What the media missed about +Rowan and the communion of saints

Over at Entangled States Nick Knisely rightly points out that the media focus on +Rowan's sermon at All Saints, Margaret Street on1st November was entirely dominated by the recently published Apostolic Constitution. As Nick suggests, the sermon was actually a much more significant reflection on the communion of saints:

"The shame is that in the midst of all the other stories about the new Anglican Rite Apostolic Constitution, the Archbishop gave an extraordinary sermon at All Saints' Margaret Street in London on the Feast of All Saints".

+Rowan's sermon at All Saints was indeed extraordinary for its exploration of our mutual dependence in the communion of saints:

"These great figures that the writer to the Hebrews has listed, 'without us [says the writer] they will not be made perfect'. This is a truly extraordinary claim ... Without us, Francis of Assisi will not be made perfect, without us St John of the Cross will not be made perfect ... these great witnesses become perfect, they become fully into their life that God purposes for them when we respond, when we enter into a relationship with them ... They're not perfect as individuals who have scored exceptionally highly in the examination of Christian faith. They are parts of the body of Christ to which we too belong. Our life is bound up with theirs and amazingly and humblingly, their life is bound up with ours, they enter into their glory when we come with them ... That is the bold and startling doctrine that the Bible puts before us as a reminder that no-one's holiness is their property and that the holiness of the Christian life is one given into the lives of others".

Also on All Saints' Day, +Rowan preached at another leading Anglo-Catholic London parish, St. Mary's Bourne Street. There he also reflected on our place in the communion of saints:

"'Of the tribe of Zebulun were sealed twelve thousand', and of all the other tribes, and then there was the great multitude without number from every tribe and language and people and nation. (Rev 7.2—12) And that is ourselves. We were mentioned in that New Testament lesson this morning among that company. We – with all our indistinguishable haloes and our completely unique faces and hands – are there".

When Anglicanism allows its self-understanding to be dominated by the media cycle, we lose sight of what it is to be church. +Rowan's sermons on All Saints' Day in these two historic Anglo-Catholic parishes had little, if anything, to do with the Apostolic Constitution. They were much more important. They were an encouragement to the Communion to reflect on and deeply experience what is to live in the communion of saints.

Wright, his neo-scholastic critics and justification

On the basis of Tracey Rowland's account of the critique of neo-Thomism in pre-Vatican II Catholicism by Ratzinger and other Ressourcement theologians, I have suggested that there may be similarities to be drawn with Wright's critique of how conservative evangelicals have interpreted and presented justification.

Rowland quotes one summary of the Ressourcement movement's theological approach:

"Instead of claiming that the words of Scriptures contain direct doctrinal propositions, it places the focus on the total pattern of salvation history".

It certainly is an interesting, perhaps provocative, interpretation. Piper et al are the neo-Thomists, with a dry, scholastic, propositional account of justification.

Wright, on the other hand, brings us back to the source - the glorious narrative of redemption fulfilled in the Incarnate Word. Justification ceases to be a rationalist, abstract proposition and instead becomes a means of describing the saving, transforming grace of the Holy Trinity.

Tracey Rowland on Benedict

I have just started to read Tracey Rowland's Ratzinger's Faith: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI. It is proving to be a fantastic read.

Three initial thoughts on issues raised by Rowland:

1. A quote from one of Ratzinger's teachers wonderfully illustrates why the ECT statement on Mary the theotokos has such importance for theology and devotion in the churches of the Reformation: "He [i.e. Ratzinger] is not interested in defining God by abstract concepts. An abstraction - he once told me - does not need a mother".

2. The Ugely Vicar has drawn attention to the Christianity Today story on the perceived influence of Tom Wright amongst American evangelicals who have crossed the Tiber. Richardson's title - "Tom Wright's theology 'leading Protestants to Rome'" - is obviously provocative. However, Wright's words in the article caught my attention:

"I am sorry to think that there are people out there whose Protestantism has been so barren that they never found out about sacraments, transformation, community, or eschatology."

Perhaps there is a sense in which the 'traditional' Protestant teaching on justification stands akin to the dry legalism of the neo-Thomism that Ratzinger and the Ressourcement movement critiqued. As Rowland puts it:

"they found Thomism dry and unable to convey a sense of the glory of the Revelation. It was a much contracted presentation of the kerygma".

3. Rowland notes the similarities in the theological projects of Benedict and the chiefly Anglican Radical Orthodoxy school. Both are fundamentally Augustinian projects, leading Benedict to have "a profound understanding of what has gone wrong in post-Tridentine Catholicism". Perhaps it is here - rather than in the distraction of the Apostolic Constitution for former Anglicans - that Rowan Williams should focus on during his forthcoming visit to the Vatican. A shared re-appropriation of Augustine could provide the theological context for the renewal of the ARCIC process.

Anglicanorum Coetibus and "former Anglican ministers"

Today's publication of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus will no doubt be the subject of considerable commentary.

From an initial reading, one curious phrase is surely worthy of attention. The Complementary Norms accompanying the Apostolic Constitution employ the Vatican's usual terminology with regards to former Anglican clergy submitting to re-ordination in the Roman communion - "former Anglican ministers".

The Apostolic Constitution itself, however, uses quite different language:

"Those who ministered as Anglican deacons, priests, or bishops ..." (emphasis added).

It is, perhaps, a vague attempt to acknowledge the priestly ministry of former Anglicans. However, it stands alongside Apostolicae Curae and the restatement of the invalidity of Anglican orders in the CDF's instruction Professio Fidei. And then there is the fact that "former Anglican ministers" must submit to re-ordination.

The use of the word 'priest' is meaningless alongside this. Whatever Anglicanorum Coetibus represents, it is surely well nigh impossible to seriously suggest that it represents any meaningful recognition of "the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion".

The ECT statement: "a biblically precise, theologically robust" understanding of the Theotokos

The November edition of First Things carries the latest Evangelicals and Catholics Together statement, Do Whatever He Tells You: The Blessed Virgin Mary in Christian Faith and Life. As Advent approaches, the statement provides an excellent resource for theological, biblical and spiritual reflection.

As the mother of Jesus, she was the first to learn of his nature and mission, and she was the first to give faith’s assent: “Let it be with me according to your word.” We picture her nursing him at her breast, teaching him his first words, kissing his bruises when he fell, introducing him to Israel’s understanding of the ways of the Lord—the mother who helped him memorize the psalms and say his prayers, even as he grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52).

When, much later, Mary is depicted as praying with the apostles (Acts 1:14), we may imagine that Mary prayed to her son with the words that she had taught him to pray. Contemplating the motherhood of Mary powerfully reinforces—against every form of gnosticism or docetism, whether ancient or modern—our understanding of the full humanity of Jesus the Christ. In the fullness of time he was born of a woman from whom he received all that pertains to his human nature.

We are agreed that it is appropriate, and indeed necessary, to call Mary Theotokos—the God-Bearer. Theotokos means “the one who gave birth to the One who is God,” and the title, based on the clear witness of Scripture, was emphasized in the early Church to counter the heresy of Nestorius, who divided the human and divine natures of Christ. Here and elsewhere, what must be said about Mary is inseparably connected with what must be said about Christ. Because Jesus is both true man and true God, and because his human nature and divine nature are inseparable, it is right to call Mary, who is the mother of Jesus, the Mother of God or the God-Bearer.

The affirmation that Blessed Mary is Theotokos emphasizes that amongst the heirs of the Reformation protest "there is a place for a biblically precise, theologically robust love and honor of Mary". The statement notes that "the neglect, almost the disappearance, of Mary in Protestant theology belongs to the tragic side" of the consequences of the Reformation. And yet this disappearance of Mary from the devotions of the heirs of the Reformation stands in stark contrast to the witness of the Reformers:

For Luther, Mary is the workshop (fabrica) in which God operates to bring about the salvation of the world. Mary is the person and place where God has chosen to enter most deeply into the human story. She is the one who hears the Word of God (fides ex auditu), the one who responds in faith and thus is justified by faith alone (WA 7, 573). The Reformed tradition is more reticent, yet both Zwingli and Bullinger joined in the “Hail Mary, full of grace” not as a prayer to Mary but as an expression of praise in honor of her. Calvin too referred to Mary as “the treasurer of grace” and spoke of how Christ “chose for himself the virgin’s womb as a temple in which to dwell” (Institutes 2.14.1).

ECT's statements have done much in recent years to ensure a recovery of the potential in the Great Tradition shared by both sides of the Reformation divide. For Anglicans this statement has a particular resonance, as we seek to heed both Catholic tradition and Reformation protest. In our better moments - in terms of liturgy, spirituality, and catechetics - we have given expression to that "biblically precise, theologically robust" recognition of Mary. Too often, however, we have done what other heirs of the Reformation have done - forgotten the girl from Nazareth whom the angel hailed as 'most highly favoured'. Perhaps the ECT statement will contribute to an Anglican recovery of the patristic and Reformation tradition of honouring Mary the Godbearer.

Source of theological creativity - Anglicanism's political past

"The embarrassment of history" is how I have previously described Anglicanism's anxious, awkward relationship with its past:

"there is the appearance of embarrassment in Anglicanism over our history. We appear to have been on the ‘wrong’ side of history, allied against the causes of progress or - what is worse - the values of the Kingdom of God".

Those reflections were based on historian JCD Clark's article in the Church Times in which he expressed his fears that Anglicanism was no longer capable of "sustain[ing] a heavyweight historical rationale for itself". Clark has since written a second article lamenting the loss of Anglicanism's "grand narrative".

As Clark states, retrieving the Anglican past surely has significance in defining the Anglican present and future. That being so, how do we begin to retrieve Anglicanism's grand narrative, not least those elements of the historical narrative that are foreign to contemporary political and social existence? On the Covenant site, Benjamin Guyer wonderfully demonstrates how this may be done.

Guyer looks at how past generations of Anglicans commemorated 5th November, the delivery of King and Parliament from the 1605 Gunpowder Plot. As Guyer notes, this was one of three dates added to the Anglican liturgical calendar in the 17th century - the other two were 30th January (the martyrdom of Charles I - for my own thoughts on this commemoration see here and here) and 25th May (the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II). He goes on to urge a "constructive retrieval" of the history and memory of 5th November:

"a process of critical negotiation with the past, in which the past again becomes a source of theological creativity".

To some extent, the alien nature of the 5th November commemorations can be overstated. As Guyer states:

"In many ways, the realities of 5 November are not far removed from our own world; the psychological strain and feelings of horror experienced by many Americans in the wake of 9/11 provide a fertile common ground for considering how the English must have felt when they learned, in 1605, that a small group of Roman Catholics, led by Guy Fawkes, attempted to murder King James I and blow up Parliament while in session. Furthermore, and again not unlike our current situation, Roman Catholics such as Fawkes perceived themselves fighting a religious war, but Anglicans perceived their acts as instances of civil and religious terrorism".

As Guyer continues to explore 5th November in two forthcoming articles, we will hopefully discern the lessons contemporary Anglicans can learn from the understanding of providence in state and society held by our forebears.

The imperative felt by 17th century Anglicans to liturgically commemorate the deliverance of King James I and Parliament from Guy Fawkes, it can be argued, reflects an understanding of 'the common good'. Guyer perhaps hints at this:

"In defending King James I, the English were not just defending a political institution or a head of state. Rather, they were defending a way of life, with all of the richness, continuity, and order – both metaphysical and political – that the English monarchy signifies".

There is a sense here of recognising that the common good, reflected in a settled constitutional order which had the allegiance of the vast majority in society, should not be overthrown by the use of force by political opponents and dissidents. In much the same way, I have suggested that what appears to be the, at best, antiquated Anglican teaching on passive obedience and non-resistance continues to have significance for contemporary Anglican political theology:

"The Homily against Disobedience and wilful Rebellion, issued during the reign of Elizabeth I, declared: 'Let all good subjects avoid and flee rebellion, as the greatest of all mischiefs, and embrace due obedience to God and our prince, as the greatest of all virtues, that we may escape all evils and miseries that do follow rebellion.' Five centuries later, no language more foreign to contemporary political discourse could be found. But those of us who have endured the consequences of civil disorder might just have a greater understanding of what led the generations shaped by the memories of England’s bitter constitutional and dynastic conflicts to praise civil stability as 'the greatest of all virtues'. Respecting established authority in order to avoid the bitterness of civil conflict can indeed be a virtue".

More Than a Via Media looks forward to commenting on Guyer's forthcoming articles. 'Constructive retrieval' of past Anglican political theology has the potential to both challenge contemporary Anglican political thinking and perhaps suggest alternatives to the baptism of market individualism by the Christian Right and the Christian Left's too-easy acceptance of the norms of left-wing thought.

Rather than being embarrassed by the approach to politics and society suggested by the liturgical commemorations of 5th November, 30th January and 25th May, contemporary Anglicans should view them - at Guyer's suggestion - "as a source of theological creativity".

At the Table with the cloud of witnesses

In a beautiful post for All Saints-tide, Dan Martins describes the experience of an Orthodox friend who worships in a church dedicated to St. Nicholas:

"From worshiping in that space, receiving Holy Communion week by week under the gaze, as it were, of St. Nicholas, he knows himself to have developed a relationship with the saint. Nicholas is more than just an interesting historical personage to him, more than a hero of the faith whose example is worthy of emulation. He is each of those things, of course, but he is also much more: Nicholas is a member of the family. My friend went on to say unashamedly, 'I love Nicholas'".

This, says Dan, is what is meant by the 'communion of saints':

"Both 'communion' and 'fellowship' can render the Greek word koinonia, but neither one is quite up to the task. Koinonia implies a relationship several degrees deeper and more intimate. It implies a relationship not just of admiration from a distance, but of love up close. How much richer and more satisfying our spiritual experience is when we broaden our horizon to experience the saints not only as heroes worthy of our study and imitation, but as family members whom we include in the circle of our love".

As Dan states, Anglicanism has not been good at giving expression to this aspect of the communion of saints. The Church of England's Common Worship has, however, restored an ancient Christian practice that has the potential to restore to Anglicans something of what C.S. Lewis described in Letters to Malcolm as the "great enrichment" of the communion of saints. Eucharistic Prayers B, E, F and G in Common Worship provide for the naming of a saint in the eucharistic prayer. To take prayer G as an example:

Bring us at the last with [N and] all the saints
to the vision of that eternal splendour
for which you have created us;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord ...

Commenting on this provision, Gordon-Taylor and Jones state in their guide to celebrating the eucharist:

"If this option is followed, the Blessed Virgin Mary (or 'our Lady') is customarily mentioned first, followed by the patron(s) of the church, the saint(s) of the day, or a combination of these".

The central prayer of the church, gathered at the Table, is the appropriate moment to celebrate the communion of saints. It is at the Table, where we gather as family, that we should be reminded that the family embraces the cloud of witnesses.

(The icon is of St. Anne - in whose cathedral in Belfast I preside at the eucharist once a month.)