The question, “Who are the saints and how are they known?”, animated discussions of resolutions proposing revisions of the church calendar and the Book of Occasional Service on Friday, the third legislative day of the House of Bishops, at the 76th General Convention in Anaheim, Calif.

The philosophical and theological debate arose during discussions of Resolutions A096: Church Calendar, Additional Calendar Commemorations; A097 Lesser Feasts and Fasts: Authorize Trial Use of Commemorations; A098: Lesser Feasts and Fasts: Holy Women, Holy Men Revision Principles; and A089: Liturgy Daily Prayer. 

Rising on behalf of the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music, the retired Suffragan Bishop of Connecticut, the Rt. Rev. Jeffery Rowthorn, said eight years of “hard work” had gone into producing a calendar of “holy women, holy men,” and was being offered for “optional observance and for trial use.”

The new calendar was “more representative across time of space of Christian witness than any other calendar” in the Christian world and offered an “extraordinary array of men and women empowered by the Spirit for the work of ministry,” Bishop Rowthorn said.

The Bishop Arizona, the Rt. Rev. Kirk S. Smith, rose, however, to protest the way the new saints had been chosen, arguing the new book turned on its head the traditional customs of how Christians came to venerate worthy saints.  It was “an attempt to impose an educational agenda” by imposing worthy but “p.c. people” onto the church.

He added that he had “some real questions” about the “orthodoxy of some of the people” selected, and called for the church to return to the custom of “local veneration”-- selecting the saints through a “bottom up rather than a top down” process.

The Suffragan Bishop of New York, the Rt. Rev. Catherine S. Roskam, rose and asked the chairman whether the new book conflated actions and individuals. While she favored adding more women to the calendar, the new book had conflated “women’s ministries with honoring women.”

The Bishop of Missouri, the Rt. Rev. Wayne Smith, noted the resolution offered the book for trial use and the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Church Music welcomed comments in the coming triennium.

Turning to Resolution A097, Lesser Feasts and Fasts, the Bishop of Minnesota, the Rt. Rev. James Jelinek, urged a revision of the new book by removing the English language texts of the Rite 1 collect, and replacing them with a Spanish language version. 

“Rite 1 is the language of the past … it is evangelism for English teachers,” while “Spanish is the language of the future of the church,” Bishop Jelinek said.

Several bishops rose in opposition to Bishop Jelinek’s motion, including the Rt. Rev. Pierre Whalon of the American Convocation of Churches in Europe, who noted that all documents produced by the church already must be translated into Spanish and French. 

The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold III welcomed the spirit of  the Jelinek motion, but noted that “usually there is a biographical sketch, lessons” and other materials linked to the collect, asking whether it would be unwise, unwieldy, and aesthetically challenging to substitute a Spanish for English language prayer.

The Rt. Rev. David Reed, Suffragan Bishop of West Texas, stated he had a “great love for the language of Rite 1” and was “uneasy” with attempts to remove it from the worshipping life of the church.

“I have always defended the right of people to speak Spanish in the church,” the Rt. Rev. Leo Frade, Bishop of Southeast Florida, said. “I must defend the right of people to speak English,” he said, urging rejection of the Jelinek resolution, which was defeated on a voice vote from the house.

The retired Bishop of Chicago, the Rt. Rev. William Purcell, then rose to speak of his unease with the gender-neutral language of some of the collects, which showed a “desire to omit the word, ‘Father’.”

It was “confusing to remove the ‘Father’ when we also say ‘Son’ and ‘Holy Spirit’,” the bishop said, noting that such language confused the Trinitarian language of the rites.  The resolution was put to the house and passed on a divided voice vote.

At the start of the afternoon session, Bishop Smith of Missouri said the “principles of inclusion” in the new edition of Lesser Feasts and Fasts were not to select only the “heroes of the faith,” but also to add the “humdrum workers of the faith” by whose actions the faith was strengthened and propagated.

The Rt. Rev. William O. Gregg, Assistant Bishop of North Carolina, rose to speak in opposition to Resolution A098.  He said he was “concerned that saints are about honoring people and their lives, not their works.”

The Bishop of Kansas, the Rt. Rev. Dean Wolfe concurred, saying that while he believed that one of the new additions to the calendar, James Muir, was “a great photographer,” his words were not always “edifying to the people.”

Personal holiness was not always a criteria for recognition, the Bishop of Bethlehem, the Rt. Rev. Paul V. Marshall said, noting that we know little of the state of Handel’s soul, but many were able to experience the divine though the gift of his music.

Bishop Smith of Missouri added that some of those included in the calendar were modern versions of the “Doctors of the Church,” such as Thomas Aquinas. “Aquinas did not live a life of heroic effort, and we nothing of him apart from his work,” he said, yet he has been honored by the Western Church for his theological works.

Bishop Smith of Arizona asked the House to amend A098, instructing the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Church Music to review the names of those selected for inclusion in the calendar. The amendment was accepted by the house by a show of hands, and the resolution adopted on a voice vote.

Resolution A089 was an omnibus bill that covered “all funding aspects of SCLM,” Bishop Smith of Missouri told the House.

The Rt. Rev. Charles Keyser, retired Suffragan Bishop for the Armed Forces and Assistant Bishop of Florida, urged adoption of the resolution, saying its provisions for prayers for the adoption of children would be most welcome.

Bishop Whalon concurred, telling the house he had used with great profit similar Roman Catholic prayers when he and his wife adopted their daughter.

A question was put to the chairman, what was meant by the term “Christian anti-Judaism”? -- a term condemned by the resolution, which directed the SCLM to “collect, develop and disseminate materials that assist members of the Church to address Christian anti-Judaism expressed in and stirred by portions of Christian scriptures and liturgical texts.”

Bishop Smith of Missouri explained that “anti-Judaism” moved beyond anti-Semitism.  It was not a “racial category but refers to the religious practices of our forbearers and referred to the Good Friday liturgy” from the church’s history.

The retired Bishop of New Hampshire, the Rt. Rev. Douglas Theuner, warned the house that it needed to be “prepared to explain” what it meant by “Christian anti-Judaism,” as the explanations offered so far were unclear.

After the session closed, the Rt. Rev. Stacy Sauls, Bishop of Lexington, conceded that we “were all confused” by distinctions being drawn between anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism, but said he understood the resolution to be asking the church to step back from some its historical liturgies and statements, such as the 1662 Book of Common Prayers Good Friday Solemn Collects that were “prejudiced” against the Jews.

The press briefing officer for the House of Bishops, the Rt. Rev. James Mathes of San Diego, directed those with questions to the Convention Journal report where “all was explained.”

The Rt. Rev. Dabney Smith of Southwest Florida asked the house why the Book of Occassional Services was being revised at this time.  Bishop Smith of Missouri responded the current book was a result of over 20 years of additions and it was now “time to step back” and review the book as a whole, as it now lacked editorial “coherence.”

The House passed the resolution on a voice vote, with only a handful of objections.

(The Rev.) George Conger  reporting from General Convention.
 
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