Month: October 2014

I had some trouble this morning with my Internet connection and could not be sure that the full text of the Weekly Update went out.  The message announced the publication of Episode 35 in The Holy Bible: the New Testament, which is focused on the final three I AM sayings (Greek: ego eimi) in St. John’s Gospel:  I AM the Resurrection and the Life;  I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life; and I AM the True Vine.

I use these three sayings to connect the message of my You Tube video Bible Study to concepts explained in more detail in Blessed is the Man …, which is Part Three of Christian Spirituality: an Anglican Perspective.  Jesus says “I AM the Way…..”   In Psalm 1, the unknown Psalmist divides the world into the “Two Ways,” that of the godly, or righteous, and the ungodly, and offers a clear statement, expressed in two verses in the negative, of what the godly man will not do, followed by three verses, expressed in the positive form, of what the godly will do and act.  In Psalm 119, King David reminds readers of how the righteous will be guided in their daily lives not just by “knowledge” but by “understanding.”   How we, as Christians, can access this “way” is discussed in “Seeing” the Face of God, which is Part Two in Christian Spirituality.  The book is availalbe from my author page at Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions

You can now watch a 2:50 promo video about Christian Spirituality: an Anglican Perspective, which was uploaded this morning to our You Tube channel.  Thanks so much to all the wonderful people who have supported the Anglican Internet Church, making this electronic ministry possible.  May God bless you all.

Watch the 3-minute video promo of the book.

In light of the ongoing War on Christianity, the Anglican Internet Church Bookstore offers a new book which can help any Christian defend himself or herself against the assaults of the aggressively secular and often anti-Christian world.  The paperback edition will be available later this week from my Author page at Amazon.  A Kindle edition will be prepared later this month and also be available on Amazon.com.  In the next few weeks the paperback edition will be available through your local bookseller (ISBN:  978-1502765147).

Christian Spirituality: an Anglican Perspective is a handbook to the Eastern Church concept of Christian Spirituality presented in the context of the Anglican teaching and worship experience. In Part One I introduce the topic and present the writings of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and the Blessed Lancelot Andrewes as examples of Christian Spirituality applied to Anglican worship and prayer.  In  Part Two (“Seeing” the Invisible God) I explore the two Old Testament understandings of “face of the Lord” and present the Christ Pantokrator icon from the monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai as the New Testament way of “seeing” God; then explore a new spiritual way of “seeing.”  In Part Three (Blessed Is the Man…) I explore the meaning and uses of Blessed is, blessed are, blessed be in the Psalms and New Testament, and the meaning of key terms:  godly, ungodly, righteous, righteousness, heart, fear of the Lord and way(s).  In Part Four (Put Not Your Trust in Princes…) I offer practical applications of the theory of Christian Spirituality in a 21st Century context of obsession with excess and offer guidelines for personal prayer development, the writing of personal catenae, and explore examples of Apostolic Wisdom, demonstrated in the work of two pairs of saints:  Paul & Peter and James & Jude.

Later this year I will develop a series of short videos adapted from the book, focused on specific topics mentioned in the book.  These will be available free of charge on the AIC’s You Tube channel.  Also later this year, the AIC will offer a new series of videos intended to make it easier for anyone, anywhere, to pray the daily hours (offices) of 1st, 3rd, 6th and 9th Hours, plus Vespers and Compline from Hear Us, O Lord: Daily Prayers for the Laity (also available from my Amazon author page).

Among the great teachers of Christian Spirituality within the Anglican tradition is the Blessed Lancelot Andrewes. Bishop Andrewes was by any standard, an exceptional man. Born in London in 1555 A.D., the eldest of 13 children of a merchant/sailor, as a child he exhibited the habits of a serious scholar, disciplining himself to study daily, uninterrupted, from 7 AM to Noon. At Cambridge, he studied Greek, Latin and Hebrew, receiving his first degree in 1571 A.D., followed by a masters at Oxford in 1581 A.D.  He spoke and wrote in Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke), Syriac, Arabic, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and 15 modern languages.  He taught courses in the Catechism and the Ten Commandments at Cambridge University, was chaplain to Queen Elizabeth I and her successor, James I, and chairman of the committee responsible for the first twelve books of the Old Testament (Genesis to 2 Kings) for the King James Version (1611 A.D.)He held nearly all the honors possible in the Church of England, short of being Archbishop of Canterbury: Dean at Westminster (1601 A.D.), Bishop of Chichester (1605 A.D.), Bishop of Eley (1609 A.D.) and still later Bishop of Winchester, a post he held until his death in 1626 A.D. The Church of England celebrates his Feast Day on September 25th.  The illustration is an oil on canvas in the English style, c. 1660, artist unknown.

Andrewes was among the first in the Western Church tradition to understand that Spirituality and Theology (from two Greek words, Theos (God, or the One who sees), and logos, meaning word, are not mutually exclusive. He saw theology as a way to gain a vision of God (or, as St. Peter wrote, a way of partaking of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4)). He believed that liturgical worship was not an end in itself but a means toward combining the concept of time, an exclusively human understanding, with the concept of eternity, a state occupied only by God.

Advocates of Christian Spirituality, who believe that through this combination one can come the closest to a union with the Creator that is possible in this earthly life.  The AIC celebrates his blessed memory with this catena of his own creation:

Blessed, praised, celebrated, magnified, exalted, glorified, and hallowed by Thy name, O Lord; Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou king of saints; Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him, both small and great. Alleluia.

This material is excerpted from the forthcoming AIC publication, edited by Fr. Ron Shibley, Christian Spirituality: An Anglican Perspective, to be published in paperback and Kindle versions in time for Advent A.D. 2014.