On Desire

The Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity

O LORD, we beseech thee to keep thy Church and household continually in thy true religion; that they who do lean only upon the hope of thy heavenly grace may evermore be defended by thy mighty power; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

As the Articles of Religion affirm and as Scripture teaches us, God has gifted humanity with free will. A consequence of this free will is that we have desires. These are the forces within us that motivate us to act. Our desires can be either good or bad, either drawing us nearer to God or taking us away from him.

St Augustine of Hippo famously defined desire that draws us towards God, virtue, in terms of rightly ordered love. In On Christian Doctrine he famously expands on this meaning stating that:

love things, that is to say, in the right order, so that you do not love what is not to be loved, or fail to love what is to be loved, or have a greater love for what should be loved less, or an equal love for things that should be loved less or more, or a lesser or greater love for things that should be loved equally.

To use the language of desire, we must use our free will to order our desires in order that we desire to be in the amount suitable to the object of that desire. Disordered desire is the root of sin. For instance, when we desire material wealth for ourselves over our desire for the well-being of our neighbours, it is easy to see how we might be willing to cheat them or otherwise allow our actions to negatively affect them in the pursuit of our own gain.

A clearer example comes from the consideration of the desire for social belonging. It is a fundamental motivator of all human behaviour to have belonging. In a modern Western context, that desire manifests in certain culturally conditioned patterns of behaviour which are normative for anyone who wants to fit in and be a part of society. It is perfectly natural and anyone would be hard pressed to suggest that in and of itself a desire to be a part of a group is sinful. Yet Christianity often challenges these cultural norms that form the basis of belonging. How often on a Sunday does a homily exegete a passage of Holy Scripture by expounding on how Christ is calling us to counter-cultural action? Suddenly our desire for God—to follow him, to honour him and to have intimate relationship with him, is placed in conflict with the desire to conform to the norms of society in order to fit in. If we place our desire to conform to the norms of society above our desire to follow God’s counter-cultural call, we have a disordered desire.

There are many hymns and modern praise songs that speak of turning ourselves wholeheartedly over to Christ. How many Christians, however, can upon reflection sing these lyrics in all sincerity? 

In the famous lyrics, “O Love that wilt not let me go, / I rest my weary soul in thee; / I give thee back the life I owe, / That in thine ocean depths its flow / May richer, fuller be,” we are promising to give back our lives to God who gave us life, yet that does not in practice seem to be what we do. We withhold our lives from God like Ananias and Sapphira withheld some of the profit from the sale of their property.  Our lips proclaim a desire to turn ourselves over to God, but our actions often show those words to ring hollow in our lives.

There is a disconnect between what we say we desire, what we say we love, and what we actually love. We have failed in most of our modern Christian lives, to cultivate a theology of desire, this place of rightly ordered desires that will maintain our orientation towards God.

It is helpful to think of this in terms of desire rather than love because often we view loves as something which we have no control over, and also because we associate love with the emotion of love far more than we ought to when considering the full spectrum of what love entails. With desire, it seems easier to draw that mental connection with our ability to control our desires.

This is where spiritual disciplines come in. It is through the use of spiritual disciplines that we can begin to cultivate Godly desires and suppress those or reshape those desires that are disordered. Spiritual disciplines are opportunities to practice intentional orientation of our desires in a way that we often wouldn’t consider to be the case in terms of love. When love is viewed as an emotion it means it cannot be controlled or shaped, simply experienced and actualized or denied. With desire, we can shape it because it is something more persistent.

Ultimately, when our desires are oriented towards God, they will move us towards him. When they remain disordered, however, they will move us away from him. Desires apart from God are never fully satisfied, however, as they are ultimately self-satisfied. CS Lewis makes this point when he argues that pride is the great sin from which all other sin derives because it explicitly involves placing ourselves in the place of God. As we are created with a desire and that desire can only be fulfilled by God, it becomes a clear implication that when we follow these disordered desires we will always be left wanting more.

Spiritual disciplines that are useful for the reorientation of our desires include the cultivation of gratitude and thankfulness. This might be as simple as beginning your morning in a prayer of thanksgiving for how you are thankful for a day of opportunity that God has brought you to (the collect for grace from Morning Prayer is a suitable starting point for this) to creating gratitude lists: identifying throughout your day all the things you are grateful to God for. 

The confession from Morning Prayer reminds us that, “we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts,” and is a lesson that St Paul reminds us of. In Romans 1. 21 Paul describes how the lack of gratitude towards God for who he is and what he has done is the root of humanity’s descent into guilt and the disordering of humanity’s desires. To return to Godly desires, we need to consider why we got there in the first place and then continue to practice this culture of gratitude in order to strengthen the correctly ordered desires.

It is through this development of a clear theology of desire that we find ourselves drawing closer and closer to God.

Wisdom of Saints: St Augustine of Hippo

Feast of Augustine, Doctor, Bishop of Hippo, Africa, 430

O GOD, who by thy Holy Spirit hast given unto one man a word of wisdom, and to another a word of knowledge, and to another the gift of tongues: We praise thy Name for the gifts of grace manifested in thy servant Augustine, and we pray that thy Church may never be destitute of the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 St Augustine of Hippo is in Western Christianity the foremost among the saints in terms of his impact on Christian doctrine and understanding. Many of his writings survive, and his impact on modern Christian theology cannot be overstated.

St Augustine was born in 354 in Numidia (modern day Algeria), then part of the Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis. His mother Monica was a Christian, however his father was a pagan. His mother sought to raise him as a Christian, and he received a Christian education. At the time, Baptism was often delayed until later in life, so despite some possible successes in his instruction in the Christian faith he was not baptised at that time. At the age of sixteen, seeing his successes in school, St Augustine’s father was determined to send him to Carthage for study in a career in forensics, however before he could be sent, sufficient money was needed to cover the expense and so St Augustine stayed idle in his home town for that year. It was during that year that his heart fell away from Christianity and he turned to vice. He was eventually sent to Carthage, but only continued in his exploration of the pleasures offered by pagans in that larger city. Eventually he took a mistress who bore him a son at the age of eighteen.

St Augustine had a great love of philosophy and was a seeker of truth. He turned to different philosophies and religions in an effort to seek ultimate truth. He became a Manichaean, drawn to its allegorical symbolism and promise of truth, in contrast to what he considered the vulgar and low-level, perhaps even ridiculous at times, Christian Scriptures.

He was still a student in Carthage when he converted to Manichaeism, and devoted his considerable talents to the understanding and promotion of this new philosophy. He read all their writings and contributed his own thoughts. As his intellectual talents continued to develop, he turned his career paths, returned to his home town of Tagaste and taught grammar, then returned to Carthage to teach rhetoric.

It was during this time that he began to have doubts about Manichaeism, as its teachings had failed to bear the promised fruit of understanding he sought, and he began to hold intellectual objections to various elements of its doctrines. He had spent nearly a decade devoting himself to the sect before ultimately becoming disillusioned.

At the age of 28, St Augustine was determined to leave Africa and make his fortune in Rome. He travelled, under cover of night in an effort to leave his mother behind, as she sought to follow him to his distress. In Italy, he opened his own school, but after being defrauded of tuition fees was forced to seek a position at another school, and ended up teaching in Milan, where he first came to meet Milan’s bishop, St Ambrose. In 386, St Augustine converted to Christianity, chiefly for three reasons: St Ambrose’s ability to answer his questions and his growing admiration for the Milanese bishop, and more importantly, God had touched his heart drawing him back to Christ whom he had borne with him ever since his early Christian education. He was baptised Easter 387, and devoted himself thoroughly to applying his intelectual gifts to the understanding an explication of Christianity.

He returned to Africa shortly after his baptism and was ordained a priest in 391 and consecrated Bishop of Hippo in 396. He would spend the rest of his life devoted to the shepherding of his flock and writing. While many of his works have disappeared, to this day over 100 books, 200 letters and 500 homilies survive, and the breadth of his theological work remains strongly influential, particularly in the Western church.

His first published Christian work is his Confessions, which reads as an outpouring of autobiographical penitence for his life up until its publication. The restlessness that led him on his quest for truth and the answer he found, is described therein: “for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.” Even from his earliest works it was clear that St Augustine had a deep and well-articulated understanding to the relationship between God and mankind.

In his works, St Augustine also published a number of propositions that he would later revise and reject in subsequent works. It was a sign of his humility that upon reflection and further study he was more than willing to admit to theological errors and repudiate the positions he had previously advocated.

In his multi-volume work Christian Doctrine, St Augustine can be seen laying some of the foundational theology for St Bernard of Clairvaux’s famous On Loving God. In it he discusses at length the need of man to love God and neighbour. St Augustine goes on to  write on the Order of Love stating:

No sinner is to be loved as a sinner; and every man is to be loved as a man for God’s sake; but God is to be loved for His own sake.  And if God is to be loved more than any man, each man ought to love God more than himself.  Likewise we ought to love another man better than our own body, because all things are to be loved in reference to God, and another man can have fellowship with us in the enjoyment of God, whereas our body cannot; for the body only lives through the soul, and it is by the soul that we enjoy God.

St Augustine was a strong advocate of Biblical literacy and after noting the Canon of Scripture, he calls on Christians to familiarize themselves with Scripture. This position would become less popular over time to the point where it became a major issue during the Reformation to once again allow Bibles to be published in vernacular such that those who were literate could read, and even those who were illiterate could at least understand when it was read to them. Interestingly, he advocates for the familiarity or memorization of Scripture for several reasons, including the fact that once someone is familiar with Scripture, they themselves can use the technique of employing clear passages to interpret more obscure passages, a common exegetical technique used by the Church Fathers in St Augustine’s day. In his own words:

For among the things that are plainly laid down in Scripture are to be found all matters that concern faith and the manner of life,—to wit, hope and love, of which I have spoken in the previous book.  After this, when we have made ourselves to a certain extent familiar with the language of Scripture, we may proceed to open up and investigate the obscure passages, and in doing so draw examples from the plainer expressions to throw light upon the more obscure, and use the evidence of passages about which there is no doubt to remove all hesitation in regard to the doubtful passages.

St Augustine’s clear articulation as God as love and Christ as our hope throughout Christian Doctrine, makes it an extremely influential theological work, and throughout Western Christianity, Augustinian theology continues to inform the works of countless Christians. For millions of Christians, St Augustine’s words succinctly characterize their continued faith: “To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romance — to seek Him the greatest of all adventures, to find Him the greatest human achievement.”

Wisdom of Saints: St Ambrose of Milan

The Feast of Ambrose, Doctor and Bishop of Milan, 397

O GOD, who by thy Holy Spirit hast given unto one man a word of wisdom, and to another a word of knowledge, and to another the gift of tongues: We praise thy Name for the gifts of grace manifested in thy servant Ambrose, and we pray that thy Church may never be destitute of the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Feria in Eastertide

ALMIGHTY Father, who hast given thine only a Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification: Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may alway serve thee in pureness of living and truth; through the merits of the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

St Ambrose of Milan is one of my favourite saints, not necessarily for his teachings, but rather for the story of his life, how he became a Christian, and how he chose to be a defender of Christian orthodoxy.

St Ambrose, born Aurelius Ambrosius, was born in around 340 AD, either at Trier, Arles or Lyons. He was raised in Trier where his family, an ancient and noble Roman family, had converted to Christianity. His father, sharing his name of Aurelius Ambrosius, was the praetorian prefect of Gaul, placing him in charge of modern Britain, France, Spain and parts of North Africa. His mother was a pious Christian. He was the youngest of three siblings, with an elder sister named Marcellina who ultimately became a nun, and an elder brother named Satyrus who followed Ambrose’s path into Government, before ultimately retiring to come and live with his brother after he was raised to the episcopacy.

When Ambrose was still young, his father died. His mother moved their family to Rome, where she assisted in the religious training of her three children. Marcellina, who was about ten years older than Ambrose, took a vow of virginity, living a consecrated life in her mother’s house. Her vows greatly influenced St Ambrose, who is remembered in part for his own love of virginity.

In Rome, he studied literature, law and rhetoric. His education included learning Greek, the language of the Septuagint, and his Greek learning helps distinguish him from some of his great contemporaries, such as St Augustine of Hippo, who did not have the benefit of an education in Greek language and literature.

When he completed his education, he applied himself to the practice of law. So eloquent were his arguments that he obtained a patron, Praetor Anicus Probus, who took Ambrose into his Council. In 372, Anicus petitioned Emperor Valentinian on Ambrose’s behalf and obtained for him the office of consular governor of Liguria and Æmilia, with a residence in the second most important city in Rome, Milan.

Over the next two years, Ambrose would earn the love and esteem of the people of Milan for his judicious leadership over them. He was eloquent, fair and just, able to build concensus and compromise between factions to bridge political divides. There were many in this time, as Milan was a city in relative chaos when Ambrose arrived.

In 355 the Nicene bishop of Milan, Dionysius, had been dragged into exile and replaced by an Arian bishop, Auxentius, from Cappadocia. This outsider bishop created a significant strain on Milanese Christians, particularly those orthodox Christians who subscribed to the Nicene Creed and opposed the Arian Heresy. After becoming Governor, Ambrose was sometimes forced to weigh into these controversies and debates in order to prevent further disruption. Known to be orthodox in his personal beliefs, he was none the less respected by Arians for his artful compromises.

In 374, Auxentius died. At the time, bishops in Milan were chosen by election of the people. So concerned over the possibility of violence or other tumult stemming from such a popular vote, the provincial bishops petitioned the Emperor to simply appoint a successor, however Valentinian refused. As the governor, it fell to Ambrose to maintain order. Using his well-known oratory, he began to speak to the assembled people and clergy, attempting to calm them, speaking of peace and moderation. As he was speaking, however, a voice interrupted him, shouting out, “Ambrose, bishop!” The chant was joined by others, and to Ambrose’s complete shock he was unanimously elected bishop.

Ambrose had initially no wish to serve. He hadn’t even been baptised and was still only a catechumen, though this lay largely due to a misguided and common practice of the day to delay baptism until near death due to reverence for the sacrament. The people wrote to the Emperor asking him to confirm their elected choice, and he did, ordering Ambrose to be imprisoned until he accepted.

Ambrose accepted, was baptised and in December 374 was consecrated as Bishop of Milan. His first act as bishop was to give his worldly possessions to the poor and his land to the church, after making provision for the care of his sister. Given his lack of theological training, he then devoted himself to the study of the Church Fathers and the Holy Scriptures. Soon he began placing his significant oratorical skill and keen mind to work in the pulpit, where he would soon enough famously convert St Augustine to Christianity by the power of his homilies.

He surprised the Arians by strongly refusing to acquiesce to them in the way he had as governor. He refused to give them a building to meet in and wrote against them. Ultimately he would help to define the meaning of Christian orthodoxy in that age, and bringing an end to Arianism.

While Ambrose was a fierce opponent of heresy and paganism, his zeal for Christian orthodoxy and religious persecution of heretics did not extend to how they were treated civily. Arians and pagans were still citizens, and still had rights. As human beings, they were still God’s creates whom he loved and wanted saved. Ambrose showed respect to them, even as he opposed them theologically. His position was quite innovative at its time, and earned him a significant amount of respect from all people.

Aside from his conversion of St Augustine to Christianity, St Ambrose is mostly known for his impact on Church-State relations, particularly due to his friendship with Emperor Theodosius. In 390, a popular charioteer in Thessalonica was imprisoned for attempting to rape a male cup bearer. The people demanded his release because he was a popular and successful charioteer, and when the government officials refused, a general revolt occurred in which the military commander and a number of other Roman officials were killed. When Emperor Theodosius heard of this, he was outraged and dispatched the army to capture the city, as if it were hostile. They massacred thousands of civilians. Shortly after he dispatched the army units, he changed his mind and sent a messenger to cancel the orders, but the messenger never caught up with the army units who proceeded to slaughter the inhabitants of Thessalonica, some 7,000 killed according to some accounts.

St Ambrose was stunned when he heard of what happened and immediately wrote a letter to the Emperor demanding that he repent of his act in ordering the massacre. Theodosius refused. Ambrose was simply a clergyman in far off Milan, while he was the Emperor of the entire Roman Empire, sitting on his throne in Constantinople. However, shortly after receiving the letter from Ambrose, imperial business took him to Milan. As a Christian, Theodosius went to church when he was in Milan, but Ambrose refused to offer Theodosius communion unless the Emperor publicly repented of his acts.

Ultimately, the Emperor relented. Divesting himself of his imperial vestments, clothed in a sackcloth and with ash streaked on his face in a sign of penance, Theodosius repented for the massacre.

In standing up to the Emperor, St Ambrose placed his own life on the line for his calling and for God’s truth. He showed great courage for his office in upholding both Christian orthodoxy in the theology being preached in his diocese and also in rebuking those who failed to measure up to Christian virtues with egregious public sins while still acting as if they had committed no wrong.

While later bishops would use St Ambrose’s example as a means to manipulate civil leaders by withholding the sacraments, St Ambrose’s purpose was never to force the submission of the state to the Church, but rather to show that no person, regardless of civil or religious status, was exempt from God’s laws.

NB. The Feast of Ambrose is commemorated on 4 April, but as that fell on Holy Saturday, the feast is transferred to a ferial day.

On the Essentials

The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

LORD we pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Harvest Thanksgiving

O ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who crownest the year with thy goodness, and hast given unto us the fruits of the earth in their season: Give us grateful hearts, that we may unfeignedly thank thee for all thy loving-kindness, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

There is a maxim, often mis-attributed to St Augustine of Hippo, which reads in its original Latin in necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas. It is usually rendered into English along these lines of, “in the essentials, unity; in the non-essentials, diversity; in all things, charity.” The question, then, becomes what is essential?

For Anglicans, it might be confusing. We have the Book of Common Prayer, ordinal and 39 Articles as our formularies. They define the practice of Anglican tradition, but are they essential to the Christian faith itself? Clearly not. The Lambeth Quadrilateral is in fact the document which defines the essentials for Anglicans, but in reference not merely to the Anglican tradition, but the Christian tradition as a whole.

The Lambeth Quadrilateral was a resolution of the 1888 Lambeth Conference, an international gathering of Bishops from throughout the Anglican Communion, made in response to the 1886 declaration of the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America which included the following in its preamble:

we do hereby affirm that the Christian unity...can be restored only by the return of all Christian communions to the principles of unity exemplified by the undivided Catholic Church during the first ages of its existence; which principles we believe to be the substantial deposit of Christian Faith and Order committed by Christ and his Apostles to the Church unto the end of the world, and therefore incapable of compromise or surrender by those who have been ordained to be its stewards and trustees for the common and equal benefit of all men.

The full declaration of the American bishops was not adopted at the Lambeth Conference, however the four key points were adopted, declaring that the Anglican Communion would continue to affirm the historic faith of the undivided Catholic Church, and in doing so identified four specific areas.

First and foremost, the Lambeth Quadrilateral affirms the one canon of Holy Scripture as the ultimate standard of faith, and to quote Article VI of the Articles of Religion, the Quadrilateral affirms that Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation. While the canon of Scripture was not fixed in the Apostolic Age, primarily because most of what would become the New Testament was not committed to writing until near the end of the Apostolic Age, yet still Scripture was recognized as containing the revealed Truth of God, and the New Testament faithfully reproduced the faith of the Apostles and the Truth revealed by Christ during his ministry. The placement of the Scripture in the Quadrilateral again itself affirms Prima Scriptura which demands that Holy Scripture be held as the standard by which the faith, order and practice of the Church is measured.

Next, the Lambeth Quadrilateral affirmed the Catholic creeds, specifically the Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed as faithfully articulating the doctrines of the Catholic Church, and to quote the Quadrilateral itself, "as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith." A key characteristic of the Catholic Church was that it held one faith, articulated in the Creeds and councils accepted both east and west. The Apostle's creed as the symbol of baptism, and the Nicene creed as a necessary articulation of orthodoxy in relation to the Christological controversies of the early Church. These creeds form the definition of orthodox Christianity precisely because they were accepted by the Catholic Church during the age of the fathers.

Third, the Quadrilateral affirms the two Sacraments of the Gospel. The sacramental life of the Catholic Church was universally held. One baptism, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and being born to new life, followed by the Supper of the Lord ministered, in the words of the Quadrilateral, with, "unfailing use of Christ's words of Institution," used to nourish Christians in their new lives in Christ. The Quadrilateral in no way rejects the Sacraments of the Church, but again merely reflects that the two Sacraments of the Gospel were the only two Sacraments universally received by the east and west, while other Sacraments of the Church have been received only in certain places and at certain times.

Finally, the Quadrilateral ends by affirming the importance of the Historic Episcopate and the three-fold order of ministry through bishops, priests and deacons. Implicit in this is the importance of Apostolic Succession, the idea that the authority of ordained ministers is derived from their following in the Apostolic commission. It is a further reminder that the Anglican Churches do not claim their own ministry. There is no such thing as an Anglican Priest, but rather a priest in the Catholic Church who ministers in the Anglican tradition.

Taken together, these are an affirmation of the faith, order and practice of the Catholic Church by which Christian unity may be affirmed. When any controversy arises in a given tradition, it must be reviewed in the context of these universal standards.

For instance, throughout history there have been controversies over issues such as how many altar candles may be present on the altar during Holy Communion. In order to determine if the issue is essential, the question asked is, first and foremost, is it addressed in Scripture? Then, is it addressed in the Creeds? Third, does it affect the administration of the Sacraments of the Gospel? Finally, does it affect the understanding of Apostolic Succession and the Apostolic ministry? If not, it is not an essential matter and there is room for diversity. In the case of altar candles, it is not a matter addressed in Scripture or the creeds. It doesn’t impact the Sacraments of the Gospel and neither does it impact the Apostolic ministry. Whether it be none, two or six, there is room for diversity on the number of altar candles as they are not essential to the faith.

This example may seem somewhat flippant, however it would equally apply to many of the controversies that cause major schisms these days, namely the ordination of women and proposed changes to the sacrament of Holy Matrimony to allow for the blessing of same-sex marriages.

The former Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsay was a strong proponent of Quadrilateral as a model for ecumenical reunion, particularly with the Eastern Orthodox Church. He had made significant progress in developing understanding on the basis of the Quadrilateral and the idea of the Anglican Communion as maintaining the Catholic faith, order and practice of the patristic Church. He had made significant progress in clearing the way on major issues; however, as is recorded in his personal journal, he was woken up in the middle of the night in 1976 and informed that the General Convention of the Episcopal Church of the United States had authorized the ordination of women as priests. He immediately began to weep, recognizing that the Anglican Communion had surrendered its claim to Catholicity over the issue, and had ended the immediate prospects for ecumenical reunion with the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The official status of the Lambeth Quadrilateral has come into question in some national Provinces in the Anglican Communion, however in the traditional view of Anglicanism, the Lambeth Quadrilateral remains an important document which records a defining characteristic of Anglicanism, which is to say that it seeks a return to the faith, order and traditions of the patristic Catholic Church, and its authority to determine doctrine is derived from that formula.

On Organs

The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity

O LORD, we beseech thee, let thy continual pity cleanse and defend thy Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without thy succour, preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Last Sunday identified two primary problems that have a tendency to arise when using contemporary Christian music in a worship service, for which the use of the Book of Common Praise was presented as a potential solution. The two problems were first and foremost that the prayers offered through some of that music are shallow, while the second was that there may be a tendency to shift God as the object of worship through the tool or medium of music, to worship of either self or the music itself.

What is the Book of Common Praise and how does it potentially resolve these issues? The Book of Common Praise is the officially authorized hymn book of the Anglican Church of Canada, though it is not a mandatory book nor does it hold the canonical status of the Book of Common Prayer. There have been four authorized versions in the 20th century, the 1908 Book of Common Praise, the 1938 Book of Common Praise, the 1971 ecumenical Book of Common Praise developed in conjunction with the United Church of Canada and finally Common Praise which was authorized in 1998. The 1938 Book of Common Praise, which was reprinted most recently in 1963, is by far the preferred hymnal for traditional Anglicans in Canada, given the significant theological changes and problematic doctrinal innovations introduced in Common Praise.

St Justin Martyr in his Apology in Defence of Christians wrote that, “no one can give a name to God, who is too great for words; if anyone dares to say it is possible to do so, he must be suffering from an incurable madness.” Had he lived to see the publication of Common Praise, he might have made a similar comment on the revisionist slant of the committee that created it, which decided to re-write some hymns in order to, for example, affirm God as Mother in the revised text of Hymn to Joy. This type of revisionist agenda reminds us that the importance of hymnody is not simply in ancient tunes, traditional instruments such as a pipe organ or choirs, but rather in the orthodoxy of the words being sung. St Augustine of Hippo spoke to the nature of hymns saying this:

It is a song with praise of God. If thou praisest God and singest not, thou utterest no hymn: if thou singest and praisest not God, thou utterest no hymn: if thou praisest aught else, which pertaineth not to the praise of God, although thou singest and praisest, thou utterest no hymn. An hymn then containeth these three things, song, and praise, and that of God. Praise then of God in song is called an hymn.

Hymns are prayers, sung in praise of God. The traditional hymnody of the Anglican Church of Canada reflects St Augustine’s three-fold requirements. More than that, the hymns were written long-enough ago that they all reflect a traditional theology and avoid a shallower approach.

Like good prayer, a good Christian song ought to thank God for something He has done or something He is. In doing so, it ought to speak to what He has done, or who He is. Poor Christian music fails to expound on God’s nature, and instead simply uses ‘Christianese’ and Biblical sounding words to create a catchy lyric, something which often times will shift the focus away from God and back towards either the music itself or the person who is singing it. In other words, for good Christian music the message is God, while for bad Christian music the message is the medium.

While not at all seasonal, Easter provides an interesting comparison of a traditional hymn versus popular contemporary Christian praise music. Perhaps one of the most commonly sung hymns on Easter Sunday is, appropriately enough, Easter Hymn, known more commonly by its first line, "Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!" The second is called This is Amazing Grace by Bethel Music, and was the most popular Easter praise song in the United States in 2014.

Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia! our triumphant holy day, Alleluia! who did once upon the cross, Alleluia! suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia! Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia! unto Christ, our heavenly King, Alleluia! who endured the cross and grave, Alleluia! sinners to redeem and save. Alleluia! But the pains which he endured, Alleluia! our salvation have procured, Alleluia! now above the sky he's King, Alleluia! where the angels ever sing. Alleluia!

Who breaks the power of sin and darkness Whose love is mighty and so much stronger The King of Glory, the King above all kings Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder And leaves us breathless in awe and wonder The King of Glory, the King above all kings Chorus: This is amazing grace This is unfailing love That You would take my place That You would bear my cross You lay down Your life That I would be set free Oh, Jesus, I sing for All that You've done for me Who brings our chaos back into order Who makes the orphan a son and daughter The King of Glory, the King of Glory Who rules the nations with truth and justice Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance The King of Glory, the King above all kings [Chorus] [Bridge:] Worthy is the Lamb who was slain Worthy is the King who conquered the grave Worthy is the Lamb who was slain Worthy is the King who conquered the grave Worthy is the Lamb who was slain Worthy is the King who conquered the grave Worthy is the Lamb who was slain Worthy, worthy, worthy Oh

While both songs do speak to truths about God, Easter Hymn more clearly speaks to God in each and every line and more clearly each and every line’s purpose is to praise God for who He is and what He has done. In This is Amazing Grace, by contrast, the first six lines speaks only to one implied truth that God has broken the power of sin. If St Augustine were to evaluate the song, it seems doubtful he would find it fits his criteria of a hymn.

As JB Philips warns in his book Your God is Too Small:

It is natural and right, of course, that the worship we offer to God in public should be of the highest possible quality. But that must not lead us to conceive of a musically "Third-Programme" god who prefers the exquisite rendering of a cynical professional choir to the ragged bawling of sincere but untutored hearts.

Regardless of the medium, it is possible to warp the purpose and to substitute our own preferences towards the music. The intention of using music as a tool of worship must always be to praise God, and our concern must be for the words being said and their intended audience, not the degree of musical excellence.

The use of a hymnal encourages that focus, providing other benefits beyond simply assurance of orthodox theology in the words being sung. With limited musical accompaniment, it is the voice of the people which is the primary tool of worship, while the organ merely maintains the meter of singing. A hymnal containing the tune to a song can also allow a parishioner unfamiliar with a given tune the opportunity to sing.

This is not to say that there is no merit to listening to more contemporary Christian music, regardless of what St Augustine would have made of it as a tool for worship. The question is the degree to which it is appropriate as a tool of worship for the mass. A Christian song which may not be appropriate for the mass due to its lack of theological depth or even its ability to truly praise God may still be appropriate to listen to outside of the mass as a wholesome form of musical entertainment. A song which lacks any form of thanks to God for who He is and what He has done can still at the least encourage us to think about God.

Worship is not about musical preferences or traditional versus contemporary. We must always recall the importance not of the music or the form or instruments, but rather of the intent: does this music honour God?