<html><body><div>Here's the first part of my draft for this coming Sunday. During the liturgy we remember by name all those whom the congregation wishes to add to our prayers. The list this year extends to about 175 names!</div><div><br></div><div>This is still open for revision, of course.</div><div><br></div><div>Happy All Saints' Day!</div><div><br></div><div>Bob</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>THE
EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>THE SUNDAY AFTER ALL SAINTS’ DAY</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>REVELATION
7:9-17<span style="margin: 0px;">
</span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>5<sup>th </sup>NOVEMBER,
2017</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>1 JOHN
3:1-3<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>PSALM
34:1-10, 22</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>MATTHEW
5:1-12</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Chapter Two: “Loving your Neighbour:
The Saga Continues” – with thanks to Deacon Peggy.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>I’m sure you’re familiar with the
saying about learning from history, so I offer you, for this celebration on the
Sunday after All Saints’ Day, two stories. There may be one or two historical
terms, but I think their meaning will become clear as we go along.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“<span style="background: white; margin: 0px;">In
391/2, Aurelius, the new Catholic Bishop of Carthage, had the qualities of an
organizer, and he was blessed with longevity, which enabled him to guide the
Catholic Church in Africa on a continuous course until the Vandal invasion.
Above all, he had the friendship and loyal support of one of the outstanding
men in human history, Augustine, Bishop of Hippo.” <sup>1</sup></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>This first story is about Augustine.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>The
Donatist controversy had its roots in events before Augustine’s birth, but its
significance was, and remains, extremely telling. <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>It “should not be underestimated. For an
entire century it split the church in North Africa into two hostile camps. The
schism concerned the purity of the church, the administration of church
discipline, and the administration of the sacraments. In other words, the
theological issues centered around … the doctrine of the church. However, …
this was a controversy that involved not only the church, but also the secular
authorities and the relationship between the two, including the place of
temporal force in church discipline.” <sup>2</sup></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>The
problem arose when the Emperor, unsympathetic to Christianity, harassed and
threatened bishops, priests and laity unless they gave up not only their faith,
but also handed over their books, their papers and their church furnishings –
the holy hardware and clothing.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Both
clergy and laity were put in a bind. They were threatened with severe reprisals
if they didn’t obey the emperor and the government. They could lose their
lives. So, some gave in under duress. Those who didn’t cave in or compromise
were called confessors – they held to the faith as they had been taught and as
they understood it. </span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“However,
not all in the church embraced the attitude of the <i>confessors</i>. Some
were willing to compromise their faith to varying degrees in order to preserve
themselves and their way of life. Some of those fled out of fear and abandoned
the faith. They became known as <i>the lapsed</i>. Still others,
principally those in the ranks of the clergy, shrank back under the persecution
and surrendered the Scriptures to their persecutors. This earned them the
ignominious title of <i>traditors </i>(<i>traditio</i>, “handing
over”). Not surprisingly, the <i>confessors </i>viewed the <i>lapsed </i>and
the <i>traditors </i>as cowards and traitors, unworthy of a place in
the church.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“</span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>In
North Africa, tensions such as those between the <i>confessors </i>and
the <i>traditors </i>came to a head in the diocese of Carthage.” <sup>3</sup></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Eventually
a man named Donatus became bishop of and for the confessors in Carthage. It was
from his name that those who agreed with him were given the name Donatists.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>This
meant that there were two groups within the church in North Africa.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“From
a theological perspective, the issues between the two parties concerned
differences regarding the doctrine of the church. The Donatists maintained the
pure church ideal. On that basis, they contended that the <i>lapsed </i>and <i>traditors</i></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>had no place in the church; some
even going so far as to contend that the <i>lapsed </i>should be
forever barred from rejoining the church. Others allowed for their reinstatement,
but contended that before they could be reinstated, they had to be rebaptized.
Likewise, the Donatists maintained that <i>traditors </i>by their
actions forfeited their offices; for them to be reinstated to office, they had
to be rebaptized and re-ordained. They also maintained that any ecclesiastical
functions purportedly performed by <i>traditors </i>were invalid. It
followed that baptisms and ordinations performed by those identified as <i>traditors </i>were
not recognized.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“</span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>The
Donatists proceeded from an ideal and spiritualistic conception of the church.
They considered themselves to be the only true and pure church. …. The true
church for the Donatists was, in effect, a body which was already holy, or at
least had the appearance of being so.” <sup>4</sup></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>The
emperor by this time was sympathetic to Christianity. In fact, the emperor was
Constantine, who, eventually, ruled that Christianity was to be the official
religion of the empire. But <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>WHICH</u></b>
Christianity?</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Constantine
“urged the Catholic Church to patience and indulgence. However, patience and
indulgence were in short supply.”</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>After Augustine’s ordination in the
catholic church, that part deemed orthodox, he became</span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> involved in the controversy in a community where people of
both church parties lived and worked side by side in Hippo, a city and region
in modern-day Algeria.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Augustine
argued that “within that one church there were two realities, the visible
church and the invisible church; the visible church being the institutional
body established by Christ on earth appointed to proclaim the gospel and to
administer the sacraments; the invisible being the body of the elect, made up
of genuine believers from all ages and who are known only unto God. …</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“Augustine
…taught that the church was holy, in principle, and that it (existed) in and
through Jesus Christ.” <sup>5</sup></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>This
last idea is important. Augustine said that it was in and through Jesus that
faith was developed, and that we were and are sanctified, made holy, made
saints.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"><br></span></span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"><br></span></span></p>
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