Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Anglicans, Now ... and Then
Now, from Christopher Johnson's Midwest Conservative Journal: The [Episcopal] House of Deputies officially killed the following resolution:Resolved, the House of _____ concurring, That the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church declares its unchanging commitment to Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the only name by which any person may be saved (Article XVIII); and be it further
Resolved, That we acknowledge the solemn responsibility placed upon us to share Christ with all persons when we hear His words, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No-one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6); and be it further
Resolved, That we affirm that in Christ there is both the substitutionary essence of the Cross and the manifestation of God’s unlimited and unending love for all persons; and be it further
Resolved, That we renew our dedication to be faithful witnesses to all persons of the saving love of God perfectly and uniquely revealed in Jesus and upheld by the full testimony of Holy Scripture. Then, from Lyra Fidelium: Twelve Hymns on the Twelve Articles of the Apostle's Creed by Samuel J. Stone (1866):The Church’s one foundation Is Jesus Christ her Lord, She is His new creation By water and the Word: From heaven He came and sought her To be His holy bride, With His own blood He bought her And for her life He died.
She is from every nation Yet one o'er all the earth, Her charter of salvation One Lord, one faith, one birth, One Holy Name she blesses, Partakes one Holy Food, And to one Hope she presses With every grace endued.
The Church shall never perish! Her dear Lord to defend, To guide, sustain, and cherish, Is with her to the end: Though there be those who hate her, And false sons in her pale, Against or foe or traitor She ever shall prevail.
Though with a scornful wonder Men see her sore oppressed, By schisms rent asunder By heresies distressed: Yet saints their watch are keeping, Their cry goes up “How long?” And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song!
'Mid toil and tribulation And tumult of her war, She waits the consummation Of peace forevermore; Till, with the vision glorious, Her longing eyes are blest, And the great Church victorious Shall be the Church at rest!
Yet she on earth hath union With God the Three in One, And mystic sweet communion With those whose rest is won, With all her sons and daughters Who, by the Master's Hand Led through the deathly waters, Repose in Eden-land.
O happy ones and holy! Lord, give us grace that we Like them, the meek and lowly, On high may dwell with Thee: There, past the border mountains, Where in sweet vales the Bride With Thee by living fountains For ever shall abide! (That's the original hymn, including verses not sung in church today. The hymnal from which this quotation was taken is online. More information on the hymn's history is available here and here.)
11:16 PM
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