Anglican Mass in Modern English

After seeing the products of attempts to translate parts of the 1662 BCP and the U.S. 1928 BCP into modern English with varying degrees of success, I was about to give up, as have so many, the idea that liturgy could be written in modern English without sounding either pedestrian or trendy – or horrible.  (Imagine if you will, beginning every prayer with “We just want to praise you, Father God….”)  So I thought I might give it a try myself.

Now, I’m no Shakespeare or Eliot.  The last poetry I wrote resides in my wife’s dresser, written when I was courting her and was less critical.  Thank goodness it isn’t shown to anyone.  After all, being critical, not creative, is my strong suit.  But as I contemplated the attempts out there, a little voice whispered “heck, even I could do better than that!”  So here it is. 

Anglican Mass in Modern English

Here is the Eucharist from the U.S. 1928 BCP, translated into current modern English, following the principles of Liturgiam Authenticam, and using the most up to date ICEL texts, which will be in sync with the next Roman Missal to be issued in English, probably 2010 or so.  It is set up to work with either the 3 year Ordo Lectionum Missae and the Daily Lectionary or the older lectionaries in the various BCPs.  I think the former the better choice, of course.

 

Because Anglicanism is an international body these days, I have edited the base text in three ways,

1. By incorporating some features of other national Anglican BCPs (Canada 1962, Scotland 1970, South Africa 1954, West Indies 1959),
2. By eliminating some of the vague areas that have been patient of heresy, and
3. By streamlining the whole to make it possible to have a short weekday service for working folk.

I have prepared this text for discussion purposes only, and it has not been authorized for public use by anyone, anywhere.  I haven’t even tried it out by myself. 

 

I would be glad of any comments.

 

Traditional Anglican Communion Primate Seeks Union with Rome

Below is the interview Abp. Hepworth gave David Virtue, reprinted in this blog free of protestant spin.

Correspondence Revealed Between Rome and TAC

An Exclusive Interview with the Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion the Most. Rev. John Hepworth

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
8/12/2008

Virtueonline met with Archbishop John Hepworth near Philadelphia recently. He is on a world trip visiting his constituency. He agreed to be interviewed.

 

VOL: With negotiations as delicate as they are between the TAC and Rome, why are you prepared to talk to VirtueOnline at this time?

HEPWORTH: There is much inaccurate information about the TAC. I would like to state our position as clearly as I know how to the Anglican and Roman Catholic world. I also want to clear up some misconceptions and misperceptions about the TAC. I chose VOL because I wanted the widest possible circulation. This interview has been cleared with Rome.

 

From the Primate of the TAC: Unity with the Holy See

http://www.themessenger.com.au/news.htm

25th July 2008

 

From the Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion
Subject: Unity with the Holy See

His Grace, Archbishop John Hepworth has released the following message to the College of Bishops, Vicars General and those assisting the TAC to achieve unity with the Holy See.

“My Dear Fathers, Brothers and Sisters,

It is my great pleasure to be able to attach a copy of a letter I received this morning (25 July 2008 ) from Cardinal Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, via the Apostolic Nuncio in Australia. It is a letter of warmth and encouragement. I have responded, expressing my gratitude on behalf of “my brother bishops”, reaffirming our determination to achieve the unity for which Jesus prayed with such intensity at the Last Supper, no matter what the personal cost this might mean in our discipleship.

This letter should encourage our entire Communion, and those friends who have been assisting us. It should also spur us to renewed prayer for the Holy Father, for Cardinal Levada and his staff at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and for all our clergy and people as we move to ever closer communion in Christ with the Holy See.

I am particularly thankful to the Cardinal Prefect for his generous mention of “corporate reunion”, a pathway seldom travelled in the past, but essential for bringing about the plea of our Master to His Father “May they be completely one”’.

The Traditional Anglican Communion
Archbishop John Hepworth
Primate

 

Here is a facsimile of the letter:

 

Initial thoughts on the GAFCON documents

By the Rev’d Fr Samuel L. Edwards SSM

ACA/TAC

 

Preface

            On June 30^th, the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) ended in Jerusalem with the release of a “Statement on the Global Anglican Future.”  Within this Statement is embedded “The Jerusalem Declaration,” described as constituting the “basis of fellowship” of the GAFCON movement.

            What follows are my initial thoughts on this pair of documents.  These may be useful, since I write as a priest who served for over two decades (1979-2002) as a member of the clergy of The Episcopal Church (TEC) before transitioning into the mainstream Anglican Continuum where I now serve in the Anglican Church in America – our national iteration of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC).  Because I identified myself with the traditional and conservative resistance to TEC’s decay almost from my entry into it as a college sophomore and particularly because I spent seven years (1993-2000) as the Executive Director of Forward in Faith North America (FIFNA), I have personal acquaintance with many people still in TEC and the Anglican Communion, in the mainstream Anglican Continuum, and in what for lack of a better term I have described as the “new traditionalist” or “neo-trad” Anglicans (some of whom lately have taken to describing themselves as “reasserters” and who made up the vast majority of GAFCON attendees).  As a result, I have become conversant with the assumptions and perspectives that form their various responses to the Anglican crisis.

 

Introduction to Analysis

            To begin with a positive, I found the initial paragraph in the section on “the Global Anglican Context” to present an acutely accurate assessment of its topic.  Probably unintentionally (and therefore the more powerfully) its evaluation

 

How GAFCON Ended Anglicanism

The Global Anglican Future Conference (www.gafcon.org) has finished. The semi-conservative attendees have produced a statement, the Jerusalem Declaration, for which they commend themselves and assert that they have chosen not to split or leave the Anglican Communion, but to reform it.

Alas, what they have in mind is no reform-of-the-reform to reverse the damages of the last 450 years. What this declaration does is create something that has not existed in Anglicanism since 1558 – a magisterium. Unfortunately, instead of accepting the proper magisterium of the Western Church, this magisterium creates a confessional standard, an innovation. What are the bases of this confessional standard? They specified, inter alia,

3. We uphold the four Ecumenical Councils and the three historic Creeds as expressing the rule of faith of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

4. We uphold the Thirty-nine Articles as containing the true doctrine of the Church agreeing with God’s Word and as authoritative for Anglicans today.

6. We rejoice in our Anglican sacramental and liturgical heritage as an expression of the gospel, and we uphold the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as a true and authoritative standard of worship and prayer, to be translated and locally adapted for each culture.

Let’s look at these three sections one at a time. Section three, while it doesn’t explicitly repudiate councils after Chalcedon, by intentional omission does not acknowledge the authority of the rest of the ecumenical councils, either the seven acknowledged by all Anglo-Catholics, or the twenty-one acknowledged by the Western Church and accepted by many Anglo-Catholics. Such an implicit disavowal removes the GAFCON denomination from the mainstream of the Catholic Faith. Section four undoes the progress made since the inception of the Oxford Movement 175 years ago by requiring submission to the anti-Catholic articles of the reformation era, granting them explicit authority over even ecumenical councils. Or at least over seventeen of them. Section six enshrines the English prayerbook, with the intentional deviations from and denials of Catholic truth found in that book’s bowdlerized eucharist.

The GAFCON participants couldn’t have made any clearer their intention to reshape Anglicanism into just another protestant sect. What once was a place where Catholics could rejoice in their Catholic and Anglican heritage has made the final departure call. Can there be any doubt remaining about the proper path for real Anglicans?

What will we see as the results of GAFCON play out? I suspect there will be a sorting – the protestants into the GAFCON denomination (this “Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans” –FCA?), the trendy secularists fading into humanism, and the Catholics into some future hoped-for enclave under the Holy Father.

Blessed John Henry Newman, pray for us!

 

From the Horses’ Mouths

This post is reprinted from the ACA website at http://www.acahome.org/petition_facts.htm

The announcement in October 2007 of a letter from the Traditional Anglican Communion to the Vatican seeking unity has generated a great deal of discussion, much of it long on speculation and short on facts. This uninformed chatter serves only to make it obvious that there are many who see their lack of actual information as no reason to refrain from forming an opinion and sharing it with the world.

One Catholic news source recently announced that the TAC “has asked for the appointment of a Catholic bishop to preside over an Anglican rite that would be restored to full communion with the Holy See.” The simple truth is that our letter of petition contained no request for such an appointment.

Another self-proclaimed Catholic website states that the retention of “their married episcopate” was a requirement of the TAC. Once again, no reference to any such requirement was in the letter.

In an attempt to correct such inaccuracies, while also honoring the TAC’s pledge not to publish the actual letter until the Holy See has made an official response, the following information, all of which has been published on the TAC’s Messenger website, is collected here for the reader’s convenience.

Press release (Oct 17, 2007):

“The College of Bishops of the TAC met in Plenary Session in Portsmouth, England, in the first week of October 2007. The Bishops and Vicars-General unanimously agreed to the text of a letter to the See of Rome seeking full, corporate, sacramental union. The letter was signed solemnly by all the College and entrusted to the Primate and two bishops chosen by the College to be presented to the Holy See. The letter was cordially received at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Primate of the TAC has agreed that no member of the College will give interviews until the Holy See has considered the letter and responded.”

(NOTE: Most of the letter consisted of a review of the last 45 years of Anglican-Roman relations and a description of the origin and current status of the Traditional Anglican Communion. The items below are quoted from the concluding section.)

On our Communion:

“… a worldwide community of Anglican Christians has united under the name ‘The Traditional Anglican Communion‘ for three main purposes:

- To identify, reaffirm and consolidate in its community the elements of belief, sacraments, structure, and conduct that mark the Church of Christ …

- To seek as a body full and visible communion, particularly eucharistic communion, in Christ, with the Roman Catholic Church..

- To achieve such communion while maintaining those revered traditions … that constitute the cherished and centuries-old heritage of Anglican communities throughout the world.”

On our acceptance of the catholic faith:

“We accept that the most complete and authentic expression and application of the catholic faith in this moment of time is found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church …“

On our acceptance of the ministry of the bishop of Rome:

“We accept the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, the successor of Peter, which is a ministry of teaching and discerning the faith and a ‘perpetual and visible principle and foundation of unity’ and understand this ministry is essential to the Church founded by Jesus Christ.”

And finally, the heart of the petition:

“Driven by these realizations, which we must now in good conscience bring to the attention of the Holy See, we seek a communal and ecclesial way of being Anglican Catholics in communion with the Holy See, at once treasuring the full expression of catholic faith and treasuring our tradition within which we have come to this moment. We seek the guidance of the Holy See as to the fulfillment of these our desires and those of the churches in which we have been called to serve.”

Obviously, the only thing actually requested was “the guidance of the Holy See” – no list of conditions, no requests for a “Catholic bishop to preside over” us, for special treatment or consideration for current bishops, for Uniate status, or for any other specific structure, etc., etc. – just a simple statement that we want to be in communion with the Holy See without losing our Anglican heritage and identity, ending with the implied question, “How should we proceed?”

The entire matter was undertaken with no agenda other than responding to our Lord’s prayer for unity among his followers (John 17), with the belief and understanding that such unity can only be achieved by restoring relationships severed by past schisms.

It is hoped the above may bring some truth and clarity to the discussion.

House of Bishops, Anglican Church in America
June, 2008

 

Sola Scriptura?

We’ve all seen this phrase tossed around, and with varying degrees of understanding what it means or how it is to be applied.  Just this morning I could see the shock and amazement on a couple faces when I pointed out, as a side point, that the Church came before Scripture, that the Church is the interpreter of Scripture, and that the individual has no right to private judgment.  I went on to mention that if the Church thinks a passage means one thing, and you think it means a different thing, well, guess who’s right?  Every clergyman – heck, for that matter, I bet every Christian – has heard someone say “I know the Church teaches … but I believe that ….” 

 

Newman Beatification to be Announced!

According to the Sunday Times of April 20, 2008

Victorian cleric put on path to sainthood

Christopher Morgan

AN ANGLICAN priest whose conversion to Catholicism shocked Victorian England will this week take a big step to becoming the first new British saint for almost 40 years.

The Vatican will announce the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman after accepting that he was responsible for a miracle in which an American clergyman was “cured” of a crippling spinal disorder.

Newman will be given the title “Blessed” after a ceremony later this year, leaving him one step away from full sainthood.

 

Any Virtue to the Rochester Rumor?

I’m not a regular reader of David Virtue.  I used to be, back when I was in the midst of the fray in the old Episcopal Church (P/ECUSA/TEC, as I’ve seen it called lately), and David didn’t have a website in those days, just an email list.  I’ve been on his email list ever since, but most of the time the messages just get automagically filed in a “Church News” folder and left unread.  I’m afraid that I just don’t have much time for wading through bad news about the Episcopal Church and the Canterbury Communion.  It’s not that I’m hostile to those groups; it’s just that my canonical residence is in the Traditional Anglican Communion, and that’s where my interest is found.

Nevertheless, this afternoon I received an IM from a fellow priest asking if I’d seen an item on VOL.  This item reads as follows.

Word has it that the BISHOP OF ROCHESTER, the Rt. Rev Michael Nazir Ali, made a high level, hush hush trip to the Vatican recently to plead the case of the Traditional Anglican Communion to high- level officials there. The TAC wants unity with Rome. No word on the outcome. Stay tuned.

Interesting idea. 

 

A Proposal for Traditional Anglican Theological Education and Formation for the Clergy

by

The Rev. Charles Nalls, SSM

The Rev. Mr. Jason Dechenne, SSM

and The Rev. Richard Sutter, SSM

 

The Anglican Church in America

April 3, 2008

 

ABSTRACT

From the beginning of the traditional or “continuing” movement, the question of a qualified, educated and well-formed clergy has been most problematic. Untrained, poorly trained and/or poorly formed deacons, priests and elect have caused difficulties in evangelization and, indeed, simply maintaining existing parishes. A proliferation of unaccredited or specious seminaries, as well as the willingness of men to “train” in these entities, has cast the movement into further disrepute.  Even in instances in which continuing Anglican bodies have attempted organic seminaries, results have been inconsistent and the popular image is one of the “diploma mill.”

This paper proffers some suggestions for remedying the formation-education crisis in a cost and time effective manner, using existing, accredited educational sources.