Labarum

All Christian, All Historic, All the Time

Browsing Posts published in February, 2012

Although it may not be noticed, the seeds of the recent saga actually precedes the tenure of the Rev. David Moyer as rector of the parish. Certainly the parish has not been without some drama during its history although certainly not of the current variety. Formed in the latter half of the nineteenth century as [...]

This will be the first in a series of articles on the events that overtook the Church of the Good Shepherd (Rosemont, PA), my former parish, in its battles with the Diocese of Pennsylvania. It still amazes me how a quickly things unraveled and the parish’s unity, once its greatest strength, was destroyed by poor [...]

It has come to my attention (and shall be discussed in subsequent posts) that there is a movement in some extreme fundamentalist circles to question the origins of the name “Jesus” and claim it is pagan in origin. This usually occurs in some sectors of the “Hebrew Roots” (this should not be confused with Messianic [...]

As many who have followed my posts here or on Youtube will know, I have identified myself as a traditional Anglican. The adjective “traditional” is intentional but does require some explanation. I use it to qualify the term Anglican since the latter can have many different meanings. Without being clear on the meaning used, the [...]

This week I became aware that the Rt Rev. David L. Moyer, my former pastor at the Church of the Good Shepherd (Rosemont, PA) had been denied in his desire to become a priest in the Catholic Church. This no doubt had much to do with the controversies surrounding his last few years at the [...]

Today is Ash Wednesday which is the beginning of Lent in the Western Church. While a period of preparation prior to the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus has a long history in the Church, the use of ashes to begin this time was a medieval development. The origins are rooted in the practice of [...]

Over at Cranmer, the Anglican Covenant has been given its epitaph. This attempt to hold the Anglican Communion together in the face of divisions between the apostate churches in the West and those elsewhere who were actual Christians was doomed to fail from the start. Initially there was talk of a “two tier” membership that [...]

Things keep getting worse in the Episcopal Church. It appears the apostate Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania has decided that if the General Convention of the Episcopal Church allows the blessing of same sex unions, as appears almost certain to happen, that he will not allow priests in the diocese to refuse to perform [...]

Having covered the major evidence for why Christians should have the Eucharist as part of their regular worship, I now turn to why anyone would have thought differently. If the Eucharist had been a norm for worship within the Church for fifteen centuries, why did those seeking reform toss this practice aside as so much [...]

Havng addressed the patristic evidence for the normative use of the Eucharist in worship has naturally led to the Scriptural evidence from the earliest period of the Church. Since the New Testament does not address the matter of worship and liturgical norms as did the Torah for the Israelites, there might be some question whether [...]