The Relative Positions of the Presider, Table, and Assembly at Communion Part II

Find part 1 here. Facing East Praying ad orientem, facing the east, is a wide-spread, ancient, pre-Christian custom: because the east is the direction of the rising sun, it naturally inspires and expresses hope for the future.[1] For ancient Christians, orientation (in the original sense, “towards the Orient”) also expressed expectation for the second advent…

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There Should Never Have Been Three Streams

It has become commonplace among many North American Anglicans to classify themselves as for or against the language of “Three Streams, One River.” Not long ago in this very journal we read, from Dr. Gillis Harp, a very good critique of the increasingly popular notion that within the Anglican renewal three valid “streams” of Christian…

October Falling

–for Jacqueline Cooley, 1944-2018 Last night the trees changed color while I slept. One moment at my window: a new world. Love, do you continue transmuting where you are? Pandemonium of the color wheel. That raucousness. Noise the sky can hear I call October falling. Now, outside, calling you to join me, Love, I kick…

Joy of Every Longing Heart: an Advent Meditation

When Constantine entered Rome on October 29, 312 after the battle of Melvian Bridge, after what was essentially his conversion to Christianity following a vision of the cross, he staged a grand arrival ceremony in the city called an adventus, whereat the conquering king was met with popular jubilation. The party lasted for weeks. Finally,…

Curtain Call

Allow me at my end to be like these Descending leaves that elegantly dance Their final scene, expressing festive peace As they take leave of life. Still colorful, They ornament the sky as Fall’s sun slants To warm their gold, release their sweet fragrance. They’ve felt their feebling stems, and known the call Of gravity’s…

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The Reformed Doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration

One of the several contentious issues that pits Anglican against Anglican today is the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. Unlike other controversies, such as the insights or errors of women’s ordination, or the insights or errors of adopting elements of the Pentecostal tradition into our own, the question of baptismal regeneration is actually directly addressed within…

Being is for Mind

A Response to Fr. Ben Jefferies’ “Is the Eucharistology of the Anglican Reformation Patristic?” As a regular reader of the North American Anglican, I understand that Fr. Jefferies’ recent triple-header of articles taking up (editor) Mr. Ramsey’s challenge to demonstrate the contradiction between the fathers and reformers on sacramental theology is a major event. It…

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