A Grand Day for the Irish…Protestants.

This past July 12th, I took part in an amazing example of Reformed Christian Witness in what’s probably the last place on earth where Protestants still do that sort of thing...

...Northern Ireland*.

Most American readers will only know Northern Ireland as a "trouble spot" similar to Beirut, Gaza or East Jerusalem. Many will also know that the peace accords of 1997 have helped to bring Northern Ireland, or Norn Iron, as the Scotch-Irish dialect pronounces it, from the brink of civil war to a well-deserved peace.

As a member of an American Orange Lodge (a growing movement in the U.S. and Canada) I went with members of our lodge and our Canadian brothers to meet with our Ulster brothers and walk with them on their Big Day.

An Orange 12th of July parade is very much like a U.S. 4th of July parade. There is plenty of colour (orange) and red-white-and blue. Many of the same tunes are played - “Green Banks of the Boyne” is played to the same tune as “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean”. There are fireworks that night while bands play patriotic tunes.

Over all, an Orange march also equally encompasses the religious element – we are Protestants, and we are proud to show it.

Of course, there are naysayers. Because the Orange Order is pro-protestant, it is accused of being anti-catholic. It’s a wonder that no-one thinks to use the same argument to accuse the Roman Catholic Church, since it is pro-Catholic, of being anti-protestant. It was Pope Benedict who (as Cardinal Ratzinger) said that Anglicanism wasn’t a legitimate church. We Protestants just smile at the Pope saying another popish thing. What’s a few martyrs between estranged brothers and sisters, anyway.

Orangemen are charged by their Order to speak kindly and lovingly to our estranged Romanist brethren. Love the sinner; hate the sin, and all. Even when they are playing the Victim Game.

A typical morning of the 12th seems to go thus: Up at 6:00 AM to shower, shave and put on your Sunday Best (a dark suit, navy or black is the rule. Many Orangemen breach this and wear light sports jackets/blazers.) Note that a march is NEVER held on the Sabbath out of respect for the Lord’s Day.

After a quick cup of tea, it’s a quick walk to the lodge meeting point. Each lodge usually meets at the master’s or deputy master’s house. There, the whole family turns out to help with breakfast – sandwiches; bacon and egg, sausage, kippered herring, and lots of tea. If the house or back yard allotment is large enough, a short meeting for prayer and repetition of the Orange Principles is held.

It is a sobering and humbling event to stand in fellowship in the early morning quiet and pray the Lord’s Prayer with several dozen of your brothers. There is not a hint of jingoism, nor even, in that moment, patriotism. There is just Faith, simple and reformed.

Of course, we are surround outside by red-white-and-blue bunting, and the flags of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland are prominently displayed, along with the Canadian and American flags.

Soon, the hired band will arrive, playing a merry march. Another round of sausage and egg sandwiches for the bandsmen (and any brother who feels the need for extra fortification) and then you’re off to the march off point.

To be continued…

* I know I wrote that Norn Iron is probably the last place where Protestants march is witness - really, they do so in Scotland and England as well. And soon - the United States. Stay tuned.

Maewyn Succat

That’s Celtic-British for Magonus Succetus, which is the Latin name for the man who would be known to modern-day Irish Christians as Naomh Pádraig, that is to say…

Saint Patrick

Son of a Romano-British Christian deacon named Calpurnius, it is uncertain exactly when and where Maewyn Succat was born, but it is believed to have been between 385-390 A.D., in the village of Bannavem Taburniae, somewhere along the north-west coast of the Roman province of Britannia. The actual location of "Bannavem Taburniae" has never been securely identified.

Patrick is important to Anglicans because he is, without really stretching, an Anglican. Born in The North (probably not far from Chester), and schooled in early British churchmanship.

Patrick’s mission work in Britain and Northern Ireland, along with that of St. Alba, helps to form the Anglican claim that, not only doth Rome have no authority in Ye Realm of England, Rome hath NEVER primary authority in England, because the early Church in England developed parallel to early Church of Rome, and not under her auspices.

Fifth-century Rome was in no way the juggernaught she would become during the medieval era, and Rome during the 5th century was in no position to enforce her will on any of the near provinces, let alone distant Britain, because of the barbarian Goths.

According to the Annals of Ulster, Patrick was probably teaching by the year 428 AD. Rome was still recovering from the barbarian Sack of 410. Patrick probably ministered to about the year 460 AD, and Rome finally fell in 476 AD.

Fast-forward just over a millennium – 1533 AD. Emperor Charles V of Austria holds Pope Clement VII prisoner in Ravenna. When cardinal Wolsey seeks to arrange a divorce for Henry VIII, it is Charles V, seeking to leverage the Habsburg dynasty into the English Royal Succession, who pulls Clement’s strings and denies the divorce. (If you don’t think the Habsburgs had designs on the English throne, just wikipedia Mary Tudor…)

English Clergy rejected the authority of Rome, and asserted that the Church of England had always been a distinct church, and they cite Patrick as one of the planters. Certainly the Church of England was well-enough established to send Restitutus, the Archbishop of London, to the Council of Arles in 314 AD, while the Church of Rome wouldn’t get her ducks in a row until the Council of Nicea, eleven years LATER.

Second Patrick…
There is an earlier Patrick, who was from Gaul (France) who dies around 361. He is often confused with the British Patrick.

When and where was the first St. Patrick’s Day parade? New York City – 1756. The British Army held a parade in honour of St. Patrick’s Day to show their appreciation to the loyal Irish soldiers (Catholic and Protestant)for defeating the French in the Seven Years War (French and Indian War).

Thank you, St. Patrick.

Yeoman Laity

Occasionally someone will ask me, via email, if I’m clergy. It gives me a grin, until I recollect some of the clergy blogging out there. I suspect this is the Holy Spirit, whispering, “Down, peacock” in my ear.

Anyway, I used to respond with some form of “just laity”. I’ve occasionally seen people jokingly refer to themselves as “scum laity”, which I take to be good-natured modesty.

Of late, I’ve come to think that we might have it backwards. We laity are the flock, and when Jesus told Peter to feed his sheep, he was talking about us. When you come right down to it, the church is about helping the laity become right with God, to His Glory. To paraphrase Calvin, the Church IS the people.

Presbyters and Bishops? They’re a means to the end. A crucial means, of course. To draw on the Church Militant parallel; deacons, presbyters and bishops are our lieutenants, captains and colonels. Vestry might be ascribed to be our sergeants, which brings us to the rest of us laity.

We’re the infantry.

We put the “soldier” into “Onward, Christian Soldiers”. We are Gideon’s host before the Midianites, who drank but did not kneel. (Judges 7:1-18)

Lately, the term I’ve been using more often is “Yeoman Laity”. In Britain, the yeomanry were the freemen – the base of the middle class. They held small farms and were the keystone to the defense of the country. They were the archers at Agincourt; they were soldiers at The Somme. When rebellion broke out in Ireland in 1798, it was the mounted yeomanry who rode in small bodies, ridiculously outnumbered by hordes of rebels, and supporting the loyal (and Catholic) Irish militias, preserved the Protestant Faith on that island.

When we look at portraits of Henry VIII, he is often surrounded by what we call “beefeaters” – actually, they were (and remain) the Yeoman Guardsmen. Say what you like about King Henry’s dealings with women, he usually gave the common man a leg up. In a time of uncertainty, Henry could rely upon his lowborn, common yeoman to defend him.

The United States was founded on the strength of the yeomanry. Washington, Franklin, Adams, Jefferson – they were gentry, but their soldiers were mainly yeoman class (with some tradesmen thrown in for good measure).

When it comes to the Church, and especially our wee denomination of Reformed Episcopalians, we laity must take up the office of loyal yeomanry. At least some of us (though the more, the better) must be the watchmen during these unsettled days. One of the reasons for the ECUSA train-wreck is the laity fell asleep while the Enemy, like a thief, crept into the vestries and committees and houses of bishops and deputies until one dark night, ECUSA wasn’t part of Christ’s church any longer.

If you know the history of the REC, you know that the current ECUSA disaster is a bigger replay of what happened 135 years ago; from the theological liberals and company men combining against the evangelicals, right down to the non-canonical hurling about of illicit inhibitions by the New York bishops.

Did the rot of ECUSA start with Gene Robinson? No.

Did it start with the 1928 Lambeth Resolution on Contraception? No.

The rot started with the Anglican departure from the Reformed faith, embodied by the Oxford Movement. From this flowed the compounded errors that followed. This resulted in the evangelicals departing ECUSA and founding the Reformed Episcopal Church. So one could suggest that the year 1874 AD, when the REC was founded, marks the diverting of the train - down the track to oblivion.

Now, some people are fleeing the Episcopal Church for the REC. Many of them, I believe, are good, honest Christians who just want to worship the Lord in peace, and we should welcome them gladly. We should also bear in mind that these folk are also the product of 135 years of fuzzy theology, lax biblical study, and plain bad practise, and they bring that baggage with them (I’ll raise my hand, hereabouts, as guilty of mine own accusation).

If we don’t wish to see the REC repeat the errors of ECUSA (and undergo a similar withdrawal of God’s Hand and subsequent harrowing of us) we need vigilant Yeoman Laity, this becomes more pressing as the Anglican Church of North America constitution approaches completion. There are some issues, antithetical to Reformed Christians that need resolving: one is the issue of ACNA ordaining women, another is the possibility that reformed (REC) parishes will be made subordinate to heretical Ex-ECUSA bishops. There are doubtless more...

There’s a song out of Ulster (that’s Northern Ireland, a place I hold dear in my heart) that in part goes:

"Be ever watchful then, my boys, our cause is good and true.
"The loyal Star of Ulster shines, ‘midst Red and White and Blue.
"With rifle at the ready, be on your guard tonight;
"For Ulstermen will fight, and Ulster’s cause is right. "

Thankfully, in that wee country, the rifle has been set aside, for now - but the vigilance remains. The Ulster yeomanry guards their country and the Protestant Faith, against a relentless foe who have sworn their destruction. Who do we have, to safeguard the Reformed Faith in an increasingly hostile American culture?

We need more Yeoman Laity.

Ye up to it?

You Might Be An Episcopalian...

I received this from an (unreformed) episcopalian friend of mine. A lot of the humour still holds, though the character and culture of RE parishes I've been to has a lot more in common with Methodists/Wesleyans (thank God) than the "high and hazy" TEC.

You might be an Episcopalian...
. . . when you watch Star Wars and they say "May the force be with you", you automatically reply "And also with you".

. . .if the only good reason to raise your hand during a hymn is to question the organist's re-harmonization.

. . . if someone says, "Let us pray" and you automatically hit your knees.

. . . if you recognize your neighbor, or rector, in the local liquor store and go over to greet him/her.

. . . if you have totally memorized Rite I, Rite II and the first three episodes of The Vicar of Dibley.

. . . if you know the difference between a surplice and a cotta - and the appropriate use of each.

. . . if hearing people pray in the language of "jesuswejus" makes you want to scream.

. . . if you might be an Episcopalian if words like: "vouchsafe", "oblation", "supplications", "succor", "bewail",
"wherefore", "dost" and "very" (in its archaic sense) are familiar to you even if you don't have a clue that they mean.

. . .if your groomsmen at your wedding whisper "with God's help" to you during your vows after you say "I will".

. . . the sight of a woman in a clerical collar doesn't make you cringe.

. . . if you can rattle off such tongue twisters like: ". . . who made there by his one oblation of himself once offered a full and perfect sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the world" and "Wherefore, O, Lord and Heavenly Father, we thy people, do celebrate and make here, with these gifts which we offer unto thee, the memorial thy Son hath commanded us to make . . ." without missing a beat.

. . .if you think that the Bible is a holy book because it quotes the Book of Common Prayer so well.

. . . if while looking for a can opener in the church kitchen, all you can find are four corkscrews.

. . . if your choir director suggests discussing something over a beer after choir rehearsal.

. . . if you catch yourself genuflecting or bowing as you enter a row of seats in a theater.

. . . you visit any Protestant church, and when you get seated you say, "where are the kneelers?"

. . . or, "where is the altar?!"

. . . if you can pronounce "innumerable benefits procured unto us by the same."

. . . if the word "Sewanee" puts a lump in your throat.

. . . if you know the best way to quiet a room full of them: "The Lord be with you!"

. . . if you ever find yourself saying, "Oh, but we've never done it that way before."

. . . if, when visiting a Catholic Church, you are the only Ah-men amongst a sea of A-mens.

. . . if your covered dish for the potluck dinner is escargot in puff shells.

. . .if you know that a primate isn't just a monkey.

. . . if you know that a sursum corda is not a surgical procedure.

. . . if you don't think Agnus Dei is a woman.

. . . if your picnic basket has sterling knives and forks (entree, fish, salad and cake).

. . .you know how to finish the phrase "and I will raaaaise them up, and I will raaaaise them up..."

. . . if you know that the nave is not a playing card.

. . . if your friend said "I'm truly sorry. . ." and you replied, "and you humbly repent?"

. . .if you consider a sticker on your car to be an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.

. . .if you know that "humble access" has nothing to do with a security clearance.

. . . if while watching the movie "The Madness of King George" you're able to recite with the King, when he undergoes "surgery," the Collect for Purity.

. . . if you know that the Senior Warden and the Junior Warden are not positions in the local prison.

. . . if you think the most serious breach of propriety one can commit is failure to chill the salad forks.

. . . if you not only talk about God, but God is placed in the palm of your hand.

And finally,

. . . if you reach a point when you're not sure about anything theologically but you still feel completely at home at the altar rail and somehow know you're meeting God there, even though you can't begin to understand how.

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It's significant that even in Episcopalian humour, the sense of fuzzy, muddled, conflicted theology comes through at the end.

After the chuckle, I found myself writing this collection of REC corrigenda.

This response is not quite a rebuttal, more of a fine tuning, with TEC still visible in the rear-view mirror. My edits in bold.

You might be a Reformed Episopalian when...

. . . they say "May the force be with you", you automatically reply "And with thy spirit".

. . . if someone says, "Let us pray" and you automatically reach for the Prayer Book.

. . . you know the difference between a surplice and a cotta - and that only the former is appropriate.

. . . if hearing people pray in the language of Vatican II makes you want to scream (or chuck a wooden stool at them - way to go, Scotland!)

. . . the sight of a woman in a clerical collar doesn't make you cringe, just breathe a sigh of relief that she's not your Church's problem.

. . .if you think that the Bible is a holy book because it quotes the Book of Common Prayer (the 1662 BCP - there can be only one, unless it's the 1552, in which case there can be only two) so well.

. . . you visit any Episcopal church, and when you get seated you say, "where are the Bibles?" . . . or, "where is the Lord's Table?!"

. . .if you consider "crossing" one's self to be an outward and empty sign of an inward and empty grace.

. . . if while watching the movie "The Madness of King George" you're thinking KG-III would never deny Christ as THE way, THE truth and THE life...
. . . if you not only talk about God, but each week YOUR heart is placed in the palm of HIS hand.

. . if you reach a point when you're completely at home at the communion rail and know you're meeting God there, and thanks be unto Him, you understand fine.

Sola Gloria Deo!
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