Was a long time member on the old Christian forums and for some reason never transitioned over here. I am impressed by the many interesting discussions taking place on here, so due time I joined! I am the rector of St. Stephen's Church, Delmar NY, in the Diocese of Albany. We are a 'Classical Anglican' parish, who has recently been focusing on rediscovering and learning the importance of the Book of Common Prayer (actually using it and not printing out entire services), the 39 Articles and their importance in today's Anglicanism, the celebration of the Lord's Supper as Cranmer encouraged spiritually and rubrically, and recently began to reintroduce the 1928 BCP for our daily office and weekday Communion services. Come by and worship with us if you ever in the area!
Welcome and blessings! I am excited for another clergyman to join our ranks! I'd love to hear more about your Church Padre. How are you affiliated? TEC? ACNA? Etc? What do you consider "classical" Anglicanism? Many thanks for taking time to discuss with us.
Greetings, Rev. Egan! You're most welcome here. That news about using the BCP, Articles, and adherence to Cranmer's Reform is all so beautiful to me personally. Please do share your stories on parish reactions & ideas about the 1928 BCP and other traditional forms of worshiping our LORD! I love the Laudian altar frontal at St. Stephen's, by the way:
That's beautiful Rev. Egan. It is truly wonderful to hear more and more churches rediscover the beauty of classical Anglican worship! I have personally preferred it to contemporary services, which in my experience were less focused about the parishioners serving God, and more about God serving the parishioners.
To answer your questions: How are you affiliated? - Episcopal Diocese of Albany What do you consider "classical" Anglicanism? - I grew up experiencing mostly what we consider 'high church'. I was drawn to it, but never really began to grow in my faith as a disciple of Jesus until I experienced what many consider 'low church'. A few years back I went to the Ancient Wisdom Anglican Futures conference and paid close attention to the lecture on Cranmer. I was intrigued by what was being spoken of, neither high or low church, but ancient Anglicanism. Personally, this is where I feel most fed as an Anglican. Not focusing on how high or low we can go, but how we identify as Anglicans through Prayer Book worship, the theology of the 39 Articles, and sharing with the larger Body of Christ what makes us unique. I feel that over time we have tried to convince ourselves that Anglicans are a whole lot of things (Catholics, evangelicals, charismatics, low, high, broad, progressive, orthodox, etc.) and for most of us that means we miss what it means to be just Anglican! Please do share your stories on parish reactions & ideas about the 1928 BCP and other traditional forms of worshiping our LORD! - Like many other parishes, St. Stephen's has flirted with the contemporary movement within Western Christendom. We have a lot of other churches in our town that offer the same thing. I would like our parish to offer Anglican Christianity at its best. Prayer Book worship, hymns that touch the soul (not break the ear), education about the Faith, Church and Anglican heritage, etc. We just recently began to use the 1928 BCP for MP and EP, as well as Major Feast Days that fall during the week. The response has all been positive. I don't know what the future holds for the use of the 28 BCP beyond what we are currently using it for, but so far, everyone likes it. I have been teaching about the theological shift from the 28 to the 79, so many folks understand my reasoning for introducing it again. I really don't have any 'major' issues with the 79, in fact I like the Prayers of the People Rite II, the Holy Week Services being reintroduced and a few other things, but ultimately, I prefer Rite I for MP, EP and the Lord's Supper. To be honest, the main reason for my preference for the 1928, is that you don't have to constantly flip through pages looking for 'options'.