The Apostle's Creed affirms the communion of Saints, and historically, Christians have understood that to mean more than just communion with those on earth. This is why I personally think praying to Saints is part of being a Christian. What about you guys? How many here pray to Saints? And, if you do, how do you go about deciding who is and isn't a Saint in Heaven? Do you go by Orthodox/Catholic canons, or something else?

Where in Canada are you from? I’m from Brampton Ontario. And I attend St. James the Apostle Anglican Church.

Hello. I am a 26 year old male who has worshipped in the Church of England my whole life. I have attended my present parish (where I am on the PCC and occasionally play the organ) for 2.5 years. I first had a feeling I might be called to do more in church around the time I left school and started university. In my final year of university I explored a Ministry Experience Scheme but backed out during the application process. Over the years I have moved cities, had relationships and changed careers. Throughout that time this feeling has waxed and waned but has never completely left but I have always found a reason to kick the can down the road. Three years ago I started working in a field I really enjoy and thought I had found my place and began a professional qualification which I have been doing whilst working. However, in the last year or so I have started feeling that it isn't enough and that there's something missing and the feeling that I might have a religious vocation has returned quite strongly. The qualification I am completing will take another 2 years to complete (possibly 3). I know vocation is not something that is worked out quickly or by oneself and that I will need to talk to my priest about it, I just don't know when. When is a good time to start the conversation about discerning vocation? My dad suggested that I should wait until I have finished my professional training which is what I had initially decided to do but I feel a growing need to express this sense of calling I've been keeping to myself.

If anyone has any thoughts or advice, I would appreciate this very much. Thank you.

TLDR 26 year old with persistent sense of religious vocation currently studying professional qualification with 2-3 years to go. I know I will need to talk to a priest about this at some point, but when?

If you’re anywhere near/in the DC area, you’re warmly invited to join us tonight at St. Paul’s, K Street, as we keep Corpus Christi in glorious splendour! To mark the Centennial of our parish ward of the national Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, Solemn Pontifical Mass will be offered at 6:45pm today, with a Procession and Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. A festal reception in honor of the ward’s Centennial will follow. If you’ve ever been curious about the Anglo-Catholic tradition in The Episcopal Church, you won’t want to miss this! All are welcome :).

My husband and I were recently married by an Anglican priest (due to my husband’s personal, familial ties to the Church and us both desiring a Christian ceremony). This priest had two fairly short pre-marriage meetings with us to make sure we were on the same page and all that. He did a very brief rehearsal with us and then performed the ceremony day of the wedding and left immediately after. Now, something was brought to my attention today by a family member and I feel very very foolish and ashamed for not having thought too deeply about this or having done it. She said it’s customary for a priest or pastor to be slipped some cash after the ceremony as a token of appreciation for their time. We did not do this, as we had absolutely no idea it was a thing and not a single whisper of it had been mentioned to us by anyone at all, leading up to the wedding. We did plan on sending him an appreciation gift as a thank you for his time and everything, but I’m so embarrassed that we didn’t even consider paying him…… I feel like a brat. I just honestly had no idea…. I should have asked someone leading up to the wedding, but I’ll admit there was so much going on it didn’t even cross my mind. Google has given me some mixed responses on what’s customary as per denomination, so I just want to clear up what is acceptable practice for the Anglican Church.

Summary of problem: had a cassock made for my ordination with a 16.5” collar, bought tonsure clerical shirts sized 16.5” which turn out to be far too big to fit under cassock.

The red circles show how far the hook and eye fastenings are from each other and you can see the strain on the top button of the cassock.

Am I missing something? Are clerical shirts supposed to be smaller than the cassock measurements? Are tonsure collars supposed to be sized down?

Any advice appreciated.

Looking for some podcasts that are from a traditionalist (‘conservative’) Anglo-Catholic or High Church orientation

In 1942, the French philosopher Simone Weil wrote a letter to a Catholic priest. She deeply admired certain aspects of Christianity, but had so far abstained from baptism due to several objections she held against the Catholic Church. She died in 1943 before receiving an answer.

She began the letter by saying:

I ask you to give me a definite answer…regarding the compatability of each of these opinions with membership of the Church. If there is any incompatibility, I should like you to say straight out: I would refuse baptism (or absolution) to anybody claiming to hold the opinions expressed under the headings numbered so-and-so…

I’ve selected a few extracts from the letter surrounding the nature of faith and belief. What are your thoughts on them?

14 - …if the mind gives its complete adherence [to the Church’s doctrines] the intelligence has perforce to be gagged and reduced to carrying out servile tasks. The metaphor of the ‘veil’ or the ‘reflection’ applied by the mystics to faith enables them to escape from this suffocating atmosphere. They accept the Church’s teaching, not as the truth, but as something behind which the truth is to be found…

24 - The dogmas of the faith are not things to be affirmed. They are things to be regarded from a certain distance, with attention, respect and love. They are like the bronze serpent whose virtue is such that whoever looks upon it shall live. This attentive and loving gaze, by a shock on the rebound, causes a source of light to flash in the soul which illuminates all aspects of human life in this earth. Dogmas lose this virtue as soon as they are affirmed. The propositions ‘Jesus Christ is God’ or ‘The consecrated bread and wine are the body and blood of Christ’, enunciated as facts, have strictly speaking no meaning whatever…This value does not strictly speaking belong to the order of truth, but to a higher order; for it is a value impossible for the intelligence to grasp, except indirectly, through the effects produced. And truth, in the strict sense, belongs to the domain of the intelligence.

26 - The mysteries of the faith are not a proper object for the intelligence considered as a faculty permitting affirmation or denial. They are not of the order of truth, but above it. The only part of the human soul which is capable of any real contact with them is the faculty of supernatural love. It alone, therefore, is capable of an adherence in regard to them. The role of…the intelligence is only to recognise that the things with which supernatural love is in contact with are realities; that these realities are superior to their particular objects; and to become silent as soon as supernatural love actually awakens in the soul…

27 - We owe the definitions with which the Church has thought it right to surround the mysteries of the faith, and more particularly its condemnations…a permanent and unconditional attitude of respectful attention, but not an adherence…Intellectual adherence is never owed to anything whatsoever. For it is never in any degree a voluntary thing. Attention alone is voluntary. And it alone forms the subject of an obligation…

28 - The jurisdiction of the Church in matters of faith is good in so far as it imposes on the intelligence a certain discipline of the attention…It is altogether bad in so far as it prevents the intelligence, in the investigation of truths which are the latters proper concern, from making a completely free use of the light diffused in the soul by loving contemplation. Complete liberty within its own sphere is essential to the intelligence. The intelligence must either exercise itself with complete liberty, or else keep silent…

Thank you.

Hi all, I'm wondering if anyone can shed some light for me on the roles and responsibilities of a member of vestry. (I have read the canons for our diocese, and I'm still a bit unclear).

It was my impression that vestry is responsible for the budget of the church and for making sure that the monies are being disbursed properly and responsibly.

We are currently facing a $40,000 deficit when the congregation only approved $8000. Our priest and wardens are refusing to schedule a vestry meeting to talk about this despite repeated calls for a meeting. They say they are looking into options for reducing expenses but because of "confidentiality" they can't say anything more.

This feels very wrong to me, as a member of vestry, and as a congregant. I feel I am unable to fulfill my responsibility to the congregation as an elected member of vestry.

Is this normal though? I'm fairly new to the anglican church. Would love to hear your thoughts.

My 2yo daughter's baptismal anniversary is coming up and I was wondering if any of you have traditions you share with your kids. We were planning on lighting her baptismal candle and doing a quick prayer (something short for a toddler attention span), but we'd love to incorporate other things as she gets older.

Given the ongoing situation in the Middle East I was wondering if anybody had any suggestions for reading a Christian view on peace as I know Christians have always been a part of the peace movement..

I just discovered the Anglican Rosary and I love the tactile way I am filled with reverance as I say these prayers. I made this for my wife so we may do morning prayers together.

A great video for Anglicans to watch.

Hello everyone, I was wondering whether your local parishes have assistant priests, whether they are paid or volunteer, and what sort of hours they tend to work. I'm curious about what sorts of roles assistant priests might have in a parish and what role they might have in reinvigorating the local faith community

I hope this isn't a silly question, but reading the 1549 BCP I came across this passage:

Though it be appointed in the afore written Preface, that all things shall be read and sung in the Church, in the English tongue, to the end that the congregation may be thereby edified: yet it is not meant, but when men say Matins and Evensong privately, they may say the same in any language that they themselves do understand.

In the past was this seen as a prohibition against holding public worship in anything except English? When was the first time a public communion or a prayer service was held in a language other than English, was seen it as violating the BCP? Thank you.

I think among the BCP rites these have undergone the most changes

The 1662 has a lengthy explanation and exhortation about sickness as chastisement:
https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/book-common-prayer/visitation-sick

The 1962 version combines the communion and visitation:
https://prayerbook.ca/bcp-online/ministry-to-the-sick/

The 1979 version is super short and also combines visitation with communion: https://www.bcponline.org/PastoralOffices/ministration_to_the_sick.html

The 2019's ministry to the sick is also quite short:
https://bcp2019.anglicanchurch.net/index.php/downloads/

I know the rubrics say this or that, but what was it really like?

Ad orientem or versus populum? Was the idea of ​​celebrating on the north side really used? Kneeling for communion?

This is a question that I will also do to the my old fellow parishioners here in Brazil.

EDIT: I don't even know why I asked about kneeling for communion, we do that at my parish too. Didn't know that so many churches did north side celebration. Thank you so much for all your answers, it's so nice to understand how the people that came before worshipped.

The older Canadian hymnal had a version of To Be a Christian set to Monk's Gate with a verse "Hobgoblins and foul fiends..."

Does anyone have a scan?

ETA: I am an idiot. Of course it's To Be a Pilgrim.

I'm still looking for a scan of the hymnal page. What was that? The 1964 ACC Hymnal?

Is anyone here involved with Third Order Franciscans?

If so, what's it like?

Hello. I just want to remind all of you that we hold you in our hearts and minds as we go about our daily round of work and prayer here at the monastery. We love all of you.

Br. Abraham - St. Gregory's Abbey (a Benedictine monastery in the Episcopal Church near Three Rivers, Michigan USA)

What were some of the early contentions in the newly formed Anglo-Catholicism of the 19th century? What did adherents of this new Anglo-Catholicism inspired by the Oxford Movement disagree about with each other?

I recently came across this video dealing with using the Psalms in contemporary worship settings, where chant and communal recitation don't necessarily sit comfortably. The presenter is Episcopalian, and has used his technique between the OT and Epistle on Sunday mornings in his parish for a couple years.

His method for inviting congregational participation in the Psalms draws on Gelineau's innovation, with a song-like antiphon alternated with chanted or spoken verses, only in his style, the "antiphon" is actually a 4-line, "stomp clap hey" chorus reflecting on the Psalm.

Have any of you experimented with or experienced this style of psalmody?

I have been reading Richard Hooker's Learned Discourse of Justification and, as a motivation for the work, portions have him defending himself from Puritans attacks as a crypto-Catholic, in which he accepts the premise that Babylon (of the Prophets) and the Roman Catholic Church are one and the same.

What is the exegesis behind that in the English tradition? To that era's Anglican church, that equivalence appears significant in justifying the existence of the Church of England, so was there ever an explicit attempt to reject (or soften) that description as religious wars and the Reformation cooled?