Emergent Sacramentalists
22 April 2008 - 18 ניסן 5768 by Huw
Was having a talk today with a friend online about the Independent Sacramental movement. The conversation was all over the board.
Then I said we needed to start our own indy jurisdiction and I first suggested that we do Eastern Rite, but then I realised that would be stupid because I’d want no rites reserved.
The problem is the name, of course. The initial idea of The Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Lake Erie seemed ironically to say exactly what we wanted - sort of an Anti-jurisidiction, limited by a non-location. I might, in hind sight, want to add an Ethnicity to it just to poke even more fun: The White Anglo-Saxon Ex Protestant Orthodox Church of Lake Erie. We could be boring and exclusive all at once.
But then we played with some other ideas, weaving “emergent” into the mix, realising that the Indy Sacramentalists are the liturgical form of emergent church (in a lot of ways - the parallels hold). Really, the baseline isn’t a rite (Eastern, Western or even Danceing-Saints, old or new language, Taize, whatever). Ideally, I’d like a Church that looked like this OCA parish in Sacramento:
One could use that Church for Tridentine, BCP, Rite III or ER all just as easily. Move the furniture as you wish! Throw in a few chairs and you can have a Banquet Mass. It would need to be shaped by the community acting in faith.
So I suggested using the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral
which would seem to allow such a wide expression as we sought. Fellowship Of Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateralists (FOCLQ). That was a laugh: but my friend didn’t want the C-LQ to be “The thing” either.
I still like my Praxis idea, even though the conversation has never taken off. And I still love Revolution NYC, but for all their coolness, they’ve only once in all their years had a communion service which I find odd, given how much emphasis they place on hospitality. We both agreed that that was the thing.
And so, there, Sacramental and Emergent, where do you go…
Have you seen the liturgy from the Scottish Episcopal Church? I have always had this dream of a monastery that was mixed and many different rites were celbrated.
That is my parish in Sacramento. We now have the full Iconostasis. I rather miss the old open Holy Place.
The Russian Catholic community here in Denver meets in a Roman Catholic parish church, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. Both the Russian Catholic and Roman Catholic communities share a bi-ritual pastor, as well as a sanctuary and an altar.
Anyhow, they have an ingenious iconostasis which actually folds in on both sides when they have Roman Rite Masses. The church itself is a bit too bare for my tastes (it was whitewashed after Vatican II), but I do think the iconostasis is a rather interesting solution.
You can see what I’m talking about here:
http://www.stelizofhungary.org/docs/ste_directory.pdf
Brian - I think we’ve had this conversation before, but I’m sad y’all opted for a full screen. There was so much light and simple beauty in the design: I’ll be using it when I build a church!
Ben - WONDERFUL. Thanks for sharing that… (I don’t much mind the whitewash in general: but the space, itself, needs more).
Well, this is fun.
The Lima liturgy could be a place to start as well. Look to the ecumenical movement, Huw.
Also, check out Reconciler.
;-)
Gonna have to google the Lima Liturgy. I’m fond of the Didache set, myself, although I’ve been really impressed with Fr Bede Griffith’s church in India.
I second the suggestion of the liturgy of the Scottish Episcopal Church. They have seasonal Eucharistic prayers which are a bit lengthy but are quite smashing in imagery and language. I used the one for Advent at an “alt-ish” Eucharist and every single attendee remarked how much they liked it.
I’m finding myself more and more fascinated by Indy Sacramentalism, although I guess I’m just a bit too much of a BCP Episcopalian to be comfortable with too many deviations. I’ve been to “emergent” style churches filled with postevangelicals who did a wonderful, reverent communion service with fabulous and well-planned liturgy, while my pilgrimages to the Home of Things Anglimergent, Church of the Apostles in Seattle, have always left me cold and just a little uncomfortable.
Is it a matter of deciding what’s acceptable practice, and does setting a standard deviate from what we mean by “indy?” I dunno; I guess I’m just thinking aloud here.
I *really* like these prayers a lot!
I rather like the prayers from SGN but the Scottish prayers are nice as well. I think I might re-order them to the SGN format (with the Sanctus at the end).