I have a question for the community here on Anglican Forums. I go online seeking information and various perspectives of the Anglican Catholic Church and Anglo-Catholicism. This past week, I was taken aback by the response I got for answering some questions the way that I did. I was asked if, as an Anglican Catholic, I called it Mass, the Eucharist and if I addressed our church leader as Father? I responded that I did. Well, the gent answering me, who posts that he is a "Pastor" of Paul's Reformed Church, a part of the Reformed Episcopal Church, told me that I am a "heretic and papist" and do not deserve to be associated with anything Anglican. How does one respond to this? I would like to hear what folks on these forums think?
I think you must be getting in touch with people who are nothing whatever to do with the Anglican Communion, whose opinions have little to do with Anglicanism.
I find it odd that many of those who won't call a clergyman Father, are very comfortable with the term Padre. These are not the ground whereby one could be determined to be a heretic. And one might add, by what particular virtue and charism does he have the right to declare someone a heretic on such shallow grounds? It might be interesting to see how he would enunciate the Chalcedonian Definition, or indeed the notion of Mary as Theotokos - many of them lapse into an account of Christokos which sits on the edge of Nestorianism. It might be interesting to see if he could name to heresy he is accusing you of.
It's been my observation that those of a more 'evangelical' frame of mind tend to have a far broader understanding of 'heresy' than what the Church has traditionally meant by the term. If what you described is genuinely that man's opinion, I'm not sure there's anything you can say that will persuade him otherwise. In any discussion you might have with him, the words might be the same, but you would nevertheless be speaking two different languages.
I have found it increasingly productive to hit the ignore button and block the phone number of radical voices. My bishop has some words of wisdom about the internet warriors; in essence, he says that they spend their time online because they don't have real ministry to do in their local community. Keep in mind, most of these people operate within an echo chamber. They aren't used to disagreement or having to think about a question.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. The wisdom involved here, dear Br. Thomas, is that he cannot change; therefore, people like him are best avoided. I believe that's the general gist of all the advice you have been given so far. This man may have all the necessary bodily functions for hearing sound but he will not "hear" what you say, primarily because he does not want to "hear". Your beliefs are not heretical nor do they suggest you are a papist. The Eastern Orthodox call their priests "Father" and they're hardly papists!
I see we haven't progressed much since 1559 when Queen Elizabeth I posted her Injunctions. I was reminded of the one pasted below after reading the opening comment. Item, because in all alterations, and specially in rites [Page 436] and ceremonies, there happen discords amongst the people, and thereupon slanderous words and railings, whereby charity, the knot of all Christian society, is loosed; the queen's majesty being most desirous of all other earthly things, that her people should live in charity both towards God and man, and therein abound in good works, wills and straitly commands all manner her subjects to forbear all vain and contentious disputations in matters of religion, and not to use in despite or rebuke of any person these convicious words, papist or papistical heretic, schis-matic or sacramentary, or any suchlike words of reproach. But if any manner of person shall deserve the accusation of any such, that first he be charitably admonished thereof; and if that shall not amend him, then to denounce the offender to the ordinary, or to some higher power having authority to correct the same.
When you go seeking "various perspectives," you are bound to get some off-the-wall perspectives. His was one such. Honestly, when I started attending the local ACNA parish I expressed my discomfort about "Father" to the rector. I felt like it was a RC artifact. He said it didn't matter to him one bit if I called him Pastor instead. And he explained that taking the passage "call no man father" (Matt 23:9) too literally meant we couldn't call our own dads "father," plus we should also take verses 8 and 10 literally (depending on how one translates v. 10 we might not be able to call anyone teacher, or doctor, or master, or leader, or director). Over the course of time I adjusted, and using "Father" stopped bothering me so much. It is surprising to hear of an alleged REC pastor taking such a stance. One wonders how he ever made it through seminary! I mean, surely his instructors would have taught differently.
To answer you on his seminary work, he said he attended Lancaster Theological Seminary and left with his Masters of Divinity degree.
I came into the Anglican Church late in life, after marriage, and found these things a bit strange. But really whether you call it Mass, the Eucharist, or Communion, isn’t it the same thing essentially? Similarly whether you call your church spiritual leader as Father or Pastor does it really make a significant difference. It is probably your attitude towards these things that makes the difference. If Father=Infallible then that’s a problem.
I will admit, I still have an aversion to applying the word "Mass." It's my former-RC baggage kicking up.
Eucharist is the far better term, since it just means Thanksgiving, but for Americans Thanksgiving means something else to do with eating turkey I believe. .
It is our great Autumnal holiday. Turkey is not required but some sort of feast is traditional. The American prayer books have propers for the day. I like to say a public Morning Prayer on Thanksgiving Day in the intermediate time between the meat going in the oven and the time to start all of the side dishes. It piggy-backs on the Rogation Days. The Canadians have the holiday too, but it is over a month earlier up there.