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My First 7AM Mass
- February 18, 2021
- by
- Steve Macias
I’ve put myself into a strange schedule for Lent. I’ve decided to, “say mass” (or as we typically describe it in Anglicanism “celebrate Holy Communion”) every day during Lent.
We have 46 days in Lent – six of them are Sundays where we have normally have our weekly communion service. Monday through Saturday in Lent 2021, I’ll be offering a daily 7 AM Holy Communion service.
Today was my first one. I got up and set up the church in...
Anglican Christians without Canterbury?
- February 03, 2021
- by
- Steve Macias
Dr. Charles Erlandson’s book, Orthodox Anglican Identity: The Quest for Unity in a Diverse Religious Tradition (Wipf and Stock: 2020) is a well thought through effort to mark out a meaningful definition for theologically orthodox Anglicanism. (Buy on Amazon) Erlandson recognizes the increasing difficulty in defining Anglicanism and acknowledges the existence of various and often insufficient answers provided throughout the fractured global Anglican Communion. Erlandson posits his narrowed definition of orthodox Anglicanism as a response to a “naturalistic and man-centered...
Books I Read in January 2021
- February 01, 2021
- by
- Steve Macias
In January 2021, I finished 10 books. Here’s what I’ve been reading:
Greenlights
by Matthew McConaughey
Link: https://amzn.to/3j8Jqwf
The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation
by Rod Dreher
Link: https://amzn.to/3rhJMDz
Benedict’s Way: An Ancient Monk’s Insights for a Balanced Life
by Lonni Collins Pratt, Daniel Homan
Link: https://amzn.to/3tkQLgW
Mark for Everyone (The New Testament for Everyone)
by NT (Tom) Wright
Link: https://amzn.to/3aoK44D
The Story of Monasticism: Retrieving an Ancient Tradition for Contemporary Spirituality
by Greg Peters
Link: https://amzn.to/3cy4JWC
Orthodox Anglican Identity: The Quest for Unity in a...
How Benedictine Spirituality Came to Celtic Christianity and the English Church
- January 29, 2021
- by
- Steve Macias
The formalization of religious monasticism into the fabric of Christian identity coincided with the collapse of the Roman Empire. Historians mark the year 476 AD as its end when its last emperor Romulus Augustus was deposed. It is in crisis where monasticism takes on a truer sense of its own Christian identity.
Reflecting on the impact of monastics, Archbishop Rowan Williams writes:
“The life that Augustine, Aidan, Hilda and others lived was one that offered a new future to those around...
Prayerbook Asceticism
- January 22, 2021
- by
- Steve Macias
The Anglican Book of Common Prayer reintroduces a monastic identity to the Church in England in two significant ways.
First, it’s nearly the same narrative of St. Benedict’s own Rule. When the way of the ancient monastery had become overly complicated by long and difficult to follow rules, St. Benedict introduced a simple plan for balance. Cranmer follows the same example in offering the Daily Office as a simplified monastic rite.
Secondly, Cranmer also maintains the integrity of Benedict’s three-fold...
The Optimistic Ebb and Flow of Moorman’s History
- January 20, 2021
- by
- Steve Macias
Dr. John R. H. Moorman’s book A History of the Church in England (A&C Black: 1953) outlines nearly two millennia of the Church’s history in the British Isles. Moorman traces the history of Christianity in England back to the early Christian accounts of men like Tertullian in the 3rd century and throughout its various Celtic, Roman, and Norman periods. More attention is given to the last several centuries as English identity embraces its own resentment of Papal authority from the...