Articles I-V, VI, and VII-VIII

Let us begin. It is rather obvious that most if not all Christians, to truly call themselves such would be required to accept wholeheartedly (with the exception of Article III perhaps) the first five of the Thirty Nine Articles of Religion. As I do, so there is no real need to expound upon them at this time.

Article VI- "Of the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation"

I do agree with the reformers that there is nothing that is not contained within the covers of the Holy Bible that a man Must be required to believe, to be saved.

Among Anglo-Catholics things such as the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin etc. are rarely believed to hold the Keys of the Kingdom (and other outright Roman Dogmas, that any good Anglican worth his salt would avoid like plague anyway.) But, I am a believer in the option of "Pious Thought", or what the Lutherans would call "Adiaphora", things that are neither required or forbidden to believe.

I do find it difficult to swallow that there are indeed folks who demonize those who would hold such thoughts that do not push the requirement of belief in them. I doubt our Lord would number among the goats those who held belief in the assumption.

As far as requirement of things contained in the Apocrypha, I am indifferent. I have always used/studied the Apocryphal literature, and I would not bother me one bit if I was told that something therein is required of me. But like I said, I have never known another Bible.

Just like the first five articles, I agree that Articles VII and VIII are to be believed.

The 39 Articles and the Anglican Continuum

As of late, (and really for a few years now) we have been flys on the wall of a few varying Continuing Anglican Churches in and around our city. While we ran the "Hoping-for-Orthodoxy" race in the Episcopal Church for a fer years, we always kept an eye out for another Parish to worship in. Some have been good, some have been bad (I'm talking charismatic exorcisms while speaking in tongues) and we have noticed a distinct divide between the varying sects  on a key issue. This would be the placement and adherence to the 39 Articles of Religion.

Before I met my wife, and tried one last time in the Episcopal Church, I had myself been involved in the Continuum. I had been a member of one of the very Anglo-Catholic Churches, and was a Seminarian at the personal request of the Archbishop. Here, the 39 Articles were taught, but were not a firm line that they seem to be in the other less Catholic continuing bodies.

We have narrowed down our choice between two Parishes of different jurisdictions, but one being rather Protestant (REC) and the other semi-Anglo-Catholic (The Anglican Church of Virginia). I'm not sure this would ever even come up, but it would be nice to know myself where I stand in relation to the Articles.

This series of posts will no doubt be very fun for me, and quite interesting. I do not foresee this being a slew of posts in Succession, but an intermittent endeavor that I will pop in and out of as time permits.

I would like to try and read them as unbiased as possible (there are Articles that from the get go, I out of habit and tradition know I will oppose), being open to what they mean and say and trying to capture their time frame whilst keeping it in mind.

The Holy Innocents, then and now

While it may be hard to swallow that we thank God this day for the murdering of innocent children at the hand of King Herod's goons, we should remember that these children were indeed martyrs (of the highest degree). Although they and their families may have not known or understood what it all meant, there role is just as important as any other in our path to salvation. It is indeed even harder to put such a tragedy into words of positivity, the poet Predentius has done such a thing for us:

"All hail! ye infant martyr flowers, cut off in life's first dawning hours: As rosebuds snapped in tempest strife, When Herod sought your Savior's life."

But these martyr babes are not the only Holy Innocents that we should be praying for! Just this week a nine year old girl in Indiana was brutally murdered by a neighbor, children die on the streets everyday without home, food, even parents, and in this time of great indifference the death toll of "unwanted" children climbs as we become more and more desensitized to the horrors of abortion.

But it is not only them we should pray for, but also their slayers. It is hard to fathom that we would want grace and peace to come upon them, but as Christians we are commanded such. There are areas that we choose not to forgive in, and this is one. We should be praying for the outright mentally disturbed man who ended this little girl's life, we should be praying for those who subject their children to the horrors of life on the streets, and most assuredly we should be praying and fasting for those who make the murder of children their business. It also slips our minds that we should be praying and fasting for the women and men who have utilized these methods to end the life of their child, assuring them that they are forgiven, and that forgiveness is unconditional.



May the souls of the faithful departed by the mercy of God, Rest in peace.



So in an attempt to do some formatting, I deleted all my posts. Damn.....