#churchmanship

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The Secret Of Latin Mass (And Divine Liturgy) - The American Conservative

Why ancient Christian forms of prayer speak so powerfully to the modern soul

Liturgical worship is what I miss most since leaving TEC (not finding a fit for my family in ACNA) and attending a UMC church. I’m not sure what to do. I worship (not as regularly as I should) on my own using Morning and Evening Prayer (sometimes Compline) from the 1662 and 1928 BCPs, but I long to worship in person. I want to chant Psalms with the choir of believers and enjoy quiet contemplative worship. That doesn’t appear to be on offering in the UMC (I kinda knew it going in.., that is part of the reason that I left after my Wesley Foundation small group broke up after graduate school).

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The Anglican Spectrum Today

One of the biggest challenges for people looking at the Anglican tradition today is that there is such a wide variety of visual, liturgical,

Interesting post on Anglicanism today. I’m attending a Methodist (UMC) parish at the moment, but it is way to low church for my taste. It offers traditionalish hymns, has fun youth choirs and groups for my kids, and has W.O. (Important for some members of my family). Overall, my ideal place of worship would be a ‘yellow’ to ‘yellow-orange’ parish that recognized W.O. Barring that, I’m stuck where I’m currently attending. I’m planning to join an Adult Sunday School class in the fall… maybe I will feel more belonging (if not a churchmanship home) once I make more friends/acquaintances.

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Four years, a global pandemic, and a stolen election later, I’m back. I don’t know how much I’ll post, but here is what is going on.

I‘ve informally left TEC. I’ve been attending a low church ACNA parish near home (in person since January 2021). I had enough with the TEC parish locked down for a year (online services only BYOWW-Bring Your Own Wine and Wonderbread), pushing CRT/BLM, and emailing that a child wanted everyone to refer to her as a ‘They’ (now she is back to ‘she’).

I very much wish that I could attend services that weren’t Virginia Low, but the people are friendly, they have songs/singing (some are adapted hymns), and Eucharist/Lords Supper weekly. The ACNA parish is a shelter in a storm, and I feel blessed to be able to attend and commune. My family is still discerning if this parish is for us.

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From Joel Burdeaux...

Perhaps this is a water under the bridge. Too little too late. I became one of those stories about a pastor pouring into someone, only for them to stab them in the back… and I was the back-stabber.

You should read the rest of this. For all who have left a church in a bad way, and all those who may in the future, this should cause you to rethink or repent.

and on that note:

The Biblical Approach to Leaving a Church by Robert Reymond »

via Monergism 

The Biblical Approach to Leaving a Church by Robert Reymond

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With all of its messiness, with all of its peculiarities… the place where the Lord did his work is not politics but in His local church.

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It's sexy among young people — my generation — to talk about ditching institutional religion and starting a revolution of real Christ-followers living in real community without the confines of church. Besides being unbiblical, such notions of churchless Christianity are unrealistic. It's immaturity actually, like the newly engaged couple who think romance preserves the marriage, when the couple celebrating their golden anniversary know it's the institution of marriage that preserves the romance. Without the God-given habit of corporate worship and the God-given mandate of corporate accountability, we will not prove faithful over the long haul. What we need are...

an excerpt from The Glory of Plodding, an article Kevin DeYoung wrote for Tabletalk back in May, 2010

Listen to readout of article:

The Glory of Plodding by Kevin DeYoung

Runtime: 5:41 Words saved: 925 Size: 1.62 MB

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Breaking Point?

I think I may have reached my breaking point.  This has been brewing for a while, and I have conflicting feels. 

After a service time was abruptly discontinued at St. B's, my wife contacted the rector to ask why and was given a rude response.  This isn't the first time that this has happened.  She told me that she no longer wants to attend regular worship and wants to stay home with kids on Sunday.  She feels like church and the Bible have nothing to offer working mothers.  I don't think this is true, but I also think that she has to come to this conclusion herself... nothing I say will change her mind.  I have ordered a few books for christian working mothers for her, but for now that is as far as I will go. 

So, that is the last straw (at least for now) for me attending services at St. B's (and probably TEC).  I still think Sunday worship and regularly receiving the Eucharist is important. 

Last Sunday, I attend a local AMiA parish that meets in a local school.  It was interesting... but I don't think it is for me.  The service was 1979 BCP, so I was familiar.  The music was contemporary (not my cup of tea).  Everyone was nice, but it was all young couples (most younger than me... I'm 33).  It felt very strange being there without my wife and kids.  Realistically, I see my kids and wife eventually attending services with me (at least occasionally), but as welcoming as these folks were, I felt even more the outsider in the crowd. 

I don't think I will be back soon for several reasons. 

I'm high church,

I value contemplative worship,

I like traditional hymns, and

I'd prefer an earlier service time.

That said, I pray that they are successful.  They are filling an important niche in the community. 

I'm trying to decide if I return to an APA parish far from my home that I visited last year.  My wife was apprehensive about the parish due to it being APA and the distance from home, but if she's not going to attend then this becomes an option.  The one concern that I have is that though I believe in the Real Presence (in fact, I think I believe in transubstantiation), I don't think I would be welcome to take Eucharist.  I was confirmed in the United Methodist Church, and APA requires that communicants be confirmed by a bishop in apostolic succession.  I don't know if I can go a year+ without communing while seeking confirmation.  

Another option that I'm looking into is several United Methodist Churches in Buckhead state that they have a separate communion service (on their web sites).  If they are weekly, then maybe I could feel comfortable there... offering weekly Eucharist would hopefully mean that they were that rare breed of "High Church" UMC services.  Anyone know about this? 

I suppose Secret Option C would be to attend a TEC parish early service, but then I wouldn't be exiting TEC.  If there were an Orthodox parish within my (limited) comfortable driving distance, I might consider it... that would take some additional  discernment. 

This is truly a modern dilemma; to have several choices of where to worship freely and be debating churchmanship.  I need to pray for discernment; this is an important decision.