C H R I S T M A S, December 25: The Festival of the Nativity of Jesus, the Messiah and Lord.

Becoming an Anglican Christian! Is this realistic as a convert in 2009?

The Rev’d Dr Peter Toon, President Emeritus of the Prayer Book Society

Let us imagine a small family where through one or another means (e.g., reading about Anglicanism, watching a DVD of Anglican Service, or hearing Anglican choral music) the parents have decided to become Anglican Christians, rather than say continue as members of a lively, independent Bible Church.

Let us also imagine that they are free to travel around in their search for the Anglican Way in reality to the local congregations of any of the current brands or expressions of Anglican existence in the U.S.A. Thus the whole spectrum of current Anglican Life in the U.S.A. is open to them for preliminary inspection.

Now let those of us who have been Anglican for a while, and have taken notice of this mainline “brand” in the U.S.A., recall what the options in this spectrum of Anglican expressions are and can be.

READ ON

1928 BCP Ordo Calendar

Whithorn Press publishes 1928 BCP Ordo Calendars in order to support St. Andrew's Academy, an Anglican Parochial Prep School.

The calendars are full color with a new picture for each month and are designed to be used as a family calendar, helping the family to track the Church year more effectively. The theme of the pictures/photos change each year, but usually are architectural. This year the theme is Italian Churches.

Visit the website or write to Whithorn Press: 3814 Hwy A-13, Lake Almanor, CA 96137 or email lsalvatore at whithornpress.com

Guard the Treasure
Engaging Secularism and islam: the church’s challenge and opportunity

Announcing the Fourth Annual “MERE ANGLICANISM” CONFERENCE
Thursday, January 15 – Saturday, January 17, 2009
Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul
126 Coming Street, Charleston, South Carolina 29403

Analysis and reflection around the church’s engagement with secularism and Islam will constitute the program of this coming year’s conference, led by a roster of internationally renowned speakers:

• Bishop Michael Nazir Ali – Engaging Islam
• Dr. R. Albert Mohler – Engaging Secularism
• Dr. William Abraham – Do Muslims and Christians believe in the same God?
• Bishop Mark J. Lawrence - Conference Keynote Sermon at Choral Evensong
• Bishop Jack Iker – Beyond the Elizabethan Settlement: toward a new Anglican Conciliarism
• Archbishop Valentino Mokiwa – Global Anglicanism: The African Connection
• Dr. Stephen Noll – Global Anglicanism: Ecclesiological Renewal post-Gafcon/Lambeth
• Bishop Robert Duncan – North American Anglicanism post-Gafcon/Lambeth
• Archbishop Benjamin Kwashi – Concluding Keynote Sermon at the Conference Eucharist

Plenary panels and small group opportunities will be interspersed throughout the conference. Networking sessions and gatherings for theological educators and bloggers will be held. Major panelists, discussion leaders and liturgical participants will include Bishop FitzSimons Allison, Bishop Alex Dickson, Roberta Bayer, Michael Carreker, Bill Dickson, Kendall Harmon, Edith Humphrey, William McKeachie, Joe Murphy, William Nikides, Ashley Null, Steve Wood, Al Zadig, and many other lay leaders, clergy and bishops.

Cost: $85 includes box lunch on Friday and BBQ on Friday night
Attendance at individual addresses: $10 per presentation
Register today at www.MereAnglicanism.com
or call Kester Heaton at The Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul: 843-722-7345

A Table Liturgy for Christmas Dinner

provided by Grand River Branch of the Prayer Book Society of Canada and by St George's Reformed Episcopal Church, Hamilton, Ontario

A brief service designed for use in families and other associations of believers who wish to reclaim the significance of our Christian festivals.

DOWNLOAD THE BOOKLET (pdf format)

Deacons and the Lord’s Supper

By Gavin Dunbar, President, Prayer Book Society of the U. S. A.

Fr Gavin Dunbar was elected in September as President of the Prayer Book Society, to succeed the Rev’d Peter Toon, who stepped down for health reasons. He is rector of Saint John’s Church in Savannah, Georgia.

“It is evident unto all men, diligently reading Holy Scripture and ancient Authors, that from the Apostles’ time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ’s Church – Bishops, Priests, and Deacons”. Thus the preface to the Ordinal: it does not go on to spell out the precise nature of the distinction between these orders, and historically the precise nature of those distinctions has not always been clear. In the Middle Ages, for instance, following the teaching of St. Jerome (who seems to have been arguing against pretensions of powerful contemporary archdeacons), the tendency was to regard the office of bishop and of priest (presbyter) as essentially the same. Bishops were regarded by many not as a distinct order but as senior presbyters entrusted with certain functions – supervision, ordination, and confirmation. In this account, the threefold Order was that of priest, deacon and sub-deacon. The English Reformers returned to the ancient and scriptural tradition, when they affirmed a threefold Order of Bishop, Priest, and Deacon. And after some initial discussion, they continued to reserve the administration of the Lord’s Supper to bishops and priests, while permitting deacons to assist in the liturgy, to preach when permitted and baptize in the absence of a priest. It is this historic distinction which the Diocese of Sydney (Australia) has now decided to set aside, by permitting deacons to administer (celebrate and consecrate) the Lord’s Supper in the absence of a priest.

The churchmen of the diocese of Sydney are muscular Evangelicals with doctrinal backbones, who have a record of standing fast amid the winds of doctrine blowing through the Anglican Church of Australia as elsewhere in the Anglican world. In this matter their decision has not been precipitate. They have long meditated, discussed, and waited before taking action on it. Moreover, the debate in Sydney is not well known elsewhere in the Anglican world. (News reports of it in the North American church press have often been poorly disguised liberal polemic against Sydney’s resistance to the ordination of women as priests.) A recent book just published in Australia - The Lords Supper in Human Hands – promises to be a helpful summary of the arguments which have led the diocese to take this action. From what we know of the Diocese of Sydney, we may expect that the argument to be based on evangelistic zeal, pastoral concern, deeply engagement with the teaching of Scripture and the Protestant reformers of the 16th century. For these reasons alone, their decision deserves careful and respectful consideration from fellow-Anglicans.

Nonetheless, the decision raises some troubling questions; objections which appear insuperable.

READ ON

The Anglican Marketplace

The Prayer Book Society sponsors The Anglican Marketplace, an online clearing house for items of interest for the traditional Anglican. We pray that this web site will help you deepen your faith by offering items for use in your personal devotional life as well as in the liturgical life of your parish. The site offers a wide array of traditional Anglican books, music, and liturgical items.

The Anglican Marketplace stocks many of the items found on the site and they can be purchased directly through our online store. Other items are available through a variety of vendors. We offer this information as a service, but are not responsible for any difficulties regarding price, availability, ordering or shipping with any of these vendors.

There is also contact information on the site for your suggestions for any additional items that should be made available.

The web address is: http://www.AnglicanMarketplace.com