Funerals are always a difficult time for family, friends and even clergy. This past weekend we buried one of the founding members of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. Not that I am unfamiliar with dealing with death, both personally and professionally, it is still a difficult time for everyone involved.

Thankfully our Book of Common Prayer provides very sound guidelines for the preparation and performance of the burial rite. These guidelines are a great comfort both to the deceased’s family as well as to the church staff responsible for the burial service.

Very early on in my ministry I was reflecting on what is communicated in our burial rite and concluded that if anything, we, as the Church, are communicating the promise found in Matthew 28:20, “…And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” One aspect of my ministry has always been the goal of trying to make our Holy Scriptures relevant and present in our everyday thoughts and actions. And, although the Burial Rite in our BCP underscores Christ’s promise to always be with us, I wondered if there was a way to communicate this promise in our liturgical actions as well.

Read the rest of this entry » » » »

Hopes dashed. Options reduced. Plans and fantasies dismantled. Depression. Loneliness. Frustration. Anger. Desperation. Isolation. All because a man died upon a cross on a lonely hill outside of Jerusalem.

Although I’m forced to conjecture upon the situation in which Thomas found himself, since we are not told why he was not with the other apostles when Christ appeared the first time to them, I sense that I am probably not far awry about the feelings Thomas must have been experiencing during those agonizing days following the crucifixion of Jesus. Thomas, the apostle who offers to die with Jesus on His way to Bethany (John 11:16). Thomas, the apostle who interrupted the last discourse with his question “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”(John 14.5). Thomas, the apostle who doubted the Resurrection unless he were to touch the wounds of the Risen Lord (John 20:25-28). Thomas, the apostle who, after Christ’s appearance, confesses his faith in the words”My Lord and my God” and is thus the first to confess explicitly Jesus’ Divinity following His death and resurrection. Thomas, the apostle whose confession of faith is saliently recited by Catholic and Anglo-Catholic worshipers throughout the world during the elevation of the elements during the prayer of consecration of the Holy Eucharist. Thomas, the apostle who may guide us to a deeper understanding of our faith response in times of crisis as well as celebration.

I believe that although our times are different from the 1st century disciples and followers of Christ, the people are the same and so is the loving message of God. We are living in a very different time than Thomas. I suppose many of us would think we therefore are quite different. But, are we really?

Read the rest of this entry » » » »

Continuing with the theme of Holy Baptism some consideration needs to be addressed regarding some pastoral aspects of this sacramental rite. It’s my guess that very little thought is given to baptism by most laity except for their desire as parents to have their children baptized. More thought is surely given by adults who desire to be baptized and hopefully, in these cases, more time and effort is expended by all parties concerning the decision to be baptized. For a background on the issue of adult baptism I strongly suggest that you read my post New Baptismal Theology? Adult Baptism. However, for a priest sometimes the decision to baptize is not so cut and dry, especially in light of pastoral concerns and issues. Read the rest of this entry » » » »

Previously I shared an old practice and use of baptismal salt as a part of the rite of baptism. (See: Holy Baptism - The Salt Of Baptism) Recently I have had the privilege of performing baptisms of two adults and was thus given the opportunity to think and preach about baptism and especially adult baptism. In my research I was able to delve into the nature of the baptismal rite and especially the differences between the 1928 Book of Common Prayer and the revised 1979 BCP. During the revision of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer there were many who charged that the new revision was a change in our theology - our understanding of how God interacts with the world. AND THESE CHARGES WERE CORRECT! Read the rest of this entry » » » »

I guess something of a follow-up is necessary given some of the responses to my post about ‘regifting.’ [See: 'Regifting' For Christ] It appears the concept of ‘regifting’ makes some Episcopalians uncomfortable given the gift of Jesus Christ being once and for all. I don’t want to go into the theological implications of the Book of Revelation and the promise of the Second Coming and therefore want to focus of Jesus Christ as God’s gift to all believers and to the world.

The gift of Jesus Christ, having been received, is to be shared. This is what we pray at the end of every Eucharist when we, in our thanksgiving prayer, ask that we be ‘send us into the world in peace, granting us strength and courage to love and serve you’ and ‘send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord.’  Read the rest of this entry » » » »

In my last post I mentioned the various places in the celebration of the Eucharist where two or more elevations occurred in the service. (See: Elevation Is Not Adoration). But, I missed one very important elevation. Yesterday during our Sunday morning service I noticed, for the first time after all my years in the Episcopal Church and in ministry, one additional elevation that has, to my knowledge, been overlooked and therefore ignored by liturgical scholars and church goers alike. So much time and energy has been focused on the actions of the sacred ministers that we have overlooked some of the actions of the worshipers.  Read the rest of this entry » » » »

When the Eucharist is celebrated, many ceremonial actions take place which may or may not be noticed by those gathered together for worship. This is especially true in parishes that use missalettes that are constantly in flux or congregations that vary the Eucharistic Prayers from Sunday to Sunday. In these situations the worshiper’s attention is focused on the bulletin and the various books necessary to follow along in the service rather than on what is occurring at the Altar. Long gone are the days when it was possible for a worshiper to know the Eucharist by heart and never have to use a Book of Common Prayer. Therefore, many of the ceremonial actions carried out by the celebrant are unobserved but each ceremonial action carries with it a specific implication, meaning and emphasis in the hope of drawing the worshiper into a greater and deeper faith journey in and through the sacraments. One of these ceremonial actions is known as the elevation. In Eucharistic services, observed across the spectrum of liturgical practice, there are at least two times when the priest as celebrant elevates something: at the reading of the Gospel and at the consecration of the Bread and Wine.  Read the rest of this entry » » » »

In the 1580’s Richard Hooker offered the classical defense of the Anglican middle way in his work Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, holding that the English Church (and the Anglican Communion), being continuous with the apostolic Church, was both Catholic and reformed and rejecting the claims both of Rome and of the increasingly influential Puritans. Hooker offered the English a way of understanding Church authority as based on Scripture, Tradition, and Reason.

The most common example, used by teachers, scholars and clergy alike, to understand this concept has been the image of a three-legged stool. One of the legs of the stool represents Scripture, the second leg represents Tradition and the third leg stands for Reason. Since the publication of Hooker’s classical defense, the Anglican Communion, including the Episcopal Church, has utilized this three-fold understanding of ecclesiastical polity and is the historical basis for expressing its theology.  Read the rest of this entry » » » »

These two terms, ‘ritual’ and ‘ceremonial,’ are very often confused and misused by many persons within and without the Church. When the term ritual is properly used, the speaker or writer is referring to those things that are said or sung in a religious service, i.e., the various prayers, readings, versicles (a short sentence, often taken from the Psalms, which is said or sung antiphonally, i.e. alternately, in Christian worship) and responses and are formally referred to as rites. Strictly speaking, ritual is the prescribed form of words of a liturgical function. A book of ritual, like our Book of Common Prayer, is a work containing forms of liturgical service issued by a proper authority and are known as rites. In our Book of Common Prayer we have rites of Morning and Evening Prayer, A Penitential Order, The Holy Eucharist, Confirmation, the Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage, and the Burial of the Dead to name just a few. A book of ritual may contain rubrics, i.e., ceremonial directions [the word originated from the fact that in medieval books they were written in red (Lat. ruber), to distinguish them from the text of the services], as to what shall or may be done or used during the worship service. Examples of ceremonies, on the other hand, include such things as the collection of alms, the wearing of special clothing like vestments and the offering of bread and wine. Because there is a relationship of form, function and action of these two, ritual and ceremonial are frequently interwoven.  Read the rest of this entry » » » »

In an earlier post, I referred to the religious DNA of clergy (see Clergy - The DNA of Congregations), i.e. the religious heritage of the clergy person’s family of origin; the religious background of the person as he or she was growing up and/or the religious practice when he or she became interested in the church.

Although I was baptized a Methodist at the age of three, my religious DNA is built around the Episcopal Church where we, as a family, worshiped after we moved to Beckley, West Virginia. Like so many others, I am the product of a blended religious family; mother a Methodist and father a Presbyterian. The Episcopal Church was their compromise for the family.  Read the rest of this entry » » » »