Monday 27 October 2008

Disconnect '09

Just spotted this on the Sydney Anglican website and I couldn't help myself: it seems a Rector in Sydney's far west can't find clergy willing to help start a congregation in a new neighboring satellite suburb.

If he's interested I'll be more than happy to provide him with a list of people who'd jump at the chance, and who are all currently doing fantastic work in churches that exist under the official Matthian party-line radar - although since most of the names are people who happen to be gay/female/divorced/remarried/not bigots/moderate Catholics means I won't hold my breath waiting for his call...

Wonder if the fact that this particular area is a world away from the comfortable tertiary-educated "areas of strategic ministry" much loved by the Jensens has anything to do with the bright young evangelical things' reticence to stick their hands up? Surely not.

11 comments:

Lapinbizarre said...

Query. Earlier today, posting on the Lay Presidency business at an English Anglo Catholic blog I visit, I mentioned the Sydney chasuble ban. Someone asked if there have been prosecutions for infringement of the ban. I said I would make inquiry of someone who might know. ?

Also, what sanctions could be enforced against priests convicted of chasuble-wearing? Transportation for one's natural? Yesterday a poster at another blog (MP?) said that the archdiocese could depose the priest of a church that withheld its diocesan dues and install its own candidate. A very powerful sanction, given the circumstances. Could they do the same for improper dress in the chancel?

Brian R said...

Hi lapinbizarre. That was me, I did not mean depose a priest in a church which is unfinancial. Rather, WHEN the time comes to choose a new priest, the parish loses the right to choose one for itself and the archbishop appoints. Even if financial the archbishop must approve and this is getting harder if a church wants someone not trained at Moore College. However, a few well resourced and well know anglocatholic parishes like my own seem to be able to choose otherwise, so far. It is more a problem for less influential parishes and there are a few vacant at the moment which is worrying. Sometimes a priest is appointed from outside the diocese after spending a year at Moore College. One just hopes he can stay immune from the taint :-) Do not know about any infringements of the chasuble law. We apparently made the mistake of inviting a local bishop (not one of the present incumbents) to the Good Friday service several years ago and the result was a ban on including Veneration of the Cross in future liturgies. I think sometimes it is better to not make unnecessary waves. Our president at the Eucharist wears a cope.

Lapinbizarre said...

Thanks for the info, Brian. More complicated than I gathered from your MP post. The year at Moore sounds like the Sydney ecclesiastical version of gay deprogrammeing. Is your church Christchurch St Lawrence, by any chance? A C of E priest, name of Fr. Nicholas Davis, posted about it today at Anglican Wanderings, the English AC blog I mentioned above. His brother is a member of its congregation. He said of it that "the congregation are very eclectic, as one might expect, and varying shades of liberal to conservative catholic churchmanship are well represented. It is, I would say, not a solid bastion of FinF minded folk - but they are united in their hour of persecution." Sounds like a nice congregation. Would that more less persecuted congregations could be so inclusive.

Alcibiades said...

No Lapin, to my knowledge nobody has ever lost their license to officiate for wearing unauthorized vestments, although obtaining records of such things is extremely difficult, and in any case the reason would probably be simply recorded as "unsuitability for ministry", "mental illness", or the old favorite "moral weakness". In the late 19th century the principal of Moore College was dismissed for facing Eastward while celebrating, and for several decades afterwards his removal and effective disappearance from the diocese used as a warning to any clergy tempted to explore their own Catholicity.

Christ Church St. Lawrence is indeed a wonderful place, and despite being one of the fastest growing and most successful parishes in the diocese it's invariably ignored when numbers are discussed. Until about 10 years ago there was a chasuble on display in a glass cabinet near the back as a reminder of the concession the congregation had been forced to make in return for their continued existence, and there is a very funny story dating back to the time of the 1919 influenza epidemic.

In an attempt to prevent the infection spreading all indoor gatherings were banned for a period of about 3 months, and church services were held outdoors, in local parks. The Rector, who was the redoubtable Fr. Statham jumped at this chance to again don his chasuble: the agreement he had signed promised he would never wear any Eucharistic vestment "while presiding inside a church in the Diocese of Sydney". Since these services were outside, the condition clearly didn't apply! As a result the agreement was changed, and when I was required to sign it almost 80 years later it remained ammended to "while in the Diocese of Sydney".

Brian R said...

Oh Alci, I have missed your inside knowledge. There is always the story possibly apocryphal that the congregation of Christchurch St Lawrence use to process to the boundary with the Cathedral and hold up crosses/curicifixes in its direction.
However lapinbizarre, 2 years ago I decided I could no longer continue worshipping in the evangelical parish I then attended, after a sermon criticising Brokeback Mountain and decided to spend 6 months at St James, King Street which is located on the other side of the cathedral and is anglo-catholic and liberal but, as I have heard people say, not as far up the candle stick at Christchurch SL. I enjoyed it so much I am now a parishioner of St James. The 2 parishes do combine for some community activities.
Sorry Alci back to your programming.

Lapinbizarre said...

Thanks for the informative replies, Brian & Alcibiades. I have quoted from and linked this thread at Anglican Wanderings, an interesting, thought-provoking English Anglo-Catholic blog, based in part close to my North Manchester home area - which is how I first found it. Their thread on this topic may be of interest. I post there by my own name.

http://anglicanwanderings.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-people-asked-for-bread-and-you-gave.html

Alcibiades said...

As far as I know there's nothing apocryphal about that story: up until the 1950's Christ Church had an active program of evangelistic parades, which would feature a procession to some corner of the parish, followed by public speakers. At their peak in the depression I've read these occurred weekly in the Haymarket area, nudging down toward the boundary with St. Barnabas Broadway (whose now destroyed halls doubled as Orange and Masonic Lodge rooms, and was thus strongly opposed to anything deemed "popish".) In those days Chinatown was largely focused around the opposite side of Central Station to where it is now, but regular outreaches also occurred into this community, and the church had a large and active Chinese community.

On the other side, St. Matthias Centennial Park, which was a focal point for the sectarianism that divided Sydney in those days, would also hold a march every July 12 in commemoration of the Battle of the Boyne, and they would process down Oxford St and along to Railway Square, where they would turn their backs on Christ church with much jeering, and march back to St. Andrew's for a celebration at the Cathedral.

Weren't the "good old days" filled with some lovely people? ;-)

Brian R said...

At least it was open and public. Today it seems to be knives in the dark. I am ashamed that as a teenager I joined in the laughter at Fr Hope of Christchurch SL when he joined the Good Friday Procession wearing his biretta.

Doorman-Priest said...

"...although since most of the names are people who happen to be gay/female/divorced/remarried/not bigots/moderate Catholics means I won't hold my breath waiting for his call..."

I know a couple who tick ALL those boxes.

Doorman-Priest said...

And no, you don't want to end up like Fr. Troll.

Alcibiades said...

Brian: I can guarantee Fr. Hope has more than forgiven your laughter - he was (and at a far higher altar still is) a much greater man than to hold a grudge about that sort of thing. I once heard an anecdote about Fr. Hope silencing Archbishop Mowll when the Archbishop and a group of diocesean heavies tried to call him to account for "permitting men of a certain persuasion" to be part of parish life that is so great I promise to do a post on it very shortly...

BTW - I'm currently under fire from someone at the Vatican who doesn't like a post I made back in April about Pell - I'd value everyone's feedback on the debate.