Why believe? A couple perspectives…

A good post from Fr. Jim Tucker of Dappled Things on the question “Why do people believe…” Read it here.
A good post from Fr. Mark Harris of Preludium on the recent vote of the Convention of the Diocese of San Joaquin concerning the removal of all references to The Episcopal Church or General Convention from its Constitution and Diocesan Canons.
Update on Fr. Tucker’s “Why do people believe…” series:
Why People Believe, part 2 – 12/6/06

Waiting

Stephen Tomkins, of the Guardian newspaper in England, wrote a commentary in their online version, Guardian Unlimited. Read the whole thing. The title of the piece goes something like, “We need to fast a little to truly enjoy our feasts.” Yes, we do.
The commentary touches on a couple different things – commercialization of Christmas and Easter, Christians becoming upset that secular society is “paganizing” religious holidays, and the thing that really stuck me – the concept of waiting.

But what really interests me is how thoroughly our jumping the gun has inverted the shape of both Easter and Christmas. Both these feasts are traditionally preceded by fasts: the 40 days of Lent and the 24 of Advent. After such lengthy feats of abstinence – enforced by law in the Middle Ages – our ancestors were ready for some serious partying, which is why the Christmas holiday lasted 12 whole days till Epiphany. Easter, while shorter, could also be a riot of food and drink, music and dancing, drama and sport, and egg-related fun.
We, however, do it the other way round. We buy enough chocolate eggs and hot cross buns in Lent for there to be little special about Easter weekend. As for Advent, children get chocolate every morning in their calendars, and for adults December is the booziest month of the year. The fast has become the feast, and by the time we get to the 25th we’re about ready to call it a day.
Isn’t that so us? It’s an emblem of the contemporary west – we don’t do waiting. Where our parents used to save up for a big purchase, we buy first and save later. For our grandparents, a wedding night might well have been a first; it may find us in triple figures. Technology from microwaves to the internet and cashpoint machines encourages us to expect instant everything. So why leave decorations and cards till Christmas Eve (postal service aside) as they did?

(Emphasis mine)
Waiting. I am struck by this idea. I’ve said for a long time now that we need to be doin’ some more waitin’. NOW. Tomkins is right, I do think, we in the West can no longer wait for much of anything – relationships, wisdom, attention, rewards, material things, even God. We become impoverished, because perhaps the most significant things in life requiring waiting, patience, and sometimes silence. I can see this dynamic well entrenched in my own life, but part of my problem is over-commitment, being overly busy, and not being able to find the time to wait, to think, to listen for the still small voice of God in periods of silence.
Some examples of waiting from the Psalms:

Psalm 5:3
In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.
Psalm 27:14
Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.
Psalm 33:20
We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.
Psalm 37:7
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
Psalm 40:1
I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.
Psalm 119:166
I wait for your salvation, O LORD, and I follow your commands.
Psalm 130:5
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.
Psalm 130:6
My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.

It is to fight against our culture to wait. Waiting is a cultivated virtue – it doesn’t come quickly no matter how fast we want it. God’s way of things is not dependent on our time-tables or even linear time, and our perspective should be eternal.
Our children are drugged because they have learned well the lesson of immediacy. They cannot wait for anything, and because parents have bought into the cultural zeit-geist they are unwilling or unable to teach the virtue of waiting. It is easier to drug kids than to teach them self-discipline and to help them understand the advantages of holding off for a bit in order to gain the truly helpful, useful, and rewarding thing.
We carry cell-phones with us everywhere because we can no longer wait to contact someone over even the most trivial things. An adult was text-messaging during the sermon a few weeks ago.
Even within the Church – particularly now in the Episcopal Church – we expect things to happen yesterday. Our Church finds itself stuck in a “Cult of Change” were we cannot simply wait any longer. If anything is of great worth, change should occur only after a good period of consideration, deliberation, and the concerted seeking of the vision and will of God. We don’t seem to want to do the very difficult work necessary that requires times of waiting. When we demand change NOW, we loose all perspective and we jump blindly into a future where the consequences will be understood too late.
Wait. Wait. Simple wait upon the Lord. An eternal perspective. There is a time and place for everything.
Original Guardian link Via: Father Jakes Stops the World
Fr. Jake writes about Advent:

The word “Advent” comes from the Latin word for “coming.” We speak of the return of Christ in three ways; past, present, and future. First, Advent refers to Christ coming as a child in a manger. Second, Advent refers to Christ repeatedly coming to us in Word and Sacrament and in the fellowship of the Church. Third, Advent is a time to prepare for Christ coming again at the end of time, the Second Coming. In many ways, we can see Advent as a season of darkness, as we wait for the light.

oops, I forgot..

So, I’m at the Sursum Corda. I get through the first two statements thinking that I really need to do something more constructive with my hands. The congregation responds and it’s my turn once again to say the concluding sentence. You know, the one that does something like this, “Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.”
Oops. What am I supposed to say here? As I stand there facing everyone, arms extended, going through my mind is something like this: “Giving. Doesn’t it have something to do with giving?” Fr. Cullen, acting as my deacon, is standing beside me whispering, “give…give…give…” Okay, so after a VERY long pause, I remember and sing something. Was it right? I have no clue but began “Let us give thanks…”
I am very glad that this congregation is very forgiving! Of course, I had no book in front of me. I have never needed one. Perhaps, it is smart to always have a book ready for just such occurrences. Do ya think?
Things were a bit different since we did the Great Litany procession rather than the normal beginning of Mass. Perhaps that threw me, although I doubt it. I just forgot. I remembered with no problem the long “The Gifts of God for the people of God, taken them….” with no problem. Thank goodness. And, my chanting wasn’t half bad.

“Anglican”

Just for the heck of it, I’m going to attempt to keep a list of all those religious organizations that contain in their title “Anglican” or perhaps “Episcopal,” if in fact that group lays claim to an Anglican perspective. This list will not include provinces in communion with the See of Canterbury.
This group sometimes looks as strange as all those organizations that claim some sort of relationship with the Old Catholic Churches (aside from the Union of Utrecht).
Never mind, just go to the Anglicans Online list.
I love the “No way APA” website protesting the upcoming merger of the Reformed Episcopal Church with the Anglican Province in America because of the APA’s “Catholic” ways.

It’s that time again

I’ve been putting off saying Mass since the beginning of October primarily because I haven’t had time to practice chanting. I need to practice chanting! There comes a point, however, when ya just gotta do what ya gotta do.
So, tomorrow I chant a High Solemn Mass for the second time on the first day of Advent. More than likely, I will continue saying Mass from here on out – or until Fr. Cullen decides he wants to do a Sunday once again.
There is just way too much stuff to do. I would find things so much easier if I didn’t have to work a full-time job in addition to trying to be a priest, doing priestly things. I get home from work and am just too tired to be very productive. Particularly now when the sun goes down so early and I just want to sleep. Sleep. Now, there is a novel concept!
It would help if I could sleep. Getting three or four hours a sleep a night tends to make one want to fall asleep as soon as possible, when it gets dark, when I’m alone in my apartment… Oh, sleep!
It is taking me way too long to get things together to begin the discernment process for Rite 13/Journey to Adulthood. I’ve been talking about this for three years now, and “actively” trying to get it started over the past year. I did a lot of work today and hopefully things will begin falling into place, soon.
Then, there is the whole notion of a comprehensive method/system of Christian Formation, or as I would have once said – discipleship. We have decided that our proto-home group will become a place of invitation to new people who want to become more engaged in their own faith development. This may mean that there will be a stream of people coming in and out. We shall see how this works, but the idea was the groups and I think we have been together long enough now to survive additional people coming in and out. Now, what I want to do is begin a subtle if not underhanded way of getting the Guild heads into some form of Christian formation. A monthly “coordinating” meeting with a bit of spiritual stuff thrown in might be a way of at least beginning.
Two other things I want to work on – well, actually three. First, there has been a lot of press more recently in what seems to be a trend of “confession.” This is a bit different that what one traditionally thinks of as “confession” in a confessional with a priest behind a screen offering forgiveness. There have been a number of websites that provide a place for people to “get off their shoulders” stuff they have been keeping inside – things they know they should not have done. When we are instructed to confess our sins one to another, there is real benefit for our own wellbeing. So, is there a sort of groundswell particularly among the young for a new kind of “confession?” I think there might be.
So, we have a real confessional booth at St. Paul’s (since it is an Anglo-Catholic parish). More recently, it has been used to store things. Within The Episcopal Church, the “Rite of Reconciliation” has been more a face-to-face thing with the priest and penitent, but I’m wondering if presented to the wider community in the right way, and being anonymous, whether there might be an interest in the more traditional form of confession, with a twist, I suppose. I don’t know.
These kind of leads to the next thing: A new Sunday evening Mass. There are a lot of St. Paul’s parishioners who leave over the weekends. Many of them have homes upstate (or some other close by place). A Sunday evening Mass would allow them to be at church and still be away from Friday thru Sunday. I am thinking of the Mass being very contemplative/meditative and more “monastic” in feel. Cantors rather than a choir, lots of chanting rather than more complete Anglican hymns, perhaps periodically an interactive sermon or open time of questions, etc. Tricky, I know, but it could be good if handled rightly.
The third thing is to revive a real catechumenate process during Lent. There are a number of new parishioners who we have discovered are not baptized and who have not grown up in a faith community. Their understanding of the faith and particular of the more Catholic form of the faith is slight. There may be no interest, but I do believe we need to get back to truly instructing those who are interested in becoming a Christian.
I have been told a number of times that when a person first approaches a Rabbi about becoming a Jew, the Rabbi generally tells the person, “No!” Then, and only then, if the person returns and truly demonstrates to the Rabbi that s/he is serious does the process begin. I think we tend to be far too quick, perhaps too desperate, in bring people in and we expect things of them that they are not ready to undertake. We have developed into a “community” of ignorance of the Traditions of the Faith, of the expectations of God when we truly decide to follow Him, and the costs of being a Christian in a profoundly un-Christian culture, despite the freedom of religion and worship and the common notion that we are a “Christian nation”.
So, a revived catechumenate – and even perhaps having them leave after the Liturgy of the Word and before the Holy Communion. Who knows? Something like that may be completely unrealistic, although I think that there is something to consider in the whole prospect. There is nothing wrong with having high expectations. Potential Roman Catholic converts go through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), and the Orthodox Church in American teaches about “the period of catechesis, especially during the lenten season, as well as the celebration of Baptism, Confirmation [Chrismation], and the Eucharist at the time of reception is reminiscent of the preparation of the catechumens in the early Church.” Why not? The Evangelical side of the Church surely shows that there are people more than willing to devote themselves to their own spiritual inculcation.
Anyway, these are things I want to work on, aside from saying Mass once a week. Of course, this doesn’t even begin to touch on the other things clergy normally do. I have no clue how I’m even going to begin to accomplish any of it, especially when I’m having problems with my own devotional life.

World AIDS Day

Today, December 1st, is World AIDS Day.
Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angles charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen.
BCP, 124 (Evening Prayer, Rite II)

Freedom

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
“The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’* If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” Galations 5:6,14-15
* Lev.19-18