In our metro area we have a variety of Anglican churches. There's our ACNA church, and a REC church, and a Continuing church. But I discovered another Anglican church here that I hadn't been aware of. Checking out this local church's website, the interior photos showed a very plain, Protestant-looking interior. The music ministers were up front with guitar and electronic keyboard. And the man who appeared to be leading things was not in vestments! What?!? Although my curiosity was aroused, this certainly did not appeal to me as the sort of church I'd want to visit. I dug a bit deeper and found out that it's a C4SO church. "Well," I thought to myself, "that cinches it; forget them." But while praying, I sensed the Holy Spirit telling me to go and attend one of their services, and to meet that pastor. And I felt strongly that I should pray for that minister and our rector to get together and fellowship, so I prayed in obedience. And this past Sunday, after our regular 9 a.m. service, I drove halfway across town and attended the 11:00 a.m. service at this C4SO church. Call it a 'fact finding mission,' if you will. Here are my observations. Sure enough, this service bore little resemblance to a typical Anglican service. No BCPs were evident, and no hymnals; only Bibles in the pews. The minister was dressed, sure enough, in slacks and a suit coat, and open collar shirt. He started the service with an opening prayer that sounded vaguely Anglican-ish without being anything verbatim from a BCP liturgy. Then the singing started. The "praise and worship" was about as bland as expected, although I had to admit that I'd heard worse at the Assemblies church I was attending prior to discovering Anglicanism. At least the lyrics at this place were a bit better. Still, most (with some exceptions) of the people were just standing there looking at the words on the screen instead of singing or worshipping, which seems typical in my experience of churches that do their praise & worship in this manner. And I was surprised to see the keyboard player wear a ball cap the entire time. (My mother raised me to know better, but this is a different generation.) Speaking of generations, most of the congregants appeared to be in their 20s and 30s, many married couples with children, and little to no gray hair in evidence. From what I've gathered, their Sunday attendance is 2 to 3 times that of the one I'm a part of. After "worship" concluded, a layperson read the Gospel reading from Luke which I'd already heard that morning. Then the minister launched into his sermon, which (like the sermon I'd heard earlier that morning) was based upon the Gospel reading from Luke, the account of Jesus reading from the Scriptures in the synagogue at Nazareth and then being ushered out to the nearest cliff. The sermon was actually quite good, and the minister brought in historical facts which I'd not heard in such detail previously, along with clarification of words used in the passage, to explain the events which transpired. He then did a good job of "bringing it home" in terms of how we should govern our own lives in response to Jesus' message that day concerning the showing of mercy toward others. Afterward, he led the people in the general confession. Not verbatim from the BCP, but with more contemporary phraseology. We said the Lord's Prayer. He spoke the portion from the prayer of consecration beginning with "On the night He was betrayed..." and broke the bread, etc. Then he said (maybe not totally verbatim, but very close), " The gifts of God for the people of God. Take them in remembrance that Christ died for you and feed on him in your hearts by faith, with thanksgiving." Right after that, the congregants began filing forward for communion, which I think was cracker pieces and little plastic mini-cups of juice, held in trays by a layperson, which people took back to their seats and partook without further ado. Following this they had a modified version of the Post Communion Prayer, then a blessing, then dismissal. As one can see, there were a few bits of the liturgy in there, yet more was left out than was included. At this point I was trying to figure out how this could be an Anglican church service! So an opportunity presented itself for me to approach the minister and ask him some questions. He confirmed to me that he was indeed an ordained Anglican priest, and proceeded to explain the situation. He said that he was educated in a Methodist seminary and was serving at a large local Methodist church, when he began to recognize the soundness of Anglicanism. He left the Methodists and became an Anglican priest, and a good number of other Methodists had by that time become like-minded and followed him to this new church. But these people were, he said, "not ready" to accept a full-blown Anglican liturgy. Over the course of about 4 years he's been adding a bit here and a bit there, teaching on the Creed, and doing things to lead them in the direction of the liturgy. They have a midweek "morning prayer" time that apparently is a watered-down version of what's in the prayer book. But he said he didn't know if they would ever be ready to adopt the BCP and all that it contains. His philosophy (with his bishop's full knowledge and support) is to start with the situation they have and gradually move the people in the right direction, rather than alienate all those people and lose them. For my part, I encouraged him to reach out and meet my rector, and get to know him. They definitely have common ground, and I think a spirit of fellowship and cooperation could help both parties. My takeaway: this really fits the description of "church for the sake of others" as opposed to being a church for the sake of traditional church. This priest is doing his best to tend the portion of the flock that the Lord has entrusted to him. Some sheep are ready to be in the pen, and other sheep are not ready for the pen. Just because they aren't ready to be penned does not make them undesirable to God, so He sends them a shepherd who will stand watch over them out in the field. I'm reminded of the parable Jesus told (Matt. 22) of the wedding invitees gathered from the highways, whom He welcomed in lieu of some who couldn't be bothered to show up. The church seems to be thriving and growing (I was not the only first-time visitor there), they are being taught from the word of God and guided toward greater spiritual growth, and I wish all of them well. I'm glad I went, but having been there I appreciate even more the church where I'm planted.
That priest is doing his congregation wrong in my opinion. The liturgy teaches and moulds. My parish is full of non cradle liturgy people. Our priest regularly has to explain things but the liturgy we get
I know what you mean. The question is, would they stick or would they leave? I don't know. I would like to think that this priest has prayed and is being guided by the Lord concerning how and when to change things, but no one is immune to being spiritually 'hard of hearing.' Ultimately he will have to answer to God for whether he did right or not. It's an awesome, heavy responsibility.
True. On the other hand, they might come to my (actual liturgy) church, 5 miles away from this other one. I have been pleased to see several new young families in our Sunday services in recent months. The local Continuing church (actual liturgy) is also less than 6 miles from that other one, in a different direction; they even have bilingual services to attract the Hispanic population. It occurs to me, our town is serving up a veritable smorgasbord of Anglicanism! Still, I'm with you; I hope that this C4SO church accelerates their transition. And learns to sing a few good, edifying hymns.
We are a young parish but we are young unmarried parish. Our married people do have a good fertility rate.
I must admit, as "low church" Anglicanism goes, this particular congregation is "doing the limbo." Can't go much lower low-church on the Anglican 'spectrum,' can it?
It sounds like the rector’s heart is in the right place but I must say, this is a rather idiosyncratic approach. Liturgical worship is a “love at first sight” sort of thing; either the slightest glimpse is enough to make you want it all, or you’ll always be looking for something better. I wonder about the long-term prospects of a congregation that just wants to dip their toe in Anglicanism. It seems like an ultimately self-defeating approach.
For those of us who grew up rejecting any liturgy as "roman corruption," I was introduced to it unofficially through bits and pieces and later fell in love when I found the whole thing put together. As long as the plan is eventual conformity, I'd say he is shepherding the flock he was given and patiently waiting for the harvest to grow.