Waitrose goes to Church

I picked up a copy of the Waitrose Christmas Wine Guide last week. Three of their advisers wrote about their coming Christmasses (and of course the wine they would be drinking) – and it is something if a sign of the times that all three perfectly naturally mentioned church – singing in a choir in one case, going to Midnight Mass in the second, and walking over to the village church on Christmas morning in the third.

I’m not making a point about conversions or claiming statistical significance. What I think I am seeing in all sorts of ways is a thankful decline in what had become a sort of cultural convention among what in these circumstances we can call the Waitrose classes that any reference to church or hint of first-person faith was a no-no.

I’ve blogged elsewhere on the National Gallery’s exhibition The Sacred Made Real and when I visited it I watched the accompanying video that was being screened simultaneously. And again I was struck by the careful and thoughtful approach to the fact that the statuary in particular was part of a living tradition of faith in Spain. It’s refreshing to see such care being given to Christianity after a period in which – and I hope this is not too jaundiced – it seemed that every other faith from Jedi onwards deserved respect, but not the one I share.

To complete the Trinity, a third cheer too for the BBC and Diarmaid McCulloch’s History of Christianity. It seems it’s all right now to have someone presenting such a series who really does know the subject (an Oxford professor no less), and is prepared to negotiate properly the rapids between dispassionate reporting, their own belief, and the current cultural climate. In his book of the same name, which is far more than ‘the book of the series’, Professor McCulloch is clear and charitable about his position, and offers the very humane description of himself as a ‘candid friend’ of Christianity – and the very theologically literate suggestion that some might recognise in him an apophatic faith. Well, well, well. It’s been a good week.

And though the above is not at all about the numbers game (and I’m delighted when the same sensitivity is shown to faith across the board) Bishop Alan Wilson reports too in the Oxford Diocesan Newspaper that churchgoing in Slough has more or less doubled. I will never make those jokes about friendly bombs or Despond again. He also mentions the multicultural nature of society there. This may not be a coincidence. The presence of other faiths among us may well, as time passes, be proving not a threat but a blessing.

Filed under: Christianity, Current affairs

The Sacred Made Real

I had to go down to London this week, and took the opportunity to call in at the National Gallery’s exhibition of Spanish Painting and Sculpture 1600-1700 called  The Sacred Made Real. It focusses on the painted sculpture of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, which combined very skilful carving with highly realistic painted surfaces to create a very direct and emotive effect. The sculptures were made for practical use in the encouragement of faith, and have remained in use ever since – with both aspects of that (their overt and emotional faith commitment and their still being in use) meaning that they have received little attention from the art world hitherto.

it is not a large exhibition, but it is an impressive one, with a good selection of high quality exhibits well hung and lit.

My reaction? I was moved; and thought that here we have a powerful reminder that both Christ and Mary on the one hand and the saints of the faith on the other were human as we are; and looking at them invited me into the real relationship between them. I would imagine that that was precisely the hope of those who made and commissioned the artworks.

So one painting I had not seen before was by Francisco Ribalta (1565–1628) and is entitled
Christ embracing Saint Bernard
of Clairvaux. Well yes, but it is both Bernard embracing both a painted statue of Christ, and also  in the Spirit knowing the real Christ embracing him: and it is that two-way-ness that is I think at the heart of this powerful art. We embrace it: and through it we are embraced.

   

Here is a link to a Video by Archbishop Vincent Nicholls talking with art critics about three of the works.

Filed under: Art, Christianity

Hunts Churches can Save Lives!

Come and hear Mike Clargo of Reconxile speak on how local churches can use their goodwill and business knowledge to save third world lives. Using Reconxile’s excellent training material they can give a community in the developing world not just a hand-out but a hand-up. 30th November 7.30pm at All Saints Church, Hartford.

 

Filed under: Christianity, Church of England, World Development, community

Does the church have to sell land at ‘best price’ or can it go lower for affordable housing?

Faith in Affordable Housing is a free web-based resource, giving practical and technical information to assist churches in providing affordable housing. The guide presents nine case studies from different denominations and from urban and rural areas. It’s an important issue, and the guide is a good one.

A perennial sticking point has been the thesis that charities are required to sell their land at the top price they can get. The resource includes firm advice from the Charity Commission that if a church’s doctrine is that helping the poor and needy is a religious duty, then selling at a lower price is justifiable as within the purposes of the charity as long as the sale clearly relieves poverty and need. Read on to see the text of the advice and the guide’s own commentary.

Filed under: Christianity, Church of England, Resources, community , Housing, social need

Text of Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus and the Complementary Norms

Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus

Providing for Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans

Entering into Full Communion with the Catholic Church

In recent times the Holy Spirit has moved groups of Anglicans to petition repeatedly and insistently to be received into full Catholic communion individually as well as corporately. The Apostolic See has responded favorably to such petitions. Indeed, the successor of Peter, mandated by the Lord Jesus to guarantee the unity of the episcopate and to preside over and safeguard the universal communion of all the Churches,[1] could not fail to make available the means necessary to bring this holy desire to realization.

The Church, a people gathered into the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,[2] was instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ, as “a sacrament – a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all people.”[3] Every division among the baptized in Jesus Christ wounds that which the Church is and that for which the Church exists; in fact, “such division openly contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world, and damages that most holy cause, the preaching the Gospel to every creature.”[4] Precisely for this reason, before shedding his blood for the salvation of the world, the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father for the unity of his disciples.[5]

It is the Holy Spirit, the principle of unity, which establishes the Church as a communion.[6] He is the principle of the unity of the faithful in the teaching of the Apostles, in the breaking of the bread and in prayer.[7] The Church, however, analogous to the mystery of the Incarnate Word, is not only an invisible spiritual communion, but is also visible;[8] in fact, “the society structured with hierarchical organs and the Mystical Body of Christ, the visible society and the spiritual community, the earthly Church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches, are not to be thought of as two realities. On the contrary, they form one complex reality formed from a two-fold element, human and divine.”[9] The communion of the baptized in the teaching of the Apostles and in the breaking of the eucharistic bread is visibly manifested in the bonds of the profession of the faith in its entirety, of the celebration of all of the sacraments instituted by Christ, and of the governance of the College of Bishops united with its head, the Roman Pontiff.[10]

This single Church of Christ, which we profess in the Creed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic “subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him. Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside her visible confines. Since these are gifts properly belonging to the Church of Christ, they are forces impelling towards Catholic unity.”[11]

In the light of these ecclesiological principles, this Apostolic Constitution provides the general normative structure for regulating the institution and life of Personal Ordinariates for those Anglican faithful who desire to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church in a corporate manner. This Constitution is completed by Complementary Norms issued by the Apostolic See.

I. §1 Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church are erected by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith within the confines of the territorial boundaries of a particular Conference of Bishops in consultation with that same Conference.

§2 Within the territory of a particular Conference of Bishops, one or more Ordinariates may be erected as needed.

§3 Each Ordinariate possesses public juridic personality by the law itself (ipso iure); it is juridically comparable to a diocese.[12]

§4 The Ordinariate is composed of lay faithful, clerics and members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, originally belonging to the Anglican Communion and now in full communion with the Catholic Church, or those who receive the Sacraments of Initiation within the jurisdiction of the Ordinariate.

§5 The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the authoritative expression of the Catholic faith professed by members of the Ordinariate.

II. The Personal Ordinariate is governed according to the norms of universal law and the present Apostolic Constitution and is subject to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the other Dicasteries of the Roman Curia in accordance with their competencies. It is also governed by the Complementary Norms as well as any other specific Norms given for each Ordinariate.

III. Without excluding liturgical celebrations according to the Roman Rite, the Ordinariate has the faculty to celebrate the Holy Eucharist and the other Sacraments, the Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical celebrations according to the liturgical books proper to the Anglican tradition, which have been approved by the Holy See, so as to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared.

IV. A Personal Ordinariate is entrusted to the pastoral care of an Ordinary appointed by the Roman Pontiff.

V. The power (potestas) of the Ordinary is:

a. ordinary: connected by the law itself to the office entrusted to him by the Roman Pontiff, for both the internal forum and external forum;

b. vicarious: exercised in the name of the Roman Pontiff;

c. personal: exercised over all who belong to the Ordinariate;

This power is to be exercised jointly with that of the local Diocesan Bishop, in those cases provided for in the Complementary Norms.

VI. §1 Those who ministered as Anglican deacons, priests, or bishops, and who fulfill the requisites established by canon law[13] and are not impeded by irregularities or other impediments[14] may be accepted by the Ordinary as candidates for Holy Orders in the Catholic Church. In the case of married ministers, the norms established in the Encyclical Letter of Pope Paul VI Sacerdotalis coelibatus, n. 42[15] and in the Statement In June[16] are to be observed. Unmarried ministers must submit to the norm of clerical celibacy of CIC can. 277, §1.

§2. The Ordinary, in full observance of the discipline of celibate clergy in the Latin Church, as a rule (pro regula) will admit only celibate men to the order of presbyter. He may also petition the Roman Pontiff, as a derogation from can. 277, §1, for the admission of married men to the order of presbyter on a case by case basis, according to objective criteria approved by the Holy See.

§3. Incardination of clerics will be regulated according to the norms of canon law.

§4. Priests incardinated into an Ordinariate, who constitute the presbyterate of the Ordinariate, are also to cultivate bonds of unity with the presbyterate of the Diocese in which they exercise their ministry. They should promote common pastoral and charitable initiatives and activities, which can be the object of agreements between the Ordinary and the local Diocesan Bishop.

§5. Candidates for Holy Orders in an Ordinariate should be prepared alongside other seminarians, especially in the areas of doctrinal and pastoral formation. In order to address the particular needs of seminarians of the Ordinariate and formation in Anglican patrimony, the Ordinary may also establish seminary programs or houses of formation which would relate to existing Catholic faculties of theology.

VII. The Ordinary, with the approval of the Holy See, can erect new Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, with the right to call their members to Holy Orders, according to the norms of canon law. Institutes of Consecrated Life originating in the Anglican Communion and entering into full communion with the Catholic Church may also be placed under his jurisdiction by mutual consent.

VIII. §1. The Ordinary, according to the norm of law, after having heard the opinion of the Diocesan Bishop of the place, may erect, with the consent of the Holy See, personal parishes for the faithful who belong to the Ordinariate.

§2. Pastors of the Ordinariate enjoy all the rights and are held to all the obligations established in the Code of Canon Law and, in cases established by the Complementary Norms, such rights and obligations are to be exercised in mutual pastoral assistance together with the pastors of the local Diocese where the personal parish of the Ordinariate has been established.

IX. Both the lay faithful as well as members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, originally part of the Anglican Communion, who wish to enter the Personal Ordinariate, must manifest this desire in writing.

X. §1. The Ordinary is aided in his governance by a Governing Council with its own statutes approved by the Ordinary and confirmed by the Holy See. [17]

§2. The Governing Council, presided over by the Ordinary, is composed of at least six priests. It exercises the functions specified in the Code of Canon Law for the Presbyteral Council and the College of Consultors, as well as those areas specified in the Complementary Norms.

§3. The Ordinary is to establish a Finance Council according to the norms established by the Code of Canon Law which will exercise the duties specified therein.[18]

§4. In order to provide for the consultation of the faithful, a Pastoral Council is to be constituted in the Ordinariate.[19]

XI. Every five years the Ordinary is required to come to Rome for an ad limina Apostolorum visit and present to the Roman Pontiff, through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and in consultation with the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, a report on the status of the Ordinariate.

XII. For judicial cases, the competent tribunal is that of the Diocese in which one of the parties is domiciled, unless the Ordinariate has constituted its own tribunal, in which case the tribunal of second instance is the one designated by the Ordinariate and approved by the Holy See.

XIII. The Decree establishing an Ordinariate will determine the location of the See and, if appropriate, the principal church.

We desire that our dispositions and norms be valid and effective now and in the future, notwithstanding, should it be necessary, the Apostolic Constitutions and ordinances issued by our predecessors, or any other prescriptions, even those requiring special mention or derogation.

Given in Rome, at St. Peter’s, on November 4, 2009, the Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo.

---

[1] Cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 23; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter Communionis notio, 12; 13.

[2] Cf. Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 4; Decree Unitatis redintegratio, 2.

[3] Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 1.

[4] Decree Unitatis redintegratio, 1.

[5] Cf. Jn 17:20-21; Decree Unitatis redintegratio, 2.

[6] Cf. Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 13.

[7] Cf. ibid; Acts 2:42.

[8] Cf. Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 8; Letter Communionis notio, 4.

[9] Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 8.

[10] Cf. CIC, can. 205; Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 13; 14; 21; 22; Decree Unitatis redintegratio, 2; 3; 4; 15; 20; Decree Christus Dominus, 4; Decree Ad gentes, 22.

[11] Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 8.

[12] Cf. John Paul II, Ap. Const. Spirituali militium curae, 21 April 1986, I § 1.

[13] Cf. CIC, cann. 1026-1032.

[14] Cf. CIC, cann. 1040-1049.

[15] Cf. AAS 59 (1967) 674.

[16] Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Statement of 1 April 1981, in Enchiridion Vaticanum 7, 1213.

[17] Cf. CIC, cann. 495-502.

[18] Cf. CIC, cann. 492-494.

[19] Cf. CIC, can. 511.

 

CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH

Complementary Norms

for the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus

Jurisdiction of the Holy See

Article 1

Each Ordinariate is subject to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It maintains close relations with the other Roman Dicasteries in accordance with their competence.

Relations with Episcopal Conferences and Diocesan Bishops

Article 2

§1. The Ordinary follows the directives of the national Episcopal Conference insofar as this is consistent with the norms contained in the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus.

§2. The Ordinary is a member of the respective Episcopal Conference.

Article 3

The Ordinary, in the exercise of this office, must maintain close ties of communion with the Bishop of the Diocese in which the Ordinariate is present in order to coordinate its pastoral activity with the pastoral program of the Diocese.

The Ordinary

Article 4.

§1. The Ordinary may be a bishop or a presbyter appointed by the Roman Pontiff ad nutum Sanctae Sedis, based on a terna presented by the Governing Council. Canons 383-388, 392-394, and 396-398 of the Code of Canon Law apply to him.

§2. The Ordinary has the faculty to incardinate in the Ordinariate former Anglican ministers who have entered into full communion with the Catholic Church, as well as candidates belonging to the Ordinariate and promoted to Holy Orders by him.

§3. Having first consulted with the Episcopal Conference and obtained the consent of the Governing Council and the approval of the Holy See, the Ordinary can erect as needed territorial deaneries supervised by a delegate of the Ordinary covering the faithful of multiple personal parishes.

The Faithful of the Ordinariate

Article 5

§1. The lay faithful originally of the Anglican tradition who wish to belong to the Ordinariate, after having made their Profession of Faith and received the Sacraments of Initiation, with due regard for Canon 845, are to be entered in the apposite register of the Ordinariate. Those baptized previously as Catholics outside the Ordinariate are not ordinarily eligible for membership, unless they are members of a family belonging to the Ordinariate.

§2. Lay faithful and members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, when they collaborate in pastoral or charitable activities, whether diocesan or parochial, are subject to the Diocesan Bishop or to the pastor of the place; in which case the power of the Diocesan Bishop or pastor is exercised jointly with that of the Ordinary and the pastor of the Ordinariate.

The Clergy

Article 6

§1. In order to admit candidates to Holy Orders the Ordinary must obtain the consent of the Governing Council. In consideration of Anglican ecclesial tradition and practice, the Ordinary may present to the Holy Father a request for the admission of married men to the presbyterate in the Ordinariate, after a process of discernment based on objective criteria and the needs of the Ordinariate. These objective criteria are determined by the Ordinary in consultation with the local Episcopal Conference and must be approved by the Holy See.

§2. Those who have been previously ordained in the Catholic Church and subsequently have become Anglicans, may not exercise sacred ministry in the Ordinariate. Anglican clergy who are in irregular marriage situations may not be accepted for Holy Orders in the Ordinariate.

§3. Presbyters incardinated in the Ordinariate receive the necessary faculties from the Ordinary.

Article 7

§1 The Ordinary must ensure that adequate remuneration be provided to the clergy incardinated in the Ordinariate, and must provide for their needs in the event of sickness, disability, and old age.

§2. The Ordinary will enter into discussion with the Episcopal Conference about resources and funds which might be made available for the care of the clergy of the Ordinariate.

§3. When necessary, priests, with the permission of the Ordinary, may engage in a secular profession compatible with the exercise of priestly ministry (cf. CIC, can. 286).

Article 8

§1. The presbyters, while constituting the presbyterate of the Ordinariate, are eligible for membership in the Presbyteral Council of the Diocese in which they exercise pastoral care of the faithful of the Ordinariate (cf. CIC, can. 498, §2).

§2. Priests and Deacons incardinated in the Ordinariate may be members of the Pastoral Council of the Diocese in which they exercise their ministry, in accordance with the manner determined by the Diocesan Bishop (cf. CIC, can. 512, §1).

Article 9

§1. The clerics incardinated in the Ordinariate should be available to assist the Diocese in which they have a domicile or quasi-domicile, where it is deemed suitable for the pastoral care of the faithful. In such cases they are subject to the Diocesan Bishop in respect to that which pertains to the pastoral charge or office they receive.

§2. Where and when it is deemed suitable, clergy incardinated in a Diocese or in an Institute of Consecrated Life or a Society of Apostolic Life, with the written consent of their respective Diocesan Bishop or their Superior, can collaborate in the pastoral care of the Ordinariate. In such case they are subject to the Ordinary in respect to that which pertains to the pastoral charge or office they receive.

§3. In the cases treated in the preceding paragraphs there should be a written agreement between the Ordinary and the Diocesan Bishop or the Superior of the Institute of Consecrated Life or the Moderator of the Society of Apostolic Life, in which the terms of collaboration and all that pertains to the means of support are clearly established.

Article 10.

§1. Formation of the clergy of the Ordinariate should accomplish two objectives: 1) joint formation with diocesan seminarians in accordance with local circumstances; 2) formation, in full harmony with Catholic tradition, in those aspects of the Anglican patrimony that are of particular value.

§2. Candidates for priestly ordination will receive their theological formation with other seminarians at a seminary or a theological faculty in conformity with an agreement concluded between the Ordinary and, respectively, the Diocesan Bishop or Bishops concerned. Candidates may receive other aspects of priestly formation at a seminary program or house of formation established, with the consent of the Governing Council, expressly for the purpose of transmitting Anglican patrimony.

§3. The Ordinariate must have its own Program of Priestly Formation, approved by the Holy See; each house of formation should draw up its own rule, approved by the Ordinary (cf. CIC, can. 242, §1).

§4. The Ordinary may accept as seminarians only those faithful who belong to a personal parish of the Ordinariate or who were previously Anglican and have established full communion with the Catholic Church.

§5. The Ordinariate sees to the continuing formation of its clergy, through their participation in local programs provided by the Episcopal Conference and the Diocesan Bishop.

Former Anglican Bishops

Article 11

§1. A married former Anglican Bishop is eligible to be appointed Ordinary. In such a case he is to be ordained a priest in the Catholic Church and then exercises pastoral and sacramental ministry within the Ordinariate with full jurisdictional authority.

§2. A former Anglican Bishop who belongs to the Ordinariate may be called upon to assist the Ordinary in the administration of the Ordinariate.

§3. A former Anglican Bishop who belongs to the Ordinariate may be invited to participate in the meetings of the Bishops’ Conference of the respective territory, with the equivalent status of a retired bishop.

§4. A former Anglican Bishop who belongs to the Ordinariate and who has not been ordained as a bishop in the Catholic Church, may request permission from the Holy See to use the insignia of the episcopal office.

The Governing Council

Article 12

§1. The Governing Council, in accord with Statutes which the Ordinary must approve, will have the rights and responsibilities accorded by the Code of Canon Law to the College of Consultors and the Presbyteral Council.

§2. In addition to these responsibilities, the Ordinary needs the consent of the Governing Council to:

a. admit a candidate to Holy Orders;

b. erect or suppress a personal parish;

c. erect or suppress a house of formation;

d. approve a program of formation.

§3. The Ordinary also consults the Governing Council:

a. concerning the pastoral activities of the Ordinariate and the principles governing the formation of clergy.

§4. The Governing Council has a deliberative vote:

a. when choosing a terna of names to submit to the Holy See for the appointment of the Ordinary;

b. when proposing changes to the Complementary Norms of the Ordinariate to present to the Holy See;

c. when formulating the Statutes of the Governing Council, the Statutes of the Pastoral Council, and the Rule for houses of formation.

§ 5. The Governing Council is composed according to the Statutes of the Council. Half of the membership is elected by the priests of the Ordinariate.

The Pastoral Council

Article 13

§1. The Pastoral Council, constituted by the Ordinary, offers advice regarding the pastoral activity of the Ordinariate.

§2. The Pastoral Council, whose president is the Ordinary, is governed by Statutes approved by the Ordinary.

The Personal Parishes

Article 14

§1. The pastor may be assisted in the pastoral care of the parish by a parochial vicar, appointed by the Ordinary; a pastoral council and a finance council must be established in the parish.

§2. If there is no vicar, in the event of absence, incapacity, or death of the pastor, the pastor of the territorial parish in which the church of the personal parish is located can exercise his faculties as pastor so as to supply what is needed.

§3. For the pastoral care of the faithful who live within the boundaries of a Diocese in which no personal parish has been erected, the Ordinary, having heard the opinion of the local Diocesan Bishop, can make provisions for quasi-parishes (cf. CIC, can. 516, §1).

The Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, approved these Complementary Norms for the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, adopted in the Ordinary Session of the Congregation, and ordered their publication.

Rome, from the Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, November 4, 2009, the Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo.

William Cardinal Levada

Prefect

X Luis F. Ladaria, S.I.

Titular Archbishop of Thibica

Secretary

Filed under: Christianity, Church of England, Current affairs

Europe’s Churches Speak Out on Climate Change

Here is the joint letter of the Conference of European Churches and the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences on their response to Climate Change.

The letter calls for all churches to ring their bells at 3pm on Sunday 13th December to make a world-round ring.

Filed under: Christianity, Environment

A Sermon for Remembrance Sunday at Ely Cathedral

It is very good indeed to be gathering here today as a company of all ages,  to remember those who have served our country and especially those who have given their lives in that service. Thinking of the younger of you here, I’ve been doing some remembering of my own, back into my boyhood days. One of my earliest memories is of wandering around on a bomb site by my father’s vicarage in Sheffield in the mid fifties, aged about five, picking up spent fireworks on the day after bonfire night. It’s funny how the very smell and feel of what must have been quite an exciting adventure can come back after all these years.

Of course I had no idea then, really, why bonfire night happened, or what a bombsite was, or why Remembrance Day must have been being kept around then as well. That’s just how things were.

Fast forward say five years and my memory is of the bustle of a junior school playground – one day a big game of cowboys and Indians, the next the Battle of Britain re-enacted by a score of boys with their duffle coat hoods up and sides held out as wings making machine gun noises at each other. War stories still filled the comics – but the reality of war and the reason for war was well beyond us.

Only with adolescence I suppose and the proper study of history at school, and an awakening sense of political life, would come any grown-up engagement with what all of this, the frame of so much of my childhood, had actually been about.

But I find it remarkable that even after years of such adult reflection, those early memories are still there, and in some ways more ‘me’ than the things that followed. Somehow, deep within the neural wiring of our brains, these key memories live on, and perhaps it is a combination of those and our deepest character traits that is most really ‘us’ – the bits we would want transplanting into a new brain and new body if ever that became possible, in order to have some continuity of identity, to still be ‘us’!

That isn’t something we can do now though, and perhaps never will be able to. So when we die, is that the end of us? Some people seem to be able to accommodate themselves to that bleak sort of reality, and we cannot prove in a scientific sense that that is not the case. But whenever human consciousness and culture have emerged, it is remarkable that with them seems to have come – in some shape or form – an imperative to make sense not just of this life, but of some sort of existence after it. The self that has emerged seems naturally to understand itself and other selves not as temporary phenomena or just an additional expression of the common gene pool, but as individuals of something more than contingent worth, as something, someone born, begun, created who is always going to have their own unique story and value.

Religions, philosophies and cultures have found a thousand ways of expressing this and enabling us to express it – and in a sense that is what we are doing here today. Every person we remember is unique, special, beloved, a beginning that we cannot simply declare has come to an end.

The Christian faith itself has developed more than one way of talking about this, but common to them all, I think, is the assertion that though we may and must die in this life, in Christ is a path to a greater life, bigger than death and beyond death, which we can start to experience now but will only fully know when creation is recreated in the new heaven and new earth of which the scriptures speak.

The fact that sometimes what we do in the name of that faith, whether in our worship or more importantly in the way we live our lives, does not exactly resound with that fullness of life is of course an issue. A small boy was taken into a Remembrance Chapel and shown the names on the wall. “Those are the people”, said his mother, “who lost their lives in the services”. “Mummy”, the boy replied after a worried silence, “was that the morning service that we go to, or the evening one?”

Nevertheless, life greater than death is at the heart of our faith. One way of thinking about it is to remember that our faith also teaches about a God who is more than the chilly extrapolations of virtues of Greek philosophy, a ‘who’ not a ‘what’, as personal as us, even if inconceivably more so, who also knows and loves and remembers each one of us, with inside knowledge, even with the experience of death. Perhaps we could say that it is in his remembering that the deepest things in each of us, the very ‘us’ that is us, can live in a way that death cannot destroy, and become part of the new heaven and new earth that we are promised.

God knows us. God loves us. God remembers us. But we remember too. We remember here, today. We remember family members and friends who died in the great wars of the last century. We remember those who have served and are serving in the many conflicts which have followed. We remember those in peril today and those who love them. We remember those who have not come back from that peril alive. We remember in our hearts. We remember on countless memorials, and in libraries of books. And….. we remember in the way we choose to live our own lives as we keep in mind the example of those who have gone before us. It would be invidious for me to name individuals at this point – we remember them all: there is not one whose memory cannot move and inspire us in some way. But one image is perhaps fresh in many of our minds, of a young and highly expert bomb disposal officer, dying in Helmand province in the course of his duty. All warfare is risky. But the survival statistics for those defusing these explosive devices have a grim inevitability about them. Such experts accept a vocation to lay down their life, whether in the demanding exercise of their skills or in the real possibility of death itself, so that others – every person who will passes that way – might live.

We remember. We salute such men and women and all who have given themselves in life and death that others may live. We commit ourselves to live the same sort of life ourselves. Amen.

Filed under: Christianity, Church of England, Sermons and Talks , Ely Cathedral, Remembrance Sunday

History of Christianity

Diarmaid MacCulloch’s History of Christianity TV series got off to a great start this week. You can watch the first episode here. Fascinatingly, and I think wisely and helpfully, he went east before he goes west (the next episode), and highlighted both the eastern origins of our faith and its eastern spread. I suspect many viewers won’t have known this material, and as well as giving good context for the later history it should be very helpful in reframing some perceptions of the East vs West Muslim vs Christianity debate.

I was moved by the shots of worship in near Eastern churches. Their singing drew me in immediately, and their focus on orthopraxis – presenting the liturgy correctly, with a lot of attention to gesture and movement as well as the words – was revealing. We are very word-based and doctrine-focussed over here, and it is challenging to be implicitly asked whether what we do and how we do it is as important as what we say and how we say it.

I wonder if someone reading this knows of someone who had researched and written in the area of the history of actual liturgical presentation in the early church and how it and Jewish and Muslim practice relate. We were told for instance that Islamic worship may have taken its practices of removing shoes and prostration from Christian predecessors. And how do these and the robes and headcoverings and movements of the liturgies we saw relate to the practices of the Temple and Synagogue. I suspect that there may be very large elements of persistence indeed.

The programme finished with a trip to China, where people were being converted and congregations and churches founded at much the same time (seventh century) as it was happening in Anglo-Saxon England. The pagoda in the picture below is the earliest known surviving Chinese church!

There was something of a ‘line’ that the near-eastern churches can teach us how to be Christian without an army behind us, and the far-eastern how to be Christians who are listeners to the varied culture around them. I am glad of that, though I hope we are not without having made some steps on those journeys ourselves.

I hope next week’s programme is as good!

Filed under: Christianity, Media Matters

Frank Skinner on Faith

I really feel there is a God. I know atheism is extremely fashionable nowadays but I just can’t kick this believing thing.

Read more by Frank Skinner on faith, Catholics and the Anglican Exodus in his recent article in The Times, online at

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/frank_skinner/article6886168.ece

Filed under: Christianity, Current affairs

Married Priests

Married Catholic priests are nothing new. A conference To Have and To Hold: Marriage in Premodern Europe was held at the University of Toronto earlier this month. Here is a video from Medievalists. net of an interview with Dr. Michelle Armstrong Partida, a post-doctoral fellow at UCLA. She gave a paper entitled "Married Priests? The Practice of Clerical Unions in Fourteenth-Century Catalunya"

Filed under: Christianity, History