinary person have such a profound, extraordinary impact on so many lives? I don't know the answer just yet.

Each day he dies a little more. My prayer for Pappaw is for a holy death. He said to me back in June that he was ready to die--he recalled his full life of blessings and with few (if any really) regrets. I cherish that month spent at home near him. He knows my love for him, my admiration for who he is and who he came to be. It makes saying good-bye seem irrelevant, at least to me. I carry him with me everywhere, everyday.

Farewell, good and faithful servant. Truly, he was apart of the 'Greatest Generation.'

The Benedictine Abbey of Fontgombault

2010-08-18T20:05:00.001-05:00

Dew Dreams

2010-08-17T15:17:00.002-05:00

'tis the soul's August,
whose roots are tightly compact'd--
water stagnates and rots the soil.
Nothing seems to pass through it.

In dreamy night air does
it imagine,
a haze of soft rain,
to refresh the hell
of the hot day.

Autumnal glimpses
are found deep within,
deadening the murmuring
below.

And nothing sticks to it,
vanishing up like
morning dew.

Dirty Faith

2010-07-24T21:34:00.002-05:00

Faith without dirty hands is meaningless.
Dig just a little and feel the creed of life,
buried in the sand.
Rub it between your fingers,
play with it some,
smell its sweet rawness.
There's life there,
for sure.
Burrow down.
Persevere till you find the roots.
Harvest the bounty, it's there for a reason.
Fear not,
water will wash your hands clean.

Gone Fishing

2010-07-22T17:00:00.002-05:00

I must apologize for neglecting my blog and explain.

Following seminary, I've moved twice, landing back at my first alma mater, Hampden-Sydney College where I am hard at work reconstructing the College's annual giving program. I am serving in an interim capacity. My life is still packed in boxes, spread out between my apartment and storage.

Bear with me, please. Pray for me, please! Transitions in life, as you probably know, are often fraught with multiple challenges. Maintaining one's sanity and sense of rootedness is chief among them.

I pray for you and I hope your summer is spirit-filled. God's blessings to you. I'm off to the lake for now.

Flies and Lies

2010-06-29T11:39:00.010-05:00

The only fisherman who will tell the truth about where the fish are biting is your father. And if your really lucky, which fly to tie on. Don't bother asking anyone else, you'll get a fish story.

The annual father-and-sons fishing adventure saw another season in 2010 on the remote rivers in southwest Virginia. Knee-deep in the summer stream with cowpies about and copperheads sunning on nearby rocks, I ask what more could any fisherman ask for? Well, fish, of course. Trout to be exact.

Fly fishing is like learning to drive a standard--it requires both hands, some coordination, and a lot of finesse. It's easy to get hooked (yes, I know--last pun) on what feels like a more artful way to fish. Rhythm is essential in casting your line, soaring over the water with grace and precision. My first fly fishing expedition took place in 1994, chest deep in the freezing waters of the Eagle River near Vail, Colorado. Amid the falling snow, my guide helped me land a large, trophy Rainbow trout which afforded me familial bragging rights for eternity. Ever since that audacious beginning, I managed to lose my way back to the streams--life and all the familiar distractions got in the way.

I admit there were times when I begrudgingly went along on those fishing trips with my dad and brother. It seems my older brother was always eager and I was always looking for excuses. I could not for the life of me understand why my dad was insistent upon this annual venture. What is it about taking your sons out into the wilderness in search of these slimy, cold water fish? Understandably, no teenager could solve that riddle, it took becoming a father myself to grasp an answer. It goes without saying that fatherhood changes the game of life completely--it's no longer about YOU but about THEM. Sharing your passions with those you love is a profound exercise of trust and fidelity, especially when you reveal the choicest fishing holes or that a copperjohn fly is the best for this stream.

So the answer of course is priceless. A bad day fishing is always better than any good day at work. Adding your son or daughter (or both in my case) only sweetens the deal. It's not about catching fish, even though that's always the stated premise. It's about doing something timeless together without distraction and without the pressures of everyday life. And yes it's true, time manages to stop temporarily as you wade deep into the streams.

Time, flies, and lies make up the passion of fly fishing. It's magic worked on me, I no longer drag my feet at an invitation. I get it now and it makes sense. Something tells me that my own children will probably act just as I did.

Summer Work

2010-06-20T18:44:00.005-05:00

Following the hectic move from seminary, I've been enjoying a few weeks of rest while visiting my family in West Virginia. I'm determined to start a vegetable container garden in an effort to eat better and live, as Saint Benedict urges, "by the sweat of your brow." I've grown from seed green beans, arugula, green onions, and hopefully some of my baby spinach seeds will pop. I've added an established tomato plant as well as a jalapeno pepper plant. Maybe by late July or early August I'll have some food to show for my labor.

I found a pile of old wood from a clapboard fence that was ripped out at my parent's house. I decided that I wanted to try my hand at some more woodwork by recycling and repurposing old wood. So far, I've built a potting table, a bench, and two plant stands.

The potting bench was really fun to build and I did not make any drawings as such, just went forward with what I had envisioned in my mind.

The bench and plant stands are for my parent's house, they were built for a side porch that needed some pizazz. I'm going to paint these in a milky-green antique color to give some curb appeal and pop.

All in all, I'm managing to stay pretty busy and the work is relaxing. Having free labor around the house is not going to waste, for sure. I find that I rather enjoy the challenge of repurposing old wood in order to create new and useful things.

Warning: Be Careful What You Pray For

2010-06-11T19:57:00.020-05:00

Saint Francis of Assisi knew something of the power of prayer. Recorded in the biographical work on the saint, The Little Flowers of Saint Francis, we learn of Francis' prayer before receiving the wounds of Christ.

The next day came, to wit the day of the most Holy Cross, and St. Francis, betimes in the morning, or ever it was day, betook himself to prayer before the entrance of his cell, and turning his face towards the East, prayed after this manner: "O my Lord Jesus Christ, two graces do I beseech Thee to grant me before I die: the first, that, during my lifetime, I may feel in my soul and in my body, so far as may be possible, that pain which Thou, sweet Lord, didst suffer in the hour of Thy most bitter passion; the second is that I may feel in my heart, so far as may be possible, that exceeding love, whereby Thou, Son of God, wast enkindled to willingly bear such passion for us sinners"

It's a beautiful prayer for broken people; broken people like me find these words searing. I learned about this prayer my first year in seminary. On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14), The Rev. Dr. Bob Hughes spoke of Francis' prayer and its efficacy during his sermon in our seminary chapel, Chapel of the Apostles. It was a favorite of the late Fr. Mychal Judge, OFM of blessed memory who died ministering to NYC firefighters during the 9-11 attacks. It is also a favorite of mine and helped me greatly during those early seminary days. In fact, I used to pray it nightly. There was something so powerful that struck me about Francis' cry of the heart: let me know that pain that delivered the world by your death, but even more fill my heart with the love that brought you to the cross. I distinctly recall leaving chapel that day and having those words running through my mind. I could not let them go. I don't think I wanted to.

It turns out that you have to be careful for what you pray for, if in God's providence it is deemed necessary, it could come true. I don't boast the stigmata, I am too unworthy of that mark but at least in metaphor I think I have come to know something of this prayer.

Death and resurrection, love and pain, wounds and healing, separation and reunion all encircle those provocative words from Francis. To be so bold to proclaim Christ crucified and resurrected is to share in that tension where we find our own lives struggling each and every day to be wholly loved. The marks of the crucified Lord are brought to bear in the lives of the least, the last, and the lost even now. Some bear those marks deep within. The Kingdom of God has indeed come near, but it has not yet been consummated in the dance of creation moving ever so closely to fulfilling God's destiny. And so those scars remain, present reminders of infinite love mingled with mortifying pain.

I prayed those words because I believed that I needed to know that pain of being stuck out on a limb to die, to give up one's own life so that others may have life and have it abundantly. And yet even hanging out there, God's love is poured into the heart to fill up those leaky cracks--wounds and all. You get both, and both you shall have. There is no warning label on the baptismal font and perhaps there should be one. This life in Christ is not all fun and games, it's real and it's really life-saving. But. But the cost is death and the return is resurrection. No one said it would be easy or even remotely pleasant for that matter. The tears somehow turn to joy bringing the cross to bear under the weight of true and lasting freedom in the Redeemer. Since praying that prayer in seminary, I have known days of extreme and total agony, crying out in dereliction with Christ. Still there are days which swell my heart with profound, speechless grace. Today, at least, I sense both at work. I know them to be inextricably bound together. Today, at least, I get those words in all their fullness and I'll take it. Both.

Lord Christ, may I feel in my body as much as possible the pain you endured on the cross, but even more may I know in my heart the love that brought you there. Amen.

The Monk Runner

2010-06-05T17:44:00.000-05:00

I decided that I needed an additional motivational tool for me to help prepare for the 2010 ING New York City Marathon, so I've created a running blog simply called The Monk Runner. Check it out, though it's still very much a work in progress.

Anglican Church of Canada: General Synod 2010

2010-06-05T08:45:00.003-05:00

On June 3, the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada opened its triennial meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia. You can follow the events of the General Synod 2010 online through the Synod's website. The communications that come out of the Synod are great. I followed the 2007 Synod with great interest and I believe it is important to pray for and support our Canadian brothers and sisters while they are meeting in their major legislative body.

Click here for the daily video files.

New Liturgical Movement: Reforming the Reform

2010-05-25T17:03:00.004-05:00

Reforming the reform? Huh? Well, if you believe that the Second Vatican Council went too far in its *cough* liturgical reform, than the New Liturgical Movement (NLM) blog may be for you. Actually, I rather like the information, its attention to detail, and of course all the lovely pictures and videos of all things liturgical throughout the church catholic. If you can stomach it's decided slant towards all things "Benedictine," then you will treasure the wealth of resources compiled together at NLM. It took this old-hearted Anglo-Catholic some time to discern that Benedictine was not in fact monastic, but referring to Pope Benedict XVI's zeal for the ancient liturgical tradition of the church.

There has been, for instance, an interesting thread going through the blog considering what liturgical tradition the new Anglican ordinariates will follow and as such examining the Sarum use along with many other English forms. The trailer above for the Solemn Requiem in the Dominican Rite (which is a religious order!) is an example of the rigor with which this spirit for "reforming the reform" has and continues to build.

Regardless of your position, and take heart, I am an ardent 1979 BCP man myself (with a high ceremonial), NLM is a rather interesting blog to check out from time to time.

Me, Age 6

2010-05-25T00:00:00.001-05:00

My parents are to thank for this photograph, taken in May 1986. I used to stand on the dinning room chair and pretend it was my pulpit. I would make my parents sit in the living room and listen to me preach! I even passed around a bowl asking for a collection, though I padded it with pennies to pretend that money was in there. I thought of everything, down to the grape juice and saltine crackers for the Eucharist.

In Sunday school class at St. Peter's Episcopal Church (Huntington, WV) where I grew up, we made these felt stoles which all the children wore in a grand Palm Sunday procession. We even had a wooden donkey on wheels that some lucky child got to ride! While I don't think that I would do this now, liturgically speaking, it was something to behold as a child.

The lesson, I suppose, is that you never know what can really speak to a child about holy things.

New York or Bust: Preparing for the 2010 NYC Marathon

2010-05-24T16:37:00.007-05:00

It begins today. On Sunday, November 7th, me and 40,000 of my closest running buddies will be zigzagging through all five boroughs of New York City in the 40th running of the New York City Marathon. How many miles is a marathon, you ask: 26.2 glorious, painful miles! Founded in 1970, the NYC Marathon is considered one of the "majors" in the marathon world.

I started running--seriously--during my first year of seminary. I ran a 5K during sunset in Key West in 2008, I've run Central Park, and added cycling to the mix of activities. Last year, I ran five half-marathons (13.1 mi.) across Tennessee and Alabama. I over did it, you could say, and got burned out. Logging over 500 miles was sometimes fun, sometimes painful, but always exhilarating. I took much of this past year off from running and the weight crept back on. Running quickly became more than just a physical release from stress--it became an important part of my prayer life.

I won the lottery in order to secure my spot in 2009. Because of burnout, I was able to delay my acceptance until 2010. Last year, I was asked to serve as one of the Chaplains for the ecumenical service prior to the start of the race.

In just 116 days, I'll have completed my first full marathon. NYC, the Big Apple, will be mine! The race begins on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on Staten Island and finishes in Central Park. I am excited, a bit nervous, and looking forward to commencing the long training schedule to get ready. No more sweets, extra nibbles here and there, no more good beer. Nope, it all starts today.

Praying Our Goodbyes

2010-05-21T14:57:00.020-05:00

Following Commencement with the Chancellor of the University of the South,

Bishop J. Neil Alexander (Bishop of Atlanta).

The day came and went as fast as you could imagine. Graduation day, family, and all the goodbyes. A day that seemed as though it would never happen, finally did. And it happened quickly. How did three years disappear so fast? Can I get that time back? Just one more hour in the theology library? Well, no. Time's up.

Attending The School of Theology at the University of the South was both an honor and a privilege. I was stretched in so many ways, taught to expand my own theological and spiritual dimensions while complimenting a formation for priestly ministry in the church. It hurt at times, the stretching and letting go of all those views that I felt important, and then there were those profound moments of clarity. Seminary did not "take away" anything of mine, but rather challenged me to go deeper and deeper into Christ's ministry. Formation, I used to believe, was a bad word; feeling as though I was an empty mass of clay that needed to be shaped into some pre-determined earthen vessel. What I discovered was that the faculty and curriculum was in fact meeting me where God had begun the work, and the formation naturally takes off.

While the degree title can be misleading, "Masters of Divinity," I leave Sewanee probably with more questions than answers, deeper questions probing the Christian life and witness. And yet, I have gained a clearer sense of my own call towards ordained ministry along with a deeper faith in Christ. I could not even begin to summarize all the experiences, encounters in ministry, and relationships in community that evolved over these three short years. But I have learned something about death and resurrection, love and betrayal, and what the risks entail for living a life of faith in Christ. "Comfort the afflicted," you hear often in the seminary halls, "and afflict the comfortable." There is nothing glamorous about ministry, as you know: the pay is lousy and the hours are consuming. But, there is profound joy and wholeness that fills those earthen vessels with overflowing life--however cracked though they may be.

One step that I took this year towards my formation was professing vows in a new, emerging monastic community based in the Diocese of Atlanta--the Order of St. Anthony the Great, OPC. The order was formed in 2006 and I liked the idea of being apart of an order whose history has not yet been written. We shall soon have 11 brothers and will be petitioning General Convention in 2012 for formal recognition in the wider body. I wanted to adapt my life to a written "rule" and live under vows of simplicity, obedience, and chastity (celibacy in singleness and fidelity in marriage). There is a great freedom, believe it or not, in this life. Free to love chastely, to obey the rule and the authority over me, and live simply is really life-giving. I began my discernment with the community in Lent 2009 and my vows are annual. The monastic "me" compliments my calling to be a priest. And yes, we do have monk-priests in the Episcopal Church!

Praying my own goodbye has been hard but ultimately proved fulfilling, a way in which I am reminded to let go and put trust in God's hands again. The idea is not mine, it comes from a remarkable little book that I discovered this past semester on loss and goodbye written by Sister Joyce Rupp, simply called Praying Our Goodbyes (Ave Maria Press, reprinted in 2009). Just remember, there is always a "hello" to be heard if your ears are opened to the Spirit. I feel as though I am able to listen now and sense those hellos echoing daily.

What an incredible, holy, and life-giving three years seminary proved to be. Formation, as it turned out, wasn't so bad after all. Of course, it's still ongoing, though you must be willing to trust God and be open to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit--she'll work hard on you and trust that!

On the Baptismal Covenant

2010-05-18T20:48:00.000-05:00

Brother Karekin Yarian, BSG is a member of the Brotherhood of St. Gregory the Great (BSG). He's an avid blogger and you can find him over at Sandals at the Gate.

My Latest Projects

2010-05-12T17:13:00.008-05:00

Before I pack up my tools and leave Sewanee, I had several wood projects that needed to be finished for some friends. I wish my high school taught "shop class." This new prayer discipline really took off this year and it seems with each project, I see a marked improvement in my technique. Still, I know I have a lot to learn about woodwork.

I created a simple, working pattern for what I call "book desks." These are great for writing papers, sermons, etc. They are made from pine which is very easy to work with, though the staining is somewhat tricky. For seminarians, I have been burning the Saint Luke's cross into the wood as a center piece.

I have now built a few of these "prayer benches" which are modeled after the pattern found in Martin Smith's (former SSJE) seminal work, The Word is Very Near You: A Guide to Praying with Scripture. (Cambridge: Cowley Publications, 1989). These are great for contemplative prayer. I've also burned the Saint Luke's cross in the center. I've used poplar since these require support.

The "Saint Luke's Cross" is the official cross of the School of Theology, Luke being the patron of our community. Why it's Celtic, I have no idea. A metal, pectoral version is presented to all graduates during Commencement. I'll have mine in two days! These are wall crosses done in pine.

Finally, I am excited to begin work on my summer project, an icon crucifix. This is a Western-style San Damiano but written in the Byzantine tradition--I really like blending the two. I went ahead and cut the wood and prepared the icon board so that I don't have to fiddle with it once moved. This will be my first crucifixion scene. I wanted to make this large so as to inhabit a chapel one day.

This is what I'm after here. This icon cross is found in the lower church of the Community of the Resurrection in Mirfield, West Yorkshire. When I first saw it there I knew that I wanted the challenge in trying my hand at writing one. We'll see...

I guess you really can do anything with an Masters of Divinity degree!

May is for Mary

2010-05-11T10:38:00.003-05:00

Lady Month, or the month of May is especially marked by catholics with devotion to the God-Bearer (Theotokos). May 31st, after all, is the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin to her cousin Elizabeth whereby Luke recalls that famous ave and the glorious Magnificat (Luke 1:39-57). Later this month in Walsingham, the National Pilgrimage will be held. May is the month of Mary.

There is an old catholic tradition of building and maintaining a "May altar" dedicated to Our Lady throughout the month of May. The photographs of these May Altars come from the home of my brother, Fr. Robert-James, OPC. The following excerpt comes from the webpages of The Marian Library/The International Marian Research Institute in Dayton, OH.

To the specific characteristics of the May devotion is to be counted the specially set up May altar - be it as an addition to or specially decorated altar in the church or as a "house altar" in the family circle. Like the May devotions themselves, the custom to highlight this type of May altar stems from southern European countries. A report from France in 1842 speaks of Our Lady's altar in May showing off in rich splendor, while the families also erected and decorated small home altars.

All of nature awakened to new life in springtime is presented to honor Mary, who is herself "a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys" (Song of Songs 2,1). This form of devotion was influence and furthered, for example, in Treatise on True Devotion to Mary by Louis de Montfort, who, among other things, counted the decoration of Marian altars a chief exercise of Marian devotion.

The development of "home altars" seems to have naturally grown from churches specially dedicating altars within the worship space to Our Lady. The above citation continues:

When erecting a May altar in a church, one distinguishes between the special decoration of an existing Marian altar, the erection of an altar set up specifically to serve this May devotion, or the transformation of the main altar into a May altar. The Handbook of Church Rituals (Regensburg 1846) notes under May altar that these devotions be held at an altar dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and decorated "to the full." If there isn't any [altar dedicated to Mary], another altar is to be set up and furnished with a picture or a statue of Mary. In Strasbourg, in 1855 for the first time, a special "Mother of God altar" was set up before the chancel.

With the development of May altars in churches, the custom spread to set up this type of "altar" also in the home. The authors of both private publications and of official publications refer to this practice, encourage them, or assume that there are such. While some devotional books encourage the user to decorate an image of Mary found there and to pray there--a custom "that belongs anyway in every good Catholic home"--others depict the "prayer room" as "a shrine dedicated to Mary."

A side altar of this type was drawn into the celebration in that the blessing frequently was given from this altar. By carrying the Blessed Sacrament from the main altar, the precedence of the main altar was clearly visible.

Pick some flowers, find an icon or statue, and light a candle. Place Mary as the "spiritual fireplace" of your home this month. Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us all!

Leaven For the World: Monastic Profession Research

2010-05-10T18:12:00.007-05:00

Ever wonder the origins of monastic profession? What's this about a "mystical burial?" What did Benedict really think about monastic profession? Learn all of this (hopefully) and more in my recent article, "Leaven For the World: Monastic Profession Rites from the Desert to Saint Benedict." Leaven for the World: Monastic Profession Rites from the Desert to Saint Benedict

A New Walsingham Icon

2010-04-08T17:12:00.000-05:00

Today I received my new icon of Our Lady of Walsingham. I had commissioned this through an iconographer that I discovered in Bulgaria via the internet. Not only was the price reasonable, but the quality is simply amazing. I have much to aspire to in my own iconography. The iconographer, Krasimir Kostov, does excellent work and I commend him to you. If you would like his email address, drop me a line.

In this icon, I wanted to blend together two of my favorite icon depictions of Our Lady--namely the checkered floor which struck me as both odd and out of place. But it grew on me over time! The size is large, 12in. x 15in. and the colors are brilliant. I hope to have the icon properly blessed soon.

A Newman Prayer

2010-04-08T16:58:00.000-05:00

O Jesus,

flood my soul with Your Spirit and Life.

Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly

that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.

Shine through me and be so in me

that every soul I come in contact with may

feel Your presence in my soul.

Let them look up and see no longer me

but only thee, Jesus. Amen.

This is an abbreviated version of Cardinal Newman's prayer that he used following the Eucharist. I learned about this prayer while in the sacristy at the seminary, it was fancied by one of our more Anglo-Catholic professors.

A Home We Build Together

2010-03-29T20:33:00.003-05:00

Members of the Class of 2010 from The School of Theology

with Br. Ron Fender, BSG.

What do graduating senior seminarians from the School of Theology, a Gregorian monk, and a house for homeless men have in common? The answer, the Body of Christ. Members of the Class of 2010 from The School of Theology, The University of the South partnered with Br. Ron Fender, a monk in the Brotherhood of Gregory the Great, to help furnish the new Brandenburg Chapel at the House of All Souls in Chattanooga. The seminarians designed and constructed an altar and furnished all the necessary items for worship in the new space. Senior Chris Caddell (Diocese of West Texas) was the designer and carpenter for the project. "Building this altar was a gift of love to help this new community become a family." Caddell notes, "I am so honored that our class was able to help in a very meaningful way."

Brother Ron has been tending and washing the feet of the homeless in Chattanooga for the past seven years as his ministry. He serves as a case manager at the Community Kitchen, a Chattanooga refuge for the hungry and homeless. He has been featured on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition, which was chronicling the stories from main street USA. Inspired by such projects as the Brother Bernard Fessenden House in Yonkers as well as Common Ground in New York City, Brother Ron sought to build an intentional community to house homeless men using a monastic model to instill community. Brother Ron discovered in his time at the Community Kitchen that many who completed recovery programs and who were eventually placed into apartments as a way to rebuild their lives, quickly fell back to street life. Fender notes that, “putting a homeless person in an isolated room or apartment without supportive services, or even furniture or household goods makes no sense whatsoever… the most successful model for ending homelessness is to create community for the homeless.” Brother Ron is doing just that.

With a grant from The Rosewood Foundation, a new house in Chattanooga was constructed and named the House of All Souls, a clear statement that this house that has brought together eight homeless men along with Brother Ron is a home for all. The Brandenburg Chapel is named in memory of Edward Brandenburg, a homeless resident of Chattanooga who inspired Brother Ron to begin the whole project. Brandenburg died in 2008 and so All Souls is a living tribute to his vision and ideal of what a home should look like. At the foot of the altar rests Brandenburg's brick memorial. The new residents were screened and agreed to live in this intentional community and continue in their recovery programs. This new family offers mutual support and love centered on Jesus Christ.

"All it takes is to spend five minutes with Brother Ron," notes seminarian Br. Chad Krouse, OPC (Diocese of Southern Virginia), "and you will feel the presence of the living Christ through his work and ministry in Chattanooga." For the seminarians, it was important that their senior class gift go out into the world for mission. Reactions from Br. Ron and the men of All Souls were powerful and inspiring for this future class of ordained ministers.

P.S. I made the candlesticks and altar missal stand. And yes, there is an icon of Our Lady of Walsingham in the new chapel. ;)

Desert Spirituality, A Lenten Class

2010-03-28T20:10:00.009-05:00

Today at Saint Paul's Episcopal Church in Chattanooga, TN, I led an Adult Education class on desert spirituality. Originally the class was to take place at the start of Lent, but scheduling conflicts caused me to move towards the end. Knowing that it was a big topic and time a significant factor, I plowed ahead to do the best that I could do.

For a long time, I have wanted to teach spirituality and contemplative prayer in the Episcopal Church. I have long felt impoverished in my own upbringing in the faith by a serious lack of Christian education in this important area for discipleship. Needless to say, one class on a Sunday morning only begins to scratch the surface. Alas, I was grateful for the opportunity to broach the subject.

The basis for the class was a reading of Henri Nouwen's The Way of the Heart, a primer for contemplative prayer by gleaning from the life of the fourth century desert mothers and fathers. Here are some of my notes. The page numbers refer to my copy of Nouwen's book (New York: Seabury Press, 1981).

___________________________________________________

A Brief Overview of Desert Spirituality
The Christian life has its many trials and temptations. We struggle in our daily lives with the temptations for better jobs, material possessions and wealth, and the ultimate pursuit of happiness. The culture today shares this with the late Roman world of the fourth century.

With the toleration of Christianity under the Edict of Milan in 313, the narrow door that Jesus spoke of was flung far and wide, opening the gates to thousands of new Christians. The Church no longer faced bloody persecution from Rome. With this peace and growth came a prevailing sense that the Christian standard was deteriorating, the faith was becoming too common and lapsed, so it seemed.

Monasticism appears on the scene in the fourth century as an impulse to reform the church from the relaxed standards of the Christian life. Subversive to the culture of material wealth and power, life for the desert fathers and mothers was a search for solitude in the wilderness of Egypt to find a deep, abiding union with God in Christ. Their testing was to renounce the world's priorities in search of the richness of Christ founded upon a strict dedication or rule of life.

Nouwen's The Way of the Heart
In classic Nouwen form, The Way of the Heart presents five short chapters with straight-forward reflective insights into the spiritual tradition that grew out of the desert in the fourth century. It is a misreading of Nouwen, here, to see the interior life and growth through silence apart from ministry within the Kingdom of God. Nor, however, is this implying or espousing the Platonic ideals of mind/body dualism, or the Manichaeism heresy.

Desert spirituality is quite clearly a primer for discipleship which Our Lord calls and invites us all to live. The result of desert spirituality in practice is a well-spring of compassion, a capacity so widened by transforming silence that we are able to bear one another's crosses in solidarity with Jesus Christ.

Class Outline

I. Opening Silence and Prayer

II. Overview of Desert Spirituality
·   flee, be silent, and pray, the three main ideas of desert spirituality.

III. Prologue
·      What is required of us as ministers of the Gospel in our day (pg. 12)
·      Subversive Prayer, the actions of the desert fathers and mothers subverted the established culture
·      Romans 12:1-2 "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect."
·      New kinds of martyrs, witnesses against the destructive powers of evil and witnesses for the transforming power of Christ.

IV. Solitude
·      Thomas Merton (p.21)
·      Society as molding us for seductive powers
·      Take a look at our own weekly routine in order to see our priorities
·      Two main enemies of the Spiritual life: anger and greed
·      The Furnace of Transformation
·      "My soul 'too cramped for you to enter it--widen it out." St. Augustine's Confessions
·      Jesus' Temptations in the desert
·      Matthew 9:9-13   "As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ But when he heard this, he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’"
·      Dying to the false self
·      Spirituality and Ministry meet in compassion

V. Silence
·      Have words lost their power? Is language our only ability to communicate with God?
·      What value does our culture place on silence?
·      What value does our worshipping community place on silence?
·      What would our lives look like without distractions? What would our ministry look like?
·      "Silence is the home of the word." Nouwen
·      "God's first language is silence, everything else is translation" Thomas Keating
·      John 1:1-5   "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."
·      Vincent van Gogh (p.55)

VI. Prayer
·      How does silence manifest itself in prayer?
·      How does this square with community prayer and worship?
·      "Arrow Prayers" (p.80)
·      Via Negativa or the Apophatic tradition

The Last Anchorite Part 2

2010-03-26T13:12:00.000-05:00

The Last Anchorite Part 1

2010-03-26T13:10:00.000-05:00

After delving into the ancient world of St. Anthony and meeting the present-day anchorite, Fr. Lazarus in James Cowan's book, Desert Father: A Journey in the Wilderness with Saint Anthony, I went searching for more. I came across a short documentary film (less than 20 minutes), "The Last Anchorite," which I commend to you. Because of the time constraints on YouTube, the video is divided into two sections.

You will encounter the expanse of Mount Colzim where the cave of Saint Anthony rests as well as peek inside Saint Anthony's Coptic Monastery. Hear the wisdom of Fr. Lazarus. No commentary, I think, is needed.

The Monastery of Saint Anthony

2010-03-24T20:33:00.003-05:00

Here's an interesting look inside the Coptic Orthodox Monastery of Saint Anthony in Egypt, one of the oldest monasteries in all of Christendom. Built around 356, the monastery is the burial site of St. Anthony. The monastery sits at the base of Mount Colzim, the mountain which holds the cave of Abba Anthony.

Extensive renovations have been underway at the monastery for the past 8 years. The news agency, Zenit, carries an interesting article concerning the renovations at this ancient holy site. Click here to go read the article.

Hungry For Change: Food, Inc.

2010-03-22T09:16:00.005-05:00

The documentary film, Food, Inc., came out this fall and is the work of filmmaker Robert Kenner. I rented it last night on i-Tunes and was captivated. Think you know the real source of your food? Do you know how many products in the grocery store contain corn or corn-related by-products? Do you realize how few companies are controlling the food sources--from seed to supermarket--in this global economy?

While I don't think this film will turn you into a vegetarian, it will certainly make you think twice when you are in the check-out line buying food for you or your family. The film is well made, I think, and covers poultry, pork, beef, corn, and soybeans. My favorite is the philosopher-farmer in Virginia, you'll know him when you see him! Join the chase of the "seed nazis" who stop at nothing to protect their patent rights in the farm fields of America. Be advised, there are some scenes showing how animals are slaughtered, but it's not the end of the world. Watch it, it's well worth the hour-and-a-half of your time.

The makers of the film have created a website, Hungry For Change, where you can find out more information and ways to make a change in your food.

England Gets Ready for the Pope

2010-03-21T18:51:00.003-05:00

As if England does not have enough preparations for the forthcoming Olympics in London, now the island has to get ready for an official papal visit, the last one occurred in 1982 by Pope John Paul II. With the official invitation from Queen Elizabeth II extended, Pope Benedict XVI will be making a state visit to England this September. The English Conference of Catholic Bishops have created a website concerning the visit, click here for the site.

While I do not consider myself a pope-watcher, I am interested in this particular visit because of the Pope's admiration for Cardinal John Henry Newman, whose beatification will be conducted in Coventry during the Pope's visit.

The Pope is to be received by the Queen at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, and Archbishop Rowan Williams is also scheduled to meet with Benedict XVI.

Photos from the 1982 visit, from the English Conference of Bishops website.

Pope John Paul II with Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie

A double-whammy blessing. Show me the rubrics!

I wonder what the Prince of Wales had to say. Bit crowded on the couch.

Oscar Romero's Cause for Sainthood

2010-03-21T18:35:00.002-05:00

Blessed Newman

2010-03-21T18:32:00.001-05:00

With one miracle accepted by the Holy See, Cardinal John Henry Newman is scheduled to be beatified by Pope Benedict XVI later this spring during his visit to England. In order to be elevated to sainthood, one more miracle will need to be attributed to the cardinal and accepted by Rome.

Desert Father

2010-03-19T17:46:00.003-05:00

In preparation for next Sunday's Adult Christian Education Class concerning desert spirituality (9:15 a.m. at St. Paul's, Chattanooga--come one, come all!), I stumbled upon James Cowan's book, Desert Father: A Journey in the Wilderness with Saint Anthony (Boston: Shambhala, 2004). I was initially struck by the fact that something contemporary had been written on St. Anthony the Great. Since Anthony is the patron of my Order, I was sold in wading through the book, and I'm about half-way finished.

Those familiar with Abba Anthony, as he's sometimes called, know him through St. Athanasius' biography of Anthony--of which there are numerous editions chronicling Anthony's retreat to the desert and his teachings. Cowan's work is interesting because he is using his own spiritual journey alongside that of Anthony. Cowan leaves his academic career in Australia in order to pursue Anthony into the wilds of Egypt, whereupon he lands in one of the oldest monasteries in Christendom, the Coptic monastery of Saint Anthony. Here at the monastery, Cowan encounters a strange new friend, a person the monks there consider to be the last solitary in the Church, a man named Lazarus who himself is an Aussie ex-pat who renounced the world. Lazarus lives in a cave high atop Mount Colzim, the mountain where Anthony lived. The monastery sits just below the mountain.

Here's an excerpt:

These were the questions that I brought to Lazarus's attention on my occasional climb up the mountain. I did not make such trips often, believing that it was important to contemplate questions myself before inflicting them on my friend. I was conscious of not imposing myself on Lazarus in a way that might interfere with his life. He had a right to his solitude, as he had fought hard to acquire it. As a practicing hesychast, Lazarus deserved more than to have his world examined by someone like me.

Cowan paints vividly the Roman world in which Anthony and the desert fathers and mothers fled the cities in silent rebellion. The desert, the great metaphor for the human soul, is the background in which Anthony overcomes the temptations of the adversary. Again, Cowan writes:

In my desire to deepen my knowledge of Anthony and the Desert Fathers, I had wandered into a cenobium of spiritual masters. These men weren't recluses who chose the desert simply to escape Roman oppression. They were men in possession of a vision unique to the world. The fact that the desert was the place where they developed their knowledge was incidental. What they had been looking for was a metaphor to enter and inhabit. Here at the foot of Mount Colzim lay that metaphor: every stone and cave in the mountainside was testament to the life of men who had come here to test themselves in, and against, the desert. Most of their names were anonymous, their their silence was like a chorus. I could hear them uttering the eulogy of the solitary: 'We are the katachoi, the withdrawn, the God-possessed.' It was a eulogy of promise.

So rather than reading some dry, arid history of a desert saint, Cowan manages to bring to life Anthony's legacy through the text. In fact, I have learned quite a lot about Abba Anthony through Cowan, things that I missed in Athanasius' account.

Contemporary and compelling, Cowan has given us an oasis beckoning us to see where the living springs of God burst forth from the desert life.

"Swift, Lord, You Are Not"

2010-03-18T18:19:00.002-05:00

At the young age of seventy-five, Benedictine monk Kilian McDonnell began writing poetry. His published work entitled, Swift, Lord, You Are Not, published by St. John's University Press (Collegeville, MN) in 2003 is a collection of his poetry. I like McDonnell's style, it feels both raw and insightful. At his age, the wisdom of the years have instilled a sense of the genuine, authentic, and true self. The art of crafting poetry, so it seems to McDonnell, is truly incarnational. Take, for example, this one poem that spoke to me. I wondered what fires are best unremembered for this monk.

Don't Look Too Carefully

"O search me God and know my heart" Psalm 39:23

by Kilian McDonnell, OSB

What sudden senile arrogance

provoked this bid to despair?

If you knock, God, be prepared

to see what stands behind the door:

unswept floors, unmade

beds, unwashed dishes

in sink, a lone Giotto

unhung against the wall.

(I, too, have been to the Uffizi,

read Dostoevski, Yeats.)

If you turn over a stone

on my beach, what creatures scurry.

Dig in my ruins, you sift

buried rags of intent.

Uproot my elm, you pulled up

forgotten teen-age tinsel.

Poke my cinders, you stir

fires best unremembered.

Search me not, test

no more. Take me as I am.

Platefuls: A Poem

2010-03-18T03:20:00.004-05:00

I like eggs on top of pancakes. I know it's weird, but it is a choice.

I learned that from my Pappaw, he liked them that way.

I remember as a child watching him at breakfast,

and then I thought that I should try it too.

If only life could be that straight forward, to the naïveté of most,

it is. But those that know differently can see through it.

I'm sorry that you won't know my choices in life;

most are mistakes, and some even seem funny to me now.

But there's just two that I am most proud of, to say the least.

My point is simply this: try and be.

Try life out for what it is, and don't stop trying. In fact,

don't give up. Quitting only leaves open room for regret.

Be and be large. You get many choices in life, platefuls

so it seems. No matter what, integrity guides you, so be
who you were created to be. Again, regrets.

My choices are not yours. Some aren't choices at all.

Learn from me but know that you don't have to like my tastes.

If you ever want to know what goes with spaghetti,

well, just ask your mother.

Anthonite Solidarity

2010-03-17T12:14:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, several Anthonite brothers gathered in Fredericksburg, Virginia for the profession liturgy of our first ordained brother, Fr. Robert-James. The brothers received black Tucuma rings from Father Robert-James as a gift, but most importantly as a tangible connection to the poor. Here's a legend of the black Tucuma nut.

When the great god Tupa made the world, there was only day. In the beginning there was no night. The daughter of the great cobra, Cobra Grande, was concerned for her husband, the Caboclo. Mother Earth provided him with game, fish and rich soil, but he worked constantly. Since the night did not exist, he did not know when to rest.

One day, the Caboclo's wife asked his friends to search for her mother, Cobra Grande. She would know the secret of the night. They paddled their canoe a long distance and found the great cobra curled in the sun on the shore of a lake. The caboclos told her of her daughter's worry and of her request to learn the secret of the night.

The cobra slithered to the bottom of the lake. After a long time she surfaced with a nut – the fruit of the tucuma palm – in her mouth.

"You must not open the nut. Only my daughter will have the power to open it so that the darkness, and nothing else, will escape from inside."

As the caboclos paddled home, they became very curious because of the strange sounds that came from the tucuma nut. Although the great cobra had warned them not to break it open, they were overcome by curiosity. Unable to resist the mysterious noises, they broke open the nut.

Darkness immediately fell on the world. Not only darkness, but also from inside the nut there emerged the night creatures, swooping bats and screeching owls, crawling creatures and wild forest cats. The great cobra did not know the secret of how to put the night creatures back inside the nut.

"Someday," she said, "the son of Tupa will come to visit us. Then all that our people fear will be hidden again in the tucuma nut."

translated by Bishop George Marskell, SFM

Deep in the Amazon, the Tucuma palm tree produces a thick, black nut which is fashioned locally into jewelry as a poignant symbol of solidarity. Roman Catholic Bishop George Marskell, SFM, a Scarboro Missioner from Canada, landed in Brazil in the 1960s and stayed until his death in 1998. The bishop turned the black ring into a personal reminder for the preferential option for the poor. There is a story that he traded in his gold episcopal ring for one of these simple black rings to make the point of his commitment to the poor. He was the bishop serving the rural Amazon in Brazil for over 19 years.

Now, thanks to Fr. Robert-James, OPC, the Anthonite brothers are joining in solidarity for the Christian ethic of preferential option for the poor. I wear my tucuma ring on my right hand, showing my love for God's poor and reminding me of my vows.

Photos of our newest Anthonite

2010-03-15T12:23:00.002-05:00

The Liturgy of Profession of Vows for The Rev. Robert-James Laws took place during the principal Eucharistic liturgy of Sunday, March 14th at Trinity Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Fr. Robert-James, OPC is our first ordained brother. It was a great day!

Father Robert-James is prostrated before the altar and the Order's Icon of St. Anthony. Abbot Kenneth is standing to the right.

The receiving of the Anthonite habit. Yours truly is standing to the right.

From Parish Church to Minister: Halifax Gets a Raise

2010-03-13T11:34:00.000-06:00

The newly elevated Minster Church of St. John the Baptist

Halifax, West Yorkshire

In late 2009, West Yorkshire received its second minster church with the elevation of Halifax Parish Church, otherwise known as the Parish Church of St. John the Baptist. The other such church of note resides in Dewsbury. Of course the grandest of minster churches in the region is that of York, the archiepiscopal see of the Primate of England.

When a friend of mine relayed this news to me recently, I was not at all surprised, given the energy and charism of the new Vicar, The Rev. Hilary Barber. It was here, during the months of May and June 2009, that I worked with the Vicar on a field education placement while at the College of the Resurrection doing an independent study on Anglican-Islamic relations.

I found the parish church to be extraordinary. The history, the architecture, and the people who are the church, made for an exciting worship service every time. It was impossible to take a step on the church grounds without stepping on a floor memorial, etched deeply by time and love. Interestingly, the church is not located in the center of Halifax, but rather sits quietly below the fringe of the commercial heart. I admit that I was lost the first time I visited Halifax in order to meet with the vicar, my growing hunger amid the cold rain did not help my sense of direction in the least.

There is no question, however, that the minster is struggling financially. The church is over 900 years-old and has weathered the religious storms and showing its age. There are several windows inside that were smashed during Cromwell's Protectorate, the replacements are clear glass and affectionately called "Commonwealth windows." With so much local history embedded in the floors and walls of the minster, the parish is poised to be a house of prayer for the people of Halifax.

By contrast, Dewsbury Minster has completed an extensive renovation of the buildings and created a cafe, gift shop, and a modern museum chronicling the history of the Minster. Dewsbury is not only staying relevant, but is apart of the revitalization of the area with its exemplary vision and determination.

I enjoyed my time worshipping with the people at Halifax. The highlight was the celebration of the parish's Patronal Feast Day on that of John the Baptist. The former Archbishop of York, Lord David Hope was the preacher and the new Muslim Mayor of Calderdale, Arshad Mamoud was there along with a local Imam. It was a great evening for the town.

Towards a Baptismal Ecclesiology

2010-03-07T08:49:00.003-06:00

What Not to Do:

Holy Water font filled in with sand for Lent.

The 1979 American Book of Common Prayer accomplished an extraordinary thing for The Episcopal Church by reuniting--in theory--the ancient rite of Christian initiation of water and post-water bath anointing. The Church, through this prayer book reform, has re-ordered the entire life of the Church around baptism, or moving towards a baptismal ecclesiology.

The rubrics contained in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer concerning the rite of Holy Baptism describe clearly the Church’s teaching on initiation, “Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s Body the Church. The bond which God establishes in Baptism is indissoluble” (BCP, 298). From the inception of the 1979 Prayer Book, a new ethos of Baptism, its theology, and its ecclesiology permeate the whole of the American Prayer Book. Gone are the days of private baptisms and now the rite is placed on appointed Sundays throughout the Church calendar to be celebrated as a ritual mass in the midst of the full assembly of the faithful. The Liturgical Movement, along with the initiation reforms of the Second Vatican Council, swept across liturgical churches to instill principles of clear and simple symbolism while reaching back to the ancient rite itself for insights into developing reforms. Here's an instance, at least arguably so, when Prosper of Aquitaine's saying, lex orandi, lex credendi, does not apply. With the new addition of a Baptismal Covenant, the Church is proclaiming to all of God’s people the ongoing responsibilities of the bonds forged in the waters of Baptism. The past event in the believer's life is to made known and re-presented every day. Moreover, there is a greater emphasis on the ministry of all the baptized, seeking to involve the laity in every possible way into the worshipping life of the Church.

The Baptismal Covenant, a new interrogatory innovation prior to the water bath, created a new ethos which has taken root in the life of some parts at least of the Episcopal Church. The 1979 prayer book has taken hold and permeated its inclusive baptismal theology into all aspects of church life. Most sermons today somehow inevitably allude to the theology and ecclesiology of the Baptismal Covenant found in the rite of Holy Baptism because of the efficacy of the Covenant and its relationship to ongoing discipleship. Even on appointed days for Baptism on the Church calendar when there are no candidates to be baptized, it is recommended to use the Baptismal Covenant in the liturgy to remind the assembly of the promises made at the font. The Baptismal ecclesiology revealed in the Baptismal Covenant is clear: that Baptism is now the primary identity marker for all Christian people and from that comes responsibility to God, to the great fellowship of believers, and to the whole of God’s creation. Everything is ordered around Baptism because this is how we are fully and completely initiated into the Body of Christ. With this ecclesiology, then, all baptized Christians share the responsibility of participation and governance in the Church. While the clergy retain important sacramental functions relating to their orders, the laity has been empowered and approved to serve in additional liturgical and governmental roles in the Church.

“Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s Body the Church. The bond which God establishes in Baptism is indissoluble”

With the ecclesiological implications in place, the Baptismal theology that flows from the Baptismal Covenant effectively ends an age-old two-tiered system of initiation, meaning Baptism and Confirmation. Baptism is the full and complete rite of initiation in the Church now in the 1979 prayer book. Even small children who have been baptized are now encouraged to receive Holy Communion. This radical change sets us apart from some of our brothers and sisters in the Anglican Communion where Confirmation still holds the meal ticket. The promises made in the Covenant help move the faithful into a greater participation in the Paschal Mystery—the life in Christ. There is a call for social justice and stewardship. There is a call to work for peace among all people, and the invitation to seek and serve Christ in every person. The Baptismal Covenant shifts the Episcopal Church away from seeing Baptism as simply a way to wash off sins; rather, this new covenant is about enacting discipleship. This is a major move away from the medieval idea of infant baptism, especially by making adult baptism the norm.

Now with my official GOE (General Ordination Exam) answer out of the way, why do we find sand in some baptismal fonts during Lent? What image and message, then, does that symbol send the faithful? I maintain that the "tradition" of filling up fonts with sand diminishes the ongoing, ever-present reality of Christian baptism. No liturgical season can supplant this; the water is living and flowing ever deeper into the hearts of the faithful especially in a season such as Lent.

While there is the invitation in the prayer book for observance of a Holy Lent, this does not mean that the baptismal water and its implications for discipleship magically disappear for a time. The symbolism of sand and the notion of wrestling with temptation in the desert is a good one, but it confuses baptism and thus not appropriate for baptismal fonts.

Chad, Bishop and Saint

2010-03-02T09:07:00.003-06:00

Today, the Church commemorates the death date of Chad, Bishop of Lichfield (c. 672). We know some of Chad by the historian Bede. Below is the excerpt from The Oxford Dictionary of Saints.

St Chad was the first bishop of Mercia and Lindsey at Lichfield. He was the brother of Cedd, whom he succeeded as Abbot of Lastingham, North Yorkshire, and a disciple of Aidan who sent him to Ireland as part of his education. Chad was chosen by Oswi, king of Northumbria, as bishop of the Northumbrian see, while Wilfrid, who had been chosen for Deira by the sub-king Alcfrith, was absent in Gaul seeking consecration shortly after the Synod of Whitby (663/4). Faced with a dearth of bishops in England, Chad was unwise enough to be consecrated by the simoniacal Wine of Dorchester, assisted by two dubious British bishops. Wilfrid on his return to England in 666, found that Alcfrith was dead or exiled and retired to Ripon, leaving Chad in occupation. But in 669 Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, restored Wilfrid to York and deposed Chad (who retired to Lastingham), but soon reconsecrated him to be bishop of the Mercians. This unusual step was due both to the new opening for Christianity in Mercia and to the excellent character of Chad himself, whom both Eddius and Bede recognised as being unusually humble, devout, zealous and apostolic. Chad's episcopate of three years laid the foundations of the see of Lichfield according to the decrees of Theodore's council at Hertford, which established diocesan organisation. Wulfhere, king of Mercia, gave him fifty hides of land for a monastery at Barow (Lincolnshire); he also established a monastery close to Lichfield Cathedral.

Chad died on March 2nd 672 and was buried in the Church of St Mary. At once, according to Bede, he was venerated as a saint and his relics were translated to the Cathedral Church of St Peter. Cures were claimed in both churches. Bede described his first shrine as 'a wooden coffin in the shape of a little house with an aperture in the side through which the devout can...take out some of the dust, which they put into water and give to sick cattle or men to drink, upon which they are presently eased of their infirmity and restored to health'.

His relics were translated in 1148 and moved to the Lady Chapel in 1296. An even more splendid shrine was built by Robert Stretton, bishop of Lichfield (1360-85) of marble substructure with feretory adorned with gold and precious stones. Rowland Lee, bishop of Lichfield (1534-43), pleaded with Henry VIII to spare the shrine: this was done, but only for a time. At some unknown date the head and some other bones had been separated from the main shrine. Some of these, it was claimed, were preserved by recusants, and four large bones, believed to be Chad's are in the Roman Catholic cathedral of Birmingham. A fine Mercian illuminated Gospel Book of the 8th century called the Gospels of St Chad was probably associated with his shrine, as the Lindisfarne Gospels were associated with the shrine of St Cuthbert; it is now in Lichfield Cathedral Library. The 11th century shrine list mentions the relics of Cedd and Hedda resting at Lichfield with Chad. Thirty-three ancient churches and several wells were dedicated to St Chad, mainly in the Midlands. There are also several modern dedications.

From The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, by David Hugh Farmer, 3rd edition, 1992

Now I doubt that my parents had all this in mind when deciding on my name in 1980. However, I was not to discover Chad's witness to the faith until my teenage years when a friend and Orthodox priest told me the story of Saint Chad. From that point forward, I was committed to celebrating this great, humble witness of the Church in pre-Roman Britain!

I searched for a number of years to find an icon of Saint Chad. When I began my discernment in 2005, I decided that I would take up the holy practice of icon writing. The icon above was the fruit of that labor and it hangs above my desk in my study.

Here are the arms of Saint Chad's College, University of Durham. I was able to visit the College when I was in Durham this past summer. There are numerous parishes in the Church of England bearing this great saint's name. Ironically, our seminary recently hired the chaplain from Saint Chad's College to be our theology professor. We've swapped icons of Chad.

I pray that I may seek daily to embodied the humility and faithfulness that Saint Chad serves as an exemplar for us today.

Not Another Temptation Sermon

2010-02-22T13:30:00.008-06:00

First Sunday of Lent, Year C
February 21, 2010
Christ and Grace Episcopal Church

Petersburg, Virginia

Romans 10: 8b-13

Luke 4: 1-14

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted.

Woe is me! Temptation, Lent, ashes, woe is me! You know what I'm talking about. Whoever says, "I'm looking forward to Lent this year?" Huh? We don't need another sermon on temptation, heck we could give that one! That dessert looks mighty tempting. Those prices at Sam's Club are just too good, let's sock up for the winter. But that job would give me so much power and prestige if I accept it, think of all that we have! That investment firm is really promising me assurance and prosperity for my future, if only I promise them my faithfulness in giving. Woe is me! Temptation, the basic human condition we fight day in and day out. We know temptation so very well.

Luke's Gospel today reminds us of Our Lord's exile in the wilderness, and the temptations by the Adversary which serves as the capstone moment in Jesus' formation before his public ministry begins. There in the wilderness, the desert of wasteland, Jesus is confronted not once but three times by the Adversary to tempt the Son of God to show his hand and see if this new Light in the world could be snuffed out. Perhaps this would have made him so weak and vulnerable that Jesus would do almost anything. Wouldn't we? Bread, power, and fidelity. Simple temptations, promising and awesome: great power over creation, authority over the kingdoms of the earth, and all the promised glory and honor due a mighty king. Bread, power, and fidelity. Simple, eh?

"If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread!" There is no doubt, that Jesus the Son of God could in fact do this. If he would only do this, he could have something to eat. But this question goes deep into the heart of the ministry of Jesus, for what would the Christian narrative be if Jesus was simply bread for himself? A selfish Jesus, that doesn't seem to fit. Jesus' whole earthly ministry was spent being bread for everyone--feeding, nourishing, sustaining, and filling hungry mouths with the Word of God. "One does not live by bread alone," Jesus says, and so we know that we ourselves cannot sustain life without the spiritual nourishment from God alone.

"But, I'll give you glory and authority over all the kingdoms of the world, and I can give it all to you in a nanosecond! It's yours, if you will only worship me. Come on, it's easy!" The King of Kings, a king whose Kingdom is not from this world, without missing a beat says, "worship the Lord your God and serve only him." But the world could have changed in an instant! No more injustice, war, famine, or disease! But would the price be? Whose power would be exalted? Surely it wouldn't be God's.

Stubborn until the end, the Adversary tried once more, "if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from the temple, and let the angels catch you." From the dizzying heights of the pinnacle, looking out over creation, Our Lord fights vertigo, "do not put the Lord your God to the test." Bread, power, and fidelity the testing of the soul, the triumph of Christ.

It is no accident that our Gospel lesson falls on the First Sunday of Lent. The Lenten journey can easily be mistaken for a time of "woe is me" and heaped upon by teachings against temptation, selfish abstinence for the avante garde, and a great way to show others that we're really working hard at this Lent thing. Perhaps this is why some don't look forward to Lent. So then, what does it all mean?

The Gospel truth in all this is: bread, power, and fidelity. Consider these temptations of Christ in the positive. What are we tempted to do with our bread? Or better yet, who are we being bread to? What are we doing with our God-given power, prestige, or influence when we are vaulted to the pinnacles? Are we tempted to work for justice? Are we tempted to use what we have to fight disease, end hunger, heal addiction, and eradicate homelessness? Are we tempted to be faithful to God? Tempted to a life of discipleship and prayer? Are we tempted to live in forgiveness to ourselves and those who have wronged us? After those forty days, without food, our Lord took up his public ministry.

If we look to Christ for the answers, than, yes, you guessed it. We should succumb to those temptations. These are the temptations to us, the beloved of God, not from the evil in our world. The Lenten journey is the greatest season in which we are invited to deepen our walk with Christ, to see in ourselves the God-given love that drives us out from our own deserts and into the streets--witnessing a message that the Adversary and the powers and principalities of this world don't want to hear! We cannot live on bread alone. That's what our Eucharistic fellowship every Sunday primes us for, and this happens year-round.

St. Paul's letter to the Romans furthers this idea that Christ is so near to us He is in on our lips and in our hearts. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved--no one is excluded or left out. To confess with our lips that Jesus Christ is Lord, then we cannot ignore the temptation to follow the Master. This Gospel truth is not about who is saved and who is out, it's about our ability to "walk the talk"--being bread to our neighbors, striving for the Kingdom with every thing we have, and a complete and total dependency on the wounded, risen Christ.

Leaven, influence, and faith. If we wait for Lent to be the time of "giving something up" then we truly miss the mark of the Master's call to discipleship. Our temptation is corporate and communal. The Kingdom is not about individuals, but the whole of the creation moving sweetly to God's song of love. The temptations of Our Lord reveal the ingredients for a life of discipleship: the need for spiritual, enriching food, striving for justice and peace, and a complete trust in the sovereignty of God. Our Lord is modeling these staples in the face of great evil and temptation that promises all the riches and glory of the world. But that's just it. We are in the world but not of it. We are working to bring about God's Kingdom here and now.

May our Lenten journeys be full of temptation: temptation to be rising bread for a hungry, hurting world; temptation to use our power and influence to bring about the Reign of God in the streets of Petersburg and beyond. May our Lenten journey be full of temptation to walk each and every step of the way with the Lord and Master of love and mercy.

Monster Sunday School

2010-02-19T10:38:00.001-06:00

Lighten up your Lenten journey and enjoy, I did...

Beloved Dust

2010-02-17T12:20:00.004-06:00

In the Book of Genesis we learn, "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust and to dust you shall return" (3:19, NRSV). In liturgies throughout the Church for Ash Wednesday, this verse from Genesis intends to re-ground ourselves in the Trinitarian life. We are created beings fashioned by God and according to God's purposes.

My theology professor, now retired, The Rev. Dr. Robert Hughes offers us another way of looking at this passage. In his recent magnum opus, Beloved Dust: Tides of the Spirit in the Christian Life (New York: Continuum, 2008), Hughes offers us the analogy of human beings as the beloved stardust of creation. "Human beings are best conceived by as materialistic an anthropology as possible. I am proposing that we use the metaphor of dust, beloved dust, though by this I mean the stardust of creation, matter much as conceived by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, not merely the dust of the dustbin, though that is included" (Hughes, 7). Hughes goes on to describe that this beloved dust is animated, spirited, estranged, and redeemed dust. I thoroughly enjoy my copy and highly recommend this important work on the mission and theology of the Holy Spirit as a companion and guide to the spiritual life.

What I find most compelling in all this is that image of not being merely dust, but beloved dust. Beloved of God, redeemed by Christ, and inspired by the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives. It is quite easy to view Ash Wednesday in terms of "woe is me." I do not think that this approach is helpful. If we take seriously the call to confession, then Lent becomes a deeper journey of faith where we can walk with Christ on the journey to the cross. Woe is world, perhaps, but as beloved dust we share in that cross-bearing moment with the resurrected Christ to help re-orient the world in terms of love, justice, and mercy.

Dust yes. Beloved dust, even more. The markings on our forehead are visible symbols of that loving creation that we are all share in as we move towards our ultimate hope in Christ. The Lenten journey begins and so we can prepare ourselves for not only Our Lord's resurrection, but our own too.

Burying the Alleluias

2010-02-17T02:03:00.000-06:00

There is an interesting post over at the New Liturgical Movement's blog concerning the tradition of dispensing with the "Alleluias" during Lent. I had no idea of an actual coffin-like container which the children would actually bury their handwritten "alleluias" inside and open upon the Feast of the Resurrection. Interesting.

Part 1. Burying the Alleluias: Burning Strawmen, Mourning Choir Boys
Part 2. Burial of the Alleluia in an Anglican-Use Roman Catholic Church in Texas

Shrove or Shriven? Pancake Day Worldwide

2010-02-16T11:15:00.020-06:00

"May everyday of the year be a Shrove Tuesday"

Jeremy Taylor

My Pastoral Theology professor so aptly said this morning in class, "Shrove Tuesday is not the Middle English word for pancake." Ah, but is it? I turned to The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) to see what is written on the matter. The OED notes that Shrove Tuesday is often referred to as "pancake day." In 1764, OED cites the reference, "let glad Shrove-Tuesday bring the pancake thin." There is even a reference to an ancient Celtic practice of ritually sacrificing a cock or hen to be eaten on this day. Thankfully, however, tons of pancake batter is beginning to be prepared all over for Shrove Tuesday.

So which is the best understanding of Shrove Tuesday? Who would dare buck the OED?

Well, my professor was alluding to the meaning of the root of shrove, which is past tense for the word shrive. Here the OED says quite clearly that shrive means:

"To impose penance upon (a person); hence, to administer absolution to; to hear the confession of."

Thus, the reference to the real meaning of Shrove Tuesday is not lost on carbohydrates. It's about confession, preparation for the following day of Ash Wednesday. Jeremy Taylor's above quotation thus makes complete sense--everyday should be a day in which we offer up our confession and receive absolution and penance from the Church.

Pancakes, or at least the idea of a carnival, is appropriate so long as the meaning of the day is not lost. The historic notion of "suspending the rules" and allowing people to blow off some steam is well within the tradition of Mardi Gras and any festival prior to the beginning of Lent. In England, there is an old tradition of the "boy bishop" or dressing up a young boy in episcopal vestments as a way of illustrating the point of temporarily dispensing the rules.

Go, eat your pancakes and be merry. Confess your sins and receive absolution so that you may be well on your way to keeping a solemn, holy Lent. Enjoy.

Mary, Dawn of Morning

2010-02-13T12:21:00.004-06:00

From the Feast of the Purification of the B.V.M. through Wednesday in Holy Week, the Final Antiphon of the B.V.M. at Compline is the Ave, Regina caelorum.

Queen of the heavens, we hail thee,
Lady of all the angels;
Thou the dawn, the door of morning
Whence the world's true Light is risen:
Joy to thee, O Virgin glorious,
Beautiful beyond all other;
Hail and farewell, O most gracious,
Intercede for us alway to Jesus.

V. Vouchsafe that I may praise thee, O holy Virgin.
R. Give me strength against thine enemies.

Let us pray.

Grant us, O merciful God protection in our weakness: that we who celebrate the memory of the Holy Mother of God may, through her intercession, rise again from our sins. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

From The Monastic Diurnal (London: Oxford University Press/Lancelot Andrewes Press, 2006).

"Thou the dawn, the door of morning whence the world's true Light is risen..." This line gets me every time. There is something so intrinsically powerful in these words. Mary, the gate, the womb which bore life and light, is likened to the dawn of morning. Living on a mountaintop, I interpret this through my somewhat foggy lenses--dew, deer grazing about, sunrise breaking the foggy mist, and life stirring to begin a new day. The natural overtones are not missed. The sun rising in the east and setting in the west, punctuating our time each day with remembrances of Christ rising from the tomb, bursting forth from the womb, and the evil in the world lurking at the setting sun. Mary the door, the vessel which the Word passes to bring the true Light into our existence. Such a simple prayer but one that is pregnant with meaning--pun intended.

I have found the additions of the Final Antiphons of the B.V.M. a welcomed and inspiring addition to the final office of the day, Compline. Seasonally, they move with the fluidity of the Church calendar, providing a definite incarnational emphasis within each season.

As a life-long Episcopalian, I was not raised in the Marian tradition of the Church. I must admit that I found it rather odd that Episcopalians would even pray for Mary's intercession--playing at some Roman fantasy. But in time, in prayer, and in theological education, I discovered that one cannot fully understand the Incarnation, or even the person or work of Jesus Christ, without a deep appreciation for the role that Mary plays in whole narrative. For Episcopalians, veneration of the B.V.M. is not tantamount to an ecclesiastical identity crisis, it is our expression of our desire for catholicism in the broadest sense.

Mary, I believe, is the greatest source of unity for the Body of Christ. Walsingham's appearance, furthermore, is perhaps the greatest and most accepted account of Our Lady among Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Anglicans today. However, her identity must be rescued from the extreme wings of the church which beset her into highly repressive circles of clericalism and misogyny which grows out from a repressed sexuality. How could someone hold Our Lady in such high regard and yet refuse to accept women celebrating at the altar, in the threefold offices of deacon, priest, and bishop? It's quite telling of something of an identity crisis, and one that I suspect is rooted in the mystery of human sexuality.

Here, I would commend my friend Kenneth Leech's excellent (and rather humorous) essay "Beyond Gin and Lace," as means to understand the phenomenon of which I allude.

Nonetheless, Our Lady withstands the test of time. Her powerful intercession on our sinful behalf has aided me in more times than I can count. I feel certain that by veneration--read, not worshipping!--that Our Lady can help show us the way to her beloved Son, Jesus Christ who stands ready with open arms to embrace us no matter what. Thanks be to God!

The Daily Office: Readings from the Early Church

2010-02-12T10:46:00.005-06:00

One spiritual practice that I adopted some time ago, is to read a passage from Saint Benedict's Rule prior to saying Compline. This gives me a time of reflection from something grounded in tradition, non-Biblical of course. Recently, I accidently left my copy of The Rule at my brother's house whilst on a family trip and so I turned to my book shelf to find something suitable as a replacement.

I quickly located my copy of Bob Wright's classic, Readings for the Daily Office from the Early Church (New York: Church Publishing, 1991) and his supplemental They Still Speak: Readings for the Lesser Feasts (New York: Church Publishing, 1993).

Those who know this giant scholar, priest, and historian in The Episcopal Church know that these two volumes represent sound research, a faithful translation of the texts, and shaped according to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer Daily Office calendar.

J. Robert Wright is the Saint Mark's Church in the Bowery Professor of Ecclesiastical History at The General Theological Seminary in New York. He was awarded the St. Augustine's Cross by the Archbishop of Canterbury for his contributions to the wider Anglican Communion. Friends of mine who have had him as a teacher in seminary speak reverently about him.

While the publishing date may seem old to some, these texts still "speak." The readings are arranged daily and contain sermons and writings from the early Church Mothers and Fathers. He has included works from Dame Julian of Norwich as a move to be broader. Wright offers in the preface his task of compiling the readings and dealing with issues of sexual inclusion in language.

A good example of how these two texts bear relevancy with the Daily Office. The Old Testaments readings for Morning Prayer, recently, have been covering the Jacob v. Esau story. Wright paired these with a sermon by Irenaeus who brought a Christian interpretation to these texts from Genesis. It was fascinating, for me, to have incorporated this insight from the Patristic era into my daily prayer life. It was then that I was sold on using these texts with my Daily Office readings.

Those of my brothers and sisters who fancy The Anglican Breviary will already know of a similar incorporation of Patristic sermons and texts which are combined in the breviary.

I commend any practice of incorporating these additional non-Biblical readings from the early Church into our corporate opus dei.

Remember! Blessed Charles, King and Martyr Part 2

2010-01-30T21:00:00.000-06:00

Upon further investigation, I wanted to confirm that Blessed Charles was added to the Kalendar in the 1980 Alternative Service Book in the Church of England as well as the Anglican Church of Canada's The Book of Alternative Services (1985). No collect contained in either. However, a new collect was added in the CoE's Common Worship and is cited below.

King of kings and Lord of lords,

whose faithful servant Charles

prayed for those who persecuted him

and died in the living hope of your eternal kingdom:

grant us by your grace so to follow his example

that we may love and bless our enemies,

through the intercession of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Remember! Blessed Charles, King and Martyr

2010-01-30T09:54:00.008-06:00

It is as natural that the Church of England should keep this day as it is that Christ's universal Church should keep Saint Stephen's martyrdom.

John Keble, in a sermon on the Feast of Blessed Charles

On January 30, 1649, the "White King," Charles I of England was led to a scaffold outside of the palace of Whitehall in London to be executed. He was later buried inside St. George's Chapel within the grounds of Windsor where he rests in peace to this day.

One cannot boast membership in the Society of King Charles the Martyr and neglect his feast day in the blogosphere. Sadly, I'm away from Sewanee this weekend and unable to attend the Commemoration Mass for Charles. Perhaps an elucidation of Charles may serve as my penance...

Charles I, the martyred King of England, is remembered today in some parts of the Anglican Communion--depending on one's slant towards monarchy and high churchmanship. When the monarchy was restored under Charles II, the martyred king was added to the Kalendar for commemoration and stood firm on January 30th until the reign of Queen Victoria, when the Commons had petitioned the Queen for his removal.

Charles has never been officially canonized, at least in the Roman sense, in the Anglican Communion simply because there is no known process of creating saints--a relic of the Reformation for sure. Thus, Charles receives the title, "Blessed Charles." According to John Moorman in his work, A History of the Church of England, Charles stood, "as a symbol of the patient sufferer who lays down his life for his creed and for his Church." Charles was a firm believer in the Divine Right of Kings and could be accredited, if for nothing else, for the appointment of William Laud to be Archbishop of Canterbury. Charles was not a savvy politician, his policies of enforcing the Prayer Book on the Scots proved disastrous. The effects could be easily sensed even in 2009 when I stepped inside St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh!

Whether or not you agree with Charles and the succeeding history surrounding his cause for inclusion on the Kalendar, he died a martyr's death, and certainly won the hearts of many of his countrymen.

Today, the Society of King Charles the Martyr exists 1) to pray for the Anglican Communion; 2) to promote a wide observance of 30th of January as the Feast day for this martyr; and 3) to work towards the reinstatement of Blessed Charles on the Kalendar of the Book of Common Prayer throughout the Anglican Communion.

According to the scholarly source, Wiki-pedia, The Church of England added Charles in the 1980 Alternative Service Book as well as a collect included in Common Worship. He is not contained in the Episcopal Church's Lesser Feasts and Fasts.

~ ~ ~

Icon of Charles, King and Martyr, 2009.

Acrylic on Wood. Author's private collection.

Retreat Prayers

2010-01-26T08:22:00.007-06:00

Silence. The deserted wilderness. The furnace of transformation. Abiding love. Wooing of the Spirit. These were some of the many themes that kept surfacing during my vigil retreat in preparation for taking vows. To synthesize these themes, I wrote several prayers dedicated to our patron, Abba Anthony the Great. You'll most likely see the repetition of the themes throughout, but I wanted to share these with you.

~ ~

O Christ, draw near me. Woo my soul to the desert where I may be transformed in the furnace of silence. Abba Anthony guide me; your life to Christ is my daystar and your faith is my hope. Help me learn to stand before God in silence, to be still, and listen with the ear of my heart. Amen.

A More Typical Prayer Book Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, instill in my heart your transforming silence; whereby your servant Anthony the Great witnessed the solitary life of faith to show the abundance of your grace and love; bid us in quietude to be still and to know that you are our God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Come Holy Spirit and woo me to the deep, fiery wellsprings of your love.
Lead me through the desert and into your light, never leave me.
Come breathe in me the strength and courage to stand and walk
today, so that I may witness your love and truth.
Come, may I abide in your peace. Amen.

On Being a Monk: The First Week

2010-01-24T20:09:00.003-06:00

The day was spent in a flurry of preparation. Many last minute things had to be addressed: liturgy, music, reception food, and so forth. I was busy finishing my latest icon project, a large image of our patron, St. Anthony which needed to be dry in time to be blessed during the earlier Eucharist. The day came on the heels of a busy weekend and the opening of the Easter term. But the air was filled with excitement rather than anxiety and worry, for this day was to be the beginning of a new chapter in my life and I had set aside ample time beforehand to prayerfully reflect on the sacramental profession of monastic vows.

Once everything was in place, people arriving in the night's crisp air, it was truly going to happen. The organ burst forth and began the hymn, my abbot leaned towards me with, "are you ready?" There was no turning back now.

I had thought long before that the "moment" for me would come when I was to be prostrate on the seminary chapel's cold stone floor--lying vulnerable at the foot the cross. The music that I chose for this moment was something very dear to me, the Taize chant, "Jesus, Remember Me." A favorite of mine, I had incorporated it into the healing services that I led at St. Matthew's Homeless Shelter just two short years ago. That place was a deep mark in my heart and an important time for my formation. There I came face-to-face with the wounded Christ in so many people hungry for wholeness. I can still recall their faces, the smell of the annointing oil, and the repetitious chorus of the chant. All of those memories flashed before me as I laid on the floor with tears.

But to my surprise, that was not the moment. It came when my abbot placed the black habit of our Order over me. Trying to find my way through the dark, hooded garment was the moment--I distinctly recall a feeling of being lost and alone. I remember saying to myself, "this isn't supposed to be the moment!" But alas, it was. Inside the clothing was my journey, my journey from death to life, from darkness to light. It all happened in the space of a minute or so, but inside it felt as though time stood still. It all became clear when I peaked my head through the hood, it was true.

Ending one chapter and beginning a new one was the deep emotional stuff inside of me that day. I never thought that by entering seminary I would stumble upon the catalyst to discern a contemplative call that has really been there in my soul for a long, long time. It went unanswered for too long, and for too long it struggled to find its authentic voice inside of me. That changed and so did I.

I can truly say that professing vows is indeed a sacrament. Grace came when I unexpected it, inside the darkness of a habit. That moment will forever stay with me, most likely because I was not ready for it. God does indeed have a sense of humor. I wish I could sometimes understand it. Perhaps in silence, perhaps one day. I stand ready to begin this new chapter and to see what new unexpected graces will happen. Silentio Coram Deo.

Got Fog?

2010-01-24T13:21:00.003-06:00

We are no strangers to fog here in Sewanee. There's even the annual Fog Festival in nearby Monteagle to celebrate the haze. High atop the Cumberland Plateau, the University sits quietly surrounded by misty, billowing clouds. Some days it can really get to you; the fog can sometimes appear so thick that you can almost cut it. Fog lights on your car fail even to provide visibility.

I wanted to capture the ghostly essence of the fog surrounding the main quad on campus--All Saints' Chapel and Breslin Tower. Here are few of my photographs.

Breslin Tower

The Quad

All Saints' Chapel

Making Sense of Haiti

2010-01-21T10:36:00.002-06:00

Sightings 1/21/2010
Sightings comes from the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School

Is the Devil a Black Man?
by Spencer Dew

In what has now become a much-circulated clip, Pat Robertson makes sense of the catastrophic Haitian earthquake as the latest in a string of curses delivered by God to Haiti’s people. Robertson’s interpretation of this catastrophe, whether we find it repellent or compelling, offers an excellent example of one of the ways religion functions: Robertson reiterates a reassuring framework of meaning in the face of experiences which call such frameworks into question. The earthquake, rather than evidence of the random and senseless nature of human existence, provides for Robertson evidence of God’s existence and ongoing, partisan involvement in human history. Robertson’s theology provides comfort, too, in its categorization of the victims of this tragedy as deserving of their fate, insulating Robertson from the agony of identifying too closely with these wounded, mourning, homeless, and hungry fellow humans. Robertson may be moved by this suffering – his remarks were delivered as the Christian Broadcasting Network raised money for earthquake relief – but his religious anthropology renders this suffering, in his words, “unimaginable,” a stark contrast to anthropologies that urge empathetic relations.

For Robertson, the Haitian people are markedly other, a tone that carries through his version of the nation’s history: “They were under the heels of the French,” he says, “You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French. True story. And so the devil said, OK, it’s a deal. And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other.” This story is, of course, far from true. Robertson offers here a typical demonization of the Voodoo religion and a Christian distortion of the legend of the 1791 Bois Caiman ritual. Yet Robertson, one imagines, finds animal sacrifice and blood vows repellent, and he has no reason to be accepting of any religion other than his own, ruling them all false and therefore damnable. In the clearly defined narrative Robertson insists upon, the followers of God can expect rewards while to the followers of the devil come destruction, blood, and wailing. The troubling aspect of Robertson’s remarks, however, is not the myths he offers to make sense of the world, but what he leaves out of his thumbnail history of Haiti: Unmentioned in his summary is the word “slavery.” The “true story” that Robertson occludes is that Haiti, the first country to be founded by former African slaves, owes its origin to armed uprising. What began as raids on plantations became full scale revolutionary war, with people who had been regarded as chattel claiming their liberty via the blood of their former “masters.”

From Nat Turner to Fred Hampton, the armed, independent black person has remained a nightmare image to those who benefit from white privilege in America, an image, indeed, not unlike Cotton Mather’s description of Satan incarnate in New England, that “Black Man” with the power to destroy the social order. Haitian Independence was an event interpreted by much of the white, slave-owning world of the time as catastrophic. That “they” would dare – and be able – to seize power called into question preexisting systems of meaning-making as surely as any earthquake.

The image of black slaves shedding their chains and taking up arms contributes far more than any hobgoblins of the evangelical imagination to the historical “curses” that have kept Haiti poor and troubled. The history of American relations with Haiti has been indelibly tainted by America’s true devil – the lingering effects of our own schizophrenic founding as a nation insistent on liberty yet practicing slavery. Just as racist terror helped shape the stereotype of Voodoo as devil worship, so too racist attitudes have dominated the history of American relations with Haiti, from the fearful to the patronizing, from clandestine political machinations to occupation by military force. Hopefully, the current attention on Haiti (for those of us who reject dismissive metaphysical explanations such as Robertson’s) will prompt Americans to examine the racism embedded not just in foreign and domestic political history but, indeed, in our own minds. Without honest confrontation of the legacies of our past as a slave society, some “they” will always be demonized and some “devil” will always be imagined as a mask for our earthly hatreds and fears.

References:

Pat Robertson’s clip: http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201001130024

Previous Sightings columns on the 1791 Bois Caiman ritual: http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/sightings/archive_2008/0501.shtml and http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/sightings/archive_2009/0514.shtml

Spencer Dew is an instructor in the department of theology at Loyola University, Chicago.

The Sacrament of Monastic Profession

2010-01-19T20:54:00.010-06:00

Photo: Before the Profession of Vows Liturgy,
Chapel of the Apostles, Sewanee, TN. 2010

So you say that there are only seven sacraments? Really? No way! What about the burial office? And what about monastic profession? I believe that there are more than seven sacraments--external, visible signs of an inward spiritual grace. For me, I cannot imagine grace being contained and complete in mere seven. More of that later...

On the Feast of the Confession of St. Peter (Jan. 18th), I professed simple vows in the Order of St. Anthony the Great. The "OPC" Brothers and Sisters are a mixed contemplative community in the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, GA. Founded in 2006 by Abbot Kenneth Hosley, OPC, the young order is in process to seek full recognition by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. To date, we have 8 members under vows and several postulants. We seek to embrace a rule of the contemplative life that helps teach others the richness of the Christian spiritual tradition and cause renewal in our Church.

My heart was full that night; God has called me down a new road in my life and one that gives voice (or silence!) to a very important part of me. More over, I had a lot of dear friends present with me--and many who were unable to be there praying for me--which impressed upon me the love that so many have for me and our Church. I was, and still am, in awe.

As part of my discipline, I decided to write an icon of our Order's name-saint, Anthony the Great and present it to the Order upon my profession. Admittedly, I got the idea from seeing the Icon of the Brotherhood of Gregory the Great.

It is the largest icon to date that I have completed. It was exciting to see the image come alive and then to customize it with important emblems from the Order. I painted a frame to surround the saint and placed the Order's initials in each corner, OPC, which is Ordo Precis Contemplativae or "Order of Contemplative Prayer."

The flash does do justice to the brilliant color. Anthony's hands are holding a scroll with the Order's motto, Silentio Coram Deo, or "Silence before God." I began this icon at the beginning of January, and it helped me get through the GOE exams! I can see an improvement in my hand each time I write an icon, plus a willingness to embrace imperfection (which is something that I've been working on for years). The icon was blessed during a Eucharist in the Seminary's Chapel by our Associate Dean of Community Life. It was graciously received by my abbot and will travel to Atlanta to live with our Order.

~Silentio Coram Deo

New Year's Blessings To You

2009-12-30T10:16:00.002-06:00

World Without End

2009-12-26T09:16:00.013-06:00

The 30,000 foot view of creation (taken from an airplane). By the author.

John Donne, in his Christmas sermon delivered at St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1626, opens with a rather pointed message:

The whole life of Christ was a continual Passion; others die martyrs but Christ was born a martyr. He found a Golgotha even in Bethlehem, where he was born; for to his tenderness then the straws were almost as sharp as the thorns after, and the manger as uneasy at the first as his cross at last. His birth and his death were but one continual act, and his Christmas day and his Good Friday are but the evening and morning of one and the same day.[1]

I have always appreciated the reminder that Donne points towards—the connection of Bethlehem and Golgotha, that Christmas cannot be separated out from Good Friday. In fact it is an even more appropriate statement of the whole of salvation history, that God as author purposes creation to move towards its ultimate fulfillment in the Kingdom. This imagery is even reflected in the collect from the Vigil of the Nativity of the Lord:

O God, who makest us glad with the yearly expectation of our redemption: vouchsafe; that as we joyfully receive thine Only-begotten Son for our Redeemer, so we may with sure confidence behold him when shall come to our Judge, even Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord: Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the Unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.[2]

So we come to the title, “World Without End,” a traditional ending for prayers in the catholic tradition. Christmas, the birth of God’s Eternal Word born into our very midst, is the ultimate beginning of our salvation. It is God’s most sacred action in loving God’s creation. The powers and principalities of this world, even from the tender birth of a babe in the manger, see this Jesus as a threat to their world. Recall Herod’s quest to quash this new king and resulting slaughtering of the innocents throughout the land. This is also a sign of the threat to the Kingdom that has also endured throughout time. And yet, the Kingdom, and the visible Body of Christ on earth the Church, stands as the judgment upon it. Christians in every time and place work assiduously for justice, peace, and love to bring to fulfillment God’s eternal purpose.

The whole of creation sings out, “Glory to God in the Highest Heaven.” We join with the angels’ song to add our hearts and voices in proclaiming God’s redeeming love to the world. While so much of this has been lost in the commercialization of our culture today, remember that there is no Christmas without a Good Friday. Easter is around the corner and it is more glorious than any Wal-Mart super sale. Thanks be to God!

[1] The Showing of Christ, Sermons of John Donne. Edmund Fuller, ed. (New York: Harper and Row, 1964), 76.

[2] Missale Anglicanum, The English Missal, 3^rd altar ed. (London: W. Knott & Son, 1934), 12.

At Last, We Are Official

2009-12-06T17:14:00.004-06:00

On the Feast of Saint Andrew, members gathered in the Chapel of the Apostles (Sewanee) to officially establish the Sewanee Society of Our Lady of Walsingham. What joy there was among those gathered to be able to bring together interests in Anglo-Catholicism and seeking to enrich their prayer lives with Our Lady. At the founding, we have many non-residential members from as far away as Texas, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Members may elect to wear a Sarum Blue scapular over a black cassock to signify membership--though this is completely optional.

The Charter was approved unanimously with the only question regarding whether or not we should incorporate a yearly membership fee as opposed to what is currently stated as a one time $15 fee.

The rules of the Charter were suspended in order to elect officers to serve up until the week prior to Spring Break, and then the newly elected officers will serve a full year term as stated in the Charter. The election results were: Karen Workman-Booth T'11, Clerk; Charles Canon T'11, Prior; and Chad Krouse T'10, Superior General. We had some fun in choosing the titles! Some dull seminary humour.

We are female, male, black, white, religious, ordained, and lay. We embrace a broad theology of inclusion, seeking to undo the baggage that has been heaped upon Walsingham by various factions in the Church. We proudly claim an Anglo-Catholic heritage while also proudly claiming The Episcopal Church. Our answer is "yes," that it is possible to embrace both and help work to heal a broken world.

Our Lady of Walsingham, I believe, is a source of unity for the Body of Christ. She is the only vision that is highly regarded amongst Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglicans alike. If we allow ourselves to break free from the chains that have so wrongly tied down this noble vision, we may find that Our Lady's grace and intercession will help us all. Thanks be to God!

P.S. The chains in the new seal for the Society reflect those from the seal of The University of the South, a simple way in heraldry to illustrate our connection to the University's School of Theology.

Founding the Sewanee Society of OLW

2009-11-28T09:28:00.001-06:00

This coming Monday, November 30th (the Feast of St. Andrew), we will be founding the Sewanee Society of Our Lady of Walsingham here at The School of Theology. We are proposing an inclusive devotional group which aims to promote and sustain conversations in our community about the proper role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the life of the Church.

We have no formal connection to the Shrine in Walsingham, because we are including women priests and seminarians in our membership and leadership. My own personal goal for this, is to help undo the baggage that has been heaped upon Walsingham by various factions in the Church.

I am amazed at the response from our student body and our alumni, many are very interested in this endeavor and want to be apart of it! Thanks be to God! While the idea had been generated last school year, it simply took some time before the seeds could sprout roots. Hopefully, this new group will be here to stay as a positive symbol of Our Lady in the life of faith for The Episcopal Church.

Chapel of the Apostles

2009-11-24T14:37:00.002-06:00

Nothing, perhaps, causes more angst among seminarians than settling in to their new worshipping space. At The School of Theology, the Chapel of the Apostles (affectionately known simply as "COTA") is the rather awkward worship space for the seminary. Consecrated in 2001, COTA is a wonderful place for meditative prayer and reflection. Liturgically, it can be a challenging space. It's also a challenge to take photographs inside...

About a year and half ago, we moved the space to be oriented in a "collegiate" style, with the congregation facing inwards with the altar and ambo on a direct plane--which actually goes baptismal font, ambo, and then altar. Any hints as to where we stand with the proposition of an open table? Alas, the seminary does not see itself as the laboratory for defying the canons of the Church.

Once inside, the narthex is centered around a large copper baptismal font. And as a Sacristan of the Chapel, I can assure that this water gets changed religiously--pun intended (corny I know).

I am willing to go out on a limb and say that Sewanee and most likely Nashotah House are the only Episcopal Seminaries with a chapel dedicated to Our Lady. Here we have what I believe to be Our Lady of Guadeloupe, given the horns on the base. It is in the Lady Chapel where we reserve the Sacrament and have a side reconciliation room as well. We do boast the world's smallest seminary sacristy, getting vested in there with all the altar party can be a challenge too!

So call me nostalgic, I just wanted to have some posts of the places where I've been worshipping and building community lo these past three years.

All Saints' Chapel

2009-11-21T09:18:00.003-06:00

All Saints' Chapel stands in the very heart of the University of the South, a.k.a. "Sewanee." Located high atop the Cumberland Plateau in Sewanee, Tennessee, the University of the South is home to The School of Theology, a seminary of The Episcopal Church. It's also been home to me for the past two years. The University claims ownership by the Episcopal Church, and its board is comprised of twenty-eight southern dioceses of the Episcopal Church, with each bishop serving along with clergy and laity.

All Saints' is the University Chapel, where all our major festivities take place, complete with all the pomp and circumstance. It's a great place to attend a well executed Rite II service.

All Saints' is something of a "royal peculiar" of sorts, an ecclesiological phenomenon. The University sits in the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee and in the bounds of Otey Parish--the local Episcopal parish in Sewanee. Yet, the Chancellor of the University is a bishop of one of the owning dioceses. The newly elected Chancellor is the Bishop of Atlanta (formerly the liturgy professor at The School of Theology). The Chaplain of All Saints' is thus canonically resident in the Diocese of Tennessee and is answerable to the bishop of said diocese, but also has the Chancellor of the University as a boss! Moreover, all sacramental acts of baptism and confirmation are recorded at Otey Parish because the University Chapel is not a regular worshipping parish. To add more confusion, the Dean of the School of Theology acts as the Ordinary of the seminary chapel, but is somewhat under the Chaplain of the University. Sadly, there are too many restrictions in order to have a child baptized in the seminary chapel and weddings in either chapel are even more complicated.

The University Choir hosts monthly services of Evensong and sing at the main 11:00 a.m. Sunday liturgy. During the first weekend in December, the Chapel celebrates a locally famous Advent service of Lessons and Carols which can sometimes be standing room only (an Advent service because all the students have gone home during the Christmas break).

The font in the Chapel is amazing. Complete with eight sides, carved statues of saints, and "living" water flowing, it harkens any liturgist back to the early days of Hippolytus. My son was baptized here during the Easter Vigil in 2008 by the retired Episcopal Bishop of Mississippi. Around the ambulatories, banners with the seals of the twenty-eight owning dioceses hang.

The High Altar is equally stunning. Only used for Rite I services, sadly, the altar boasts statues of both historically Anglican saints as well as some peculiar to Sewanee, such as William Porcher DuBose. The windows surrounding the Chapel can keep your eyes busy for hours. I plan to take some photos of those windows soon. The window above the High Altar depicts Christ the King, in all his kingly and imperial splendor. Flanking the altar in this space are carved stalls for each owning bishop of the University, with carved seals of those dioceses atop each chair.

Always open for private prayer or simply a space for quiet reflection, All Saints' is a very special place for thousands of Sewanee Alumni and friends. If you are ever in the area, stop in for a few minutes, it is well worth the pilgrimage.

Matthean Judgment and Elizabeth, Princess of Hungry

2009-11-19T20:30:00.005-06:00

Feast Day of Elizabeth, Princess of Hungry

November 19, 2009

Chapel of the Apostles

Sewanee, Tennessee

Tobit 12:6b-9

Matthew 25:31-40

“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these
my brothers and sisters, you did it to me....”

Her name was Sara, and this is her story.[1] I met Sara while working during Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at Saint Matt’s, a homeless shelter specializing in recovery programs for drug addiction and alcoholism. St. Matt’s was founded on this very text from our Gospel this evening. Now Sara was about 49 years old and she was recently released from prison. She was homeless, in recovery for her crack addiction, and she was a prostitute. Her face was rough, worn down by years of smoking and falling upon the hard knocks of street life. In order to get money for her addiction, she would steal her mother’s jewelry and pawn it for crack. One day she came to visit with me and told me that she still had some of her mother’s jewelry and did not know what to do with it, for she did not want it as it just lingered as a constant reminder of her past. She had virtually no money to her name and each client of St. Matt’s was required to pay $25 a week to the shelter, demonstrating their commitment towards recovery. I asked her what she thought would a good act of charity. We then discovered that the ideal thing to do would be to sell the jewelry and anonymously pay the weekly fees for some families in the shelter that were struggling mightily.

I did not see her for a few days on the property and one afternoon she popped in with a huge smile. She had done just what she said she was going to do. Not only did this act of love help her to feel good about herself, it made her feel empowered as a human being who is a beloved child of God. I saw in Sara the beginnings of her process of breaking free from the bonds of sin that enslaved her. At the end of my time at the shelter, she brought me a gift, a National Geographic magazine featuring the history of the Vatican. She paid 50 cents for it, and she was well on her way towards a holistic recovery.

Our Gospel this evening from Matthew is a scene of judgment—the separating of the sheep from the goats. To establish the context for this passage, it is preceded by three parables about preparing for the coming of the Son of Man, demanding constant watchfulness from the Matthean community of Jewish Christians. The interpretation is that there is a separate judgment upon the Jews and the Gentiles by the Messiah—which is consistent with the Jewish ideas about the judgment of Gentiles. The background for our text this evening is the judgment of Gentiles based on their treatment of Israel.[2] The departure for Matthew is how these new Jewish Christians of Matthew’s community accept the presence of non-Jews who were not Christian while explaining how and why they can become part of the Kingdom of God.[3] This gets at the difficulty of interpreting these offensive texts as anti-Semitic, as Dr. Holloway suggests in his recent sermon on this very same passage.[4]

So if we hold to this idea that when the Son of Man sits upon his throne in final judgment looking at the non-believing Gentiles and separating out who has done works of charity and mercy directed towards us, then we diminish millions of other people who are to be sent off to eternal damnation. Holloway reminds us that this is form of “Christian absolutism” at its very core.[5] Is this the good news that we hunger for? Was St. Matt’s shelter founded upon the direct exclusion of others? No and no. But we must acknowledge that this is in our tradition and we must repent of it.

So the preaching task, then, is how to apply this Gospel text in our everyday lives, teasing out the Good News. We choose the side of hospitality, to recognize God’s likeness and image in all persons, receiving every person as though we are receiving Christ himself—something that is so old in our tradition as well and can be found in St. Benedict’s Rule. We choose to place at the center of my life the “Fount of all Being,” and nourish that presence daily with prayer, scripture, and the Eucharist. Being consumed by Christ, acts of mercy, love, and charity become our natural response. Being consumed by Christ, we do not stand for the disfigurement of poverty, hunger, and discrimination which prevails in our time and circumstance. Being consumed by Christ, we serve as the hands of the King of Kings here and now—not because it wins us points in the big book, but because we become transfigured beings by those whom we purport to help. This is what I think Jesus means when he says later in Matthew, “for you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.”[6]

The 50 cents that Sara spent for the National Geographic was an act that transformed me—I had seen that issue before, but this time it became something very powerful, something Christ-like.

There is no coincidence that our text today falls on the feast of Elizabeth, Princess of Hungry, who modeled Christian charity and gave up her wealth to further the common good of the people of Hungry.

In this Kingdom season, which reaches its climax this Sunday being Christ the King, my prayer for us all is that we stand in our truth and acknowledge those texts in Holy Scripture that divide and pass judgment on others. The truth does indeed set us free, free to worship God without fear, holy and righteous in God’s sight, all the days of our life. Amen.

[1] The name has been changed to protect confidentiality.

[2] See Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., The Gospel of Matthew, in Sacra Pagina. (Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1991), 358-359.

[3] Ibid., 359.

[4] Dr. Paul A. Holloway in a sermon delivered in the Chapel of the Apostles (Sewanee, TN) on November 11, 2009.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Matt 26:11, NRSV

St. Hugh of Lincoln

2009-11-17T00:01:00.014-06:00

Today on the Church's Kalendar, we remember Hugh of Lincoln, Bishop and Confessor. Hugh is a favorite of mine and I want to share with you my journey to his shrine.

I made my way on pilgrimage to Lincoln Cathedral this summer so that I may venerate Hugh's relics housed there at the cathedral. The cathedral itself is massive, plainly understating its historic beauty which towers above the city of Lincoln. I think, I cannot recall, that I had to pay to get inside the cathedral. Against my own aversion to such practices, I was willing to pay whatever, since the trip down to Lincoln from Mirfield was already costing me more than I had imagined for such an expedition. Plus, with two small children in tow, I was going to see the inside of this cathedral!

Hugh met my expectations. The shrine is housed in the far eastern end of the cathedral, behind the high altar and surrounded by several small chapels. I was simply humbled to be in the midst of this great saint, bishop, and confessor of the catholic faith.

I first learned about Hugh early in my seminary formation and my interest grew even more thanks to a BBC series on the cathedrals of England which devoted an entire episode to Lincoln Cathedral.

Double-click on the photos to enlarge them if you want to see more detail.

The western facade, currently undergoing renovation.

Inside the nave, facing eastwards.

The Shrine itself. There is a rather hideous modern structure towering above it, a good try but rather odd and out of place.

Now you can see the spire of sorts. Why?!?

The reliquary of St. Hugh.

The cathedra of the Bishop of Lincoln.

Painting of Hugh with his swan next to the Shrine.

My family braving the uphill expedition to the Cathedral. I owed them big time.

The Icon of Hugh that I wrote in 2008 with words from the

American Collect on the scroll.

I put him in his Chartusian monastic habit.

Here is a Collect for Hugh, Bishop and Confessor from my newly acquired altar missal, The English Missal, Third Edition. (London: W. Knott and Sons, 1934). More on the English Missal later.

O God, who didst wonderously adorn blessed Hugh, thy Confessor and Bishop, with pre-eminent merits and glorious miracles: mercifully grant; that we may be stirred up by his example and enlightened by his virtues. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

But, I may add that it does not even hold a candle to Hugh's Collect found in The Episcopal Church's Lesser Feasts and Fasts:

O holy God, you endowed your servant and bishop Hugh of Lincoln with wise and cheerful boldness, and taught him to commend the discipline of holy life to kings and princes: Grant that we also, rejoicing in the Good News of your mercy, and fearing nothing but the loss of you, may be bold to speak the truth in love, in the name of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

May we all be inspired by Hugh's example and so be led to work with cheerfulness and boldness for the Kingdom of God. Remember and keep St. Hugh in your prayers today.

A Solemn High Mass in COTA?

2009-11-07T09:32:00.004-06:00

This year, we were able to break significant ground in the Chapel of the Apostles (COTA)--the chapel for The School of Theology. The Senior Class is divided up by the Subdean into Liturgy Planning Groups. Each group, then, assumes responsiblily for planning and conducting 4-5 liturgies which constitute our Thursday evening "Community Eucharists." Typically speaking, our Thursday evening liturgies are Rite II or come from Enriching Our Worship--very standard, nothing too complex for the overloaded diet of "Senioritis." By chance, a group of spikes were placed together and out appeared Ritual Notes!

It must be said that our Subdean is firmly planted in the reforms of the Liturgical Movement, clear symbolism rooted in simplicity. He did, however, pull out his own copy of Ritual Notes, 9th Edition (trumping my own edition) in our planning meeting! Moreover, he allowed us to move the altar and re-orient the worship space for the ad orientum mass. He even showed up for the liturgy. He's come a long way!!!

It took some careful planning and loads of practice, but we were able to have a full on Solemn High Mass, Rite I. The ceremonial was directed by Ritual Notes, as our celebrant was sometime associate of Church of the Advent, Boston. Yours truly was the subdeacon!

Since our Seminary does not own a full high mass set of vestments, I was able to borrow the set from my field ed. parish, St. Paul's in Chattanooga. We even vested the thurifer in a tunicle! Our Lady of Walsingham made two appearances: one in the icon that I wrote and in the statue from Walsingham placed on the offering table! Spikery at its highest level!

Two observations that struck me. Whilst I've been worshipping in this space for the past two years, I've never felt the kind of excitement that I felt this past Thursday night. First, I was struck by the fact that over 90 people from our community attended--with lots of kids in tow. Getting 90 people to voluntary come out for anything in our community can be a challenge. Many of the juniors came wearing their cassocks, hinting that there is a groundswell of support for this liturgical style. Secondly, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of compliments that came from the congregation that was present. Many "thanked" us for doing this. I was relived that everything went smoothly. Many remarked as though it appeared that we have been doing this for a while! Thanks be to God.

Morning Prayer Reflection

2009-11-07T09:15:00.004-06:00

Proper 26, Daily Office Year 1

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Chapel of the Apostles, Sewanee

Nehemiah 12:27-31a, 42b-47

Revelation 11:1-19

_________________________________________________

Thomas Merton once wrote that perhaps the best view of the world is experienced from standing on its fringes, on the margins outside of the city. The readings in the Office this morning, I think, help restore the tension found in the midst of the Kingdom of God. On one side we have the restoration or rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem in Nehemiah, with great fanfare and processions. In the Revelation to John, we have the utter destruction of the city with dead bodies laying waste in the streets, earthquakes, peals of thunder, and so forth. If we take Brother Merton’s perspective, then, what do we see in the city? Celebration? Devastation?

In the midst of the paradox, I believe that we can see the need for recovering Kingdom theology. The Kingdom is like…it’s like…well, we struggle in the pulpit to articulate exactly what the Kingdom of God is. It goes by many names: God’s Divine Commonwealth, the Kingdom of Christ, the Reign of God. Our wise Lord used parables to not only stretch our minds but prevent the Kingdom from being limited to mere human vocabulary. The Kingdom of God can only be seen from the margins, here Merton’s view is that of Our Lord’s who spent his earthly ministry deep in the heart of the edges and corners of the world.

The good news of the Kingdom of God is indeed revolutionary news. That the Kingdom of God stands in contrast to and in conflict with the powers and principalities of this world is proof that it’s origins are not of this world—the Kingdom of God stands as judgment upon it. Kingdom theologian Kenneth Leech writes, “the Kingdom is otherworldly…a constant symbol of the other world, a sign of transcendence. It is a source of change and transformation for this world, a vision and impulse for a new world.”[1] Moreover, Leech warns us that for too long the Church has evacuated the good, revolutionary news of the Kingdom, loosing the essence of conflictual and world-transforming dimension.

So did the great processions and fanfare in Nehemiah appear utterly ridiculous to the hungry, the orphaned, and the widowed? Does the utter ruin of the city that John reveals in his writing fill the poor with a sense of doom and gloom? Where do you choose to stand and see?

Make no mistake, you cannot help build the Kingdom of God. Nay, if you’re looking for it, you may be well served to look at a tiny mustard seed. It’s already come. Embrace it. Taste it. Live it and further it’s mission in the world in your own ministry, today. Join the revolution. Amen.

[1] Kenneth Leech, We Preach Christ Crucified. (New York: Church Publishing, 2005), 43.

House of All Souls: One Monk’s Heart for Building a Home

2009-11-05T11:16:00.006-06:00

Brother Ron Fender BSG, a brother in the Brotherhood of Saint Gregory the Great (a religious order in the Episcopal Church), has been tending and washing the feet of the homeless in Chattanooga for the past seven years as his ministry. He is a case manager at the Community Kitchen, a Chattanooga refuge for the hungry and homeless.

Inspired by such projects as the Brother Bernard Fessenden House in Yonkers and Common Ground in New York City, Brother Ron sought to build an intentional community to house homeless men in the form of a monastic community. He discovered that many who completed recovery programs and were eventually placed into apartments as a way to rebuild their lives, quickly fell back to street life. Fender notes that, “putting a homeless person in an isolated room or apartment without supportive services, or even furniture or household goods makes no sense whatsoever… the most successful model for ending homelessness is to create community for the homeless.” Brother Ron is seeking to do just that.

With a grant from The Rosewood Foundation, a new house has been constructed and nearly completed in Chattanooga. Named the ‘House of All Souls,’ this home will bring together eight homeless men along with Brother Ron, who have been screened and agree to live in this intentional community. The men will continue in their recovery programs while offering mutual support in the form of their own community.

At the heart of the House of All Souls is a chapel where the men will worship God and keep Christ at the center of their lives. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) has donated copies of The Book of Common Prayer, Hymnals, and various books on spirituality to help further this new community. Gifts of money, liturgical goods and resources (especially an altar) are greatly needed. Ron hopes that the Bishop of East Tennessee will be able to come and bless the new chapel.

Brother Ron was recently featured on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition which is chronicling stories from Main Street America. You can listen to the archived story at http://tinyurl.com/fendernpr2009.

In Clouds Above and on Earth Below: Feasting with the Saints

2009-11-01T23:49:00.002-06:00

"Cloud of Witnesses iii" by Ugandan artist Eria "Sane" Nsubuga,

Mixed Media, 2007.

"For all the saints..." began the service this morning marking the Feast of All Saints' on the Kalendar. We named the faithful departed in 2009 during the Mass and we gave thanks for the on-going witness of all the "little S-s" saints in our daily lives. We even had a baptism today, shocking only that this parish would opt to actually follow a rubric on this topic! Anyways, I digress.

Feasting with the Saints. I can just imagine that now. My grandparents, cousins, and other friends whom have died and risen in glory with Christ above, eating their fill, celebrating the goodness of God and God's creation. I wonder, especially today, what they are saying to themselves about me. "Oh Lord, there goes Chad again..."

One thing that I miss with newer parish churches is the lack of a parish cemetery. In most parish churches in England, you cannot take one step without coming in contact with a memorial stone or engraving of some kind. There's even something commemorating whenever the Sovereign comes inside! You cannot help but notice the great cloud of witnesses in those bastions of stone and glass. And yet in the States, we tend to want to keep our dead as far away from us as possible. "Why would you want to clutter up a nice church yard with grave stones?" Now to be fair, there are plenty of churches here that have cemeteries--most tend to be historic though. Many have adopted columbaria as a method of depositing the ashes of loved ones into hermetically sealed containers in a church wall somewhere. But I wonder why we fear the dead so much? We don't even like to say the word "death" or "dying." Instead, many opt for the politeness found in "passing away," and the like. Our culture fears death, the one certain thing that we can count on that never requires its software to be updated.

For me, I've decided, I want to be cremated and scattered. No need for a marker or stone anywhere. "Why clutter up the earth with something that has passed away?" I had to get that one in there. But seriously, I'm a firm believer in being "green" on this issue. I just see it as a waste to go through the expense and hassle of it all. Death is certain, and yet death is not the end. Resurrection in Christ is our hope and it is what I look forward to follow. Nothing will be left behind, all of creation is moving towards its fulfillment in the Trinity. You can count on that.

From Merton

2009-10-28T07:59:00.002-05:00

I recently came across this excerpt from Thomas Merton and I wanted to share it. As someone who continues to grow in my own monastic calling and in contemplative prayer, I deeply appreciate silence. Peace to you this day.

O my brother[s and sisters], the contemplative is [not] the [person] who has fiery visions of the cherubim carrying God on their imagined chariot, but simply [those] who have risked their mind in the desert beyond language and beyond ideas where God is encountered in the nakedness of pure trust, that is to say, in the surrender of our poverty and incompleteness in order no longer to clench our minds in a cramp upon themselves, as if thinking made us exist.

The message of hope the contemplative offers you, then, is not that you need to find your way through the jungle of language and problems that today surround God: but that whether you understand or not, God loves you, is present in you, lives in you, [abides with] you, calls you, saves you, and offers you an understanding and light which are like nothing ever found in books or heard in sermons.

The contemplative has nothing to tell you except to reassure you and say that, if you dare to penetrate your own silence and risk the sharing of that solitude with the lonely other who seeks God through you, then you will truly recover the light and the capacity to understand what is beyond words and beyond explanations because it is too close to be explained: it is the intimate union, in the depths of your own heart, of God’s spirit and your own secret inmost self, so that you and [God] are in all truth One Spirit. I love you, in Christ.

Merton, The Hidden Ground of Love, 157-158

Retreat to the Smokies

2009-10-26T08:55:00.002-05:00

This past weekend, several seminarian families (with kids in tow) journeyed to the Great Smoky Mountains in Western North Carolina during our Fall Reading Break. The autumn colors were brilliant and the views simply holy. Above is the view from our deck at the mountain house. We were spoiled. All six children--all under the ages of 3--managed to be good and allow their parents some down time, not too much mind you.

There was every color imaginable on display in the mountains. Sewanee is only now beginning to change in color. Fall is certainly my favorite time to be here!

Around One Table: The Episcopal Identity Project

2009-10-22T08:48:00.005-05:00

In the wake of the recent news from the Vatican, I thought it may be appropriate to open up a discussion on Episcopal identity. From the National Office:

Around One Table is an invitation into a conversation. It's a conversation about who we are as Episcopalians — our identity, our wellness, our mission — and how our sense of identity is expressed through our lives and the call we explore in ministry.

Around One Table is a conversation that has already begun but is far from over. The 23 themes of Episcopal identity emerged through a four-year study called the Episcopal Identity Project. Do you find yourself and your core values among these themes of Episcopal identity? We'd like to know.

Around One Table is a conversation. We hope you will return here frequently.

Here being this link. There being also the place where one can download the "Abbreviated" and Full-length reports of EIP. I just learned of this project and found it interesting to note that there does not seem to be a lot of hype about this in the Church. Perhaps the moans from the clergy at this past week's clergy gathering was indicative that are saturated with it?

So, what are the 23 themes of Episcopal identity? Gosh, that sounds so market-speak and official. Let's see:

Core Episcopal identity (most tightly related and central themes): Christ as Central, Sacramental, Book of Common Prayer, Incarnational, Scriptural, and Pastoral.

Secondary Episcopal identity (somewhat related and central themes): Reason, Inclusive, Tradition, Common Liturgy, Ceremonial, Experience, and Responsiveness to Societal Change.

Tertiary Episcopal identity (less related and less central themes): Middle Way, Diverse Theological Positions, Ecumenical, Diverse Spiritual Practices, Prophetic, Source of Societal Change, and Dispersed Authority.

Stand-Alone Episcopal identity (themes not related or central): Elite, Source of Salvation, and A-confessional.

I don't want to sound skeptical, as a former amateur marketer in my former life, I appreciate data and know that data can drive some good, sound decisions. But, only 92% of bishops in TEC responded to the survey! I am guessing that this number included retired bishops which may mess up the numbers.

I do wonder how many Episcopalians in the pews would claim "Incarnational" as their identity? I certainly would, but my mother who is a life-long Episcopalian probably could not tell you what that word means!

More to come...after an Ethics mid-term...

Bound for Rome: Swimming the Tiber?

2009-10-20T17:45:00.004-05:00

In an unprecedented move, the Vatican has announced today the formation of "Anglican Ordinariates" within the operational structure of the Roman Catholic Church. Established under a soon-to-be released "apostolic constitution," the new home for disenfranchised Anglicans and Episcopalians will supposedly be allowed to retain Anglican style worship albeit with rigors of Roman theology. Apparently this is a major move for the Vatican to accept in whole or in part Anglican dioceses, parishes, and clergy into the fold.

Married Anglican bishops who abandoned the Communion will not be allowed to be Roman ordinaries, but somewhere I did read that celibate Anglican bishops and priests would be considered. I'm guessing, here, that Rome will re-ordain all priests and bishops received in this new manner, since it's been made quite clear that Anglican Orders are not substantiated in Roman eyes.

I must admit that I'm surprised by this. I learned about this today while attending a Clericus (local clergy gathering) over lunch. I suppose I stand firmly in the camp that it is quite acceptable to be and remain Anglican which is part and parcel of the worldwide apostolic, catholic church.

Is this really an open arm gesture from Rome inviting full communion? Does it impair future Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue? Should we be excited about this?

Rowan's Perspective

2009-10-20T17:28:00.000-05:00

The full text of Archbishop Rowan Williams' letter to the Primates of the Anglican Communion released today:

20 October 2009

The Vatican has announced today that Pope Benedict XVI has approved an ‘Apostolic Constitution’ (a formal papal decree) which will make some provision for groups of Anglicans (whether strictly members of continuing Anglican bodies or currently members of the Communion) who wish to be received into communion with the See of Rome in such a way that they can retain aspects of Anglican liturgical and spiritual tradition.

I am sorry that there has been no opportunity to alert you earlier to this; I was informed of the planned announcement at a very late stage, and we await the text of the Apostolic Constitution itself and its code of practice in the coming weeks. But I thought I should let you know the main points of the response I am making in our local English context – in full consultation with Roman Catholic bishops in England and Wales – in the hope of avoiding any confusion or misrepresentation. I attach a copy of the Joint Statement that I agreed to make alongside the Archbishop of Westminster, the President of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. It can also be found on my website.

It remains to be seen what use will be made of this provision, since it is now up to those who have made requests to the Holy See to respond to the Apostolic Constitution; but, in the light of recent discussions with senior officials in the Vatican, I can say that this new possibility is in no sense at all intended to undermine existing relations between our two communions or to be an act of proselytism or aggression. It is described as simply a response to specific enquiries from certain Anglican groups and individuals wishing to find their future within the Roman Catholic Church.

The common heritage of the achievement of the ARCIC agreed statements, and the IARCCUM principles for shared work and witness (in Growing Together in Unity and Mission, 2007), remain the solid ground both for our future co-operation as global communions, and our regional and local growth in common faith and witness. For those who wish to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church in the near future, this announcement will clarify possible options, and we wish them God’s strength and guidance in their discernment. Meanwhile our ecumenical relationships continue on their current cordial basis, regionally and internationally.

+ Rowan Cantuar

Fall Is Here

2009-10-08T09:32:00.000-05:00

Fall term of my senior year is proving to be an extraordinarily busy one. Not so much on the academic side, but on every other front! Hence my absence of recent posts. I've started some new projects, mainly woodworking and woodburning and I'll post some pictures of my work soon.

St. Michael, Pray for Us.

2009-09-29T12:43:00.000-05:00

This is the very first icon that I acquired a number of years ago. It just so happened that it was an image of the Archangel Michael--whose name I bear. It was written by iconographer Phil Duncan and dated 1976. I love it.