From today’s epistle, which speaks of Christ as the “high priest of the good things that have come.”

From Our Lady of Balamand Patriarchal Monastery.

Here it is, direct from ACNS. This has a nice summary of what we’re doing this week. Could be good fodder for parish email newsletters, leaflet notes, and the like.

Anglicans/Episcopalians around the world will join with other Christians in observing the most solemn time in the church’s calendar, Holy Week, beginning Sunday, 16 March. The week marks the last days in the life of Christ and celebrates his glorious resurrection in the Easter Triduum (Three Days).

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will give lectures on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday in Holy Week at Westminster Abbey following Evensong. He will preside at the Chrism Eucharist and other services in his diocese and celebrate and preach Easter Day in the cathedral.

Here’s a sample of the liturgy notes:

Thursday in Holy Week is called Maundy Thursday, from the Latin for mandatum novum, “a new commandment”: John 13:34: After Jesus washed the feet of the disciples he said “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” It marks the beginning the Great Three Days leading up to the proclamation of the resurrection at the Easter Vigil.

The day traditionally involved three liturgical acts: the reconciliation of penitents (a mass, not in common usage today, for those to be restored to communion at Easter); the blessing of Chrism (oils to be used for baptism, confirmation, ordination, and anointing are blessed by the bishop); and the evening mass beginning the three days of the Pascal celebration. The evening setting highlights the nearness of betrayal and the approaching passion of Jesus.

Read the whole thing. There’s a bit in there about “Christian seders” which irritate me. But that’s another post…

The MadPriest has BIG bold idea:

“INCLUSIVE” What does that mean?

It could mean anything. It could mean inclusive of woodworm, which is not a good idea in any church.

Also, it’s snobby. You say to Joe Public that you’re an inclusive Christian he’s going to think you’re all la di da. We need something snappy if we’re going to win the propaganda war.

Go visit his blog for his answer. I’m still mulling it over.

Here are some pages [PDF] that you’re going to want to glue into your Book of Common Prayer at your earliest convenience. Thanks to The Topmost Apple for helping all of us make sure we’re the first ones in the pew with all the goods.

Throughout Holy Week, I’ll be posting images for some of the themes of the week.

L’entrée de Jésus a Jérusalem, Corinne Vonaesch, 2001.

Three quick bits on the Eve of Palm Sunday:

• First, I commend this video by Marcus Borg on the politics of Palm Sunday.
• Second, here are some instructions for making palm crosses.
• Third, you might think about ordering eco-palms in your congregation next year. The palms most of us use each are not kind to Mother Earth. Why not help our environment on this most holy day?

A swish of the palm frond to This Passage, Raspberry Rabbit, and The Lead (in that order) for these three items.

This Sunday begins another great journey. We are, with Jesus, walking into ancient Jerusalem. Palm Sunday begins in great triumph - palms waving, shouting “hosannahs,” and resounding hymns.

We do this to remember the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. It is a triumphant occasion. But then the mood will change, dramatically.

As we read the Passion Gospel, we recall the heart-wrenching story of the betrayal, suffering, and death of Jesus Christ. The contrast with the earlier festivity is sharp. How can a story that began with such promise end with such despair? By the standards of our world, death is certainly the end, and crucifixion represented a failure.

This is one of the key lessons for Christians to absorb. The standards of our world are meaningless to Christians. We do not measure success by how much “stuff” we accumulate, how much power we have, or how important we are. Instead, our success is in loving others as God loves us. Complete love, given in reckless abandon, is the Christian measure of “success.”

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Bishop Alan has a few things to say about the situation here in ECUSA. He also has a great blog, by the way.

Over the pond, from shore to shining shore, various legal eagles are engaging in top gun dogfights about church matters, and it ain’t a pretty sight. I suppose a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do, and everyone, of course, is right from their own point of view. “What else were we to do?” I hear everybody saying…

We Brits are good at ignoring sounds of breaking glass from our neighbours, but by Baptism we all belong to each other. If Dustin & Meryl next door lock horns acrimoniously, what kind of idiot do I have to be to stand at the bottom of the garden egging them on or, worse still, join in? But in all humility it strikes me…

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At Friday’s Chrism Mass, our bishop mentioned Betty Butterfield. Apparently this was the much-needed comic relief for several bishops at the House of Bishops. The thought of purple-clad bishops huddled around the computer watching Betty Butterfield brings me much joy.

In case you haven’t been introduced, I bring you…

Her segments on other churches are very funny. I especially commend the one on Lutherans. Enjoy!

This is just plain cool.

The artefact bears five images depicting a wild goat jumping up to eat the leaves of a tree, which the members of the team at that time had not recognised the relationship between the pictures.

Several years later, Iranian archaeologist Dr Mansur Sadjadi, who became later appointed as the new director of the archaeological team working at the Burnt City discovered that the pictures formed a related series. <snip>

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I wrote about the pace of change making things hard for us in the Anglican Communion. Then there are basic cultural gaps. Let us take, for instance, a simple thing. Counting money. You know, the money that pays for humble bloggers like me to travel in steerage to foreign realms while the conservatives all fly in chartered jets.

How many different ways can there be for one to count money? From the looks of this video, lots. Let us, ahem, count the ways.

And if we don’t count money the same way, it makes sense that we might not think of money the same way. Perhaps we don’t think of individual rights the same way. Maybe we don’t think of God’s sovereignty the same way. Yes, there are many differences amongst our cultures in the Anglican Communion. This is just one trivial yet strangely captivating difference.

From Metacafe, via Boing Boing

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“Eucharistic Food and Drink” is the topic of a new report just issued by the Anglican Consultative Council’s Inter-Anglican Liturgical Committee. While endorsing variances such as gluten-free bread and, in some cases, grape juice, the report continues to affirm traditional bread and wine as the normal stuff of Holy Communion. What I found interesting is the survey of regional variations to the 2000 year-old, near-universal standard of bread and wine. I quote:

In sections of Africa and the Far East the scarcity of wheat bread or wine had brought about the use of local substitutes. The Philippines reported the use of rice cakes and rice wine, while Uganda noted that Coke, banana juice, passion fruit or pineapple juice was used in some parishes. The practice had arisen, it said during the “difficult years of Idi Amin” when bread and wine were all but unobtainable. However, it could not say how widespread the practice was at present.  (emphasis added)

So let me get this right. The provinces that has declared “impaired communion” with ECUSA is itself using Coke or pineapple juice for the Eucharist. Talk about impaired communion!

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