Independence Day Thoughts

This was in origin a sermon on the day itself.  It ws followewd by areading of the Declaration of Independance.  Perren 

 

Independence Day Thoughts – 2007

see Grace Church Westwood NJ 2004

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of bondage. You shall have no other gods but me. First Commandment, Rite 2

Were they living today, the Founders of this Nation would be reviled by many as fanatical left wing radicals – liberals of the worst sort. They were seeking individual and personal freedom, so that humans – all of them – had the opportunity to develop the potentials placed in them at their birth. Many of us learned in our education that the Founding Fathers were heavily influenced by many of the radical ideas that were sweeping across the still smouldering remains of what was left of the Roman Empire. One of the primary influences, we are told, was the teaching of John Locke and others whose thoughts are bunched under the general title of “Enlightenment.”

Indeed these great men were avid readers and students of as much as they could get their hands on. Yet, it is my conviction, the Enlightenment only enhanced the basic structures of their thinking. In common with most of the people of the colonies, these men were raised on the reading of the Holy Scriptures. The ideas and concepts that they found there were enhanced, developed; and then exploded into what I call a “religious secularism” or a “secular religion.”

They found, in the writings of the Bible, a series of basic principles that are designed for the whole creation, but especially for all humans. As they studied the Scriptures, they saw clearly what scholars are only now discovering in the texts and history of the Hebrew/Jewish people. When religion becomes institutionalized it, like any other ‘good’ in all of creation, becomes a vehicle for the demonic and evil. Remember, Europe had just completed what we now call the “Wars of Religion.”

Imagine! Wars of religion! Religion fighting to dominate others. But religion – as is true of ANY institution – can assume the worst evils of self preservation. This is true whether we are speaking of the formation of nations, or the idealization of families and clans:– then self preservation becomes an evil that sees others as enemies.

The Founders of this nation, through their reading of the Bible, saw clearly that God made all humans equally. In the most real sense, humans, all of them, are brothers and sisters; not “us” and “them”: or, as in the case of kings, dukes, fathers and mothers; not “mine.” As soon as one human exercises “rights” of possession over another, humanity on both sides of that equation has been damaged. Even God does not exercise the right of possession over us.

It was not, they saw, the nature of reality, that one human could “own” or “direct” or “order” another. This violated the basic principles of creation as expressed in the Bible. The Bible, the Founders saw clearly, taught BOTH a total freedom for ALL, as well as a basic INTERDEPENDENCE for all. This resulted in the Biblical teaching that it is part of human nature – basic creation – that humans are both totally free, and also totally obligated to see that ALL humans share in that freedom.

That is, in my mind, the origin of the essential meaning of this day: that all men are “created equal, and have certain unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” But our personal and individual “unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” DEPEND on our interdependent sharing with others.

It is on these TWO things that this nation was founded.

It is interesting that we have all accepted – without question – the idea that there is a great separation between religion and the ‘secular’ world. Whenever ideas, concepts or peoples are separated from one another, then what the Bible calls “sin” has come into play. Sin, you know, essentially, means “separation.”

When we are separated from others – whether by our own choice or by the action of others (including that extension of ourselves we call “The Government”) – we are both less than human, and also we have lost much of our freedom.

On this day we celebrate the wondrous thinking of these men. We reflect on the successes and failures of the people of this nation to accept fully the freedom and the rights to which freedom is the key.

We see our nation torn: torn because in some places we see little or no freedom: magnified by hatred and horrors unimaginable. It is sooo easy to flex muscle and violate the basic meaning of freedom and try to force others. It is sooo easy to sit back and see brothers and sisters humiliated, harmed, hurt, hated and destroyed.

The Biblical solution is not violence, but love;

the Biblical solution is caring, not fighting;

the Biblical solution is talking, not biting.

We cannot put a ring around freedom and say it is ours.

Freedom is of the essence of being;

freedom is the essence of choice;

freedom is the essence of love;

freedom is what binds together the definition of God we christians call the Trinity.

Freedom is indeed the glue that binds together all humans.

But there can be no freedom without total respect for the others (this is, of course, multi-sided). We need to remember that we do not know all about freedom: we know something about how it has developed here. Freedom has and will develop in different ways among others. Our freedom is enriched as we respect the freedom of others; and as we all intermingle in total respect of others, we are each enriched by the freedom of each other.

This, I believe, is some of what grows from the vision of the Founders of this nation. We are in a process that is steadily advancing. The danger is that we become so filled with excitement about our own freedom, that we would force freedom on others: a total contradiction.

Today, we reflect;

today we rejoice;

today we celebrate.

Freedom is not only “No slavery;” freedom is “I love and respect you.”

Liturgical thoughts

Are  there churches in England or the US which use the English  Missal,
unadulterated? Most places I have been to use it as a resource, but  not the
full liturgy thats there.

THe abpove question was placed on another list, and I wrote the following response to it.

Perren

Before the 1979 BCP there were many that used it or one of its American 
variants, The American Missal (SSJE) or The Anglican Missal (American  Edition)
(OSF).  There was one English edition of The Anglican Missal that  had most (if
not all) of the Prayers of Consecration — our Sacristy had  one of them also.
Where I was in charge of a congregation,  I used  The English Missal
(American Edition) pretty straight out e3xcept that I used  the BCP, not the
Gregorian, Canon on Sundays and major feasts.  I don’t  recall using the Gregorian
Canon in English, but I did use it a few times with a  specific congregation in
Latin.

By the time that Presiding Bishop Sherrill made his radical proposal that 
the Ameican Episcopal Church should become the foundation stone for a “new” 
American (semi official) Protestant Religion — by giving up  Apostolic Order,
and cutting down the requirements for the Creeds and  removing the requirements
for wine at the “Communion Service” we Anglo Catholics  were really off on our
own.  There were a series of Dioceses that were  “Catholic” or accepting of
catholic work.  There was a whole list of  parishes that used one of the missals

The American Church Union worked real hard against that.  In the later  40s
and early 50s,  we had a series of Special Events Solemn Masses that  included
about 20 English Bishops in cope and miter.  The one in New York  completely
filled St.. John’s Cathedral to standing room only.  I was  there.  When
approached to use the “National Cathedral” Bishop Dunn is  reported to have said
“Yes, but for the number that will come, you might  consider renting a telephone
booth.”  When the entire Mount St. Albans was  covered with Anglo Catholics,
even he was nearly converted.

The first series of documents to produce a new BCP was so bad — ignored 
“The Shape of the Liturgy” which also played a part in  the formation of  Vatican
2 — that we waited for a new Presiding Bishop to get a new and  unrelated
set of documents posing as a revision of the first.  Many of us,  including my
very good and close friend Fr. Donald Garfield, Rector of St.. Mary  the Virgin
in New York, really felt that if we didn’t get something catholic  from
General Convention that we Anglo Catholics might have to find some other  way to be
Anglicans.  We all went to work ion many ways, and General  Convention
authorized us to do a new BCP that was NOT based on revising the 1549  and later
BCPs, but would be a new beginning trying to reformulate the Episcopal  CHurch
into something approaching the pre Constantinian Catholic Church. This  was
presented as a movement for evangelism and growth within the Episcopal  Church,
and was presumed especially to be a major revision of the meaning of  Baptism. 
My very good friend (whom I will be visiting in a few days)  Leonel Mitchel
(who was to Baptism very much as Dom Gregory was to the  Eucharist) AND Fr.
Garfield were both on the commissions.

All of us agreed that we did not want to split the Episcopal Church.   What
we wanted was a BCP that could be used by ALL variations of  Episcopalian.  We
worked very hard to accomplish this.  The rubrics  will allow all the minor
propers from the older Missals (English, American,  Anglican) for those who
wanted them; there would be both Rite 1 and Rite 2 so  that no one was forced to
use contemporary language.  Holy Week was fully  developed, and again, the
rubrics allow all the things we could not get through  General Convention as
printed text, but we cold get the built in permissions to  do adoration and washing
on Maundy Thursday and Veneration of the Cross and  Communion from the
Reserved Sacrament on Good Friday.  A Paschal Candle was  just “assumed.”  AND the
wonderful new Order for Baptism — even though it  did not go quite as far as
many of us had hoped — by allowing  chrismation/confirmation by rpiests, using
Episcopally consecrated Chrism.

With the testing and trials and other work, we got the whole church geared 
into this, pretty much.  AND the vast majority of Anglo Catholics agreed  that
we could use this book as is — pretty much.  At least there were no  violetn
displacements in teh Liturgy, such as where the Gloria in  excelsis  was sung,
where the sermon was preached, where the ablutions happened.  AND  the whol
Litururgical Cycle was built around Easter, with the entire week before  Easter
and the week following filled with complete Liturgy for each day.

While a lot of what we had hoped has not yet happened (because 1979 is  still
seen as simply a replacement for 1928), the results are astounding in  terms
of what happens in the average Episcopal Church on any Sunday.  Mass  as the
main Liturgy for Sundays is normal in 98% or 99% of the parishes; Holy  Week is
observed with more than just Stainer’s “Crucifixion” on Good Friday by  the
choir of men and boys.  Ourf worship is pretty well balanced and  established. 
ALSO (and I believe 1979 is a very important part of the  reason why these
have happened) we have ordained women and acceptance of gay  clergy including a
bishop.  NOW we need to get to work on real catholic  evangelism. 

I say this in spite of the fact that several bishops and congregations 
apparently do not understand the full meaning of catholic, and clearly have NO 
understanding of the origins of the 1928 B CP and the mess between it and the 
1979 BCP.  Clearly the basic structure of the Anglican Communion is not 
prepared for what we did, BECAUSE it is an undoing of much of the reformation  and
medieval stuff that encrusted the Liturgy and the actions of  Anglicanism.  WE
also, in the USA, at least many of us Anglo Catholics,  were/are also
profoundly affected by the 19th Century Christian Socialism  movement in England –
even when TEC was dominated by an Eastern and Virginian  conservative group who
worshiped the Reformation instead of the Holy Trinity,  along with a kind of
mystical (and misinformed) idea of the CofE.

Enough for now

Welcome to The Faithful Sceptic

Now that I finally have this set up, I will try to start writing again.  We are moving from Peekskill, New York to Lewes, Delaware on the 16th of July, and so perhaps this was not the best time to start this.  But I will try to keep it going.  Until 5 years ago, I wrote something daily, and I hope to resume that somewhat when I get moved.  In the mean time there are some sermons that need to be writen, and they will appear here.