Question:

Can you tell me what ECUSA is and what the revised common lectionary? We are in Confirmation classes now, but wow...there is alot to learn. Also...you go to a Lutheran church right now, am I right or confused? Is there much of a difference in Episcopal and Lutheran?

Answer:

Boy, you sure pack some big questions into a small post<g>!

ECUSA is "The Episcopal Church of the United States of America", which is what it's usually called but is not its full legal name. It's properly "PECUSA", which is the "Protestant Episcopal et cetera".

The Revised Common Lectionary is a system for reading the Bible at the main Sunday service. Using a prescribed cycle of readings ("the lectionary") at worship is an Anglican principle, addressed in one of the historic prefaces -- it means that everyone in the communion is assured of being exposed to a broad overview of Scripture rather than just the rector's favourite readings; and that everyone gets the same readings at appropriate times, when the activities of the Church year most reinforce them and they can most inform our activities. The Common Lectionary was an ecumenical endeavor to put all the liturgical churches on the same page. Roman Catholics and Lutherans use a lectionary too; and with the ecumenical dialogue of the reforming 60's, and people attending one another's churches and sharing ministry, it made sense to be able to discuss "this Sunday's readings" with one another regardless of denominational affiliation. Also, since the lectionary has a flow from Sunday to Sunday, having a common lectionary means I can go to the Lutheran church this Sunday and the Episcopalian church the next, and not feel like I came in in the middle of the story.

The main differences between the Common Lectionary and the historic Anglican lectionary are:

- addition of an Old Testament reading (we used just to
  have the Epistle and the Gospel)
- a three-year cycle of readings instead of a one-year cycle
- harmonization of the Psalter with the readings

The Common Lectionary took a more-or-less sequential read through the Gospels, and selected Epistle, Psalm and Old Testament readings that illustrated the Gospel principle. That meant, however, that you never got a good sequential read through any of the old testament's great stories. There were other wrinkles to be worked out too, hence the *Revised* Common Lectionary. The RCL gives you the option of two Old Testament readings: one sequential, one illustrating the Gospel principles; and two Psalms corresponding to the two Old Testament readings.

The Lutheran church is a reformed Catholic church, just as is the Anglican church. It is informed by German culture in the way that the Anglican church is informed by Anglo-Saxon and Celtic culture, so it's music tends to the German hymn-tunes; the liturgical settings are different, and the wording of the liturgy is slightly different (and their words of reception for the newly Baptized are the *WORST EVER* piece of liturgical English I have ever read!) Luther made more of a stamp on his church than the Anglican reformers made on theirs, was more of an individualist, and was more concious of being in schism from Rome; so you often hear Lutherans quoting Luther. I don't think I've ever heard an Anglican quote Cranmer except in an academic setting. Luther was a prolific and powerful writer; and his personal theology tend to inform the Lutheran church and give it a bit of a bias.

Luther's battle-cry against Rome was "Sola Gratia, Sola Fidelis, Sola Scriptura" -- so you find less reliance on Tradition and Reason and a correspondingly heavier weighting on Scripture than in the Anglican communion. But overall, Lutherans have the same theology and practice (and breadth of practice) as Anglicans with two heterodox exceptions. The exceptions are

1) The Lutheran church has not, or maybe has not, or maybe doesn't want to, or maybe has a different understanding of, *Apostolic Succession*. This is the idea that each Bishop is consecrated by a preceeding Bishop in unbroken chain back to the Apostles. Lutherans have temporary Bishops who go back to being ordinary guys when their five-year term is up. This was the sticking-point on the Common Call to Ministry: Apostolic Succession is very important in the Anglican understanding of Sacrament.

2) Lutherans teach that, in the absence of an ordained minister, a layperson can consecrate the Eucharist. This is related to the first heterodoxy: if Bishops are just an administrative function, and priests get their authority from the Bishop so they're nobody special either, then the authority to consecrate the Eucharist is just an administrative function too. And since Lutherans believe that the Real Presence is only present in the Elements during the actual Eucharist, it's accepted practice to toss the leftovers in the trash. It's very hard for me to type this -- I'm a practical modern rational scientist; but I become physically ill at the thought of the Eucharist being abused in this way. Their theology *is* sound, the world *won't* end due to different communion practices, and God *does* transcend -- and sanctify -- even the trashbin in which the uneaten Bread is placed. But I can't bear it: I never go down to tea after service on Communion Sundays for fear I will see something that I would rather be blind to. Incidentally, the teaching flowing out of the Common Call to Ministry is also addressing this conflict.

-- Pamela

Question:

OK...then answer me this...

What is done with our Eucharist? Is it all consumed? I know my SIL who is Catholic says all of their wine is consumed, but I never asked her about the Eucharist. Also, I that the "Protestant" part of the name was dropped. I wonder why, anybody know?

The "Protestant" thing came up last week on my liturgy e-list., a list mostly frequented by Lutheran pastors, with a fair sprinkling of episcopals, RCD's and orthodox. "Protestant" is still part of the legal name of the national synod, but the constitution was recently changed to allow "ECUSA" and "the Episcopal Church" to be used in official documents. The person who brought it up on the e-list reprinted the revised preamble of the constitution, but unfortunately I deleted it.

Any leftover sacrament that isn't consumed is kept in a special container in the sanctuary called a "tabernacle", that has a light hanging over it whenever the Reserve Sacramant is in the tabernacle. The light over it is sometimes called the "Presence Lamp". It's a "high church" custom, and some churches (those that take pride in being "low church" or "evangelical") consider it an excessively "papist" custom. The bread and wine stored in the tabernacle is called the "Reserved Sacramant". When the priest or your parish visitation ministers goes visiting, they put the reserved sacrament in a special little box, often silver, called a "Pix". (There was a horror movie a while ago called "The Pix" -- I didn't see the movie but I presume that's what it about. Hollywood has a fascination with catholic religiosity.) Presumably there's a special name for the little flask too, but I don't know it. A pix is a traditional gift for an ordinand -- they usually come in a set with the flask and a teeny-tiny platen and chalice.

In usage, the "Eucharist" usually refers to the whole service, and the *eating* of the Bread and Wine. The Bread and Wine themselves are referred to as "the elements". Bread that is presented in the form of little white styrofoamesqe circles is called the Host (some churches use whole wheat hosts -- my warped sense of humour finds that funny). Any of the elements that are left over are, according to the rubrics in the 1662 prayerbook, to be "reverently consumed". The cup is rinsed carefully in pure water, the crumbs off the platen (that's the plate that the bread was on) are brushed into the cup, and the minister drinks the rinsings. This part of the ablutions (that's the holy name for "washing up") is done in church, either as soon as all the people have communicated, or right after the service. After the service, the cup and platen are then washed in a special sink that drains directly onto consecrated ground instead of into the sewers, so that any traces of the consecrated elements sink into consecrated ground.

Hmmm...any other insider knowledge I've used here <g>... "rubrics" means the explanatory notes in the prayer-book, which were originally printed in red, hence "rubric". The 1662 prayerbook is the basis of the Books of Common prayer used in all provinces of theAnglican Communion until 1979; at which time the Americans adopted a radical new Book of Common prayer. Everyone else is still using something that looks a lot like your 1928 prayer book; but most of us have alternate or supplementary service books that we use as well. The first prayer book was the 1549 prayer book; the differences between it and the 1662 have to do with an intervening religiously-motivated civil war in England.

Anyone up for a game of trivial pursuit? I bomb on all the sports questions, I promise <g>.