Monday, June 02, 2003
Reflections on Anglo-Catholic church ministry
After being part of an evangelical church in the loose Brethren tradition I started attending an Anglo-Catholic church. I did this because I found that in the sacramental worship I felt that I was coming into God's presence more than in the singing and preaching of my former church.
The focal point of the main Sunday service is the eucharist, and for the individual worshipper the climax is receiving the bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ. The activity of the Holy Spirit in the church is strongly associated with the eucharist, and with the other sacraments. They are regarded as the divinely given means by which we enter into communion with Christ and receive the Spirit.
The eucharist service also includes a service of the Word. Readings are made from the Old Testament, the Epistles and the Gospel, and a sermon given. Unlike the evangelical 'ministry of the Word' however, the sermon tend to be short and undemanding. There is relatively little emphasis on explaining the Scriptures that have been read, or preaching from them. Possibly this is because the texts are read according to a lectionary, that prescribes which passages are read on which Sunday. Rather than limit themselves to working a sermon around these passages the priest or reader speaks on whatever they think they ought to, and manage to get a reference to the readings in if possible. It is perhaps a weakness of this tradition that the Word is not taken as seriously in practice as it could be. Perhaps the weakness of the evangelical tradition is that the sacraments are not taken as seriously as perhaps they could be.
After being part of an evangelical church in the loose Brethren tradition I started attending an Anglo-Catholic church. I did this because I found that in the sacramental worship I felt that I was coming into God's presence more than in the singing and preaching of my former church.
The focal point of the main Sunday service is the eucharist, and for the individual worshipper the climax is receiving the bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ. The activity of the Holy Spirit in the church is strongly associated with the eucharist, and with the other sacraments. They are regarded as the divinely given means by which we enter into communion with Christ and receive the Spirit.
The eucharist service also includes a service of the Word. Readings are made from the Old Testament, the Epistles and the Gospel, and a sermon given. Unlike the evangelical 'ministry of the Word' however, the sermon tend to be short and undemanding. There is relatively little emphasis on explaining the Scriptures that have been read, or preaching from them. Possibly this is because the texts are read according to a lectionary, that prescribes which passages are read on which Sunday. Rather than limit themselves to working a sermon around these passages the priest or reader speaks on whatever they think they ought to, and manage to get a reference to the readings in if possible. It is perhaps a weakness of this tradition that the Word is not taken as seriously in practice as it could be. Perhaps the weakness of the evangelical tradition is that the sacraments are not taken as seriously as perhaps they could be.
