Thank you for this. It feeds my discouraged soul. “An institution to maintain not a life to inhabit.”
That life is what has sustained me in 55 years of priesthood and what I have tried to offer to others. Not a witness based on numbers, but one of spiritual direction one soul at a time. I look forward to your future posts on this.
I really like this Mark. The only way forward is to reclaim for today the things that define us. That is an organisational as well as theological truth. I also really like your account of Anglican distinctives
I can’t wait for more of this line of thought here (which as a parish priest I am thinking alongside you all the time). Appreciate the opportunity to read over your shoulder and perhaps process together.
Thanks! And do please share some of your own thoughts. I'd be very interested as this continues to see things from the US perspective...especially in these times.
This was incredibly insightful. Thank you for sharing.
It calls to mind George Weigel's Letters to a Young Catholic. In it a friend shared that if he truly believed what Weigel did about the Eucharist, he'd be crawling down the aisle. We're not Catholic, but I think the saying more or less applies. Are we aware that we are offering something worth crawling down the aisle to get? Do we worship in such a way that people can truly imagine that for at least a moment our voices "join angels and archangels and all the company of heaven who forever proclaim this hymn?" If we really believe that- we should have chills.
I think a lot of it comes down to imagination. Children have it an abundance, but for various cultural reasons, it seems to forever be misdirected or misapplied in adults. We ought to invite those in our community to worship imaginatively and creatively- to see, taste, smell, and experience fully the presence of God.
But - we do need that liturgy of formation to keep our imagination correctly directed! I think of it like Chesterton saying "And the more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of of that order was to give room for good things to run wild." The rule and order that Anglicanism provides is one the things that draws me to it. The knowledge of its historicity and daily application provide excellent rule and order for the imagination to run riot in all the best ways.
Thanks for this. Weigel's comment reminds me of a sermon a dear friends of mine once preached in which he suggested to the congregation that they should be grateful that they couldn't feel emotionally the deep communion of the Eucharist. If they did, they'd have to be dragged away kicking and screaming from the communion rail.
I'd forgotten about the Chesterton quote. It's a good'un!
Thank you for this (and for all your writing)! The perspective you describe reminds me of Martin Thornton's "remnant hypothesis" that he introduced in his "Pastoral Theology: A Reorientation." Is your trajectory similar or something different? In either event, looking forward to it!
Although I'm enormously fond of Martin Thornton's works, I'm not consciously following him. For the most part, I'm trying to see if I can corral my various musings on Anglicanism over the years into a coherent vision. Having said that, I suspect when I get to prayer and worship, I wouldn't be surprised if his explanation of how the Daily Offices, the Eucharist, and personal devotion reflect the Trinity appears.
Do we have to do this alone? It seems that one group that does not suffer from "troubling loss of confidence” are the Orthodox. I keep thinking about a real alliance with the Orthodox to jump-start Anglican confidence. And I mean real: frequent invitations to attend each other’s mass/liturgy and make common cause. We have so much in common, and if they can get past theological purity tests, an Anglican alliance could be amazing.
Maybe - but having lived and worked among Orthodox in Greece and with family in Eastern Europe, id suggest that Orthodox - certainly in their homelands are at least as fissiparous and argumentative as Anglicans. A very old Greek Orthodox friend of mine even heads up an organisation fighting for the recovery of traditional Greek Orthodoxy. Its a funny old world out there. And the Zoe movement back in the 70s led to the kind of divisions tgat are all too familiar in our own communion. After all, one monastery on Athos is now out of communion not just with the other monasteries but with the whole world!
One of the things I've learned over the years is that every Church has its own peculiar sins that, paradoxically, can be found in every other Church. In another recent essay, I quoted my old Christian ethics professor who liked to remind us that Jesus rode an ass in Jerusalem and he's been riding an ass ever since. That statement has become almost creedal for me. Lol.
Thank you. ‘It became something they couldn’t abandon without losing themselves’ made me cry. So many of my friends and family have left church but not Jesus. They question why I remain. That phase has helped.
Thanks, Mark, for such a promising beginning. Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier appeared in two books (1722 and 1742) with 24 Preludes and Fugues in each book. Now there is a model to follow…
The novel on which the Scorsese film is based by Kazuo Endo - also called ‘Silence’ is a must-read.
Faithfulness is a much underrated virtue
Thank you for this. It feeds my discouraged soul. “An institution to maintain not a life to inhabit.”
That life is what has sustained me in 55 years of priesthood and what I have tried to offer to others. Not a witness based on numbers, but one of spiritual direction one soul at a time. I look forward to your future posts on this.
I really like this Mark. The only way forward is to reclaim for today the things that define us. That is an organisational as well as theological truth. I also really like your account of Anglican distinctives
Thanks, Keith. I'm having fun thinking in ink about it all.
Thank you for this encouraging article. I look forward to more.
I can’t wait for more of this line of thought here (which as a parish priest I am thinking alongside you all the time). Appreciate the opportunity to read over your shoulder and perhaps process together.
Thanks! And do please share some of your own thoughts. I'd be very interested as this continues to see things from the US perspective...especially in these times.
This was incredibly insightful. Thank you for sharing.
It calls to mind George Weigel's Letters to a Young Catholic. In it a friend shared that if he truly believed what Weigel did about the Eucharist, he'd be crawling down the aisle. We're not Catholic, but I think the saying more or less applies. Are we aware that we are offering something worth crawling down the aisle to get? Do we worship in such a way that people can truly imagine that for at least a moment our voices "join angels and archangels and all the company of heaven who forever proclaim this hymn?" If we really believe that- we should have chills.
I think a lot of it comes down to imagination. Children have it an abundance, but for various cultural reasons, it seems to forever be misdirected or misapplied in adults. We ought to invite those in our community to worship imaginatively and creatively- to see, taste, smell, and experience fully the presence of God.
But - we do need that liturgy of formation to keep our imagination correctly directed! I think of it like Chesterton saying "And the more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of of that order was to give room for good things to run wild." The rule and order that Anglicanism provides is one the things that draws me to it. The knowledge of its historicity and daily application provide excellent rule and order for the imagination to run riot in all the best ways.
Thanks for this. Weigel's comment reminds me of a sermon a dear friends of mine once preached in which he suggested to the congregation that they should be grateful that they couldn't feel emotionally the deep communion of the Eucharist. If they did, they'd have to be dragged away kicking and screaming from the communion rail.
I'd forgotten about the Chesterton quote. It's a good'un!
Thank you for this (and for all your writing)! The perspective you describe reminds me of Martin Thornton's "remnant hypothesis" that he introduced in his "Pastoral Theology: A Reorientation." Is your trajectory similar or something different? In either event, looking forward to it!
Although I'm enormously fond of Martin Thornton's works, I'm not consciously following him. For the most part, I'm trying to see if I can corral my various musings on Anglicanism over the years into a coherent vision. Having said that, I suspect when I get to prayer and worship, I wouldn't be surprised if his explanation of how the Daily Offices, the Eucharist, and personal devotion reflect the Trinity appears.
Do we have to do this alone? It seems that one group that does not suffer from "troubling loss of confidence” are the Orthodox. I keep thinking about a real alliance with the Orthodox to jump-start Anglican confidence. And I mean real: frequent invitations to attend each other’s mass/liturgy and make common cause. We have so much in common, and if they can get past theological purity tests, an Anglican alliance could be amazing.
Maybe - but having lived and worked among Orthodox in Greece and with family in Eastern Europe, id suggest that Orthodox - certainly in their homelands are at least as fissiparous and argumentative as Anglicans. A very old Greek Orthodox friend of mine even heads up an organisation fighting for the recovery of traditional Greek Orthodoxy. Its a funny old world out there. And the Zoe movement back in the 70s led to the kind of divisions tgat are all too familiar in our own communion. After all, one monastery on Athos is now out of communion not just with the other monasteries but with the whole world!
One of the things I've learned over the years is that every Church has its own peculiar sins that, paradoxically, can be found in every other Church. In another recent essay, I quoted my old Christian ethics professor who liked to remind us that Jesus rode an ass in Jerusalem and he's been riding an ass ever since. That statement has become almost creedal for me. Lol.
Thank you. ‘It became something they couldn’t abandon without losing themselves’ made me cry. So many of my friends and family have left church but not Jesus. They question why I remain. That phase has helped.
Thanks, Mark, for such a promising beginning. Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier appeared in two books (1722 and 1742) with 24 Preludes and Fugues in each book. Now there is a model to follow…
Thank for you for this Mark. It would make an excellent podcast series if you were so minded!
Thanks, James. Ah, if I only had the time......