The Antidote to the American Religious Smorgasbord
Friday, 11 December 2009 10:10
Roberta Bayer
 In the Wall Street Journal, (December 11, 2009) John Protheroe, ("A Hint of This, a Pinch of That") professor or religion at Boston University, discusses a study released from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life revealing that Americans are religious 'swingers' as well as switchers, and treat religion as "more akin to commerce than to education." While a century ago people identified with one denomination and stuck to it, today, many people are religiously uncommitted insofar as they prefer to be religiously fluid in their beliefs, not simply jumping from denomination to denomination, but even from faith to faith. This is further evidence, he remarks, of the "death of denominationalism in American life" and a sign of continuing religious tolerance. But does this mean that Americans in fact know anything about the faith, or faiths, whose churches,synagogues or mosques they attend?
While a century ago people had at least a minimal idea of what distinguishes Protestantism from Catholicism, Buddhism from Islam, this is much less likely today, despite church hopping and a multicultural society. "But contemporary Americans," he writes, "know almost nothing about their own religious traditions and even less about the traditions of others. Most Americans cannot name any of the Four Gospels, and an overwhelming majority admit to being wholly ignorance of Islam."
Last Updated on Friday, 11 December 2009 10:25
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An Anglican Future in the Roman Communion?
Monday, 26 October 2009 10:16
Gavin Dunbar
The announcement by the Vatican that Anglican clergy would be received into the Roman church with provision for certain Anglican liturgical and pastoral distinctives (notably permission for married clergy) under an Anglican “ordinariate” (non-territorial bishops) has stirred up considerable discussion. While the details of the plan are yet to be published, the announcement raises a number of questions.
 For those attached to the Prayer Book tradition, the question naturally arises how this tradition would be represented in the Roman Communion. The current provision for Anglican Use rites, the Book of Divine Worship, is not based on the historic Prayer Books, but on the 1979 Prayer Book, including Rite I and Rite II options along with the Roman Canon of the Mass. It is hard to see how this could be a satisfactory vehicle for the transmission of classical Anglican liturgy and spirituality.
A related question is what becomes of the Anglican theological tradition of “reformed catholicism”, especially the 16th and 17th century divines, all of whom were to a greater or lesser extent critical of some aspects of the teaching of the Roman church. Will the legacy of Anglican divinity be a recognized and substantial element in the formation of clergy and laity in the Anglican ordinariate? Some may hold that these criticisms were mistaken and should be abandoned. Others may hold that the Roman church has accepted and assimilated into itself the corrections offered by the Protestant Reformation. Others still may say that while differences remain, their further reconciliation can be fruitfully pursued from within the Roman Communion.
Related to this question is what happens to Anglicans attached to the Reformation’s teaching. However well disposed they may be towards the Roman church, it is doubtful that many would be able to accept the teaching of the Roman church, as would be required. If the provision for an Anglican ordinariate is widely accepted by catholic-minded Anglicans, it will push the realignment of the Anglican world into separate catholic and protestant jurisdictions, the former within the Roman Communion, and the latter inside the Anglican Communion (with liberal catholics and liberal protestants) or outside it.
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Heterodoxy? Throw the Book (of Common Prayer) At It!
Friday, 04 December 2009 22:09
Auburn Traycik
 Accounts of a recent mission to Africa by two U.S.-based priests suggest that some African Anglican leaders may be realizing more keenly the importance of using a historic version of the Book of Common Prayer as a means not only of anchoring the flock in orthodox teaching, but of combating western-generated distortions of that teaching that are sure to buffet African society with increasing force.
The Rev. Eddy Rix, rector of All Saints’, Wynnewood, PA, and Vice President of the U.S. Prayer Book Society, and the Rev. Jason Patterson, a PBS Board member who leads St. Andrew’s Anglican Church in Asheboro, North Carolina, write in the latest edition of the Society publication, Mandate, of visits over the summer to Uganda and Tanzania. In the former nation, Fr. Rix presented, on behalf of both the English and U.S. Prayer Book Societies, hundreds of copies of the 1662 BCP requested for the Diocese of Ruwenzori’s cathedral congregation by its former dean, Bishop Patrick Kyaligonza. In Tanzania, the two clerics spoke by request in the Dioceses of Lweru and Tabora on the BCP’s history and theology.
The latter invitation was the result of a conversation that Fr. Patterson and Lweru Bishop Jackton Lugumira had during the 2008 Lambeth Conference in Canterbury. Patterson wrote that the bishop “voiced his shock and disappointment at the degree to which it had become clear to him that many western Anglicans no longer accept much of the theology set forth in our Anglican formularies, namely the Book of Common Prayer 1662 (with its American and Canadian descendants being the BCPs published in 1928 and 1962, respectively), the Ordinal and the 39 Articles of Religion.
“He was particularly distressed at the degree to which the biblical doctrines of marriage and human sexuality have been supplanted by a modern secular dogma which is antithetical to Christian teaching and morality,” wrote the North Carolina cleric, who serves within the Anglican Mission in the Americas. Lugumira contended that the Anglican Church therefore needs to begin using again the classic versions of the BCP “and by so doing to reclaim an important weapon in our fight for Christian orthodoxy within the Anglican Way,” Patterson said.
“Seeing that this is precisely in line with the mission of the PBS, the bishop invited a delegation from the Society to continue this conversation in the presence of his clergy.”
Last Updated on Friday, 04 December 2009 22:27
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About Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans: Is this an option for traditional Anglicans? (Updated 10/26)
Wednesday, 21 October 2009 15:57
Roberta Bayer
 On October 20, 2009 an announcement was made by the Vatican that it would set up Personal Ordinariates, similar in structure in some ways to Military Ordinariates, to accommodate Anglicans who desire communion with Rome. The details are yet to be presented for examination, but it would appear that under the terms of the Apostolic Constitution pastoral oversight will be provided by an ordinary who will usually be appointed from among former Anglican clergy. The Ordinary acting as bishop will either be either a priest or an unmarried bishop, for historical reasons married bishops are precluded.
The press has reported broadly that this is an opportunity for traditional Anglicans to join Rome, escape the conflicts within their own denomination over married clergy and gay marriage, yet lose little of their heritage. The stated purpose of the Vatican is to "allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony".
But is the liturgy approved for use the 1662, the 1928 or the 1962 Books of Common Prayer, or even those books with a prayer for the Holy Father added? Traditional Anglicans would want to know what modifications would be expected or required to the BCP to obtain admittance.
Last Updated on Monday, 26 October 2009 10:27
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