Patrimony

We deny to claim "any Superiority to ourself
to defyne, decyde, or determyn any Article or Poynt
of the Christian Fayth and Relligion,
or to chang any Ancient Ceremony of the Church
from the Forme before received and observed
by the Catholick and Apostolick Church."

Norman Simplicity

Norman Simplicity
Click image for original | © Vitrearum (Allan Barton)

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Nowhere Man

The Pocket Scroll:

And I just couldn’t handle it. So I left.

It’s not simply that I couldn’t handle this particular misbehaviour on the part of my fellow worshippers. It’s not just that I’m judgemental and ask questions like, ‘Are these people even here to worship? Why do they come to church if they can’t be reverent?’ (I am and I do.) No, I like to think that my better self would control my feet and keep me in my seat.

Instead, it’s the result of years feeling like I’m on an ecclesiastical fringe. By and large, those Anglicans whose theology I am nearest worship in the manner currently least appealing to me. Anglicans at large, in fact, enjoy liturgical experimentation so much that it is often easier for me to worship with non-Anglicans than to watch the latest Anglican travesty performed right before my eyes with no consciousness of tradition, scripture, and good taste. Sadly, high Anglicans have a tendency either to say nothing at all in the sermon or to do things like deny the virginal conception and Annunciation of the BVM when I turn up.

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