The trip to Baltimore took longer than planned. The plane left Hartford late and my connection in Newark was longer than planned, both delays were the result of excessive winds.
The first question on the GOE asks for an analysis of two Eucharistic prayers, one from Rite I in the Prayer Book and the other from Enriching Our Worship, a supplemental liturgical resource, and one we use often at St. Michael's.
While each prayer contains the requisite components of a Great Thanksgiving (thanksgiving, remembering, offering, invocation of the Spirit, prayer) they give us vastly different images of God. Taken from the 1700s, Eucharistic Prayer 1 in the Prayer Book, gives us the image of a God who is utterly transcendent. Beyond us. Holy, holy, holy. Whereas the prayer from Enriching Our Worship gives us the image of a God whose creative work blessed humanity and made it good.
We don't use Rite I at St. Michael's. It's not because Rite I is bad, or even that I dislike it. We don't use it because it's not known to many of us (in the 30+ years since the "old" prayer book went away, St. Michael's has never had a long tradition of using Rite I). And while the language, from a poetic and symbolic perspective, is beautiful (very beautiful) it's written in a style quite removed from our daily use of English.
We do use Enriching Our Worship at St. Michael's. We use it a lot! The postcommunion prayer (God of abundance...) comes from this resource; often the form of the confession we use does too. During the season after Pentecost (basically from June until December) the Eucharistic Prayer we used was from Enriching Our Worship. The image of a God whose gender is neither male nor female, and the image of a God who "loves us a mother" and "never ceases to care for us" reminds us, in language we use day-to-day, that God is an intimate and constant friend and companion.
It's a blessed gift that we worship in a church where there are choices. Both of these prayers are good, and there are times in my life when I need the language of repentance and forgiveness--gifts of God in abundance in the prayer from Rite 1, and of course there are times in my life when I need the language of blessing, goodness, relationship, and embrace--gifts of God in abundance in Enriching Our Worship.
Neither is better than the other. In fact each of them is best.
05 February 2007
24 January 2007
A New Saint: Florence Li Tim-Oi
Today the church celebrates one if its newest saints, Tim-Oi, the first Asian woman to be ordained a priest. Tim-Oi took the name Florence (after Florence Nightingale) after her baptism, and was subsequently known as Florence Li Tim-Oi.
Born in Hong Kong on the 5th of May 1907, she first heard a call to ordained ministry in 1931, following the ordination of a deaconess at the Cathedral in Hong Kong. She was ordained a deacon in 1941, following a 4 year course of study in Canton.
The lack of a priest in the congregation where she served led the Bishop of Hong Kong to give her permission to do so, then on January 25, 1944, the Bishop ordained her a priest. The controversy which followed was so great, in 1946, that Tim-Oi surrendered her priest's licence, but not her Holy Orders, the knowledge of which carried her through Maoist persecution.
She resumed the practice of her priesthood in the Church in China, and in Toronto when she retired in 1981. She was awarded Doctorates of Divinity by General Theological Seminary, New York, and Trinity College, Toronto. She died on February 26, 1992, in Toronto, and is buried there. The 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, meeting in Minneapolis in 2003, voted to place her commemoration on this day, January 24th, for a three year period. In June of 2006 the 76th General Convention made the commemoration permanent.
Long before the 1970s, and in a land far away from the United States, the Church was blessed with the priestly gifts of a woman, one we now call St. Florence Li Tim-Oi.
Born in Hong Kong on the 5th of May 1907, she first heard a call to ordained ministry in 1931, following the ordination of a deaconess at the Cathedral in Hong Kong. She was ordained a deacon in 1941, following a 4 year course of study in Canton.
The lack of a priest in the congregation where she served led the Bishop of Hong Kong to give her permission to do so, then on January 25, 1944, the Bishop ordained her a priest. The controversy which followed was so great, in 1946, that Tim-Oi surrendered her priest's licence, but not her Holy Orders, the knowledge of which carried her through Maoist persecution.
She resumed the practice of her priesthood in the Church in China, and in Toronto when she retired in 1981. She was awarded Doctorates of Divinity by General Theological Seminary, New York, and Trinity College, Toronto. She died on February 26, 1992, in Toronto, and is buried there. The 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, meeting in Minneapolis in 2003, voted to place her commemoration on this day, January 24th, for a three year period. In June of 2006 the 76th General Convention made the commemoration permanent.
Long before the 1970s, and in a land far away from the United States, the Church was blessed with the priestly gifts of a woman, one we now call St. Florence Li Tim-Oi.
18 January 2007
The Confession of St. Peter: Ecumenism, Interfaith Relations--being authentic
Today is what we used to call a "Red Letter Day" the Confession of Saint Peter. It comes from the story in Matthew's gospel where Peter declares Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of God (16:16).
Last Monday night the Brattleboro community gathered at a local Congregational Church to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. I was asked by the organizers, other religious leaders in town and colleagues of mine, to say an opening prayer. I knew there were going to be people from the local synagogue there, and I assumed there would be people of "other faiths" too, Unitarian Universalists, Buddhists, etc. So I sat down to compose what we might call a "good, inclusive prayer." Except that when I tried to write, nothing good came out. It was all watered-down mush. I decided to write the prayer imagining that only Christians were going to be present at the event. With that framework I was able to compose an acceptable something in a few minutes, and the prayer included references to Martin's faith in Jesus, and references about Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
I stood at the pulpit of this country church, asked people to stand, and then told them that I was intentionally using Christian imagery, not to be exclusive or to denigrate the authentic faiths of others (non-Christians) in the room, but to stand on a foundation of integrity for myself.
After the service a woman came up to me and said, "I really appreciated your prayer. As a Jew I get tired of listening to people struggle to say things that will 'include me' so it was nice to hear somebody include me without trying to talk like or pray like a Jew. Thank you."
It was kind of her to say those things to me, and I thanked her for doing so, and admitted to her that I was a little nervous beforehand. Every person of faith has an experience of God that belongs only to himself or herself. I learn far more about God when I listen to another person speak out of her or his experience of the Holy. Far more than when I try to emulate or repeat what I think their experience might be.
Peter confessed his faith in Jesus clearly and unequivocably. Maybe this Major Feast is about an authentic expression, even if that expression is as clear as "I'm not sure who Jesus is, or what I believe, but I'm glad to be part of a community where I can ask this question."
The only hymn in The Hymnal 1982 appointed specifically for this day has the author Willaim Walsham How putting it this way, "Oh! Peter was most blest with blessedness unpriced, who, taught of God, confessed the Godhead in the Christ! For of your Church, Lord, you made known this saint a true foundation-stone." Nothing in there that says you should do the same.
A blessed Feast Day to you.
Last Monday night the Brattleboro community gathered at a local Congregational Church to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. I was asked by the organizers, other religious leaders in town and colleagues of mine, to say an opening prayer. I knew there were going to be people from the local synagogue there, and I assumed there would be people of "other faiths" too, Unitarian Universalists, Buddhists, etc. So I sat down to compose what we might call a "good, inclusive prayer." Except that when I tried to write, nothing good came out. It was all watered-down mush. I decided to write the prayer imagining that only Christians were going to be present at the event. With that framework I was able to compose an acceptable something in a few minutes, and the prayer included references to Martin's faith in Jesus, and references about Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
I stood at the pulpit of this country church, asked people to stand, and then told them that I was intentionally using Christian imagery, not to be exclusive or to denigrate the authentic faiths of others (non-Christians) in the room, but to stand on a foundation of integrity for myself.
After the service a woman came up to me and said, "I really appreciated your prayer. As a Jew I get tired of listening to people struggle to say things that will 'include me' so it was nice to hear somebody include me without trying to talk like or pray like a Jew. Thank you."
It was kind of her to say those things to me, and I thanked her for doing so, and admitted to her that I was a little nervous beforehand. Every person of faith has an experience of God that belongs only to himself or herself. I learn far more about God when I listen to another person speak out of her or his experience of the Holy. Far more than when I try to emulate or repeat what I think their experience might be.
Peter confessed his faith in Jesus clearly and unequivocably. Maybe this Major Feast is about an authentic expression, even if that expression is as clear as "I'm not sure who Jesus is, or what I believe, but I'm glad to be part of a community where I can ask this question."
The only hymn in The Hymnal 1982 appointed specifically for this day has the author Willaim Walsham How putting it this way, "Oh! Peter was most blest with blessedness unpriced, who, taught of God, confessed the Godhead in the Christ! For of your Church, Lord, you made known this saint a true foundation-stone." Nothing in there that says you should do the same.
A blessed Feast Day to you.
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