Ecclesia Anglicana
ANGLICAN PROVINCE of AMERICA
The Most Rev Walter H Grundorf D.D. Presiding Bishop
OUR HERITAGE
FEBRUARY 2015
FEATURED PARISH
Samuel Seabury, first Anglican Bishop in
America, was born in Connecticut in 1729. His
father, also Samuel Seabury, who was originally a Congregationalist minister, was ordained Deacon and Priest in the Church of
England in 1730, and was a rector in New
London, Connecticut, from 1732 to 1743, and
of St. George's, Hempstead, Long Island, from 1743 until
his death.
Samuel Seabury (the son) graduated from Yale College in
1748, and studied theology with his father, and was ordained Deacon by the Bishop of Lincoln and Priest by the
Bishop of Carlisle in 1753.
On March 25, 1783, a meeting of ten Episcopal clergy
elected Seabury bishop. There were no Anglican bishops in
the Americas to consecrate him, so he sailed to London on
July 7. In England, however, his consecration was considered to be impossible because, as an American citizen, he
could no longer take the oath of allegiance to the King.
Seabury then turned to the Scottish Episcopal Church, who
were at that time, not the established church but a repressed church that refused to recognize the Hanoverian
kings.
He was consecrated in Aberdeen on November 14, 1784,
with the one condition that in the matter of the Holy Communion he study the Scottish Rite and work for its adoption
rather than the English rite of 1662. To the present day the
American liturgy adheres to the main features of this Rite in
one of its Holy Eucharist Liturgies.
Seabury's consecration by the Scots caused alarm in the
British Government who feared an entirely Jacobite church
in the United States, and Parliament was persuaded to
make provision for the ordination of foreign bishops. Seabury's tenacity in the matter had the effect of making a continued relationship between the American and English
churches a possibility.
1
St. Philip's Anglican Church
Pinellas Park, FL
St. Philip's was started in a tiny
chapel with seating capacity of
25 in a residential area of St.
Petersburg a little over six years
ago. Today we are in a building
that will seat 100 -125 people comfortably in neighboring Pinellas Park. Fr. Poole, the Vestry, and the congregation of St. Philip's has begun an exciting journey
for outreach using the information and guidelines of
Bishop Stephen Scarlett. Five outreach events have
been determined and we are working toward those
goals now. Amidst a sea of empty church parking lots,
we stand out in attendance at both Wednesday Masses – 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. There are plenty of cars in the
parking lot on Saturday's too, as the ladies march in
for Sewing with Carmel – wonderful fellowship as well
as learning everything you wanted to know about sewing. St. Philip's has been hosting Forward in Faith
meetings throughout this year, offering food, fellowship, and important information regarding the larger
Anglican world. St. Philip's offers Sunday school for
the elementary school children and Fr. Poole holds
Adult Sunday Bible Study every Sunday morning before Mass. The adult class are always well attended.
Father John Poole
RECTOR
Fr. John was ordained to the Diaconate in the Episcopal Diocese of
Albany, in 1982. After escaping
the snow and cold of upstate New York he took up
residence in Orlando, Florida, and became a member
of St. Alban’s Cathedral in Oviedo, FL. He and his
lovely wife and helpmate, Denice were received into
the APA at St. Alban’s and after several years as a
deacon he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop
Grundorf and shortly thereafter accepted the call to St.
Philip’s Church.
Jesus. Mary asked Richeldis to build a replica of that
house in Walsingham.
TENDING THE GARDEN
St. Thomas the Apostle Anglican
Church, Alto, GA
Fr Gene Mallard - Rector
The hand of God. St. Thomas has paid off the entire
balance on our mortgage 10 years ahead of schedule. The
Gainesville District of the North Georgia Conference of the
United Methodist Church had agreed to hold our note which
we then paid on for five years. But a groundswell of desire
to own our property outright began to build. One Sunday,
we asked people to give what they could by cash, check, or
both toward paying the balance. What was given was added to what we had in our Money Market Account, and there
was more than enough to pay off the mortgage and leave a
healthy balance. Thanks be to God! This happy event was
quickly followed by more good news. On Craig's List, one of
our members found two beautiful stained glass windows
being sold by an artist in Atlanta. She had purchased them
more than 10 years earlier from a church in New York state
which was closing and the windows had hung in her studio
ever since. Some changes in her life led her to advertise
them, our member providentially found them online on the
weekend, brought pictures for me to see on Sunday, and
late that afternoon off we went to see them in person. The
moment we saw them, we knew they were exactly what we
wanted at St. Thomas, so we bought them that day! They fit
our existing windows beautifully. They are already installed
and awaiting our next episcopal visit to consecrate our
church and bless our new windows. Again, thanks be to
God.
Saint Barnabas Church
Dunwoody GA
Bishop Chandler Jones - Rector
Our Lady of Walsingham
Lady Richeldis de Faverches was a
Saxon noblewoman, married to the Lord
of the Manor of Walsingham Parva.
Richeldis had a deep faith in God and
devotion to Mary, and a reputation for good works in care
and generosity towards those around her. In 1061 she experienced a vision and taken by Mary to the house in Nazareth where Gabriel had announced the news of the birth of
2
Although we cannot be certain that this story represents all the details of historical fact, we do know that
in passing on his guardianship of the Holy House to
her son, Geoffrey de Faverches left instructions for the
building of a Priory in Walsingham. The Priory passed
into the care of Augustinian Canons somewhere between 1146 and 1174.
It was this Priory, housing the simple wooden structure
Richeldis had been asked to build, which became the
focus of pilgrimage to Walsingham. Royal patronage
helped the Shrine to grow in wealth and popularity,
receiving visits from Henry III, Edward II, Edward III,
Henry IV, Edward IV, Henry VII and Henry VIII, who
finally brought about its destruction in 1538.
After nearly four hundred years, the 20th century saw
the restoration of pilgrimage to Walsingham as a regular feature of Christian life in the United Kingdom, and
beyond.
In 1897, there was a Roman Catholic pilgrimage to the
restored 14th century Chapel, and in 1922 Saint
Mary's Anglican Church in Walsingham, restored the
Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham for Anglicanism. In
the same year a statue was set up in the Parish
Church of St. Mary, and regular pilgrimage devotion
followed. From the first night that the statue was
placed there, people gathered around it to pray, asking
Mary to join her powerful prayer with theirs. In 1931,
the national Anglican Shrine Church, replete with a
restored Holy House, was built and dedicated near the
parish church.
During the build up to the millennium celebrations of
2000, a new Refectory was planned. HRH Princess
Alexandra opened it in 2001 during a year of outreach
when the statue of Our Lady visited five Cathedrals in
Britain for a series of Regional Festivals. 2004 saw the
Our Lady of Walsingham visiting a wide variety of different venues - a hospital, a prison, an airport, an army
barracks, an Oxford college, a school - in an entirely
new form of outreach called.
A replica of this statue has been placed in the chapel,
at St Barnabas Anglican Church, Dunwoody Georgia,
thanks to a most generous gift from a parishioner and
her family. The statue was crafted in Walsingham,
England, by Anglican artists and is made of a special
resin material. It is approximately 2 ½ feet tall (and approximately 1 foot wide). The statue sits on a 3 foot tall wood
pedestal.
beginning. There was a time when the Son was not."
The idea, known as Arianism, gained wide appeal, even
among clergy. But it did not go unopposed. Theologians
Alexander and Athanasius of Alexandria, Egypt, argued
that Arius denied Christ's true divinity. Christ is not of
similar substance to God, they explained, but of the
same substance.
PERSPECTIVE
Believing the debate could split the Roman Empire, Emperor Constantine convened the first ecumenical church
council in Nicaea in A.D. 325. The council, comprising
over 300 bishops, rejected Arianism as heresy and
maintained that Jesus shares the same eternal substance with the Father. Orthodoxy struggled to gain popular approval, however, and several heresies revolving
around Jesus continued to spread. At the second ecumenical council in Constantinople in 381, church leaders
reiterated their condemnation of Arianism and enlarged
the Nicene Creed to describe Jesus as "the onlybegotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all
worlds, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten,
not made, being of one substance with the Father, by
whom all things were made." In other words, the Son is
not a created being, nor can he be less divine than the
Father.
Survey finds many American evangelicals hold
unorthodox views on the Trinity, salvation, and other
doctrine
By Kevin P. Emmert
Most American evangelicals hold views condemned as
heretical by some of the most important councils of the
early church.
A survey released today by LifeWay Research for Ligonier
Ministries "reveals a significant level of theological confusion," said Stephen Nichols, Ligonier's chief academic officer. Many evangelicals do not have orthodox views about
either God or humans, especially on questions of salvation
and the Holy Spirit, he said.
Evangelicals did score high on several points. Nearly all
believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead (96%), and
that salvation is found through Jesus alone (92%). Strong
majorities said that God is sovereign over all people (89%)
and that the Bible is the Word of God (88%).
The Holy Spirit: May the Force Be with You?
But if evangelicals sometime misunderstand doctrines
about Jesus, the third member of the Trinity has it much
worse. More than half (51%) said the Holy Spirit is a
force, not a personal being. Seven percent weren't sure,
while only 42% affirmed that the Spirit is a person.
And in some cases the problem seems to be uncertainty
rather than heresy. For example, only 6% of evangelicals
think the Book of Mormon is a revelation from God, but an
additional 18% aren't sure and think it might be.
And 9% said the Holy Spirit is less divine than God the
Father and Jesus. The same percentage answered "not
sure."
Jesus, Almost as Good as His Father?
Like Arianism, confusion over the nature and identity of
the Spirit dates to the early church. During the latter half
of the 4th century, sects like Semi-Arians and Pneumatomachi (Greek for "Spirit fighters") believed "in the Holy
Spirit"- as the First Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) taught-but said the Spirit was of a different essence from the
Father and the Son. Some said the Spirit was a creature,
and others understood the Spirit to be a force or power,
not a person of the Trinity.
Almost all evangelicals say they believe in the Trinity
(96%) and that Jesus is fully human and fully divine (88%).
But nearly a quarter (22%) said God the Father is more
divine than Jesus, and 9% weren't sure. Further, 16% say
Jesus was the first creature created by God, while 11%
were unsure.
No doubt, phrases like "only begotten Son" (John 3:16)
and "firstborn of all creation" (Col. 1:15) have led others in
history to hold these views, too. In the 4th century, a priest
from Libya named Arius (c.250--336) announced, "If the
Father begat the Son, then he who was begotten had a
At Constantinople, 150 bishops assembled to discuss
these heresies, among other issues, and affirmed that
"the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have a single
3
Godhead and power and substance, a dignity deserving
the same honor and a co-eternal sovereignty, in three
most perfect hypostases, or three perfect persons." Affirming the full divinity and personhood of the Holy Spirit.
contradicts the Apostle who says, "What have you that
you did not receive?" (1 Cor. 4:7), and, "But by the grace
of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10).
A Historic Problem with Historical Solutions
Salvation: Who Makes the First Move?
Ligonier's Nichols said that while the survey results are
disappointing, they're not unique to our time or culture, or
irreversible. "The church in every age has faced theological confusion and heresy. In this survey we see a wakeup call to the church. We cannot assume the next generation--or even this present one--will catch an orthodox
theology merely by being in the church," he said.
Human nature and salvation were other areas of confusion for respondents. 2 out of 3 (68%) said that a person
obtains peace with God by seeking God first, and then
God responds with grace. A similar percentage (67%)
said people have the ability to turn to God on their own
initiative. Yet half (54%) also think salvation begins with
God acting first. So which is it?
John Stackhouse, professor of theology and culture at
Regent College in Vancouver, agrees. "We continue to
hold adult Christian education in low regard," he said. "A
sermon on Sunday morning and a conversational Bible
study during the week won't get the job done of informing
and transforming people's minds along the lines of orthodox Christian belief."
In the 5th century, a British monk named Pelagius reportedly argued that people can choose God by the
strength of their own will. Adam's sin, he taught, did not
sabotage human freedom, so we still have the ability to
choose and follow God by the strength of our will.
His school of thought, known as Pelagianism, was denounced at the Council of Carthage in 418 and later at
the Council of Ephesus in 431. A variation, known as
Semipelagianism, cropped up shortly thereafter, affirming original sin but teaching that humans take the initiative in salvation. The Council of Orange in 529 rejected
Semipelagianism as heretical, maintaining that faith is a
gift of God's grace and does not originate in ourselves.
But Stackhouse also said he's not sure that stronger efforts by churches to instruct their congregants would
raise the numbers. The survey, he noted, was of selfdescribed evangelicals, and many of those with unorthodox beliefs may not be regular church attenders. "We
continue to have a severe public relations problem regarding the term evangelical," he said.
More than half of survey participants (55%) said people
have to contribute to their own salvation. This, however,
is a debated issue. Some Christians - such as Roman
Catholics, Orthodox, and certain Protestants--believe
humans cooperate with God's grace in salvation. Others
believe our efforts can contribute nothing, though a response to God's grace is a necessary element of conversion. Nevertheless, historic Christian teaching in all
branches maintains that whatever role humans play is
ultimately inspired by the work of God's Spirit. The Council of Orange put it this way:
(Lifeway Research says the survey used was a balanced
online panel in February and March. Of the survey's initial 3,000 responses, this report looked at the 557 who
came from Protestants who described themselves as
evangelical--which would be about 19% of the American
population.)
The poll has a margin of error of +1.8 percent with a confidence interval of 95%.
If anyone says that God has mercy upon us when, apart
from his grace, we believe, will, desire, strive, labor,
pray, watch, study, seek, ask, or knock, but does not
confess that it is by the infusion and inspiration of the
Holy Spirit within us that we have the faith, the will, or
the strength to do all these things as we ought; or if anyone makes the assistance of grace depend on the humility or obedience of man and does not agree that it is a
gift of grace itself that we are obedient and humble, he
4