Altar from Church

Here is picture of the altar at our little country church. There's no missal or mass candles because it is set up for Evening Prayer. We're supposed to be getting a new tabernacle at some point - actually I think some people from the parish are going to make one. The painting around the altar was done by a guy from the church who specializes in this style of English decorative church painting. It was painstakingly done entirely by hand (no stencils). He has also done extensive painting at another area continuing church. He is involved in the tabernacle project, too, incidently.

I love the icons - they were hand "written" in Greece, I believe, and were specially ordered through the Icon and Book Service in Washington, DC. One is of the Theotokos, and the other is of Christ the Pantocrator. We also have a similarly made icon of St. Alban, our patron saint, above the credence table.

What would I like to change that would be easy to change? Well, it would be nice to have three steps on the altar, though I don't know how easy it is to raise an altar - especially when there's a painting on the wall behind it. I would like to rip out the red carpeting. I hate red carpeting in churches - even if it is an American church tradition. A corpus on the on the cross would be nice (Maryland is historically very low church, so it's hard to get by with that sometimes). Six individual candle stands would be nice too. And maybe two more santuary lamps. All in good time, though.

I think it is a very smart looking altar and sanctuary. Simple, yet elegant. It fits our setting and worship. The painted reredos really makes the whole thing pop out. It is literally "the work of the people" - everyone from the church chipped in in some way to make it what it is today. And it shows what can be done with a simple building, a couple of cans of paint, and some TLC.

Unity Meeting

The Virtue Online has an interesting article on a recent meeting of orthodox Anglicans that included representatives from several continuing churches, as FiFNa and AMiA. It is well worth reading. The organizer was Bp. Hewitt, of the Diocese of the Holy Cross, was at the APA/REC unity synod this past spring. The article made it seem like a very positive event. Indeed it seems like much progress towards unity has been made over the past couple years. I notice a big difference between the way things are now as compared to when I was in seminary only a few short years ago. That is good news. No doubt the various situations within ECUSA, the CofE, and other Anglican provinces has helped encourge more serious talk of unity. And much of this talk is actaully becoming action, like with the APA/REC merger, and fairly recent joint services of the ACC, ACA, and APCK. It is easy to have talks, but getting those talks to result in action is the real trick.

We orthodox Anglicans must unite for mission and ministry. The liberals unite based on their main beliefs - which is usually a belief in nothing; so we should unite based on our shared beliefs: the creeds, episcopate, sacraments, and BCP. There is a spiritual vacuum to be filled, and there are souls to be saved! What are we doing about it?

The liberal churches are dying. Their congregations are shrinking, and their money is going to support their every expanding bueracracies. They are becoming like the former communist states: huge governments with no people behind them because no one believes in them anymore. Their money, and precious, property goes simply to support themselves. In the end, they become like a huge monster that is eating itself alive... consuming its own vile flesh... until eventually it is no more. And out of these ashes, orthodox Christianity, with its message of salvation in Jesus Christ, will emerge triumphant, because "...the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church." The time for us to act is now. May God bless us as we seek to minister to this dying world in the name of His blessed son, Our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Ordination

Here is a picture from my ordination to the deaconate back in September. Two of us were ordained: me and a gentleman named Chris. The liturgy was holy and dignified - a solemn high mass. We used the fourth communion service from the 1940 hymnal, which is my favorite. The Litany for Ordinations was masterfully chanted by the subdeacon, and we sung great hymns like "I Bind Unto Myself Today" and "Come Down, O Love Divine". The cathderal has a great pipe organ, organist, and choir, so the music for the liturgy was top-notch. Bishop Grundorf preached a marvelous and inspiring sermon. At the last minute, I was asked to chant the Gospel. No problem, but I had never done that before. Luckily the Master of Ceremonies, along with my rector, showed me how to do it. They asked Chris and myself to help adminster the chalice at the Holy Communion. I think I was getting carried away in euphoria, as I almost ran out of the Precious Blood (I always give the people too much). Bp. Grundorf gently reminded me not to be overly generous with it! Many diocesan clergy were there (maybe 20?), along with loads of laymen. Afterwards there was a reception.

So I suppose it was a fairly typical deaconate ordination. My prayer is that God will use my life and ministry to spread the reconcilling love of Jesus Christ with others, and to touch peoples' lives for His honor and glory. I pray that I approach my life and ministry with the same seriousness and joy that characterized the ordination service.

Picture of Me and My Wife

This is Valerie and me at my ordination to the deaconate. For the longest time I could not figure out how to upload images to the blog. Now it just works for some reason, and I have no idea how or why. Ahhh, the mysteries of life and technology! Years ago, I worked for one the nation's largest IT consulting firms for several years.... now I know why I am not working in computers anymore!

Wedding Synopsis

Well, my wife and I are back from our honeymoon. We went to Italy. It was lovely, but unseasonably cold, and I got sick part way through. No big deal, though. We still had a nice time. While there I saw Cardinal Bellarmine's birth house (in the city of Montepulciano), so I snapped a photo and sent it off to my old college buddy, Jeffrey Steel, who is doing a doctoral dissertation on him and Lancelot Andrewes (his blog is called Meam Commemorationem).

The wedding liturgy was very lovely. My uncle, an old school anglo-catholic and otherwsie very classy guy, said it was "top shelf." We had the Solemnization of Holy Matrimoney first, and then the mass. We used the classic American Missal. The ordinary of the mass was Byrd's "Mass for Three Voices", sung by a small schola. The entire liturgy was accapella, as the church organ was broken. While it would have been nice to have an organ, it was very special and cool to have the hymns sung in four-part harmony. Not only was it hauntingly beautiful, but it was a tip of the cap to my wife's tradition she grew up in (Mennonite), which does not use instruments in worship. The preacher was my mentor and good friend, a priest in the APA who is also a member of the SSC. He had a fantastic charge that was quite thought-provoking and very theological. The liturgy was executed flawlessly by the rector of my parish, who is very good up at the altar.

About 2/3 of the guests were not Anglican, so only my wife and I, and the altar party, communicated. No one seemed to be put off by that. The non-Anglican's seemed to be intrigued by the kneeling and sublime Elizabethan English of the liturgy. It was an ecumenical wedding in the best of ways: my best man is studying to be an ELCA minister; my rector and a PCA pastor gave me and my wife premarital counseling; and two former classmates from the Roman Catholic seminary I attended - one who will be priested this spring - were in attendance. Also in attendence were many traditional Presbyterian friends, most of my APA home parish, and of course my wife's huge Mennonite family.

It was beautiful, and I give thanks to almighty God for His many blessings. God works slowly and mysteriously at times, but He does work... and when He does - WOW! All I can say is "Thanks be to God!"

Continuing On

I have decided to continue the blog for the time being because there are just too many interesting things to comment on and talk about! Sorry for confusion, and thanks for the votes of confidence.

Pax,
SJA