Author: Matthew S. C. Olver
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King Charles III: Protestant or Byzantine Emperor-Priest?
Saturday, May 6, 2023 was a big day for England, for the Church of England, for at least some Anglicans throughout the world, for royalists, and for those who believe in the Divine Right of Kings. The tension that stayed with me as I watched the liturgy with some friends early that morning was between…
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An Anglican Reflects on Pope Benedict XVI
May I say such a prayer when I come to my dark door.
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An Analogue to Traditionis Custodes in the Episcopal Church
Fourteen months out from Pope Francis’ Moto Proprio, Traditionis Custodes, the Catholic world continues to discuss, debate, opine, and wonder. The question of more than one authorized rite is one that is not unique to the Latin Catholic Church. It is also happens to be a live question in the church where I serve as…
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The Lenten Veil
The veiling of crosses is a practice that I have come to find more and more difficult to situate well within the general principles that seem to guide the Western approach.
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Ashes to Go? Context and Rationale
Many Episcopal parishes, along with other Christian in other communities, have begun to engage in a practice known as Ashes to Go. The idea is to go out into the world and bring something of the uniqueness of the Gospel to people in their busy lives.
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Married Priests?
One argument that is put forward is that if men could discern a vocation to celibacy separately from discerning a vocation to the priesthood, there would be a lower rate of sexual abuse and sexual immorality amongst priests.
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The Moving Feasts of Christmastide
Christmastide provides a strange array of moving feasts that are only more confusing when one begins with the Anglican Prayer Book tradition and then expands to the current Western calendar.
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What to make of the Advent Wreath, or When the periphery moves to the center
The great Robert Taft, SJ (only recently having passed on to another shore where he now stands in a greater Light) famously reminded us that the “soft points” in the liturgy (points of transition) are magnets for accretions, sticky places that easily caught the passing whims and creative endeavors of priests and practitioners on its…
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Do we still have a king?
There is a curious feature in the Prayer of the Faithful for Episcopalians: we tend to give tremendous airtime to the executive branch. One might suspect that this is the result of some sort of residual effect of its historic relationship to the Church of England. But a look at the history of the texts…