The Episcopalian is a series of articles written by Deacon John for our newspaper "VISIONS". They are instructive and interesting and I hope to keep adding to them. They are on several pages and are in no particular order.
Having written about the Church year and Pentecost before, I was wandering through my reference material looking for something "different." In the process I found so many little pieces here and there I thought we'd just put them together! For example, we all know that Pentecost is the "Birthday" of the Christian Church - the empowerment by the Holy Spirit - but did you know that it was the Birthday of the Book of Common Prayer? The Book of Common Prayer, 1549, was first used on Pentecost Sunday in that year. Although most of us would rank Christmas and Easter as the two high points in the Christian year, that is relatively new. For centuries, Easter and Pentecost were the two principal feast days of the church.
Today, Pentecost is one of the seven "Principal Feasts" of the Church (can you name the other six?). The Paschal Candle (which represents the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, which led the Hebrews in the Exodus) is lighted at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday evening and burns through Pentecost. The Easter Vigil and Pentecost Sunday have been the traditional Baptismal times dating back to the early church.
Pentecost is actually a Hebrew festival appropriated by the Christian Church. Pentecost is the Greek name given to the Festival of Weeks which falls 50 days after Passover (Exodus 34:22 & Deuteronomy 16:9-11), which originally celebrated the first-fruits of the harvest (Feast of Harvest -- Exodus 23:16 or Day of First-Fruits -- Numbers 28:26). Later in the Hebrew practice, Pentecost came to mark the giving of the Law by Moses. There is a Rabbinic tradition that the Law was given fifty days after the Passover. Early in the life of the Christian Church, the term Pentecost not only meant Pentecost Sunday, but was also applied to the whole period between Easter and Whitsunday. Today it applies to the period between Pentecost and Advent. You noticed, of course, how I casually dropped the term Whitsunday into that last sentence. In the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, Pentecost is called Whitsunday, and the period between Whitsunday and Advent was measured in terms of "Weeks After Trinity" instead of Week such and such of Pentecost. After much research (well, some digging) it seems the term "Whitsunday" comes from the white robes of baptism -White Sunday. But of course, we all know it is Red Sunday!
By the way, the other six Principal Feasts are Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, Trinity and All Saint's Day. JKM
Icons have fascinated me for some time. In fact, if you look back far enough in your stack of old newsletters (you do, of course, save them) you will find an earlier article by me on this subject. My trip to Jerusalem, and the prevalence of icons in that city, reawakened that interest. In fact, a beautiful icon of the Virgin Mary came home with me. This time I decided to do a little reading on the subject and ended up with a book by Leonid Ouspensky, inconographer and iconologist. Now this particular author is really in to the Orthodox view of icons and goes into great detail on the Iconoclastic controversy. It was kind of tough sledding for this Deacon who was raised in the Protestant tradition. However, Mr. Ouspensky did make an observation about the "visual" part of our liturgy that seems particularly appropriate for the season of Lent.
Although the words of the liturgy are the primary focus, in the liturgical church we reinforce the spoken word with the visual setting. In Lent the color of the vestments and hangings changes to deep purple. The movement of the Cross from station to station during the first Sunday in Lent and on Friday evenings during the Lenten season provides a visual sense of the drama that took place in Jerusalem. During Holy Week we see the penitential purple change to blood red. The palm fronds to remind us of Christ's triumphant entry, The Maundy Thursday stripping of the altar and the stark appearance of the Sanctuary on Good Friday vividly reinforce the spoken liturgy. Finally, the splendor of the church on Easter Morning, particularly in contrast to the barren Sanctuary of Good Friday, powerfully enriches our worship in a way that is difficult to describe - it is felt, as much as seen.
Music, color, movement, icons (dare I say even incense) ... all these provide a setting in our liturgy that touches our consciousness just as much, and sometimes more, that the spoken word.
Deacon John 3/98
Easter, the Feast of the Resurrection of Christ, is the greatest and oldest feast of the Christian Church, and we are now in the great fifty days of Easter. This season is distinct in many ways. The liturgical color is white and gold, readings from Luke's "Acts of the Apostles" take the place of the Old Testament reading, the dismissal ends with the acclamation "Alleluia, Alleluia" and the Pascal Candle, lighted at the beginning of the Easter Vigil Service Holy Saturday, burns through the day of Pentecost.
There are all kinds of traditions associated with the Paschal Candle. The candle represents the Light of Christ in the world, or (and I did not know this before) the pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night, which led the Hebrews in the Exodus. It is traditionally lighted from "new fire" (you know, flint and wood shavings), the candle is marked with the year, the Greek letters A and C), and five grains of incense in the form of a cross. The Paschal Candle bums on north side of the sanctuary (of course if the church runs north-south instead of east-west, it burns on the east side). In addition to the fifty days of Easter, it is appropriate to use the Paschal candle during the service of Baptism and to lead the procession into the church at burials. In some traditions, the Paschal Candle is extinguished after the Gospel on Ascension Day.
Finally, of course, we can't forget the Prayer Book rubric concerning the Easter Vigil which states that "It is the prerogative of a deacon to carry the Paschal Candle to its place and to chant the Exsultet." Those of you who have heard me sing, will understand why I choose not to exercise the latter prerogative -- maybe someday.
Deacon John 5/98
August 19, 1999 – Lutherans approve full communion with Moravians and Episcopalians.
The Episcopal News Service
So what’s this all about? Are the Lutherans and Episcopalians going to merge? NO! What the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) approved was a statement that said Lutherans and Episcopalians would recognize in each other the essentials of the one, catholic and apostolic faith, change their governing documents so that full communion is established, have a joint commission work out details in planning for mission, common decision-making and ordination, participate in the common consecration of all future bishops, temporarily suspend a restriction of the Episcopal Church that limits the pastoral office to those ordained by bishops in the line of "apostolic succession, and not insist that Episcopal ordinands subscribe to the Lutheran Church’s Augsburg Confession.
Doesn’t sound so bad, does it? The Episcopal Church approved a similar statement two years ago. For the ELCA, the struggle has been over the issue of "apostolic succession" (some Lutheran Churches in other countries have accepted the idea of the apostolic succession, but not the American Church) and they were a "little" concerned about consecrating bishop’s for life. The compromise is that we will accept the validity of their existing Holy Orders, and in the future they will have their bishops consecrated by bishops, which are in the apostolic succession.
In the back of your Prayer Book (pp 876), in a section entitled "Historical Documents," is a document entitled "The Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral 1886, 1888." This was a statement by the House of Bishops on unity between the Episcopal Church and other denominations. Among other things, the Bishops stated that it was "Our earnest desire that the Savior’s prayer, ‘That we all may be one,’ may in it deepest and truest sense be speedily fulfilled." "That this Church [the Episcopal Church] does not seek to absorb other Communions, but rather, co-operating with them on the basis of a common Faith and Order, to discountenance schism, to heal wounds of the Body of Christ …" The Bishops went on to say that "As inherent parts of this sacred deposit, and therefore as essential to the restoration of unity among the divided branches of Christendom, we account the following, to wit:
§ The Nicene Creed as the sufficient statement of the Christian Faith
§ The two Sacraments, - Baptism and the Supper of the Lord, - ministered with unfailing use of Christ’s words of institution of the elements ordained by him.
§ The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the unity of his Church."
Deacon John 9/99