Jill Woodliff on The Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music and a New Name for Lesser Feasts

Great work, Jill.  Maybe she should be nominated posthumously for social worker of the year.  Have you checked out all the new names yet?

I cannot see the article…I’m sure it’s great if Jill wrote it…but where is it????

You might want to check on several others honored in LFF - they might be worthy of secular praise, but . . . Several editions ago, LFF honored Aelred of Rievaulx, an abbot of great renown in the medieval church. LFF’s biography honors him indirectly because he urged “spiritual friendship” among monks, the implication being that he led the way in Christian acceptance of persons identifying themselves as homosexuals.

Not to seek to share the Good News is a virtue and a proof of saintliness?

Looks like with this project, as with the pansexual human sexuality theory, the evolution theory, the global warming theory, the Idealogy of the Era (IE) once again, trumps truth, logic, all observable evidence, wisdom and Holy Scripture.
 
When turn from God’s Word, reject His commandments and moral law, we step into another reality where truth is repressed and denied, redefined as its opposite - lies are truth and truth is unwelcome and denied.
 
Our fantasies and desires become our reality, our truth…so we become unstable, fractured, lawless.  (Romans 1:18-32)  We call evil good and good evil.  Our ears cannot abide the truth and our eyes cannot see it. 
We are turned away from God, disoriented, in darkness; we cannot see the kingdom or discern truth, love and life rightly.
We cannot abide the fragrance of Jesus Christ in others.
We reject Him Who embodies and defines Truth, Love and Life.  (John 1; John 3:3; Proverbs 4)

Right on, Jill.  This is a fairly blatant attempt at promoting a pluralistic, universalistic ideology within TEC.  After all, if the law of prayer is our primary or seemingly only law of belief as Anglicans (“lex orandi, lex credendi”), then our heretical foes MUST find a way of writing their anti-biblical theology into our liturgy somehow.

I’m glad that Lent & Beyond and also Anglican Mainstream are both blogs that pay attention to the church calendar and feature some way of commemmorating those lesser feasts that are often ignored. 

Keep up the good work, Jill.

David Handy+

Is the Standing Committee simply adding this name and others to the liturgical calendar, or are they dropping the names of well-established saints in order to “make room” for these new names?

Standing seems a misnomer, does it not, what with their dedicated performance of the Liturgical Fidget dance in homage to the political and cultural climate change?

How does one share with this committee one’s objections to the elevation of a person not qualified?

So is this something the committee gets to decide by itself or does the larger church have a vote on it?  Does Jill Woodliff have any options to get the name reconsidered or to at least have the concerns expressed about the individual’s stance on the Great Commission more fully investigated?

“Her refusal to work for the conversion of Hindus is directly antithetical to the words of our Lord in the Great Commission.”

This is a nice little box that you have constructed for yourself. When was the last time a Christian went to a synagogue to covert Jews to Christians? When was the last time a Christian went to a mosque to convert Islamics to Christianity? When was the last time a Christian went to St John the Divine to convert pagans to Christians? When was the last time a Christian went to the National Cathedral to convert Episcopals to Christians? The point is that this is not regularly done so to have an expectation that it should is disingenuous.

Dan #3:

<a >New Advent on St. Aelred</a>.

Aelred was a spiritual master of the Church admired by others among his contemporaries such as Bernard of Clairvaux. The point of “Spiritual Friendship” is that Christians are called to love, and that particular friendships don’t interfere with this, plus discussion of how friendships should be handled between Christians. In fact, I’d highly recommend it.

“Aelred was gay” needs to go in the same category as “David and Jonathan were gay” and “Jesus and John were gay.”

ctowles [#10],

You are right that most Christians don’t routinely try to convert non-believers.  Most of us aren’t remembered in Lesser Feasts and Fasts, either.  I think that is the point.  Only those who go above and beyond in their lives of faith should be held up as examples to the rest of us.

Lesser Feasts and Fasts is a perfectly acceptable title. Holy Women and Holy Men turns the issue into which sex gets first billing, and of course the liberals have to put the women first.

#1 Ralinda, I have not gone through all new names.  I’ve been tied up with the Anglican Consultative Council prayer campaign at Lent & Beyond.  I happened upon this in a word search.
#8 & 9, I’ve never been a delegate to GC, but I am under the impression that the work of the SCLM must be voted on by the GC.  I have written to my diocesan deputies and encourage you to do the same. 

#10 ctowles, Jesus called all of us to be evangelists.  Most people exercise this calling in the context of friendship and family.  I believe that some are anointed in an extraordinary way for the broader community.  Just because I am not anointed as Billy Graham was does not excuse me from a less public ministry.

Was there a new entry for St. Kate who drove the squids out of Nevada?

I haven’t used TEC’s Calendar of various persons for a decade, at least, and won’t permit it to be used in the parish, as well.

I must admit that personal evangelism is weakness of mine, though I would never expect to get my own feast day. 

Last Sunday, during Sunday school, one of the class members told a recent story about a seven year old boy that she knows that that, through his personal witness to a school friend, helped lead his friend to convert.  The converted boy then started working on his mother to have her take him to church to be baptized.  The mother eventually gave in, and now both are regularly attending church and trying to get the boys father to start going.

#10 - It should.

ctowles, perhaps if it were “regularly done” church numbers wouldn’t be in decline across the western world. If we believe the truth we know saves, that it is a matter of life and death, why wouldn’t we share it? We’ve become to “nice” to tell people about salvation. I am no evangelist - I wish I were - but I am deeply thankful for those who have been and certainly feel that they should be highly esteemed. If there had been no evangelism in the face of other faiths, none of us would know about God, nor would there be orthodox believers in Africa and Asia.

ctowles,
I should hope that even those who don’t go to synagogue on a missionary journey, would not refuse to work for the conversion of Jewish friends.

Chosing not to present the gospel in some locations, at some times, is NOT the same as refusing to work for the conversion of the lost.

Thanks for an insightful analysis, Jill.  This nomination goes well with those who revere Mahatma Gandhi not only as a secular leader but as a proto-Christian saint (and I have seen something like this in a book by a Christian writer).  The Mahatma had many great qualities, as does this defender of widows and orphans; but there is more to our faith than secular good works, as good as they are.

Jill, thank you!  This is important and you have written a piece that by it’s charitable tone yet clear and strong words can be forwarded by many to their GC deputies and bishops.  Well done!

Also, “The title Lesser Feasts and Fasts will be changed to Holy Women, Holy Men” indicates the truth of what I said last year to one of my associate priests…“The Episcopal Church exists of, by, and for women and gays.” Men are no longer really welcome.

Should be: its charitable tone.  Aaarrrggghhh!
I know English grammar, honest!

#23 - the church has come to exist in a fantasy surreal world made of feelings and fantasies and truth and logic is not its foundation.

Many commentors have talked about the ‘Alice through the looking glass.’ a world where opposites are substituted for actual fact and true definitions.  For example, Love is hate.  Evil is good and Good is evil.

David H., (#5) thanks for the compliment re: Lent & Beyond, but we actually don’t do so much in terms of most of the lesser commemorations. 

The blogs to follow for that are Ohio Anglican
http://ohioanglican.blogspot.com/

and Sanctus:
http://www.sanctusbenedictus.com/search/label/Commemorations

Oops, hit send too soon.  One more link for a blog with frequent commemoration posts:  Nova Scotia Scott:
http://www.novascotiascott.com/tag/christian-saints/

Karen B., you are hereby nominated for Grammar Sainthood for noticing and correcting that flying apostrophe.  Few know the difference any more.  smile

Oh dear, we do know how to make ourselves look foolish don’t we?

Pandita Ramabai already features on the Church of England Calendar. Perhaps you should ask +Nazir Ali if he refuses to recognise her presence there?

Of course, everything has to be black and white for you, doesn’t it? The idea of nuance, well…

Here’s Robert Ellsberg’s piece on Ramabai:

Her work brought her into contact with Christian missionaries. In 1883 she accepted an invitation by a congregation of Anglican nuns to visit England. For some time Ramabai had felt a distance from her Hindu upbringing, both on spiritual grounds and on the basis of her perception of the status of women in India. While in England she undertook a serious study of the Bible and eventually asked to be baptized.

News of her conversion provoked angry public controversy in India. Ramabai herself wrestled with her strong aversion to the cultural imperialism of foreign missionaries in India. She was determined that becoming a Christian should not be construed as a denial of her Indian culture and roots. The gospel of Christ represented for her the purest expression of her own spiritual intuitions, in particular her growing belief that to serve women and the poor was a religious and not simply a social work.

She returned to India and continued her charitable work, among other things founding a center for unwed mothers, a program for famine relief, and a series of schools for poor girls. Now, ironically, it was her fellow Christians who became her public critics. They charged that because she made no effort to convert the poor women in her centers her own conversion was only superficial. They also pressed for proof of her doctrinal orthodoxy. Ramabai refused to be drawn into theological or confessional debates. “I am, it is true, a member of the Church of Christ, but I am not bound to accept every word that falls down from the lips of priests or bishops…. I have just with great efforts freed myself from the yoke of the Indian priestly tribe, so I am not at present willing to place myself under another similar yoke.”

Ramabai criticized the profusion of Christian denominations, a fact, she believed, that was bewildering to the poor. The spirit of Christ as reflected in the Bible sufficed to satisfy her own religious questions. From that source she learned that the heart of true religion was the love of God and the love of one’s neighbor as oneself. That she live by this creed, she insisted, was all that anyone had a right to ask of her. In later years she prayed not for the conversion of Hindus but for the conversion of Indian Christians.

Laud,

It matters very much if Rambai, like Episcopalians and other professing Christians, confuse denominations with religions and confuse the salvation afforded by the Cross with general lovingkindness and good works which may or may not have a salvific effect.  I John 5 teaches otherwise. 

We are commanded to
1. Preach the Gospel (Christ and Him Crucified for the atonement of our sins, to release us from the captivity of sin, to raise us dead in our sins to life…to every creature, beginning at Jerusalem. 
Jerusalem is the spiritual state of right worship of God in Spirit and in Truth, wherein we receive eyes to see, ears to hear, lips to praise, hearts to believe, truth, light, love, life and the power from on high which includes the evangel spirit of God.
2. To disciple all nations: to teach the crucifixion and death of the old man of the flesh…etc.

I think March 10th [National Abortion Providers Appreciation Day] should be made “The Fast of the Modern Holy Innocents”.

I shan’t hold my breath.

BTW, I know very little about the woman in question and so am hesitant to profer an opinion on her suitability for inclusion.  My concern is that the wording of the biographical sketch implies that the seeking to convert those of other religion is a negative thing.

BTW, anyone seen this bit on the supposed anti-Jewish bias of the liturgy?

What is anti-Judaism and why does it matter?
While the Resolution seeks to address “anti-Jewish prejudice,” a more accurate term is “Christian anti-Judaism.”
Addressing Christian anti-Judaism is not, in the first place, about Judaism. It is about authentic Christianity and
the church’s truth-telling. We name it “anti-Judaism” rather than “anti-Semitism” because the prejudice is toward
the Jewish religion, not a Semitic race. It is Christian, and not Jewish, in content, because the church created and
perpetuated anti-Judaism in its story of origins, its biblical interpretations and its theology. Eradicating anti-
Judaism from Christian preaching and teaching and biblical interpretation matters for the church because
continuing the long “teaching of contempt” toward Judaism undermines the Gospel of Jesus Christ we proclaim.
The Christian story of origins was constructed by creating a caricature of Judaism, an inferior Judaism designed to
display the superiority of Christianity. We continue to perpetuate this caricature in careless readings of our
scriptures, Old and New Testament, and in any definition of Jesus over and against his Jewish brothers and
sisters. Supersessionism is the viewpoint that Christianity displaced Judaism in the story of God’s salvation
because of Judaism’s inferiority. Christians reinforce this attitude, whether consciously or not, by asserting that
Christianity proclaims a universal salvation while Judaism insists on ethnic exclusivity; by contrasting the freedom
of the Gospel with the supposed burden of Jewish Law; by Christian acceptance of Jesus over against Jewish
rejection of Jesus; by defining Jewish people in terms of obstinacy, disobedience and blindness.
The imperative to address Christian anti-Judaism is grounded in the following convictions: (1) anti-Judaism is
antithetical to the Christian Gospel; (2) Christian supersessionism depends on half-truths and misrepresentations
of Judaism; (3) the Christian Gospel of Jesus Christ is compelling on its own terms, without creating a foil, an
“other” to display its merits; and (4) Jesus does not need our help to make him look good by demonizing his
Jewish brothers and sisters, even those who may have disagreed with him.

Over the last thirty years, many churches, including The Episcopal Church, have passed Resolutions and
voted statements affirming the continued validity of God’s covenant with Jews and denouncing efforts to convert
Jews to Christianity. For example, in Resolution D122 of the 1991 General Convention, the Convention
“deplore[d] all expressions of anti-Jewish prejudice (sometimes referred to by the imprecise word “anti-
Semitism”), in whatever form on whatever occasion, and urge[d] its total elimination from the deliberations and
affairs of The Episcopal Church, its individual members, its various units.” Yet very little has changed in liturgy,
preaching and teaching in congregational life. Supersessionism persists in sermons, preaching resources,
educational material, bible studies and liturgies

#30 Best condemn Mother Theresa too then

“We never try to convert those who receive [aid from Missionaries of Charity] to Christianity but in our work we bear witness to the love of God’s presence and if Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, or agnostics become for this better men — simply better — we will be satisfied. It matters to the individual what church he belongs to. If that individual thinks and believes that this is the only way to God for her or him, this is the way God comes into their life — his life. If he does not know any other way and if he has no doubt so that he does not need to search then this is his way to salvation.” Life in the Spirit

Thanks, #11. The point I intended to make was that Aelred was included in LFF not as one who deserved to be there, but as one whose presence in the calendar advanced an agenda.

AGREED, #31

Mother Theresa can also mistaken.  She is human.  I think in the quote you have given, she mis-uses the word church and it should be replaced with place of worship.

That being said, it matters very much whom a person worships…not the form or place…unless it violates God’s Word.  One can idolize anything, even Christian saints…forms of liturgy, places…seek signs and wonders, apparitions instead of Christ.

AndrewA #32, where is that “bit” from?

I am not fit to criticize Mother Teresa.  However, in modern India, evangelization and social service must be stringently separated.  This is required by law and strictly enforced, because of the Hindu opposition to conversions away from Hinduism.  Nuns today involved in social services MUST operate this way; I am acquainted with one in Maharashtra state.  She can preach Christ by example only and in no other way so long as she works among the tribals as she does.

Ramabai, on the other hand, seems to have expressed a fundamental disagreement with the Church and the apostolic faith.  As described by the quote posed by laud #29, she sounds very modern in accepting “the spirit of Christ” but rejecting the Church’s teachings which come from Christ, other than social service.  I do agree with her that the scandal of competing denominations in India is confusing and makes conversions more difficult.

How soon before we get the Feast of Saint Vicky Gene, the patron saint of Simple Country Bishops™.
Probably coming sooner than we expect, methinks.

the snarkster™

I have not used TEC’s kalendar in my personal worship since the late 1970’s. My feeling was that to include names not in the Latin or Eastern kalendars was questionable at best. If the two mother churches did not see fit to recognize them as spiritual over-achievers, then there was no concensus about them. I’ve kept fewer and fewer saint’s days as feasts, Unless they are N.T. saints, I usually just memorialize them. I make an exception for St. Benedict as I am an Oblate of one abbey and a confrater of another.
Dumb Sheep.

Rev. Enos Das Pradhan, the Church of North India general secretary, complained that in the name of freedom of religion several Indian states have passed anti-conversion laws. However, he added, they had kept re-conversion to Hinduism out of the purview of these laws on the pretext that “reconversion is returning home”.  Bp Michael Nazir-Ali said in response to last year’s Orissa violence, in which over 50,000 people were left homeless, 54 Christians killed, and many Christians threatened in an attempt at re-conversion to Hinduism:

The real cause of the violence against Christians in Orissa, and now elsewhere in India, is the fear among extremist Hindu movements that many “untouchable” and “tribal” people will turn to the Christian faith because of the appalling treatment they receive from their caste-ridden communities and the love and care they are shown by Christian humanitarian organisations. Some of those who receive such care, but by no means all, become Christians of their own free will. Is this so unacceptable in secular and democratic India?

When one is trapped in a dungeon of despair, how precious are the promises of God and how privileged we are to share them.

#40 Would that make you a black sheep?

If one is obliged to literally FEAST on those days that mark all these extra people, there may be a serious obesity problem in TEC.  Better to mark their memories with prayer and fasting to become more like them in service to God.

“Swear then, old man, by the Genius of Ceasar.  Just a nod of the head to his image, and I shall save your life” said the Procounsel to Polycarp, who was bound to the pole and surrounded by firewood.

“Eighty and four years have I served Him, and never has he harmed me” said the old man, “Shall I abandon him now? I will not”

“As you wish.  Burn him!” The Procounsel cried, and a great many present came down with burning stakes, which they threw into the firepit at the arena, intending to burn the heretic Polycarp.  But the old man gave no quarter, admitted no fear, but closed his eyes and prayed, and a peace fell over him.

At that point it seemed even the flames feared the faith of Polycarp.  Those present saw what looked like a great sail of flame, billowing AWAY from the old man, and the flames touched him not…...

KTF!...mrb

The problem with the blurb is the intention and agenda inherent in how it was written and the choices made in what was given witness. 

If one is intending to raise up a new crop of entrants to Lesser Feasts and Fasts, which is a title in language that makes reference to the Book of Common Prayer, which clearly articulates the Lordship of Jesus Christ and that all is to be done in his Name, then they should have left off the last line of the Ramabai blurb altogether so she might quietly join those entrants.

But “they” didn’t.  The last line is added on purpose. Which strongly suggests a desire to foster the whole idea of, say, a United Religions initiative, which the language of the proposed title, Holy Women, Holy Men, with no obvious Christian referant, gives plenty of room to do. 

ctowles and laud, don’t be so naive. 
Otherwise, laud, I think the idea of contacting Bp Nazir-Ali regarding his viewpoint on this matter is a great one, and I encourage you to do so; it would be sweet of you to report back, since I have no doubt he would respond if you ask nicely.

Lesser and lesser as we go, it seems…

Trying to view it from the perspective of the left, I did find the title Holy Women, Holy Men a bit surprising.  What about intersex or transgendered persons?  Rob’s comment adds some insight.

Rob Eaton #45, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. The wording of the blurb speaks volumes.

I also dislike the change in title; I agree that it dissociates this work from the Book of Common Prayer, and see it as one more negation of traditional Anglicanism.