Surfer injured in Californian shark attack
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
I'm trying to contact all members of the parish to see if they have any needs related to the storm [or life, whatever]. If you know of someone who is still without power, and we do have a number, let them know the parish house is open with heat, electricity, a gas stove, and working bathrooms.
Those of you with whom I have had some form of contact via e-mail or FB I will not be calling directly, but do let us know if you are in need.
Those of you with whom I have had some form of contact via e-mail or FB I will not be calling directly, but do let us know if you are in need.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Storm News
Although I'm still checking the property, now more thoroughly since the sun's come up, it appears at this time that only superficial damage has been done to our churchyard. Many branches down, of course, but no observable damage yet to be seen to any structure, including the columbarium, which took a terrific hit from a large tree limb.
For updates, please consider checking the Christ Church Facebook page at this web address:
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Christ-Church-Roxbury/166498456732773
Click on the address above as if it were any other link. I plan to have photos up later in the day, weather permitting.
For updates, please consider checking the Christ Church Facebook page at this web address:
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Christ-Church-Roxbury/166498456732773
Click on the address above as if it were any other link. I plan to have photos up later in the day, weather permitting.
Tuesday's Quotation
"It is unfair and scarcely honest to consider the Bible or parts of it as a cake from which we can pick out merely the raisins we happen to like. Speaking the truth in love and witnessing to the biblical Christ may imply the necessity to speak also of some very strange things." - Markus Barth [1959]
Monday, October 29, 2012
This Week's Lesser Feasts
November 3: Richard Hooker [1554-1600]
There are two, perhaps three, theologians in the very earliest Anglican Church who determined through their writings and preaching what was to be Anglican Theology, a clear and reasonable "middle way" between the excesses of both the Church of Rome and the Church of Geneva, the two extremes in 16th century Christianity.
One was Thomas Cranmer, who composed the first Book of Common Prayer, thus establishing the particular nature of our liturgical presentation. It should also be remembered that The Book of Common Prayer is also a theological document. Our way of looking at the life both temporal and eternal is revealed in its prayers and very language.
The second, according to some, is Matthew Parker, who was Archbishop of Canterbury in the mid to late 16th century. He was the primary organizer of the Thirty-Nine Articles, each of which takes a look at various aspects of life and how we are to regard the world in theological clarity and balance. It's important to note that The Articles are still in the back of Book of Common Prayer; the current edition, too. Yes, even the Kindle edition.
The third is today's honoree. Richard Hooker was never the Archbishop of Canterbury, as were Cranmer and Parker; he spent his service to the church as a humble, if rather brilliant, priest. He is best known for his eight-volume Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, a pointed response to the Puritan criticism of Anglicanism that surmounts a simple explanation and becomes a theological masterwork that illuminates the depths of the Prayer Book's theological perspective. Most contemporary clergy are unfamiliar with it, however most contemporary clergy are unfamiliar with the Book of Common Prayer, too. [We live in a curious time, when it is considered "cool" to be disdainful of that book and the magnitude of its contribution to human spiritual development. Good thing there's still some old-timers like me around, by crackee.]
In it, Hooker noted that
More of Richard Hooker may be found here.
I was always partial to this quotation, as it serves as a nice reminder to tyrants, even the wannabees in democratic government, that there is one ruler and one only: "To live by one man's will becomes the cause of all misery."
O God of truth and peace, you raised up your servant Richard Hooker in a day of bitter controversy to defend with sound reasoning and great charity the catholic and reformed religion: Grant that we may maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
There are two, perhaps three, theologians in the very earliest Anglican Church who determined through their writings and preaching what was to be Anglican Theology, a clear and reasonable "middle way" between the excesses of both the Church of Rome and the Church of Geneva, the two extremes in 16th century Christianity.
One was Thomas Cranmer, who composed the first Book of Common Prayer, thus establishing the particular nature of our liturgical presentation. It should also be remembered that The Book of Common Prayer is also a theological document. Our way of looking at the life both temporal and eternal is revealed in its prayers and very language.
The second, according to some, is Matthew Parker, who was Archbishop of Canterbury in the mid to late 16th century. He was the primary organizer of the Thirty-Nine Articles, each of which takes a look at various aspects of life and how we are to regard the world in theological clarity and balance. It's important to note that The Articles are still in the back of Book of Common Prayer; the current edition, too. Yes, even the Kindle edition.
The third is today's honoree. Richard Hooker was never the Archbishop of Canterbury, as were Cranmer and Parker; he spent his service to the church as a humble, if rather brilliant, priest. He is best known for his eight-volume Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, a pointed response to the Puritan criticism of Anglicanism that surmounts a simple explanation and becomes a theological masterwork that illuminates the depths of the Prayer Book's theological perspective. Most contemporary clergy are unfamiliar with it, however most contemporary clergy are unfamiliar with the Book of Common Prayer, too. [We live in a curious time, when it is considered "cool" to be disdainful of that book and the magnitude of its contribution to human spiritual development. Good thing there's still some old-timers like me around, by crackee.]
In it, Hooker noted that
The principal subject of the work was the proper governance of the churches ("polity"). Hooker considered fundamental questions about the authority and legitimacy of government (religious and secular), about the nature of law, and about various kinds of law, ranging from the laws of physics to the laws of England. The philosophical base of his work was Aristotelian, drawing from Thomas Aquinas, with a strong emphasis on natural law, eternally planted by God in creation. Hooker argued that all positive laws of Church and State are developed from Scriptural revelation, ancient tradition, reason, and experience. Hooker believed that the church should be a broad, tolerant, inclusive body, in which as many as possible could worship God. He emphasized the importance of corporate worship and reading of the Bible. He stressed the Sacrament of Holy Communion as the best way for the believer to participate with Christ in God's Incarnation. Hooker argued for a "Via Media" (middle way) between the positions of the Roman Catholics and the Puritans. Hooker argued that reason and tradition were important when interpreting the Scriptures, and argued that it was important to recognize that the Bible was written in a particular historical context, in response to specific situations: "Words must be taken according to the matter whereof they are uttered" (Lawes IV.11.7).Yes, that portion above in boldface was marked by yours truly. This has been, and remains, the primary intention of Anglican theology, and the one that is tested again and again generation after generation.
More of Richard Hooker may be found here.
I was always partial to this quotation, as it serves as a nice reminder to tyrants, even the wannabees in democratic government, that there is one ruler and one only: "To live by one man's will becomes the cause of all misery."
O God of truth and peace, you raised up your servant Richard Hooker in a day of bitter controversy to defend with sound reasoning and great charity the catholic and reformed religion: Grant that we may maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Raimundo Panikkar
I met him when I became a bartender.
As my parents were non-drinkers, I wasn't all that familiar with the rich tapestry of alcoholic legerdemain. Being from Cleveland really didn't help much, either, as everyone there drank either whiskey or beer [a mixed drink meant whiskey poured into beer]. But I needed extra money [that is, any money at all] when I was a seminary student and managed to talk myself into a bartending job for a theological conference.
From time to time, the original General Theological Seminary in New York City would host one of these gatherings of pre-eminent theologians. These were rather intramural affairs where only a handful of seminarians would be invited by their mentors to spend a weekend of drinks, grand meals, and remarkable discussions that would serve as fodder for a dozen written explorations into the quest for God-ness.
To paraphrase my Scottish grandfather, I was never any professor's darlin', so I was never one of the chosen acolytes who got to bask in that corporate illumination. When I saw a notice that the next conferees would include many of those who were leading the grand theological discussion in which I was a mere microbe, I was glad to get invited one way or another.
Once upon a time I had been taught the importance of finding how to seize the initiative even in the most daunting of circumstance, a talent that had been improved in places far more difficult than a seminary's reception hall, so I employed every bit of charm and guile at my disposal to learn the job of bartender for the reception. All I needed was a bow tie and a rich knowledge of mixology. I had neither, of course, but initiative, again, was seized.
As it turned out, one of the secretaries in the spirituality center's office was sympathetic to my cause and also had an alarming knowledge of which drinks were preferred by which theologians. After a quick tutorial, I was ready. When the reception came, I was able to prepare Berkhof's bourbon and ginger ale, Neuhaus' scotch and soda, MacQuarrie's scotch and scotch [that's right] and Tillich's gimlet. Then the man himself came to the bar.
While I had never met Panikkar, I had read what was considered his masterwork; that book, more than any other that I had read by that time, had broadened and informed my thinking about spiritual possibility. "Might I have some ice water, please?" Well, that was a little bit of a let-down. After all, I was ready to make him anything from a Long Island Iced Tea to a Bayberry Breeze, but it did give me the chance I sought. "I enjoyed your book," I said, lamely. "Well, I didn't enjoy it, I...um...liked, that is, relished...no, I mean I...um...read it." Yes, after all that, I was de-articulated when the moment came.
For the next twenty minutes, even rebuffing an attempted interruption from Berkhof, Panikkar regaled me with tales of cross-cultural theology, history, and potential. I know I absent-mindedly poured some drinks for others, but I didn't want to break my conversation with Panikkar, so I may have been making rum martinis and vodka coladas, I don't know. But, it was generous of him to be willing to talk to the bartender and it reminded me that, for all of their academic excellence, the truly good theologians are always good pastors.
Why was he, in this collection of rather special men and women, the most interesting? From Panikkar's biography:
Raimundo Panikkar Alemany was born on Nov. 3, 1918, in Barcelona. He was a Roman Catholic priest and a professor of philosophy at the University of Madrid when he made his first trip to India in 1954. It was a turning point in his spiritual life and a homecoming of sorts: his father was a Hindu from the south of India who had married a Spanish Roman Catholic.
While studying Indian philosophy and religion at the University of Mysore and Banaras Hindu University, Mr. Panikkar befriended several Western monks seeking Eastern forms for the expression of their Christian beliefs. It was an eye-opening experience.
“I left Europe as a Christian, I discovered I was a Hindu and returned as a Buddhist without ever having ceased to be Christian,” he later wrote.
When the Spanish Civil War broke out, he fled to Bonn to continue his university studies, but while he was on vacation at home, Germany invaded Poland. He remained in Spain, earning a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Madrid in 1946 and a doctorate in chemistry in 1958.
In 1940 he had become friends with Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, the canonized founder of Opus Dei; Father Escrivá urged him to train for the priesthood. He was ordained in 1946 and for the next 20 years worked closely with Opus Dei. He earned a third doctorate, in theology, at the Lateran University in Rome in 1961.
In his dissertation, Mr. Panikkar compared the work of St. Thomas Aquinas with the interpretation of the Brahma Sutras, one of Hinduism’s fundamental texts, by the eighth-century Hindu philosopher Adi Sankara. Mr. Panikkar argued that Christ, as a universal symbol of the divine and the human intertwined, belonged to the world, not just to Christianity, and could be found under other names in other religions.
Yes, he had three doctoral degrees in the pursuit of truth, God, and science. He was a Roman priest who was also a Hindu. He was a Spaniard who was an Indian. There is no other way for him to have looked at the world, and to have built a theology from that perspective, that would not be fascinating and radically different. He made the best and the brightest in that reception hall look like, to me at least, a bunch of plonkers.
From the book that I enjoyed...liked...relished..read comes this quotation about the tension of the academic/pastoral life:
“...if I do not take my intellectual vocation seriously, putting it before everything else even at the risk of appearing inhuman, then I am also incapable of helping people in more concrete and proximate ways. Conversely, if I am not alert and ready to save people from a conflagration, that is to say, if I do not take my spiritual calling in all earnestness, sacrificing to it all else, even my own life, then I shall be unable to help in rescuing the manuscript. If I do not involve myself in the concrete issues of my time, and if I do not open my house to all the winds of the world, then anything I produce from an ivory tower will be barren and cursed. Yet if I do not shut doors and windows in order to concentrate on this work, then I will not be able to offer anything of value to my neighbors.”
He died just a few years ago; his obituary in the New York Times may be found here. It's a good one, and I'm glad he was remembered. All of his books are still in print and I hope they are still read in classrooms somewhere.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Thursday's Prayer
Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which to look out
Christ’s compassion to the world;
Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good;
Yours are the hands with which He is to bless others now. - Teresa of Avila
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which to look out
Christ’s compassion to the world;
Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good;
Yours are the hands with which He is to bless others now. - Teresa of Avila
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Wow. Anyone Care To Guess Who This Is?
It's been a long time since comics actually addressed something that matters, other than simply doing the Episcopal Church thing of repeating the talking points of a particular political party. And yes, it's Clark Kent quitting The Daily Planet in the latest issue of Superman. It's really making the rounds of the community of former reporters today.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Tuesday's Quotation
"It is one great advantage of an age in which unbelief speaks out, that Faith can speak out too."
- John Henry Newman
- John Henry Newman
Monday, October 22, 2012
This Week's Lesser Feast Days
October 26: Alfred the Great [849-889]
It is always interesting to note the reaction of the un-churched or the non-theistic to those historical personages who make up our lesser feast days. As they only know of Christianity through inane presentations in popular media and entertainment, the reality can often be surprising; sometimes disquieting for them.
When I used to teach Comparative Religion, those students un-blessed with membership in any recognizable religious tradition would often be surprised that monarchs could be considered holy representatives of the Gospel. Actually, they used to phrase it as, "I thought there was separation of church and state."
Yes, so piecemeal was their education that they not only thought that church/state separation was to be found in the U.S. Constitution [it's not], but that it formed some transnational, pan-historical practice since the earliest days of organized civilization. Sometimes a semester could be very long.
King Alfred, who was and is the only English monarch ever to carry the appellation "the Great", was not only a king who was charged with protecting his people and territories from the ravenous tribes of Vikings, but a Christian who, through blood, perspiration, and faith, protected early Anglican Christianity from paganism. It was a considerable amount of blood, now that I think about it. He was, and not ironically, also committed to education and judicial reforms, thus laying the foundation for English common law and the British love of learning from which even this blogger has benefited in his own meager way.
The story of his times gives fascinating insight into the tension that historically existed between Roman and Celtic Christianity. The history is rather complicated and the hour early as I write this, so I will use the great gift of the Internet. Namely, I will link.
The official biography of Alfred and history of his times may be found at the official website of The British Monarchy, which is worth reading for hours, and not just about Alfred.
The official biography from the Church of Rome may be found here.
A British site offers a secularized history, which is what one expects from British academic websites these days, as they love to pose as non-theists. However, it is a breezy read.
O Sovereign Lord, you brought your servant Alfred to a troubled throne that he might establish peace in a ravaged land and revive learning and the arts among the people: Awake in us also a keen desire to increase our understanding while we are in this world, and an eager longing to reach that endless life where all will be made clear; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
It is always interesting to note the reaction of the un-churched or the non-theistic to those historical personages who make up our lesser feast days. As they only know of Christianity through inane presentations in popular media and entertainment, the reality can often be surprising; sometimes disquieting for them.
When I used to teach Comparative Religion, those students un-blessed with membership in any recognizable religious tradition would often be surprised that monarchs could be considered holy representatives of the Gospel. Actually, they used to phrase it as, "I thought there was separation of church and state."
Yes, so piecemeal was their education that they not only thought that church/state separation was to be found in the U.S. Constitution [it's not], but that it formed some transnational, pan-historical practice since the earliest days of organized civilization. Sometimes a semester could be very long.
King Alfred, who was and is the only English monarch ever to carry the appellation "the Great", was not only a king who was charged with protecting his people and territories from the ravenous tribes of Vikings, but a Christian who, through blood, perspiration, and faith, protected early Anglican Christianity from paganism. It was a considerable amount of blood, now that I think about it. He was, and not ironically, also committed to education and judicial reforms, thus laying the foundation for English common law and the British love of learning from which even this blogger has benefited in his own meager way.
The story of his times gives fascinating insight into the tension that historically existed between Roman and Celtic Christianity. The history is rather complicated and the hour early as I write this, so I will use the great gift of the Internet. Namely, I will link.
The official biography of Alfred and history of his times may be found at the official website of The British Monarchy, which is worth reading for hours, and not just about Alfred.
The official biography from the Church of Rome may be found here.
A British site offers a secularized history, which is what one expects from British academic websites these days, as they love to pose as non-theists. However, it is a breezy read.
O Sovereign Lord, you brought your servant Alfred to a troubled throne that he might establish peace in a ravaged land and revive learning and the arts among the people: Awake in us also a keen desire to increase our understanding while we are in this world, and an eager longing to reach that endless life where all will be made clear; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
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