Rev Dr Peter Mullen

Posted on Monday, 23 March, 2015 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

I have just discovered this witty and humorous blog by Rev Dr Peter Mullen – All Things Considered.

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Hold up, sir John…

Posted on Saturday, 21 March, 2015 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

A few times, recently, some have thought it insulting to me to address me as “Mr Chadwick” so as to refuse recognition of my status as a cleric or a priest. Sometimes I would just be called Chadwick like when I was a schoolboy, Mister or Sir being reserved to schoolmasters and not even the house or school Monitors (prefects in some establishments).

It is a difficult one, knowing whether to treat me as a gentleman or a cleric – or both. Ecclesiastical titles have changed over the centuries and differently in various countries. In pre-Reformation England, a priest would be called Sir Forename, as in this famous quote from Reformation polemics:

When the bell once rings … they forsake their seats and run from altar to altar, from sacring to sacring, peeping here and touting there, and gazing at that thing which the pilled-pate priests holdeth up in his hands. And if the priest be weak in his arms, and heave not up high enough, the rude people … will cry out to the priest: “Hold up, sir John, hold up; heave it a little higher”. And one will say to another: “Stoop down, thou fellow afore, that I may see my Maker: for I cannot be merry except I see my lord God once in a day”. (Becon, The Displaying of the Popish Mass, fol. 270; Becon, A Comparison, fols 359-360).

A correspondent wrote to me today:

I always think that addressing a secular priest as mister is so classy because it’s so Anglican.

Indeed, this is standard Anglican practice, though Father has been increasingly imported from Roman Catholic practice. When I was a boy at home, my parents, middle-of-the-road Anglicans, would also refer to a clergyman as Mr Surname. This is the custom. We in the ACC have adopted widespread Anglo-Catholic usage and use Father. I generally invite people to address me as Father Anthony, unless they are intimate friends or family. It is for their sake, not mine. Friends just use my Christian name, and I don’t bat an eyelid.

Calling someone by their surname implies a position of authority over them, as at school or in the army. That is quite rude when the person calling me Chadwick (or the same to anyone else) has no authority over me.

Comparison with other countries is interesting. The French Monsieur l’Abbé comes from the days of the abbés commendataires in the seventeenth century, when the benefice of an abbot could be held by any cleric, even if not a monk. Then came the custom of calling all clerics by that title unless they were a curé of a parish, a canon, prelate or bishop. The priests of Saint Sulpice, community and seminary founded by Monsieur Olier, were simply called Monsieur Surname. When I was in seminary some of us used Monsieur instead of Monsieur l’Abbé as an old-fashioned affectation, a mark of distinction. It is simply the old usage in France. In common use, it is equivalent to the English Sir or Mister. In our days, the title is used for all men, including those of modest families.

In Italy, the title of a cleric is Don, as in Don Camillo. It comes from the Latin Dominus. In Portuguese usage, it is Dom, like in the Benedictine Orders. In German, the title is Hochwürden Herr (Pfarrer for a parish priest). Vocatively, a German priest is called Pater. Eastern Orthodox priests are called Vater.

Properly speaking, the title Father is that of a religious or monastic priest, and only come into use for the secular clergy in the nineteenth century.

So, if certain polemicists on the internet think they insult me by not calling me Father, they can save their breath. It is only for their good that I suggest their using an ecclesiastical title. I once remember a vagante bishop here in France showing me a letter from a dicastery in Rome calling his S. Exc. Monseigneur, and using that as evidence that he (or his “validity”) was in some way recognised by Rome. I later asked a Roman official about this. It is simply a courtesy, a matter of protocol, using the same title as the person used when he wrote to the dicastery in question. That is all, a simple courtesy.

It doesn’t cost us anything to use a clerical title when addressing someone. It doesn’t mean that we agree with him or what he believes, or whether or not he is truly a priest according to my Church’s discipline and criteria. It is just a mark of respect.

I’m a bit of a rough diamond myself, something of an anarchist and rather informal in my ways. At the same time, I was brought up and educated to be a gentleman, and I try to continue in this way as much as possible. An old-fashioned seminary has the same quality in this way as an English college. It isn’t always easy with those who are insulting in their manner. Life is a learning curve and there is always room for progress and growth.

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The Cold Case heats up!

Posted on Friday, 20 March, 2015 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

gargoyleJohn Bruce doesn’t allow comments on his blog, so I’ll say a word or two here.

I think if he really knew my private thought, he would blow a gasket, so I will refrain. My comments on his previous articles and some private correspondence about the TAC story are not a conscience-salving exercise. I sleep well at night, and I have absolutely no desire of ever being a Roman Catholic again – and I will risk my salvation to quote the usual expression.

Like many others, I did get “carried away” at the time and allowed myself to be “programmed” by the “cult”. I got into a lot of trouble for it on the blogosphere, and the addresses of the trolls are still on my moderation list. New addresses are moderated unless I let them through a first time. I am that much more cynical for my experience. I have moved on, but am concerned for the recording of history.

Well, Mr Bruce, I am used to the insults and I am immune. History will be written and not always in the way the RC convert-apologists would prefer. I owe nothing to the American bishops, but I think they do have mitigating circumstances for not becoming Roman Catholics. Whether or not they are good Anglican bishops is not for me to judge.

In fact, he translated any necessary flummery into French, just in case any Francophones couldn’t see the wink behind the whole thing.

Produce the documents. I translated nothing into French because the anticipated French-speaking people from Africa did not turn up to the meeting. All I did was to attend services, listen to speeches and take photos. Fine, Mr Bruce accuses me of bad faith. So be it. I just don’t care, because I do not recognise him to be my judge.

* * *

One final note to this. I never do well in this kind of blog war, so I have resolved not to answer anything further coming from this man – who doubtlessly has his own demons to contend with. I have been in private correspondence with a couple of people who are concerned that the history of the TAC from October 2007 to the resignation of Archbishop Hepworth should be faithfully recorded. We need to strict with ourselves in making this a strictly academic exercise and not one of ruminating old bitterness and resentment.

I am willing to correspond by private e-mail on this subject, but it is now closed on my blog.

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Belly Buttons

Posted on Friday, 20 March, 2015 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

adam-eveI often wonder about the absurd way some people think (or don’t think). Often, an excuse for a schoolboy prank is “I wasn’t thinking, Sir.” to which the schoolmaster replies “That’s the problem, boy. You never think“. I found this one on Facebook.

Was this intended to ridicule Christianity or just a certain understanding of Christianity? The belly button is the remnant we all have of the umbilical cord between our unborn bodies and the placenta attached to the inside of our mother’s uterus. The implication is that Adam and Eve were born of earthly mothers and not created ex nihilo by God. For crying out loud! This is a painting by an artist from human models. The navel is just taken for granted.

What about the comments. I will just quote a few:

Yea yea I know the painter, he was an orange! he had passion for painting, and he evolved, grew large eyes and tiny fingers to draw adam and eve! – How can they have belly buttons if they were the first people on the planet….Errr something is not quite right. – Guys, settle down, if they don’t believe in evolution then there is no point in having this argument.

Between literalist Christianity and science, there doesn’t seem to be much in common.

Biblical themes were just an excuse to paint (near) nudes. People throughout the ages didn’t take the Adam and Eve story literally. Church leader St Augustine of Hippo around 400 CE didn’t consider the Genesis creation stories to be literal historical events.

It’s a little simplistic, but we’re getting warm.

Well, the children of Adam and Eve, Kain and Abel, Kain killed his brother and went away, he married a strange women from a far away place? So there must have been more people on the earth.

Good point. A literalist narrative just doesn’t seem to stand up, but liberties can be taken when the story is metaphorical to illustrate something that happened at a level beyond human understanding.

Oh gee all over belly buttons. Does it really matter as they are from a biblical story and no true proof they was the first humans. Yes I believe God created man and all else, but dang what man or woman does not have a belly button? – It’s called an artist’s interpretation.

Simply don’t read too much into a work of art; or a piece of writing or someone telling a story.

The counter-literalist atheist chimes in like this:

Winnie to poo was based on a fictional character made for kids …….the story book I assume your talking about is the holy bible and is based on true life events ………

It’s not rocket science, artists aren’t the smartest in society and these are just paintings. It’s a rubbish story, painted by rubbish artists propagated by simple minded people.

Love reading some of the bible bashers comments, LOL Believe in Santa too and the tooth fairy? All little pieces of the dream world to get you believing as a child of course, cause no sane adult could or would believe such nonsense without manipulation, really, there’s a man away up high in the sky, and he’s watching everything you do, and he’s got a list of 10 things that you must not do. And if you break any of these, just pop to Church and put a fiver in the beggars bowl and all is forgiven. Idiots day out.

Christianity is dismissed as something analogous with children’s fairy tales, written purely for entertainment and completely fictitious. Dawkins and company are of this idea. True adults can’t be taken in by this narrative, so it is false from all points of view. So is materialism!

Other responses are more cynical or satirical. Who can blame them? Now, some reductio ad absurdam:

Let’s take it one step further if you believe in a book that has been revised hundreds of times with other peoples words where it says that man was created in his image…………hmmmmm so does the supreme being have a belly button too? If so…….who begat him, her, or whatever it may be? Chew on that one for awhile.

What came first, the chicken or the egg? Yet, both chickens and eggs exist in this world. We eat them!

Literalism is a real problem. I would say, tongue in cheek, that this was one consequence of allowing translations of the Old Testament in languages other than Latin and Greek! I wouldn’t go to the other extreme of saying that only bishops can interpret the Scriptures. One of the most valuable Patristic sources is Origen for questions of styles of writing – and he was two inches away from Gnosticism!

Literalism, or the refusal of allegory, figures of speech, metaphor, poetry and even art is a real problem among many religious folk particularly in America but also to some extent in old Europe. I have found this with some of the “conservative” folk I encountered a few weeks ago. They don’t know the capital of Italy or that you have to cross the sea between England and France, but they’re ready for war.

Mr. Brown goes off to town on the eight twenty-one,
But he comes home each evening and he’s ready with his gun.
So who do you think you are kidding Mr. Hitler,
If you think old England’s done?

At least Dad’s Army made my family roll on the floor laughing in the 1970’s.

One of the atheist’s most persuasive arguments to prove that religion is all rubbish is to present its literalist aspect. Go through the Old Testament, the creation, the parting of the Red Sea, the Ten Commandments, Noah’s Ark and everything else, and it all looks like a fairy tale. The narratives are full of contradictions. Read everything in an allegorical perspective, and the logic of it all loses its importance.

One thing I find very interesting is how science is evolving away from materialism and Newtonian physics. Though I only understand quantum physics at a very basic level “for dummies”, I see hope in it for the future of spiritual humanity. The myths are expressed in a new way that is relevant to modern man. Only yesterday, I saw an article about the universe being eternal, having no beginning or end – no “big bang”. Would such an idea support pantheism? Perhaps. At any rate, no one has any definitive explanation of God. We can only speak about divine realities by analogy and metaphor, by relating a myth. That is exactly what the Scriptures do, not only the canonical Scriptures but also so many other ancient texts that survived the tragic burning of the Alexandrian Library at the time of the Emperor Theodosius, and of which a few fragments may have found their way to Nag Hammadi. Science and openness of mind, and whole new perspectives are opening. They are not materialist or atheistic!

Perhaps this story of the primaeval belly buttons will enable us to self-satirise, laugh at ourselves and become open to higher truths.

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Relevant to the old TAC story

Posted on Thursday, 19 March, 2015 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

I have just been given the heads-up about Archbishop Hepworth’s old nemesis, Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide. He has been charged with alleged cover-up of abuse by another priest, Jim Fletcher, in the 1970s, and may face up to two years’ jail.

To be fair to institutional churches, our British Establishment is full of this stuff, from the BBC to the big political personalities of the 1960’s to the 1980’s. The tighter the squeeze, the more the rot comes oozing out! Time are a-changing…

Well, perhaps my former Archbishop will convince someone that he was abused and will get rehabilitated as a priest in the Ordinariate or in some Australian diocese. I keep an open mind…

* * *

Excursus: here’s another bit of this kind of stuff from last year: Abuse cover-up inquiry: whistleblower found to be an unsatisfactory witness. Where there’s muck, there’s brass, as we say up in Yorkshire. It’s all so bloody revolting. The world needs a hard reboot!

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The Mounting Drum Beat

Posted on Tuesday, 17 March, 2015 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

Fr Michael Gollop has written Politics without vision – and a defence of trees in the context of the upcoming British General Election, which will certainly influence the turn of things in France for our upcoming local elections and the Présidentielles in 2017. He quotes Chesterton:

The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected. Even when the revolutionist might himself repent of his revolution, the traditionalist is already defending it as part of his tradition. Thus we have two great types — the advanced person who rushes us into ruin, and the retrospective person who admires the ruins.

We find this in churches as well as in secular politics. We in France are dying of socialism and its cancerous tendency to consume and prey on any effort in family life, work and just getting on. Fr Gollop’s article is profound and shows a real understanding of our political morass in the light of Catholic social teaching and the English democratic tradition.

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TAC tittle-tattle

Posted on Tuesday, 17 March, 2015 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

portsmouth-bishops-07I occasionally call in at St Mary’s Hollywood: The Cold Case File and found a series on the Anglican Church in America led by Bishop Brian Marsh. Mr Bruce’s latest mentions me in Who Is Brian Marsh? — III.

Indeed it is a cold case. Fr Smuts hasn’t posted anything since September 2014. Bishop Gill publishes an ad clerum which gives us a good impression of his work in South Africa. Coming to the new article, I should point out that my Christian name is Anthony and not Andrew [this detail has been corrected]. My title is Reverend or Father, but I will forgive him extending that courtesy only to Roman Catholic clergy (the Vatican always uses proper titles even when they don’t “recognise” the cleric in question).

It is the old question of whether the TAC bishops at the College of Bishops meeting in October 2007 vowed to accept any deal that might come from Rome unconditionally. I was there, and I heard Archbishop Hepworth sell the idea. I didn’t get the impression of insincerity or rash promises. I had the impression that the bishops were going along with Archbishop Hepworth because it seemed a good idea, and signs seemed to suggest the impossible: some kind of “uniate” arrangement with Rome. Benedict XVI and his men would take the whole package, wave an absolving hand over all the canonical irregularities like being divorced and remarried or having been at some time in one’s life a Roman Catholic and therefore having “apostasized”. Archbishop Hepworth was a past master of the art of spinning yarns in the great Irish tradition and giving different people what they wanted to hear. We all got different versions! It all sounded so convincing – his “friends in high places” (there were none) who would get a special deal – and all the bishops were following and trusting their Primate. I never heard of “murmurings” until the first half of 2010 when the American bishops were beginning to let the light through the cracks.

Probably more light on the situation would come from The Anglo-Catholic which is now a dead blog but still contains its archives. Try looking up articles from 2010 to 2011. I was kicked off that blog in August 2010 for being too supportive of Archbishop Hepworth and setting up another blog. Since then, Christian Campbell has had some pretty tattoos done (OK, I’ve grown my hair!) and seems to have lost interest also in his personal blog. It doesn’t matter – we are all free to do what we want with our lives, but we can thank him for not deep-sixing the blog as I did with my English Catholic effort with Deborah Gyapong as co-pilot. The info is there and I have recovered some of my English Catholic material of historical interest in The TAC Archive.

Quite frankly, I didn’t think most of the bishops took this thing very seriously. No one believed Rome would give any response to the Anglican question in our lifetimes. They did, but to the Forward in Faith clergy from the Church of England and the American Episcopal Church who had been secretly discussing things with Rome since about 1994. The TAC had the most canonically irregular Archbishop John Hepworth as Primate, and some of its clergy might be worthy of being considered on a piecemeal basis. This “interpretation” was beginning to become clear in 2010 to 2011. Archbishop Hepworth had an explanation for everything, but it was wearing thin each time.

I have only had the scantiest correspondence with the ACA bishops, and I have published everything I know, unless someone asked me to keep something confidential. I had a long conversation not very long ago with a former TAC bishop, and he confirmed many of these intuitions and conjectures.

I haven’t read Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum for a long time, but I am brought to think of the anti-climax after reading of people getting exciting with conspiracy theories and tangled webs of deception. The simplest explanation, as in The Name of the Rose, is the most likely one. Simply, the request to Rome was just not taken seriously, but at the same time it was sincere on the basis of believing that Rome would do what Rome would never do. Such is human foolishness! That just about caps it.

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Justorum animae

Posted on Saturday, 14 March, 2015 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

wheelchair-boyJustorum animae in manu Dei sunt, et non tanget illos tormentum mortis. Visi sunt oculis insipientium mori, illi autem sunt in pace.

These are the words that came into my mind as I saw this amazing gravestone on Facebook, and then looked for better views. This little boy was born with severe disabilities and was only expected to live for a few hours. He lived for nearly eleven years with his loving family, and this sculpture is a testimony of the parents’ faith.

A couple of days ago, there was a discussion of Gnosticism on this blog. I have really come to the understanding that organised Christianity represents a continuum between the extremes of gnosticism and materialism, the latter representing the view that Christ only come to teach us what some of the more obnoxious “politically correct” ecologists and socialists preach from their ivory towers.

I am a Christian and a priest, but yet have the same doubts and sceptical culture as most of our contemporaries. Sometimes, our failing faith needs comfort either from rational evidence or from a testimony of such sublimity. This is an example of the latter.

The atheists and materialists want us to believe that everything is dead matter and that life is just a series of electrical and mechanical reactions in biological organisms. Materialism brings its believers to the conclusion that nothing has any meaning, that we do well not to care about anything, believe that our loved ones cease to exist at death. Even “anti-gnostic” Christians can only conceive of the soul / spirit in union with the body, and “liberal” Christians speculate about the disembodied soul being devoid of personality. The soul becomes “fragmented”, returns to the all, and continues in an unknown way. Or does it?

The message conveyed by this grave is glorious, joyful and filled with hope. It gives meaning to that boy’s brief life in a body that was such a burden on earth. This testimony brings us to face the possibility of life without the material organism we call the body and brain. Christians often tell us to take faith for granted, but I am sure that there is not a sincere Christian who has not had doubts. One thing we have to know is that: Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

A couple of sentences from the boy’s obituary say it all:

He was a testament to the supreme divinity of the soul and an embodiment of the completeness our spirits yearn for. The godliness of his soul inspired, influenced and blessed all who knew him. He came into this world as a miracle and left this world as a miracle.

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More than 500,000 views

Posted on Thursday, 12 March, 2015 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

My statistics inform me that this blog has had 504,823 views (as of right now) since I set it up in January 2012. That is just over three years ago. I am also informed that this is my 972nd posting, soon to be a thousand.

Thank you for your loyalty and support, sometimes through difficult moments.

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Holy Week 2015

Posted on Wednesday, 11 March, 2015 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

My organisation of Holy Week is taking shape with the visit of Roger Barnes to our sailing club on Holy Saturday, where he will be giving a talk on dinghy cruising. As I mentioned earlier, dinghy cruising is only beginning to be recognised by such organisations as the Royal Yacht Association as a true sailing discipline. The word needs to be spread in France as well as in England.

This has to displace the Paschal Vigil on Holy Saturday to the morning. After all it is the timing in use for a very long time before we became accustomed to doing it in the evening of Holy Saturday! O beata nox in the morning sunshine seems an anomaly, but that is how it is.

I will be collecting Roger from the seaport of Caen very early on Maundy Thursday morning. The only way to do it is to go there the evening before and camp in the van. It would be indiscreet of me to speculate about his religious convictions or affiliation, but I do know that he is interested in coming to my Holy Week ceremonies. He is a man of the sea, a contemplative after my own heart!

There will the Maundy Thursday Mass in the evening, which in the Use of Sarum has the character of a Mass in Passiontide. Only the Bishop says the Gloria. The second and third hosts consecrated at this Mass are put into the hanging pyx and the Easter Sepulcre is used from the Good Friday Mass of the Presanctified to just before the Mass of Easter Sunday.

I will be celebrating in English using the Warren translation. Some sung parts, like the Exultet, will be in Latin with the old Sarum chant.

The programme is as follows, all according to the Use of Sarum:
29th March – Palm Sunday: Blessing of Palms and Mass (Latin) in the morning

30th and 31th March and 1st April – Monday and Tuesday of Holy Week, Spy Wednesday: Mass (Latin) at some point during the day.

2nd April – Maundy Thursday: Mass (English) of the Lord’s Supper in the evening

3rd April – Good Friday: Mass of the Presanctified (English) in the afternoon

4th March – Holy Saturday: Paschal Vigil (English) in the morning

5th April – Easter Sunday: Mass (English) in the morning after having put the Blessed Sacrament into the hanging pyx from the Easter Sepulchre.

I would be extremely surprised if anyone else turned up, but those who happen to be in the area would be most welcome. Some prior warning would be appreciated.

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