Dear All,

This year it has been our privilege to host the Confirmation service which we share with St Mathew’s and St John’s. The occasion came shortly after the glorious celebrations of The Ascension, Pentecost, Holy Trinity and Corpus Christi and extended even further the emotional excitement that began with the Easter Season. This has been an exhausting time for many of us. Thank – you to all who have worked so hard in this place to make our life of faith one of constant celebration. Confirmation is always a most moving and rewarding service, how wonderful it is to welcome people into Christ the King and share in their joy as they experience this sacramental stage of their Christian journey.

The longest day has now come and gone. The Petertide ordinations have passed. Summer is passing quickly and as we settle into the Ordinary Season and the holiday months of the year we may continue to experience a profound sense of spirituality that does not depend totally upon the emotionally-charged response that the first half of the year has brought. The experience of the Christmas and Easter seasons feed us with much emotion for the rest of the year and never really leave us. Interestingly, this is one of the joys of The Angelus.

The Angelus is one of the Devotions to Our Lady that is customarily prayed three times a day and often after Mass on Sunday. This is a devotion that serves as a logical affirmation of the Incarnation as the bedrock to all our worship at all times. Fundamentalist indeed! And how wonderful that we may also give thanks in acknowledging Mary’s integral and willing part in the event that would change the world.

Thus, the Angelus unites the underlying excitement of the Birth and Passion with the steady stream of our ongoing individual devotion. Please allow The Angelus to warm your heart when together we pray this Devotion at Christ the King.

Now is the time to enjoy the fresh gentle rhythms of Ordinary Time and simply allow yourself to be absorbed into the love of Jesus until all your life becomes focused upon him and what he wishes for you and those you love. Let the summer be the time to experience a sacramental view of all things and let it be a breath of release that places you into God’s care until Advent begins to quicken us to rouse ourselves into the glories of the Christmas Story. Remember that green is the colour of nature, the colour of the heart. This time of the Christian year is the time for letting Christ naturally lift your heart towards the place where all meaning is found through him. Simply worship him and rest in him. This experience of the Ordinary weeks of the year may then draw you even closer to our Lord and give you a new and profound understanding of the major festivals and feast days.

My wish is always for your rest, refreshment and renewal in Christ.

God Bless.  Father Paul. XXX

PS. Some terms have cropped up in some of the discussions around our church family. I thought some clarification may be useful, if by no means definitive.

Protestant.

This term was never really embraced by the early Church of England. The term ‘Protestant’ arose to describe a political accident. In the movement of Reform that supported Martin Luther’s ideals in Germany there was a Diet (Assembly) of the Holy Roman Empire in 1529 at Speyer. A Group of German Princes drew up a ‘Protest’ against the majority of Princes who favoured traditional religion.  The term remained a foreign description for foreign activities. At Henry VIII’s funeral in 1547 the visiting representives were simply labelled ‘Protestants’. Even in the reforming, and ultimately defining, atmosphere of Edward’s brief reign that followed, it would have been anachronistic to use the term for new Church in England. So beware in identifying too much with this label – valid as it now may be it is perhaps not as pure as one would like to think and, my goodness, it is such an ugly word.

Anglican

Rumour has it that the first use of ‘Anglican’ came from James I in 1598, in a rather sneering tone against a church institution he did not understand. Still – he soon changed his mind, he loved the 39 Articles of 1563.       In the 1830’s the, Tractarian Movement (The Oxford Movement) were affirming the Catholic nature of the Church of England as had been envisaged before by Archbishop Laud and his associates in the early seventeenth century. The term ‘Anglicanism’ began to have real usage about this time as did the term ‘Anglo-Catholic.’ All jolly romantic and very evocative but, as you may observe, these are fairly recent terms. The concept was confirmed by the first meeting of the worldwide Bishops in 1867 at Lambeth.  It is worth remembering that the idea of an unreformed so called ‘High Church’ of England was always a reality as it attempted to find a middle way between Rome and the radical doctrines of Reform coming from Geneva. Bishop Lancelot Andrewes (1555 – 1626) preceded Laud and was convinced in the Church of England as a reasonable, Catholic and unique Church with its own doctrines – here was the foundation for more to come. Remember that Archbishop Cranmer and Henry VIII remained united in searching for a unique and purified faith even if their motivations differed. Nobody can guess what was in the mind of the wonderful Elizabeth I but her settlement left us Bishops, Cathedrals and a liturgy that was unique and certainly more rich and profound than the other reformed churches.

Perhaps the most enduring terms are ‘Catholic’ and ‘Evangelical.’ The English church of the Reformation may certainly be considered the latter with its desire to return to manifesting the ‘good news’ of the early Christian Church.           Likewise the Church of England was never fully resolute in discarding its Catholic heritage. These two terms do not carry the air of sectarianism that perhaps surround the terms, ‘Protestant’ and ‘Anglican’, both born from conflict. Who needs labels?

Hope this is of interest – we have only scraped the surface, but always happy to wade around in history with you.     

Fr.Paul.