16 June 2023

Liturgical Excitements

Here is another piece about PECUSA, reproduced from 2009.

Last night, at the Oxford Liturgical Group, a characteristically splendid and learned paper by Dr Colin Podmore upon the transformation of Baptismal theology in PECUSA. In the 1970s it took less than a decade to establish and give liturgical expression to a theology of Baptismal Covenant which eliminates the sacramentality of Confirmation as a constituent of Christian Initiation, and so locates the concept of Ministry within that context as to facilitate notions of the Ordination of Women. Also and incidentally it makes the rhetoric of Baptismal Covenant so dominant that the Eucharist becomes effectively redundant. Colin showed how the praxis of the Church of England had declined to 'receive' this theology, and that ARCIC had not made it the centrepoint of its own treatment of Ministry. (Apologies to Colin if I've got any of that wrong.)

Colin also brought with him some pictures of Ms Jefferts Schori's Pontifical Inauguration; it illustrated his theme because Baptismal symbolism was made dramatically central. Floosies in long white 'grecian' tunics and clutching fancy 'grecian' urns struck thespian poses around a font. It reminded me of those pictures of Emma Hamilton doing her static 'attitudes' for the delectation of Georgian gentlemen.

What we miss is the First Duke of Wellington. At an Apsley House reception in which the bimbos, in their flimsy white muslin, had made their physical charms even more visually accessible by moistening the muslin, His Grace declared that the house was too hot and had the windows flung wide open. The following day, most of the beau monde went down with sniffles.

Now there's a liturgist and a half.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Father -

I am sorry, but I don't follow what you are saying. Was the speaker saying that PECUSA elevated baptism to an "uber-sacrament" such that confirmation and the Eucharist were no longer necessary? If so, how does that tie in with women's ordinatino?

Anonymous said...

It recalls to mind, S. Anthony of the desert weeping over the physical beauty of a shameless whore, not out of lust but admiration for the Creator. He proceeded to convert her to the Faith and she covered herself in humiliation.

The admiration now shown for shamelessness is born of Shekinah worship, the demon goddess of Babylonian Judaic Talmudism. Everywhere, intoxicated self-worship is titillated. Gustav Mahler could not have penned a lustier Veni, Creator Spiritus than the gushing "baptismal" waters PECUSA's strumpet, Schori, belches forth. Or the slavering, cross-eyed ejaculate coaxed from Theology of the Body.

Dante definitely needs to re-write Inferno.

Frair John said...

Wow, you guys need to get out more.
I watched the thing live and thought that the costumes were about as objectivly erotic as a block of wood.

Ecgbert said...

Interesting, Father. If that's so, and I'm not saying it isn't, how do you and Dr Podmore account for the Episcopalian trend of giving Communion to the unbaptised (that is, to non-Christians)?

Fr John Hunwicke said...

The point about the current North American fashion of communicating the unbaptised was mentioned as indeed inconsistent with the baptismal covenant business.

Is it unusual for the heterodox to be inconsistent? Is it terribly surprising that they should argue for the all-sufficiency of baptism when they want to reassure protestants that Confirmation is unnecessary and women that ministry possesses the same liminalities as Baptism; and then take an inconsistent line when they want to be welcoming and mushy to the unbaptised?

Seems to me more or less what I would expect.

Anonymous said...

This article, though about RC "nuns," also implies that baptism is the seal of their silliness. I don't believe these goddess worshipers regard baptism as a grace enduing Sacrament; for them it is merely something they do to present a Christian facade. They are parasites who look upon Church properties and endowments as a piggy-bank to plunder.

http://ncronline.org/news/women/we-have-given-birth-new-form-religious-life

Maurice said...

PECUSA?

Doasyouwouldbedoneby said...

PECUSA is the standard abbreviation for "The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A." , sometimes known as DFMS or TEC.

Matthew F Kluk said...

God bless the Duke of Wellington! The first
and greatest unsung liturgist of pre-Ordinariate days!