Announcing the fruit of Anglican Catholic labour

 

Why Our Lady is good for the Economy.

Walking backwards to the Devil?

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent

Would you know

the Devil if you met him?

Some of the witnesses

who see Jesus' cast out a demon

clearly don't.

"He casts out demons

by the power of Beelzebub!"

they say.

The strange thing is

that they are indeed

witnesses of the miracle.

They see the demon

expelled from the man.

They have heard this man

speak when, before, 

he couldn't. 

So they have seen the effect

but they reject the cause.

Rather than see the truth, 

they would prefer to believe

that the Devil,

the prince of demons

was the cause.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord points out the irony here.

If you can't tell whether

a demon has been expelled by God 

or by the Devil.

Then you can't tell 

whether any demon

has been expelled by God

or by the Devil.

So, all the "proper" exorcisms

that have been performed 

by the Jewish authorities 

of the day

cannot be said definitively 

to have been by God.

As Our Lord says,

those who say that

He drives out demons by the Devil

are denouncing their own 

authority. 

They cut off the branch

on which they sit.

But if they are wrong

and Our Lord casts out demons

through the Finger of God

- the Holy Ghost

- then they are witnesses 

to God's presence with them

and must repent.

[PAUSE]

Even today,

there are those

who are afflicted 

with the same tendency

to attribute to the Devil

that which comes from God.

There are those Christians who say,

"Unless you believe what I believe

then you are a worshipper of Satan!"

But wait!

If you cannot tell 

whether another's belief 

is truth from God or a lie from Satan

then you cannot tell whether

you yourself are a "worshipper of Satan".

True, we believe that 

what our Church teaches

is right

and therefore,

we must believe that

those who do not believe 

what we believe are wrong.

Being wrong is part 

of human fallenness

and therefore deserves

compassion and forgiveness,

not condemnation.

We do not tolerate 

the wrong doctrine

but we expel it by refusing to adopt it 

and by calling out heresy.

Those who accept heresy

indeed separate themselves 

from the Church,

but we always should seek

to keep the door of the Church open

for them to come back.

We certainly cannot say whether

a different group of Christians

are "worshippers of Satan"

unless we see Satan being worshipped.

If we want to know 

the fruits of the demonic,

they are listed by St Paul

in his letter to the Galatians.

"Now the works of the flesh 

are manifest, which are these; 

Adultery, fornication, 

uncleanness, lasciviousness, 

Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, 

variance, emulations, wrath, 

strife, seditions, heresies,

Envyings, murders, drunkenness, 

revellings, and such like: 

of the which I tell you before, 

as I have also told you in time past, 

that they which do such things 

shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

Christians of every sort

commit these faults, 

some on a daily basis,

but that does not make their

faith null and void. 

It just makes them

in need of salvation

through Jesus 

the Perfector of Our Faith.

[PAUSE]

Being a sinner

is not automatic Devil-worship.

Being a sinner

is not automatic damnation.

Being a sinner

is being in need of salvation

through Jesus Christ

and this salvation

is a process which begins at Baptism

and ends with our standing

before the Judgement seat of God.

God does not desire 

the death of a sinner

but rather that He repent

and live.

In our lives of repentance 

we will encounter the Devil

and we will encounter Christ.

We will,

at times, 

confuse the two 

- that's the consequence 

of The Fall

- but with Christ

we ALWAYS have the opportunity 

to repent and be part of His Church.

And that's a mark of the Church

we should recognise. 

Christ gathers,

the Devil scatters.

Again, 

St Paul tells us 

what to look for:

"the fruit of the Spirit is 

love, joy, peace, 

longsuffering, gentleness, 

goodness, faith,

meekness, temperance: 

against such there is no law."

Rather than focussing

on turning away from the Devil,

we should be focusing 

on Christ.

By focusing on the Devil,

it is as if we are 

walking backwards

and we stumble over more obstacles 

that he puts in our path.

By focusing on Christ,

we necessarily turn 

from the Devil

onto the right path.

[PAUSE]

It doesn't matter 

where we are now

as long as we are 

committing ourselves 

to our salvation.

God sees us not as 

black with sin

but rather grey with sin,

still possessing 

the whiteness of His image 

that has not been 

obliterated

but rather clouded

by our separation from Him.

And throughout our lives

spent turning towards Him,

He will purge us with hyssop

and we shall be clean.

He shall wash us

and we shall be whiter than snow.

That is our focus,

our way forward,

by facing forwards to Him.

Anglican Catholicism and the Culture Wars

 How can Anglican Catholics fit in a society at war?

The Dog's Truth

Sermon for the second Sunday in Lent

Perhaps you remember 

the tale of Greyfriars Bobby,

the little dog 

who was so devoted to his master

that he refused to leave

his master's grave side.

Perhaps you remember

how the townsfolk

looked after him 

and cared for him

until the little dog himself died

at the age of 16

and was buried not too far

from his master.

Some people think this is a legend,

but the statue that stands 

in Bobby's memory

is there for a reason.

There must be some truth 

in that story for such

a memorial to have been erected.

There is truth in that story.

[PAUSE]

"There must be truth 

in that story,"

thinks the Canaanite woman

as she tends to her dying daughter.

"There must be truth

that He heals."

The Canaanite woman

holds to these two truths,

the truth that her daughter is dying,

and the truth that lies in

the people's tales

about Jesus healing people.

So she goes to the Master.

And she will not leave,

clinging to these two truths

with all her might.

And she cries out

again

and again

and again and again and again,

so much so that 

people get sick of her crying.

"Send her away.

Don't bother the Master!"

But she holds to

the two truths doggedly.

She will see the Master

and He will heal her daughter.

Finally 

she catches the eye of God.

And He speaks truth:

"It is not meet

to take the children's bread

and cast it to the dogs."

A harsh rebuke?

Does she go away

reminded of her status as 

an outcast from 

the Children of Israel?

No. 

She knows another truth:

she is not Jewish and He is

but she is human

and so is He.

If He is the Messiah,

then He is merciful.

If He is the Messiah

then there is a crumb of mercy

that can fall for her.

She still holds doggedly

to the truth 

that He can heal.

He is truly the Master 

and she worships Him.

"Truth, Lord:

and yet the dogs eat

of the crumbs which fall

from their master's table"

For with Lord there is mercy.

And with that mercy

comes Divine admiration. 

"O woman, 

great is thy faith:

be it unto thee

even as thou wilt."

Notice how,

He calls her "woman"

- a term of respect,

a term of recognition of status,

a term of admiration, 

not a term to be used

to address a dog.

How can a master admire a dog?

How can a town 

set up a statue 

to a little dog 

who clung on to the truth 

of his devotion 

to his master?

To see an insult

in comparing this woman

with a dog

is to miss the breakdown

of the barriers 

that separate 

the Children of Israel

from the children of men.

For Jesus Himself

is the Bread of the Children of Israel

and He gives Himself freely

to a woman

whom the Children of Israel

would call a dog.

And He does so

because she has faith -

the knowledge that 

there must be some truth

in the stories she hears 

about Jesus,

even if she doesn't know

the whole truth.

He gives Himself to

this "dog"

willingly, 

in admiration 

with mercy and love.

And, in receiving this bread

she becomes one 

of the first gentile members

of the Church.

[PAUSE]

For us,

this faithful woman disappears into history -

a story, many would say 

- but if a story, then a story 

in which there must be some truth.

Indeed,

a story in which there is The Truth

a true story!

and this Truth 

that even now 

she holds onto 

in a state of Eternal bliss,

we, too, hold onto,

doggedly.

Setting the Anglican Catholic record straight.

 

Yes, we are pro-life. Here's why.

The Devil's blunder

Sermon for the first Sunday in Lent

Why does Our Lord 

tell the Devil to get behind Him

after the third temptation?

Why not tell him to shoo

after the first?

[PAUSE]

We know a few things here.

First,

we know that the Lord 

goes into the desert

for the purpose of being tempted.

We also know

that Our Lord is tempted 

throughout His life.

Remember when 

St Peter tries to stop

Jesus from going 

to Jerusalem and to the Cross.

Jesus uses the same words,

"Get the behind me, Satan!"

So Our Lord is tempted 

all His life,

not just in the wilderness. 

And yet, 

He goes into the wilderness 

to be tempted by the devil.

Why?

[PAUSE]

We face temptations

to sin daily

and it is very easy for us

to fall into sin

because the Devil 

catches us off guard

at a moment of weakness.

The only hope of 

protecting ourselves

is by knowing where we are weak,

where the Devil will try and get his foothold. 

For Our Lord,

the Devil tries to hit him

with natural physical needs,

with a crisis of faith,

and 

with an assault on His relationship 

with the Father. 

If the Devil

can break one of those

and cause Jesus to sin,

then he's beaten the

would-be Saviour.

And Jesus knows it.

So He finds solitude 

in order to confront

the Devil and put a halt to his scheme.

But why not tell him to shoo

at the first?

[PAUSE]

Look at the temptations

and how they grow 

in desperation.

If we had the power

to turn stones to bread

and we're hungry,

many of us would fall at the first hurdle.

This is the most basic temptation:

we want a choccy biccy,

we can get that choccy biccy

so we take that choccy biccy.

And we take that choccy biccy,

regardless of whether 

it's someone else's,

it's not good for our health,

or we're supposed to be fasting. 

The Devil wants us to suspend 

our thinking

so that we might fall from God

through foolish ignorance 

and, once we stumble

he can find ways of making us fall further. 

But Our Lord has faith jn His Father

to provide and sees through

this first, crude attempt 

to make Him fall through

unthinking. 

[PAUSE]

So the Devil moves on

to attack that faith

and expose either Jesus' pride

if He decides to jump,

or His lack of faith

if He refuses.

But Jesus counters

by reminding the Devil,

and reminding us,

that faith is not a toy

to be played with and abused

but our lifeline to the Father,

worthy of respect

and cultivation through 

living a life working in love.

[PAUSE]

So how can the Devil break this faith?

He knows he can't break 

that sort of faith.

He has one option left:

get Jesus to transfer His faith

away from the Father

and onto him.

If the Devil can show Jesus 

all the delights he has to offer

all of creation under his influence

and so get Jesus

to worship him 

in his power over all things,

then the Devil has won.

But it's a desperate ploy.

 

It's the last thing the Devil has to offer.

Once he plays this card,

he is exposed,

win or lose. 

And Jesus sees straight through it.

How could He not?

The greatest commandment

is that we love God

and that means we accept Him

as the Creator and Ruler of this universe,

All-good,

All-powerful,

All-knowing ,

and worthy of all worship.

It's a monumental howler by the Devil,

but the only hand he has left

against the Son of God.

[PAUSE]

In our Lent,

we examine the areas

in which we are tempted most.

In our pride,

we see our need to matter.

In our gluttony,  envy and avarice,

we see our hunger for something good.

In our lust,

we see our need to be loved.

In our wrath,

we see our need for justice.

In our sloth, 

we see our need for motivation. 

All of these temptations

are met in God.

All of our weaknesses are

covered by God.

And this is why He goes into the wilderness, 

so He can be tempted as we are

only without sin.

And, as the the waters of Baptism justify us

by being consecrated by Christ's Baptism,

as marriage is made a sacrament

by being  consecrated 

in Christ's miracle at Cana,

as the grave becomes the door to life,

by being consecrated 

in the death of God,

so are our temptations consecrated by His.

They become, 

not fodder for our destruction by the Devil,

but means by which 

we see our need for God in our lives.

This is the Devil's big blunder

because,

in the hands of one

who seeks a closer walk with God,

temptation shows 

how we need Him.

The Devil has lost temptation 

for the Christian. 

So tell him to shoo,

and seek God in your weakness

and the love of God will make you strong

unto the age of ages.

Taint necessarily so

"Not Equal Yet" is the latest promotion within the CofE lobby group WATCH (Women And The CHurch).

This is the latest on the "Not Equal Yet" ticket written by WATCH trustee Georgia Ashwell.

I'm not going to address it fully as I have argued my case and the argument has not been debunked largely because the problem is political.

The first think I note is that I agree fully with Dr Ashwell in that the theology of the CofE is a mess and that mess means that a coherent understanding of the sacraments is impossible. If all theologies are tolerated within the CofE, why not a theology that holds to the traditional understanding of ordination and the concomitant view that significant deviation from that tradition is invalid? 

The Catholic Church in its branches (Orthodox, Roman and Anglican Catholic) intends to do what the Church has always done. In ordaining women, the Church of England cannot intend to do what the Church has always done. But some bishops in the CofE do intend to do what the Church has always done and thus have possibly preserved that intention and possibly preserved the sacrament, though the fact that they remain in a Church which, as part of its doctrine, does not intend to do what the Church has always done injects doubt into their orders. Were they to seek priesthood in the Anglican Catholic Church,  they would receive ordination sub conditione. There is therefore a theological reason why The Society will only permit consecration by bishops from The Society. It is not misogyny.

This brings me to my next point. Dr Ashwell states that she believes The Society's position to be misogyny and not theology but she does not say how. I certainly sympathise wholeheartedly with those female CofE priests who have suffered abuse from members of the Society - that is not on! I condemn fiercely any spitting, insulting or aggression to any women on the grounds that they are a woman, especially a female priest. I respect the learning and devotion that these women have to answering some call to bring the Gospel to the people who need to hear it, and I know that God smiles on their efforts. But those efforts are limited by the truth that they are ministers and not priests in the eyes of the Catholic Church and that there is necessary some falsehood being disseminated. A declaration of misogyny, however, is a socio-political statement and not a theological one. If Catholics are misogynist to believe in a male-only priesthood, then perhaps God Himself is misogynist for calling only men to the priesthood or for not making His will clearer. Is that what WATCH are saying?

Third, what do WATCH want? In the CofE, women are ordained to all three orders. The third most senior bishop is Dame Sarah Mullally of London. Women bishops are, for the sake of promoting equality, leapfrogging men to enter the House of Lords. Women are eligible to enter every position in the CofE, any at all - except those places inhabited by traditional Catholics and headship Evangelicals. Indeed, at every ordination by the Society, there is always a female bishop (usually Dame Sarah) standing there in chimere and rochet as if to assert their validity among those who cannot (and they truly cannot, Dr Ashwell) believe it for the sake of "mutual flourishing" and the incoherent 5 GPs (Guiding Principles).

 So what do WATCH want? I've asked that before. To force everyone to recognise their ministry? But they wouldn't force any other theology on anyone else. They wouldn't insist that everyone stopped believing in Hell, would they? While I appreciate in my ignorance in the matter, It looks to me that WATCH want to be let into those parishes which hold traditional views. That smacks to me, not of equality, but of dominion. Whatever they claim,  WATCH  is a political lobby, NOT a theological lobby, and that they confuse the two. This is why they cannot see as theology traditional Catholic doctrine that they despise.

They call for people to join them but they don't say their purpose. That's because their purpose is very clear: they want The Society and the Evangelical groups out of the CofE. They want them defunded, deplatformed, demoted and despised. Let's be clear on that.

My own advice to the Society and to the Evangelical groups is: let them have their way. They are not going to rest and will use every means at their disposal, especially their well-rehearsed political rhetoric in a politically correct society to destroy the Catholic Faith.

The Anglican Catholic Church is here for the Catholics. There are good Evangelical groups such as the Church of England (Continuing) that can be joined. There is no such thing as mutual flourishing when WATCH have politicised the term and continue to play the victim rather than see the good that can be done with the 5GPs.

The cost is great but we need to start rebuilding the Catholic Church in this country. This is a challenge and involves great and radical sacrifice. It requires faith, conviction and prayer. We in the ACC are ready to talk whenever people want to talk.