Posted on 08/31/2007 6:36:26 AM PDT by marshmallow
Rome, August 30, Interfax - Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia has greeted the recent decree of Pope Benedict XVI providing more freedom to celebrate the ancient Latin Mass.
The motu proprio Summorum Pontificum that provides more freedom to use the pre-Vatican II Missal ‘is a positive fact,’ Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia said to comment on the Roman Catholic Church reintroducing her ancient liturgical form.
‘We strongly adhere to the tradition. Without being faithful to her liturgy the Russian Orthodox Church would have failed to survive persecutions in 1920s and 1930s,’ the Russian primate told the Italian daily Il Giornale a few days ago after celebration liturgy in the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Kremlin.
The patriarch opined that the pope’s decision might contribute to establishing closer links with the Orthodox Churches, the daily said.
The obligatory Latin Mass was abolished by the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) when the Roman Catholic Church legalized liturgical use of modern languages hoping to attract more people. But the results were far from ideal, and the reform led to a schism as Archbishop Marcel Lefevre refused to accept it an faced excommunication in 1988.
Who'd o' thunk it.
The Novus Ordo was supposed to be a huge boost for ecumenism with the Anglicans, Methodists, Lutherans, and Presbyterians.
It hasn't paid off, largely because of the enormous structural problems in those ecclesial communities.
How can you foster cooperation with a communion that has female "bishops", female "priests" and "bishops" who live with their "same-sex life partners"? These communions have largely abandoned traditional Christian belief, theology and morality. They are hollowed out.
The most vital non-Catholic Christian communities are the Orthodox Christians of the East and the Baptist/Pentecostal/"non-denominational" Christians of the West and Third World - and there is no liturgical commonality between them at all.
Now, on the other hand, if the East and Rome united, how long could Anglicans retain their notion of themselves as somehow “Anglican Orthodox”?
I have hopes in to see in my lifetime a unity between the churches of Rome, of the East, of England, and of Finland (Lutheran). And then what?
Ya think? ;-)
God willing, ALL.
How so? Some Anglicans and Lutherans (and more when the NO was promulgated) still have a beautiful and traditional liturgy. In fact, wasn't it in the wake of the NO that the Anglicans decided the lovely Book of Common Prayer needed "updating?
Reminds me of my aunt's comment on kids who play together: they never pick up each other's good habits -- only the bad ones!
We learned a hymn on the theme of Christian unity in grammar school that had the line "Draw us the nearer each to each we pray/By drawing all to Thee, O Prince of Peace." Mediocre (or worse) as the hymn was, I think that line nails the only basis for a real ecumenism.
UK Anglicans have not officially revised the BCP since 1662.
They introduced some modifications unofficially in 1928 (42 years before the NO) and published an alternate services book in 1980 (ten years after the NO), and another in 2000.
The BCP of 1662 was never officially suppressed.
US Episcopalians revised the BCP in 1789 (since they were now in a Republic, not a Monarchy), in 1892, in 1928 and then in 1979.
In Australia, it was the 1662 BCP until a 1978 revision and an alternate book in 1995. The Sydney Archdiocese still uses the 1662 BCP almost unchanged.
In Canada, the BCP was revised in 1918 and then radically in 1962, and an alternate services book was published in 1985.
In the US, Episcopal congregations that have returned to Roman obedience use the BCW, which is a combination of the unofficial 1928 UK BCP and the 1970 Missal.
In the old People’s Mass Book, there was a hymn for Christian Unity which is now in the Adoremus Hymnal. Some of the words:
O Love, who drew from Jesus’side,
One Body freed from Adam’s shame,
One Church sent forth to rule and guide,
One faith confirmed by gifts of flame:
When worldly schemes our hopes assail,
Thy kingdom come, thy truth prevail.
Spoiled children, we, so blest with sight
Redeemed by love surpassing all;
Lest we who glory in thy light
Share not our gift, heed not thy call;
In Christian hearts that faint and fail,
Thy kingdom come, thy truth prevail.
Round Peter’s throne let all unite,
From blinded eyes the veil withdraw,
The minds of rulers set aright
Who bind Thy Church beneath their law.
When brooding minds old wounds bewail:
Thy kingdom come, thy truth prevail.
Episcopalians who remember the 1928 prayer book and the process of revision leading to the 1979 book will have no difficulty recognizing the truth of the title The Liturgical Revolution. As Moriarty says in his introduction, the 1979 prayer book "abandoned a Tudor worldview and the liturgical and theological context of the Reformation, and embraced the language, values, and insights of the twentieth-century liturgical movement"
Actually, 9 or 10 years qualifies as "in the wake of" to me -- must mean I'm getting old! ;-)
Ping!
The 1928 book was more Protestant, definitely, but it was written in the beautiful, measured English of Cranmer. The average educated 17th-century Englishman wrote the most beautiful English of all time.
I wish that the Catholic Church would take the Anglican Use Rite and just USE that for the NO. But that's my old '28 Prayerbook Episcopalian past life talking . . . .
Sounds good to me! But unless the USCCB can collect the royalties, probably ain't gonna happen. Speaking of which, what bible translation do they use for readings in the Anglican Use -- surely not the NAB?
I keep hearing the new translation should be better anyway. Do you know when it's due to come out officially?
I hope the new translation gets here soon!
Structural problems? I think it's more "moral" problems.
You must have a typo there: it is the Book of Divine Worship (BDW), which has elements from the 1928 BCP, 1979 BCP, 1970 Roman Missal and the Rite One Eucharistic Prayer, which is the Roman Canon in an Elizabethan English translation, with certain Pauline modifications (i.e. consecration, acclamation). The BDW has an imprimatur and concordat cum originali notation, incidentally.
In Anglican Usage circles, there is some talk, especially when dialoging with our Traditional Anglican Communion brethren, of a possible revision of the BDW, perhaps to bring it more into line with the Anglican Missal, which seems mostly to be an elegant translation of the Johannine (or maybe Sarum) version of the Roman Missal; or in other words, it is pretty much Tridentine but in good English. The impetus for this will clearly have to come from the TAC folks as a part of their corporate reunion with Rome, which God willing I will live to see.
To the extent that the BDW incorporates the current English translations of the 1970 Roman Missal, it may be subject to revision when the new transaltions of the RM come into effect. The problem there is simply a practical one: where will the money come from? The AU operates mostly without common funding, and the parishes, while not small, are not large either, so funds are limited. It will remain to be seen how these things work out.
THAT’S WHY MAGOG CANNOT BE RUSSIA....
Indeed. It is has been traditionaly in the area of what is now some of the former soviet republics.
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