"The Anglican Communion has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ's Church from the beginning."
- Geoffrey Fisher, 99th Archbishop of Canterbury
Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna, martyred for Christ in 156
"O happy fault! If we weren't sinners and didn't need pardon more than bread, we'd have no way of knowing how deep God's love is."
- Louis Evely
"Avoid, like the plague, a clergyman who is also a businessman."
- St. Jerome
"Slander is worse than cannibalism."
- St. John Chrysostom
"Tradition is the living faith of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living."
- Jaroslav Pelikan
"The Jesus of Suburbia is a lie."
- Green Day
"It's true romance is dead I shot it in the chest and in the head"
- Fall Out Boy
"Don't just adore the Eucharist, enact it."
- William Cavanaugh
"If you can be talked out of your faith, you probably should be."
- Roger Ward
"Don't ever deny someone the luxury of being human or broken. That is not a luxury you yourself can afford to lose."
- Sarah Cunningham
"It is better that the United States be liquidated than that she survive by war."
- Dorothy Day
"Wherever the Psalter is abandoned, an incomparable treasure vanishes from the Christian Church. With its recovery will come unexpected power."
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
There was an awkward moment in my mission assignment last week when we'd gotten 'round to the end of the afternoon. In the last 30 minutes of our time at the assisted living facility, we sang hymns with/to the residents. If you've ever stood alongside me in Christian worship, you understand that I may have missed my calling as a Baptist deacon: I'm not always on key, I have only one volume setting, and I know every single song in the Baptist Hymnal, especially the older editions. I was by default a lead voice because I know the songs and I'm not shy (it's really amazing to me how much congregational singing doesn't actually include congregational singing).
When at the end of the session our group decided to sing "America, the Beautiful," it was just a little awkward when my voice was so noticeably absent.
Submitted for your approval, a quick explanation of why it's inappropriate to sing to "America" in Christian worship.
In Christian worship, thanks and praise and supplication are offered to God the Father, through the Son, by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. This is the trinitarian understanding of the relationship between God and God's people.
When in the course of the liturgy, the people of God cease to address the Father, and instead address prayers and praises to the nation-state, we have ceased to celebrate Christian liturgy. While we might pick up the Christian liturgy again after that song, this is an unacceptable foray into another religion. Instead of Trinitarian harmony we've offered pagan cacophony.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Hope you're well. Your recent post reminds me of times we've sung patriotic songs in my church, or even when we've sung happy birthday. not that we are celebrating what you'd consider the christian liturgy in my church, but would singing happy birthday to a church member during a worship service also be unpleasing to God?
well..........upon meeting kyle and knowing him for only a few days i have to say......THAT WAS JUST STUPID....the intire thing........and i find it to be realy....post-modern
actuly i beleiv kyle us right about missing his calling.....you see i just spent a intire week lisening to his LOAD....OFF KEY......but pretty impresive singing......any way may god be with you kyle......and i will continue to critisize your blog...for all iternity =)
"When in the course of the liturgy, the people of God cease to address the Father, and instead address prayers and praises to the nation-state, we have ceased to celebrate Christian liturgy. While we might pick up the Christian liturgy again after that song, this is an unacceptable foray into another religion. Instead of Trinitarian harmony we've offered pagan cacophony."
I dunno Kyle.... I'd rather sing about America the Beautiful than sing "Hey to the Carpenter" or a Hymn to the Creator Goddess. But best of all... as you pointed out, are praise and thanksgiving to a Trinitarian God, Father, Son and Spirit.
Hi, Kathy, Beth, Jared and Alex. Thanks for reading.
Rob, I believe singing "Happy Birthday" in the context of Christian worship to be inappropriate for the same reasons as I have stated, but there is big difference in that it doesn't give praise and honor to the nation-state.
Garrett's right, the Baptists often cheat.
Thanks for visiting, Alex. :0)
Phil, that's like saying I'd rather be a Pelagian than an Arian. It might be true, but either way you're in some trouble!
Kyle Potter, MTh (Oxon)
Catechist for Adult Formation,
Saint Patrick's Church
Missioner to Georgetown, Kentucky
Anglican Mission in the Americas E-mail me
Library Technician for Research Assistance & Cataloging
Department Liaison for Religion, Philosophy, Sociology & Theatre
Instructor of Christian Theology
Ensor LRC, Georgetown College
"The Church claims to be the most comprehensive human society there is - the new human race in embryo. And it claims this because of its belief that it is established not by any human process grounded in and limited by events, cultures and so on, but by God's activity." - Rowan Williams
11 Comments:
Hi!
I would like to invite you and your readers to stop by my hymn blog, www.hymnographyunbound.blogspot.com
Thank you!
Hey Kyle,
Hope you're well. Your recent post reminds me of times we've sung patriotic songs in my church, or even when we've sung happy birthday. not that we are celebrating what you'd consider the christian liturgy in my church, but would singing happy birthday to a church member during a worship service also be unpleasing to God?
As long as you insert "God bless you" instead of "dear Kyle," God won't notice, right Kyle?
*hope the non-baptists get it*
well..........upon meeting kyle and knowing him for only a few days i have to say......THAT WAS JUST STUPID....the intire thing........and i find it to be realy....post-modern
actuly i beleiv kyle us right about missing his calling.....you see i just spent a intire week lisening to his LOAD....OFF KEY......but pretty impresive singing......any way may god be with you kyle......and i will continue to critisize your blog...for all iternity =)
AMEN!!!!
I wonder if Beth is "amen-ing" RANDOM GUY or Kyle.
just for clarity, this is what I am amening:
"When in the course of the liturgy, the people of God cease to address the Father, and instead address prayers and praises to the nation-state, we have ceased to celebrate Christian liturgy. While we might pick up the Christian liturgy again after that song, this is an unacceptable foray into another religion. Instead of Trinitarian harmony we've offered pagan cacophony."
Well said, Kyle.
I dunno Kyle.... I'd rather sing about America the Beautiful than sing "Hey to the Carpenter" or a Hymn to the Creator Goddess. But best of all... as you pointed out, are praise and thanksgiving to a Trinitarian God, Father, Son and Spirit.
Score one for Liturgical Quality control!
Hi, Kathy, Beth, Jared and Alex. Thanks for reading.
Rob, I believe singing "Happy Birthday" in the context of Christian worship to be inappropriate for the same reasons as I have stated, but there is big difference in that it doesn't give praise and honor to the nation-state.
Garrett's right, the Baptists often cheat.
Thanks for visiting, Alex. :0)
Phil, that's like saying I'd rather be a Pelagian than an Arian. It might be true, but either way you're in some trouble!
im glad my roots are luthiran and not babtist...other wise i might have to find garrett.....and "save" him ;)
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