Anglican Embers

Quarterly Journal of the

Anglican Use Society

Volume I, Number 2
Whitsuntide 2004

25
 Anglican Embers

Quarterly Journal of the Anglican Use Society

ISSN 1548-9175

© 2004 Anglican Use Society

914 Seventh Avenue
Bethlehem, PA 18018
All rights reserved.

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 Contents

Introduction, Joseph G. Blake page 28

Emblem page 31

The Ten Commandments, Joseph G. Blake page 32

Death of a Denomination, Jacob Dell page 34

The Gospel According to Philemon, Mark J. Kelly page 36

A Font for Salamo, C. David Burt page 39

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 INTRODUCTION

Much has happened in the past six weeks of the Anglican Use
Society. We have helped to sponsored two Anglican Use services in
NYC and eastern Pennsylvania. We have held our annual meeting in
NYC. Likewise as president of the society I have attended two events
worth detailing below.
First, let me report that the Society now has nearly 50 members
including two priests from the ECUSA Diocese of New York and a
continuing Anglican bishop from Canada. Our hope is to have 100
members by the end of the year.
On Pentecost Sunday May 25, 2004 we held our annual meeting
and arranged many of the details for the Anglican Use Mass celebrated
that day by Father Richard Bradford from St. Athanasius in Boston,
Massachusetts. Both events were at St. Vincent Ferrer Church on
Lexington Avenue.
The Mass was attended by 40 people. It was the third time that
an Anglican Use Mass was celebrated in New York. We hope to do so
again in 2005 with the kind support of the Dominican fathers at St.
Vincent Ferrer. The Mass was reviewed on the ship-of-fools.com web
site. I have not read the review but this group provides an aesthetic
and liturgical analysis of services where the great and good frequently
worship such as St. Paul’s in London or St. Thomas in NYC to name
two. They obviously saw our ad in the Times and thought the Mass
worth their attention. At the time of the collection their reviewer drops
a card in the collection plate with a picture of the Lone Ranger on it.
At our annual meeting the membership elected Mark Kelly,
Father Joseph Wilson, Father Allan Hawkins, David Burt, and Joseph
Blake as the board of directors to serve for the next three years. We
also discussed the future of the Anglican Use in NYC. We want to do
whatever we can to help the formation of a congregation there. For
this to happen there must be a group of New Yorkers to take a proactive
role in its formation and operation. The group needs a priest to work
with them pro-actively and a few hard working laymen to organize
regular events such as Evensong, Mass, and periodic lectures and study
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groups to give the vision of the Anglican Use in NYC a flesh-and-blood
reality. A good possibility would to have an evening speaker of some
reputation such as Cardinal Dulles or a prominent Catholic lay convert
to discuss their journey to Rome. Anyone want to take the lead?
On Sunday June 27, 2004 we held an Evensong at the St. Francis
Retreat Center in Easton Pennsylvania. Father Carleton Jones was
the preacher and officiant of the service. David Strang of Scranton
organized a superb quartet for the service. There were about 20
people there including several local priests who expressed considerable
interest.
We decided on Eastern PA because there is much happening in
the ECUSA there of a negative kind. Most of you know the on-going
battle between Bishop Bennison in Philadelphia and the Church of
the Good Shepherd in Rosemont. There are also several potential
conflicts including one in the Diocese of Bethlehem where Bishop Paul
Marshall appears to be following Bishop Bennison’s policy of allowing
no tolerance for the traditional Anglican viewpoint. More well develop
on that soon. Therefore now was the time to show the flag and let
continuing Anglicans know that we were there to help swim the Tiber
if they were so inclined. I hope we can build on our first event with
another Evensong and possibly a Mass before Christmas. Please say a
few prayers that the Holy Spirit might bless our efforts with success.
In early June I attended the confirmation service at Church of
the Good Shepherd, Rosemont, PA at their request. The Anglican
Archbishop of Central Africa, Malango, was there along with Bishop
Barnes, the suffragan Archbishop of Canterbury. Barnes was there at the
instruction of the Archbishop of Canterbury to conduct confirmation
for the confirmation candidates from several area churches in both the
Pennsylvania and Bethlehem dioceses. I met both these men who also
met with His Eminence cardinal Regale of Philadelphia.
On June 25, I flew to Dallas to attend the tenth anniversary of
the reception of St. Mary the Virgin parish into the Catholic Church.
St. Mary’s had been a parish of the ECUSA diocese of Fort Worth.
Under the leadership of Father Allan Hawkins the parish swam the
Tiber together. The event was well attended. Archbishops Faulk and
Hepworth of the Traditional Anglican Communion were there. Both
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St. Mary’s and Church of the Good Shepherd are thriving places if
the number of young families is any indication. As I said to Bishop
Barnes, “The last time you or I attended a Church of England service
we reduced the average age by 10 years.” He readily agreed. I am past
50 and the bishop 70.
Now what will we be doing next? We want to raise awareness of
the Society within the Catholic world and achieve some outreach this
year. David Burt and I have both had an interest in Casa Walsingham,
founded by Father Walters, a former Anglican priest, now Catholic
priest, who established a home for street children in Medellín,
Columbia. Toward that goal, I am going to ask any and all to make a
pledge to Casa Walsingham. That pledge will be due on September 13,
the day after I finish a Half Iron man triathlon in Delaware.
Now you might ask two things: How do we know that Casa
Walsingham is OK? David Burt visited there earlier this year and took
some marvelous pictures. You cannot help but be impressed by them.
And what is a Half Iron man triathlon? It, like all triathlons, requires
the participant to complete a race course of swimming, biking and
running. The Half Iron man is a 1.3 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride,
and half marathon run (13.2 miles). Obviously I have to train a good
bit. Each day I am doing one or more of these events as part of my
preparation. For example I rode 15 miles to work this morning and
will repeat that on the way home despite the rain. I only ask that if I do
the sweating, that you do the paying. You can learn more by visiting
the Casa Walsingham web site at http://www.letthechildrenlive.org/
index.htm. We hope that each of you will agree to obtain pledges from
your local parish. We are also hopeful that some will take an interest in
the Anglican Use Society and join us.
Meanwhile, I recently heard these wonderful words of Thucydides
which we should all remember when we cannot see the light at the end
of the tunnel, “We will not know what a fine day it has been until
evening comes.” Let us be grateful for all that we have and look for
ways to return that gratitude to God. As St. Theresa said, “God does
not want great deeds; He wants gratitude and acceptance.”
Joseph Blake, President

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 Emblem
The emblem of the Anglican Use Society is the Canterbury Cross
depicted on the cover of Anglican Embers. This cross is based on
an ancient Saxon cross discovered in Canterbury, but it has been re-
designed by Rita Strow, a member of the Congregation of St. Athanasius
in Boston. I have lapel pins and large pendant crosses for sale.

1 Pewter Lapel Pin, $10.00

2 Silver Lapel Pin, $20.00

3 Pewter Pendant Cross, $100.00

Shipping in the USA $3.85

C. David Burt, Editor scriptor@locutor.net

180 Rumford Ave, #3, Mansfield, MA 02048

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 The Ten Commandments
by Joseph G. Blake
As our readers will know, in colonial Virginia the Church of
England was established by law. In most of the churches of that period,
the space behind the altar frequently displayed the Ten Commandments,
the Apostles Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. Therefore, many of our
founding fathers including Washington, Madison, and Jefferson were
certainly conversant with the Ten Commandments.

Of late there have been many headlines, news stories, and columns
about “the separation church and state.” Locally and elsewhere, the
focal point has been on any display of the Ten Commandments or the
use of the word God on our currency. The radical secularists claim that
these displays of civic deism are unconstitutional because they violate
the separation of church and state enshrined in the Constitution.

Actually, the words “separation of church and state” do not appear

anywhere in the constitution. The first amendment states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of

religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

The words “separation of church and state” actually were used by

Jefferson in a letter written near the end of his life. As such, the letter
from the author of the Bill of Rights is important but it does not take
precedent over the actual words in the Constitution.

The current assault on any display of the Ten Commandments

in a public building such as a court house is mindlessly anti-historical.
The Ten Commandments are one of the key documents that comprise
the foundation of western ethical and legal thought. The English
Court of Common Pleas was established in the reign of Henry II
(1154-1189). He believed that English common law was based on the
commandments and the classical understanding of natural law derived
by reason. Hence when we say they can no longer be in a court room
we set aside around 3000 years of tradition as if it were unimportant.
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 Also, if we are using Jefferson’s words, we should acknowledge
Jefferson’s concern that a civil society needed to be concerned about the
ethical development of its citizens to survive. If we dice and splice the
Ten Commandments, we will find there are five that are essential to a
civil society. They are: Thou shalt not lie, kill, steal, or commit adultery
and thou shalt honor thy father and mother. If you think about the
reasons for most criminal trials, they generally involve a violation of
one or more of these commandments.

Recently, Alan Greenspan observed that trust and integrity were

essential to the public’s confidence in the marketplace. He added that
he hoped that they “would be amply rewarded in the marketplace as
they were in earlier generations.” However, the continued assault on
the sources of our ethical heritage in the name of freedom reminds me
of the words of C.S. Lewis in The Abolition of Man, “We castrate and
bid the geldings be fruitful.” If we attack the long established sources
of civic virtue, then how are we to be a civil society that respects not
only laws but also the rights of the very citizens those laws protect?

The comment is often made that younger Americans do not know

their heritage. If we remove the Ten Commandments form all public
places, that process of losing any connection to our heritage will be
advanced all the more. Increasingly the expression of religious belief
by anyone in a public forum is treated as if it were bizarre. That, too,
is a concern because the first amendment also says that Congress may
pass no law which “abridges the freedom of speech”. If we consider
the reasons why the pilgrims left England in 1620, there can be no
more significant right than the ability to express openly one’s belief in
God or invoke with prayer God’s blessings on ourselves, family, and
friends. We should recall that President Roosevelt announced the D-
Day invasion 60 years ago as a prayer and not a press release.

Next time someone says the display of the Ten Commandments

is unconstitutional, you might well ask how civic virtue is to be created
if we do not even acknowledge their role in how we got where we are as
a nation today. Their display is not some arcane relic of an irrelevant
religion. Rather, they are an integral part of our legal heritage just as
much as are the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the
Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address.

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 Death of a Denomination
by Jacob Dell
It’s a sad thing to see a church die and surely it is a mark of that
century which in Pope Leo’s vision was promised to the Devil.

Chances are that you haven’t heard of Fr. Geoffrey Kirk, a priest of
the Church of England, but he is asking for help – our help. He (like
countless other evangelical and catholic-minded Anglicans) is trapped
aboard the sinking ship of his own denomination.

Fr. Kirk is president of Forward in Faith – a large organization

of Anglican bishops, priests, and laymen tenaciously hanging on to
the vision of recalling their church to the fullness of catholic faith and
practice perceived by Newman so long ago. They reject the novelties
of female ordination and the abandonment of biblical morality. They
seek a way forward; a means by which they can continue in the faith of
their English fathers and bring to fruition efforts to heal the wounds of
the Reformation.

These efforts have their roots in the 19th century but serious
dialogue between Anglicans and Roman Catholics began in earnest in
the years following Vatican II.

Throughout the 1970’s and into the 1980’s delegates from both
sides met and consensus was built on the nature of Holy Orders,
Church polity and the Eucharist.

Then in 1976 the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in

the United States cavalierly overturned millennia of tradition, the clear
mandate of Scripture, and the pleas of those working for reunion with
Rome by authorizing the ordination of women to the priesthood. A
decade later the first woman was consecrated a bishop in the American
Church. The Church of England held out until 1992 and by 1994 the
first class of priestesses was ordained.

This past summer the renegade and by now completely apostate

General Convention of the Episcopal Church did it again: confirming
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the election of a divorced man and active homosexual as bishop of New
Hampshire.

When the ruthless homosexualist movement succeeds in ravaging

the church of George Washington and Robert E. Lee how long
before the rest of us become targets of this agenda? What was once
unthinkable in the Church will soon come to pass in the State. The
goal of the homosexualists is nothing less than the destruction of the
legal institution of marriage. Marriage becomes unconstitutional as
homosexuals become bishops. As goes the Episcopal Church, so goes
the country.

Last month Fr. Kirk sent what might be the last call for help from
his dying denomination. During a conference at Oxford University he
called for the interim establishment of an orthodox, catholic province
of the Anglican Communion; a province which would quickly and
actively seek recognition by the Holy See.

Here we have as fervent a group of Catholics one could hope to

find, abandoned and rejected by their own church, sending a distress
call to Rome. Is anyone listening?

The credibility of a generation is on the line. Did all that talk

about ecumenism, unity, taking a fresh look at our differences, and
recognizing what was truly Christian in each other actually mean
anything? If so then it’s time for the Holy Father to act and extend a
generous provision to the catholic remnants of the Church of England
and the Episcopal Church. The time is now; a little while later and
there won’t be anymore Fr. Kirks.

Fr. Kirk has pitched the ball. Rome, it’s in our court.

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 The Gospel According to
Philemon
Mark J. Kelly
The small epistle to Philemon contains a very large message for
the people of God. Often overlooked by many due to it’s size (only
334 words in the original Greek) and location in the NT, it nevertheless
conveys an illuminating message. This intensely personal letter was
originally meant to impact a much larger audience. Paul, who is
suffering in prison, writes to Philemon to petition the forgiveness and
release of Onesimus. Onesimus is runaway slave and probably a thief.
The penalty in the Roman empire was very severe for such a crime,
most often death. This unprofitable slave found his way to Rome and
by the providence of God wound up with Paul in his prison. Onesimus
is converted and sent back to his owner, presumably with this letter.
Onesimus, who was once useless to Philemon is now quite useful to
Paul and the Kingdom (Onesimus literally means “useful”).

Paul would not presume to order Philemon. Paul reminds his

old friend, that he, Philemon, owes the Apostle his life or at least the
service of Onesimus; still, Paul sees the need for willing acceptance on
the part of Philemon. Paul is willing to undergo the ongoing hardship
of the loss of Onesimus. Paul reminds his comrade that Onesimus is
no longer a slave of Philemon, but a brother and slave of a new master,
Christ. Onesimus is to be received just as if he were Paul himself. Paul
swears an oath that he will repay anything that Onesimus is responsible
for. Despite his imprisonment Paul does expect to return so the Church
should prepare a place for him. To many this is a seemingly harmless
story and an interesting “tidbit” of biblical history, yet the Holy Spirit
willed it to be in the canon for a special reason.

Scripture often appears to us in microcosms. That is, the story

told by the whole of the Bible can often be seen by viewing a small part.
The entire narrative is told by one of its chapters.

Paul can be seen in this letter as a type of Christ, who suffering

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in his flesh is experiencing imprisonment in a dungeon. The prophet
of God suffering as an innocent in a prison / pit scenario is often a
picture of death in the Scriptures (cf. David, Jeremiah, Joseph). Their
deliverance from that pit is often a foreshadowing of the Resurrection.
Onesimus is not being released from his slavery to be free. Like us, he
is being transferred to a “new servitude” and a new master. Paul, as a
type of Christ, condescends to counsel with His Church such as he
did with Abraham before Sodom and on the Mount of Transfiguration
with Moses and Elijah. Paul reasons gently for the Church is part of
the heavenly counsel, pictured here by Philemon and the Church in
his house. He desires Philemon’s free cooperation with his grace. Paul,
like Christ, promises or covenants to repay anything that Philemon the
prodigal son/slave has taken. He will repay it all, since the slave can
not repay his own debt. Paul is confident of his release from prison and
his return from this temporary stay in the depths of Rome, an image of
the Resurrection and the Parousia (Second Coming). Notice how Paul
reminds Philemon of his imminent return and, like Christ, he needs
a place saved for him. Notice all the important redemptive themes in
this tiny epistle:

• The Suffering Servant who prays for Freedom.

• Cries out from his pit of bondage (The descent of Christ to

Earth and to the pit of death).

• Delivers a slave to freedom (Exodus and NT Redemption).

• Servant gains a new master (Christ).

• The useless sinner becomes useful in the new Kingdom.

• The sinner/slave delivered from a death penalty.

• Vows to repay the debt for the sinner (slave).

• Promises to return (Second Coming) .

• Desires the free cooperative consent of the Philemon and the

Church in this salvation.

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• Expectation of the Church to have a place waiting for him
(A common exhortation of Christ in the Gospels).

We are taught in this letter that seeking and gaining forgiveness

of others in the Church is very essential for Kingdom living. The trip
for Onesimus, the released slave, from Rome back to Colossae was
long, yet necessary in the economy of Kingdom redemption. So is our
Journey in this world till its fullness in Heaven. We are not released
from the slavery of sin to do as we will, we simply exchange households
and become a slave of a new master, God through Christ. In the words
of our Holy Father, John Paul II: “Freedom is not the ability to do
as we will, but the ability to do as we should.” (our duties to God and
Man).

It is the covenant of Christ’s redemption that has freed us from

sin. Christ’s ongoing petition before the Father that maintains our
freedom. Christ desires our voluntary consent even though he has the
power and authority to force our obedience.

By loving persuasion and subtle biblical allusions and typology

Paul never quotes a verse of Sacred Scripture to Philemon but the
message and parallels of Redemptive History are extraordinary. Paul’s
“preaching” of the total Gospel in this small passage by the use of
images in this letter are so strong that he does not have to spell out
the spiritual meaning. By being gentle, loving, subtle and redemptive
the figure of Paul completes the acts of our Lord and ministers grace
that profits everyone. The entire Church is edified by this transfer of
households.

It is important to read the Bible “inside out”, that is, to see where
the small story connect with the rest of Scripture. Not only this
minuscule letter can be viewed in this manner, but all of Scripture may
be read in this microcosmic fashion. For, as the Catechism reminds
us, “ All Sacred Scripture is but one book, and that one book is Christ,
because all divine Scripture speaks of Christ, and all divine Scripture is
fulfilled in Christ” (CCC ¶ 134).

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 A Font for Salamo
by C. David Burt
The rural village of San Juan, Salamo in the department of Jalapa,
Guatemala, like many similar places in Central America has a legacy
of violence and misery that has left many children fatherless and has
contributed to the financial and political necessity for many to find
their way somehow to the United States. It is because of this tragic
situation that I found myself teaching some of these young people in
the public schools of Boston. For two in particular, Domingo and
Norme Vasquez, I became something of a surrogate father, and I
struggled with them in their academic, personal, and legal problems
until their eventual deportation back to Guatemala.

No mater what you think of the huge problem of illegal immigration

in this country, there are many, like Domingo and Norme, who had
a moral reason to escape, for otherwise they might have been killed.
Their mother sacrificed almost all that she had, including most of her
land, to pay “coyotes” to carry them to safety.

José Úrsulo Vasquez, their father, was a “campesino” who joined

with Catalina Méndez, a young woman of the village of San Juan,
Salamo to raise a family. He worked in the fields, and was given some
land of his own. He grew corn and beans, and he raised cattle. He
was also an Army commissioner who recruited young me to serve in
the military. The Guatemalan Civil War was raging, but most of the
trouble was in another part of the country. Nevertheless, the village
was very poor. José and some other village men decided to go and talk
with the President of Guatemala. They had to wait a number of days,
but eventually gained an audience. After they returned, the Village
got electricity, and José and a number of other men received backpacks
containing medical supplies, and they were trained to respond in the
case of medical emergencies.

In 1983 José Úrsulo Vasquez spent some weeks in jail accused of

cattle rustling. A few days after he was exonerated, some trucks were
heard approaching the village at night. Military men wearing masks
entered the house. José, his brother, and one of his uncles were outside
39
making hobbles for the horses. Catalina Méndez hid the children under
the bed. The soldiers took José and the other men away, and they were
never seen again. For weeks following this, the village was terrorized in
a similar manner. All of the men in the paramedical group were killed,
and even some teenage boys were killed in cold blood. Catalina would
take her children out into the fields at night to sleep during this period
because it was not safe to stay in the house. One by one, as thy got big
enough, she sent her sons on the dangerous trip to the north.

Catalina Méndez searched in vain for information about her

husband, and her story is much like that of many other Guatemalan
women widowed by the war, with all her hopes for a better life dashed
to pieces. Without her sons, she could not manage the land, and she
eventually sold most of it. She stayed in the humble village of El Salamo
with her elderly parents, her two daughters and her only remaining
son, Kike, who had been crippled by polio as a child. When I was told
that she took care of the village church and liked to place flowers on the
altar in memory of her husband, I knew that some day I would meet
this courageous woman.

When Norme was deported, following a year of imprisonment in

this country, during which time we fought to prevent his deportation,
I visited Guatemala and went to see the village. I couldn’t contain
the tears in my eyes when I met Catalina Méndez, and as I gave her a
framed picture of her husband which a fellow prisoner of Norme’s had
made from a photo using bits of gum, candy, and candles. I asked her
to show me the church that she loved so much.

The old church of Saint John the Baptist was in ruins because a
large tree fell on it, but the Catholics had built another church beside
it. It is a simple cinder block structure with a metal roof, and it still has
a dirt floor. There was a very active Protestant church in the village as
well, and you could hear the loudspeakers and loud music everywhere
in the village every evening. The Catholic Church was also open
most evenings, and although there was no priest, there was a group
of catechists who held services and gave instruction to the children. I
attended one evening and heard an inspiring sermon given by Gerardo
Nájera, one of the catechists. I remembered that Norme had told me

40
that one of his childhood friends who had been killed was of the Nájera
family.

The children of the village suffer from a lack of schooling and

the need to work. The village school is in poor condition, and only
provides six years of education. After that a student must go elsewhere
and pay for continued education. This explained why most of the
students I had in Boston could only barely read in Spanish. Only Kike
was afforded further education by a religious order because he was a
cripple. Now he is a teacher in a remote village school.

If you walk around the village, even today, you will find many
children not in school. They are working, helping their parents in
the bare necessities of life. For example, three times a day in every
household, they make tortillas. Each household has a small silo to
keep the corn. This is boiled in a pot over a wood fire. Then it is taken
to a mill where the wet cooked corn is milled into dough called masa.
If the mill is not working, they use a primitive indian metate. It is a
common sight to see small girls, frequently barefoot, with a bundle
of corn or masa on their heads either going or coming from the mill.
The tortillas are made on a comal, a piece of sheet metal supported by
stones with a wood fire under it. The amount of wood being burned in
this way is excessive, and contributes to the deforestation and the poor
quality of the air in the whole of Central America. Men, women and
children can be seen walking along the highway bearing large bundles
of firewood which they have gathered in the woods. The boys and girls
work. All the men and women work, and there is a continual struggle
for existence.

After I returned to the States from my trip, I decided that I wanted

to give the church a baptismal font with pictures of children working,
playing and studying. The architect of Our Lady of Walsingham
Anglican Use Church in Houston Texas is Ethan Anthony of hdb/Cram
& Ferguson in Boston. Domingo and I went to see him to discuss the
ideas for the font. It turned out that he wished to contribute to the
project and his firm would design it for free. One of his associates was
Rafael Aycinena from Guatemala, and he had an uncle in Guatemala
who would make the font from cast stone. Rita Strow, an artist who

41
belongs to St. Athanasius Anglican Use Congregation in Boston made
the drawings of the children.

In the middle of all of this, Domingo was deported too, leaving

a newborn son, Joseph, named for his martyred father. Soon Mirna,
a sister of the boys, made the dangerous trip across the desert in order
to help with Joseph in Boston. Mirna is still in Boston helping the
mother, Veronica, with the baby.

I sent the proposal for the font to Domingo and Gerardo Nájera
in Salamo, and eventually received word that they did not like the idea
of the pictures of the children; they wanted something more traditional.
I had recently read Eamon Duffy’s book, The Stripping of the Altars, and
I decided that we should make a font with the seven sacraments. Rita
drew a new set of pictures, and Rafael Aycinena came up with a design
very similar to some of the pre-reformation fonts in English churches.
Jesús Sagone in Guatemala started making the font.

When I learned that the font was finished, I decided to make

another trip to Guatemala, because there was no plan for delivery
to Salamo. The original idea was to have a bronze cover with the
Canterbury Cross of the Anglican Use Association, but the quote
we received was too high. The cover would have cost more than the
font itself. At the last minute I had a wooden cover made by Douglas
Cooper, a boat builder in Falmouth. He did a beautiful job, and we
put one of the pewter Anglican Use Association crosses in the middle
as an ornament. With the first coat of polyurethane sealant barely dry,
I threw it in my vestment bag along with my cassock and surplice and
went off to Guatemala.

Domingo and Norme met me at the airport, and the next day,
Sunday, we arranged for a pickup truck to move the font to El Salamo.
Jesús Sagone met us at his stone yard, an there was the font. It weighs
over seven hundred pounds. Nevertheless, we got it into the truck and
later in the afternoon, into the church. It took a lot of Guatemalan
sweat and only $100 American dollars to do it. That evening we
attended Mass at Monjas, the nearest town, and the priest agreed to
come to Salamo on Tuesday to celebrate a Mass in memory of José
Úrsulo Vasquez and Companions, and to bless the font.
42
 On Monday we visited Esquipulas, a famous pilgrimage site in
Guatemala where the “Cristo Negro” is venerated with great devotion.
We brought back some holy water, and I added some holy water from
the Holy Well at Walsingham, and this is what the priest used to bless
the font and the people on Tuesday evening while I sang the Vidi aquam
in English from the Anglican Use Gradual. I was permitted to speak
to the congregation after the Mass, and I told the people of the village
that the font was intended to be a breath of hope especially for those
boys and girls who had lost their fathers in the violence of the 1980’s.
There were close to a hundred people in the church and many others
outside, possibly some of the Protestants, who showed great interest.

The village church of San Juan Salamo now has a beautiful

baptismal font that is a monument to the seven sacraments of the
Catholic Church. The cover has a plaque which says that it is given in
memory of José Úrsulo Vasquez and Companions murdered in 1983.
As far as I know this is the only memorial those men have in the village,
and the font is certainly unique in all of Guatemala.

While the Catholic Church in that country is struggling due to

a severe shortage of ordained clergy, the work of the catechists is a
very hopeful sign. Churches are not being closed. On the contrary,
they are open almost every evening. The sacrament is kept in reserve
in the tabernacle on the altar, and extraordinary ministers of Holy
Communion offer the sacrament once a week. The priest of Monjas,
who has about twenty such villages to serve, celebrates Mass daily in his
own church and in one or two of the villages. People have to line up
outside the Rectory to see him when he has office hours, and there is
little time for anything except pastoral counseling and the sacraments.

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 Baptismal Font in the Village Church of
San Juan, Salamo, Guatemala
If any readers of Anglican Embers goes to Guatemala, take a side
trip to San Juan, Salamo, near Monjas, and there in the village church
you will see a baptismal font similar to what you would see in a medieval
village church in England. The cover bears the Canterbury Cross of
the Anglican Use Association.
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