GLAD TIDINGS

No.6. Vol 09 August 2009 christchurchguilford.org

From the Interim Rector

HIGH, BROAD, OR LOW: WHICH WAY DO WE GO?

ust as in politics, labels in religion can be troublesome, inaccurate and, often, misleading.When it comes to politicians, labels such as liberal, conservative, or moderate usually neveraccurately describe the totality of an individual’s political views. Someone who may be calledliberal when it comes to social issues might just as well hold very conservative positions when

economic/scal issues are discussed. There are those who would describe themselves as “pro-life”

when it comes to abortion issues, but, at the same time, adamantly defend capital punishment when it comes to cop killer.Labels can be troublesome, inaccurate and often misleading. In the parlance

of ecclesial theology and liturgical practice (i.e. churchmanship) and liturgical

theology within the Anglican Communion and, particularly, within the AmericanEpiscopal Church, we hear descriptive words and terms thrown around such as:High Church, Low Church, and Broad Church. Add to that: Lexicon Catholic,

protestant, high and dry, evangelical, Anglo-Catholic, traditional Anglo-Catholic,

Prayer Book Catholic, Conservative Evangelical, charismatic and something called

Anglo-Papalist -- no kidding! Our Lutheran brothers and sisters would add to

this veritable chowder of the descriptive language of churchmanship: LiberalProtestant, Pietist, Confessional Lutheran or Evangelical Catholic. Are your eyes glazing over? Confused? Stay with me, now. We’ll get through this. I’ll limit the

discussion to three principal forms of churchmanship within Anglicanism (i.e. inour case: Episcopalianism):

Low Church

Broad Church

, and

High Church

and how they areoften misappropriated to various forms of churchmanship.

Low Church

is now generally used to refer to the Puritan or Evangelical tradition within Anglicanism. Initially used as a pejorative term, alluding to the absence of something, rather thana substantively descriptive term. Low Church generally indicates churchmanship that places greater emphasis on the protestant nature of Anglicanism. Low churchmen tend to favor PrayerBook services of Morning and Evening Prayer over regular celebration of the Holy Eucharist.Pejoratively used, Low churchmanship indicates the absence of the use of proper Eucharistic vestments, and the rejection of the doctrine that the Sacraments of the Church confer grace. Somelow Episcopal churches include elements of charismatic Christianity, personal conversion, and

even Pentecostalism, glossolalia (speaking in tongues), biblical inerrancy, and biblical literalism.

The term

High Church is, by far, the most loaded phrase of the three types of churchmanship. Loaded, inthe sense that if I were to ask ten individual Anglicans from varying church backgrounds and geographical

areas what High Church means, I might get as many as twelve distinct descriptions and explanations!

Why so much confusion? I believe it’s fair to say the confusion comes from the historical metamorphosis

of the very term High Church. There is not a simple explanation of what High Church means, because itmeans dierent things to dierent people. For this discussion, lets trace back only as far as what is knownin history as the Oxford Movement,

sometimes referred to as the Tractarian Movement that emerged in1833 England led by Anglicans John Henry Newman and J. Hurrell Froude, among others. The Tractarians

(

so named because of their utilization of printed tracts or pamphlets they called

“Tracts for the Times”) subscribed to the idea that

the Church, as a catholic entity

of the body of Christ (the word catholic, literally meaning universal and has nothing to do with Rome or the pope!) was the sacramental system divinely given the means

of grace, as opposed to low churchmen who stressed simple personal conversion.

In mid-19

century England, the descriptive term High Church morphed into an

Anglo-Catholic or even a triumphalist position (i.e. the “My religion’s superiorto yours” attitude expressed by recent Bishops of Rome.) This was foreign tothe religious philosophy of the Oxford Movement. High churchmanship holds an

orthodox approach to worship and elaborate liturgical practice: the frequent, almost

regular use of celebrants, deacons, and sub-deacons in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist; regular and frequent use of incense – I’m talking every Sunday frequent;

Eucharistic devotional liturgies such as Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, the

use of votive candles, regularly scheduled Confession, daily celebration of the Holy Eucharist, etc. (See the website of

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Philadelphia saintmarksphiladelphia.org

, a thriving and openly Anglo-Catholic parish.)

Now, before considering the term

Broad Church

, lets go to our Book of Common Prayer for guidance. Under the

heading, Concerning the Service of the Church, our Prayer Book states this: “The Holy Eucharist, the principal actof Christian worship on the Lord’s Day (i.e. Sunday) and other major Feasts, and Daily (i.e. weekdays) Morning andEvening Prayer are the regular services appointed for worship in this Church.” In other words, when Episcopalians gather for worship on Sundays and other major Feasts or

Holy Days, the appropriate liturgical expression is the Mass.

Oh, too Catholic a word, some might say! But, just a moment. Let’s go to our Episcopal Catechism, which beginson page 845 of the Book of Common Prayer. On page 859, in the classic Q & A format, the Catechism tells us this:Q. What is the Holy Eucharist? A. The H.E. is the sacrament commanded by Christ for the continual remembranceof his life, death, and resurrection, until his coming again. Q. Why is the Eucharist called a sacrice? A. Because theEucharist, the Church’s sacrice of praise and thanksgiving, is the way by which the sacrice of Christ is made present,and in which he unites us to His one oering of Himself. (Now watch this!) Q. By what other names is this serviceknown? A. The Holy Eucharist is called the Lord’s Supper, and Holy Communion; it is also known as the Divine

Liturgy, the

Mass

, (my emphasis) and the Great Oering. So referring to the Eucharist as the Mass has nothing to do with High Church, Low Church, NO church nor the Roman Catholic Church! It’s right there in our Episcopal Book

of Common Prayer.

So what does

Broad Church

mean? Simply this form of churchmanship is open to a Broad range of opinion, theology, liturgy, and scriptural interpretation.

Broad Church

is a mixture of low and high churchelements. Particularly with regard to styles of worship, the overwhelming majority of Episcopal churches,

including Christ Episcopal Church, Guilford, fall into this category.

Broad Church

mixes the informality of the low with the formality of the high. Some parts of the service may be sung but the majority of theliturgy will be said. Most Broad Church worship includes the regular use of Eucharistic vestments worn by

the Celebrant. Some Broad Church worshipers may use devotional acts (i.e. making the Sign of the Cross, genuecting, bowing to the passing processional cross or at the invocation of the Trinity in prayer), praying

at the Stations of the Cross during Lent, while others may not.

Broad Church

worship may mix the use of Anglican chant with more evangelical hymns, just as we do at Christ Church. Infrequent use of ceremonialincense on High Holy Days such as Easter, Christmas, All Saints Sunday or Pentecost is a common featureof

Broad Church

worship. Rarely, if ever, would a parish in the

Broad Church

tradition use incenseon a every Sunday basis, as do most High Church parishes. Sermons in the

Broad Church

tradition aretypically based on scripture lectionary readings for the day. In a nutshell,

Broad Church

churchmanship is, without a doubt, the future of the Episcopal Church. Does that mean that Low and High churchmanship

will disappear? Most likely no, and that’s a good thing; that’s the beauty of being an Anglican Christian! That’s the gift of being, staunchly, part of the

via media

or the Middle Way. The Anglican/Episcopalian

expression of Christianity is the middle way between Roman Catholicism and mainline Protestantism. So,

when someone asks: “Are you a Roman Catholic or a Protestant?” An appropriate response would be: “I’m

an Anglican, part of the Church of the Middle Way.

Fr. Anthony Dinoto +

GLAD TIDINGS

Planning Meeting sets2009/2010 ChurchEvents Schedule

Father Tony and Jean Valentine hosted a planning session onWednesday, July 29th, at 6 p.m. to look ahead and develop the2009-2010 program year at Christ Episcopal Church.

A light meal, arranged by Pat Wakeeld, was served to theattendees which included volunteers, members of the Search

Greetings One and All!

from Adam Pajan, Music Director

t’s hard to believe that the summer is almost over. The break has been wonderful for me, and I hope

you all have enjoyed vacations, relaxation, and all the other projects you have undertaken during thesepast months.Here are a few details concerning the upcoming months.

1) Church of the Holy Advent, Clinton would like to combine with us for a Chorister retreat day at Christ

Church on August 19th. It’s the week before school begins, so I’m hoping that most of you will be in

town and will be able to attend. The retreat will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with lunch and other activities

included. It’s a wonderful opportunity to get a head start on the coming year and a great chance for ourChoristers to meet others in the area. Please respond with your availability regarding this date.

2) The choir of Westport/Weston United Methodist Church is also interested in a combined project,

with Leslie playing and me conducting. I have chosen the Dvorak

Mass

, a wonderful piece with plenty

of challenges, for our work together. If you have issues with this date, please let me know ASAP! It’s

very important to nail down the details right away. I’m looking forward to working with Leslie again, and

I’m sure you will be excited about taking on another large project. The

Faure

was a ball, and it will be

wonderful to combine again in Guilford. We will need a few Saturdays to work on the repertoire, but I

won’t schedule them until September. I will make scores and CD’s available as of this Sunday, so if you are

in church, please stop by and get a head-start listening and learning this incredible work!3) Labor Day is September 7th, so normal rehearsals will begin Thursday, September 10th. Welcome BackSunday is September 20th. We have a couple of weeks to get things in gear. Our rst Sunday singing willbe on September 13th. If there are conicts with any of the above information, please let me know as soonas possible. We can all look forward to another year growing together both spiritually and musically!

Committee, and the Vestry. A month-by-month provisional calendar was prepared for a most active and

inspiring upcoming church year.

Visit our New Redesigned web site www.christchurchguilford.org

Log on to get the latest report from the Parish Search Committee entitled

A Time of Transition & Discernment