Journal Ethelred Unraed's Journal: Eucharistic Prayer Book 7

As mentioned a few times, I've been working pro bono for the Old Catholics in Germany designing the new edition of their Eucharistic Prayer Book (the altar book priests use for conducting Holy Communion services and special occasions). As it happens, tomorrow's the deadline, but the book is more or less finished.

As promised, here is a preview of the book (about 5.5 MB -- you must use a recent version of Acrobat Reader to view it, as other readers don't display it correctly). The church asked me not to put a complete copy up for general viewing, since they (naturally) want people to buy the book (as the church could really, really use the money...), so this is only a selection of a few pages (ended up being over 600 in total -- but no, not 616 or 666. ;-) )

As to who or what the German Old Catholics are: The church resulted from a dissident movement within the Roman Catholic Church in the 1800s that objected to the dogmas of papal infallibility and absolute authority promulgated by the First Vatican Council. Those who resisted these dogmas were excommunicated by Rome, and they founded their own (technically provisional) church. They quickly introduced a number of reforms, such as abolishing the requirement for priests to be celibate (i.e. their priests can marry and have kids), introducing services in the vernacular (i.e. they stopped celebrating in Latin), and opening themselves up to closer relations with other churches, such as the Protestants, Anglicans and Orthodox. They quickly joined up with other Old Catholic churches in other countries, especially the Netherlands (whose Old Catholic church goes back much farther, to the late 1600s) in the so-called Union of Utrecht, and also linked with the Anglican churches worldwide. They also introduced female ordination in the late 1990s.

Thus the church looks and acts "Catholic" in every usual sense, but is far more open and tolerant than the Roman Catholic church tends to be.

(One caveat, though: If you hear of an "Old Catholic" church in the USA or Canada, it is not the same group. For one thing, they as a matter of principle don't go where Anglican or Episcopal churches already are; for another, the name is not trademarked in North America, and there are a lot of tiny "churches" using the name -- most of which are just some guy who illicitly got ordained a bishop, but has no congregation, and who'll happily ordain you for a few grand...)

Now here's a pretty strange, but in a way rather interesting bit about them:

Today the Old Catholics and Anglicans are in what's called "full communion", meaning that they fully recognize each other's sacraments and orders -- so an Anglican (or Episcopal) priest can be in an Old Catholic parish, and vice versa. One interesting side effect: Starting in the late 1800s, the Roman Catholic Church explicitly stated that it regarded Anglican orders (i.e. ordinations) to be invalid, and therefore all Anglican churches, such as the Church of England or the Episcopal Church, were from the point of view of the Roman church considered invalid, i.e. not even a "church".

The Old Catholics, though, are regarded by Rome as schismatic, but valid -- more or less on the same level as the Orthodox. The kinky bit: The reason Anglican orders were invalid, according to Rome, was because the Anglicans back in the early days of the Reformation changed their ritual of ordination, thus (supposedly) breaking the chain of succession from the Apostles. They changed it back later, but because the chain had been broken, it could not be restored (according to Apostolicae Curae, the papal bull in question). Here come the Old Catholics, who started (so to speak) loaning their bishops to the Anglicans for consecrations. Because the Old Catholics are regarded as legitimate, they restored the succession of Anglicans and Episcopalians, making -- in theory, anyway -- the Anglican and Episcopal churches once again legitimate in Rome's eyes. Call it viral ordination. :-)

Thus between the lines Rome has been acting differently towards the Anglicans over the years, with the Pope giving the Archbishop of Canterbury honors as if he was a Roman archbishop, for example (such as kissing his ring or giving him a pectoral cross, both of which are gestures normally reserved for Roman bishops). Officially they still regard Anglican orders as invalid, but their actions speak louder than words.

The reason that matters to other Christians is that it signals changes in Rome itself. Anyone who's followed the church after Vatican II will know Rome has already changed quite a bit and is opening up to other churches (and even other religions), acknowledging that it does not have a monopoly on the truth (though it does still claim to have a monopoly on the full truth). The implications of that -- if you think about it -- are profound for Christianity as a whole, because it may mean that a reunification of Catholic and Orthodox (and maybe even Anglican) churches may be possible. That would be a seismic change in religious (and as a result world) affairs.

At any rate, I hope you enjoy looking at the book preview. Comments are welcome. If you would like to buy a copy for some off-the-wall reason, let me know (though it won't be available until August). Like I said, the church could use the money. :-)