We’re Home!

Jenny, Adeline, and myself were chrismated and received into the Orthodox Church this past Wednesday. Our sponsor on the left is Michael Pagedas. The service itself was very good; low key but still pretty and serious. We also were tonsured, which was confusing at first until I found a little explanation on a Orthodox Church website.

The Prayers of the Tonsure

The Tonsure is the solemn cutting of hair, which in ancient times signified that a person was in service to a master. Today, the tonsure after Chrismation symbolizes the first gift the Christian gives back to God and is a sign of his dedication in service to the Lord.

That’s a workable explanation for me. For me it’s always been about my service to God, trying to discern what he where he was calling me to, what he was calling me to do, and God has always led me further down the branch until Jenny’s heart was finally opened to Orthodoxy. And now, here we are. I’m so excited that I’m able to take Eucharist again. I’m so excited to serve the Church, but I’m especially excited that my family is now going to grow and learn under the watchful eye of the Holy Mother Church of Jesus.

Orthodox/Anglican Future Conference

This past week at the House His Eminence Metropolitan Jonah, head of the Orthodox Church in America; Archbishop Duncan, head of the Anglican Church in North America; and many more Orthodox and Anglican priests converged to discuss the hope of a future Orthodox and Anglican reunion. The conference aside it was an amazing time for me because I got to be around a bunch of other Orthodox, and I felt much less out of place. It was really edifying to be with Orthodox priests, and see the joy on their face as their shared my joy at being chrismated in three days. Met. Jonah even spent a half-hour with me to discuss with me what he thought to get out of this conference. I’m ashamed to say that I had no camera to commemorate my experience. His Eminence is a very gentle soul; I can see how determined he is to bring the orthodox Anglicans back into the flock. And onto that. It’s my opinion that there is absolutely no hope for my Catholic Anglican brothers under the leadership of Archbishop Duncan.

During the main event, so to speak, Duncan acknowledged the list of items within Anglicanism that Met. Jonah told him were neither Catholic nor Apostolic. To quote David Virtue’s article on the ACNA Plano conference.

What would it take for this reconciliation to occur? The Metropolitan was explicit:.

Full affirmation of the orthodox Faith of the Apostles and Church Fathers, the seven Ecumenical Councils, the Nicene Creed in its original form (without the filioque clause inserted at the Council of Toledo, 589 A.D.), all seven Sacraments and a rejection of ‘the heresies of the Reformation.”

His Beatitude listed these in a series of ‘isms’; Calvinism, anti-sacramentalism, iconoclasm and Gnosticism. The ordination of women to the Presbyterate and their consecration as Bishops has to end if intercommunion is to occur.

Duncan’s response, ironically, was this: we have to talk about it, we’ll grow, we’ll be in conversation, and will be stretched. Are not these the words that all the ACNA folks accused 815 of using when they wanted to politically state ‘we’re going to beat you over the head until you agree with us’? Homosexual ordination’s wrong? We’re still in discussion about that. Jesus isn’t unique to our salvation? We’re in a listening process, and we’re going to be stretched. So the OCA says to ACNA ‘you need to stop these things before you can claim to be Catholic’ and Duncan says ‘we have to talk about it, we have to consult the others in Anglicanism.’ That means that in order to accept Catholic teaching, Duncan appealed to catholicity to approve said teaching!

During question time I was able to ask Abp. Duncan about how he felt this conversation was going to go, and what his plans were to make the conversation happen. He dodged this bullet like Neo on the Matrix, and talked about God moving in them and the feelings involved, etc. As a matter of fact, there were many Anglicans who were very interested in an Orthodox/Anglican merger that asked Abp. Duncan about merging, and he managed to sidestep and equivocate every chance he had. Thankfully His Eminence provided the meat of the talk. He essentially responded to Abp. Duncan’s flowery rhetoric with ‘yes, but’ statements, bringing it back on topic.

Essentially the meeting was a mix of anger and hope. I still feel the pain of not being in communion with my brothers anymore. I wish that in a few years it would be different. But any Catholic Anglican who will watch the video of the conference, or read the transcripts will know that they have got a very, very long time to go. His Eminence did make mention that he’s been talking to many different continuing Anglican entities, though, so perhaps there remains some hope.

Jenny, Adeline, and will be chrismated and received in three days – this Wednesday at 6:15. Please pray for us.

New Chrismation Date

I’m extremely pleased that we have found a sponsor for the family and myself. His name is Micheal, and he’s a missionary to Tanzania through OCMC. He’s a little older than us, and since he’s also discerning God’s will for his vocation, Jenny and I immediately thought to ask him to sponsor us. We look forward to growing in the Church with his guidance. But since most of his Sundays are packed with speaking obligations, we have moved the date to October 14th. After six years, what’s another ten days, right?

Fun with Fasting

We’ve been adhering to the strict fast schedules even though we’re not able to take Eucharist yet. It’s been an amazing practice so far. The sacrifice itself is really not that bad, but it’s awesome because I know, for example, I’m fasting out of honor for the death of my Lord and Savior. But sometimes I just don’t think!

Me: (annoyed grunt) I can’t eat any of this Buffalo Chicken Jerky. The sauce has milk in it!
Jennifer: Or possibly because the chicken jerky has chicken in it?
Me: …

Follow ups and Updates

I realize I haven’t updated this in quite some time. While those of you who know me would chalk it up to laziness, I can assure you that it isn’t the case this time. There were many issues still up in the air about my status here at Nashotah House because I hadn’t officially spoken to the Dean or any of his staff. We also hadn’t spoken with Father Jim about when we were going to be chrismated and received into the church. In short, we had no clue where we were going to live, eat, work, worship, or plan to go in the next year. Thankfully it’s all been worked out.

Shredding for Inter-Communal Harmony

Let’s face it, inter-communal relationships between Anglo-Catholics and both the Orthodox and Roman Catholics is tenuous at best. There are so many issues causing the divide; it’s hard to think that any reunion is possible. It just never fails, things start to look better, and some bishop in Scotland decides to reject the historical teaching on the Trinity. So what are we going to do? How shall we find common ground? It’s to this that my seminary brother, Alan and myself have called to order the Council of Ecumenical Shredding. We hope that some tough sessions on Rock Band 2 can try to bridge that gap where others have failed. I know I feel much better about inter-communal harmony after Alan and I rip through Evile’s Thrasher and Prequel to the Sequel by Between The Buried and Me. Council meets twice a week for approximately two hours per session.

On the left is Alan, Anglican Delegate for The Council of Ecumenical Shredding

Reflection on Matthew 10:34-11:1

In today’s reading Christ says that he didn’t come to bring peace but a sword. One may wonder why Christ chose to use this war language. You see, there are two kingdoms at work here, one of God’s the other of Satan. In the Gospel of John Christ calls Satan the ‘ruler of this world’ that he will ‘cast out’. There is, indeed, a war happening for our souls and for this world. Satan wants to rule our lives, to make us slaves to sin, and do evil. He wants us to live in bondage to him. Christ’s actions in the world and on the Cross represent a very bold and violent strike on Satan. Satan no longer has power over us. And this is what Christ is saying to us. As has been coined before ‘War is Hell’ and we cannot relent in our fight against Satan. It is in this passage that Christ tells us how to be equipped for this war.

Far from saying that we shouldn’t love our family, Christ tells us that love for Him should be the basis of all things. However even our family members can unwittingly try to steer us to do something contrary to Christ’s teaching. We must not let our earthly relationships impede our relationship with Christ, and we may at one time have to make painful decisions in our relationships with our family. Having love for Christ as our foundation lets our love flow from us to the world. It should make the will of God our top priority. The love compels us to do good to our neighbors. Christ says that if we receive a prophet we get a prophets reward, and if we give a cup of water to the children, even we shall be rewarded. This is how the Gospel is spread, and the war is fought; through Christ’s command to first love God, and then to love our neighbors likewise.

Converting to the Orthodox Church

Jenny has already made a small post on our family site about how we’ve been visiting the Orthodox Church and prayerfully considering a move. What an exciting time it’s been! This is such a major decision for the whole family; a life changing one certainly. It’s especially exciting because I’m already in seminary for Anglican Orders, so this is something of a Great Unknown for me and my call. Without airing out my ecclesiastical laundry, let me try to explain how this “suddenly” came about.

When Jenny and I first were married, we moved to Indiana so we could finish our degrees at Indiana Wesleyan. We really couldn’t find a Methodist church that we enjoyed or even kind of liked. Jenny was raised Catholic, and I had become very sacramental in my practice, so we started to attend a local Episcopal Church. This was in 2003, two months after the consecration of Vicky Gene Robinson. We were pleased to hear that our diocese voted against his consecration, and we had a conservative bishop. At the time we were also considering the Orthodox Church. There was an Antiochian Church maybe 15 minutes away, a Greek Church a half-hour away. We were told time and time again how we could never fit in there because the “Orthodox Church is highly ethnic.” So we never gave it a try, and went about our business in the Episcopal Church.

Reflection on ‘On the Priesthood’

One of the greatest things about the Church Fathers is the timelessness of their teaching, and St. John Chrysostom’s Six Books On the Priesthood is no exception. St. John’s rationale for not accepting ordination lays out for us in what manner a priest should go about his life, and these expectations are quite high! In a very self-deprecating manner, he tells St. Basil how he either doesn’t meet these qualities, or that he’s too weak in the qualities to keep from falling into evil. The amount of work in the office of priest is so great, in III.10 St. John says they should just depose themselves rather than wait for someone to inevitably do it.

Sorry, Sorry, Sorry

I haven’t been updating because of lack of interest. I’ve just been plugging away on the class I’m writing for The Shack and it’s been pretty time consuming. I’m going to start up again, I promise.