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Bruce Hall [he has a website www.bookstothephilippines.com. Wonderful Website! They donate used books to schools here in the Philippines.], Rev Fr Joseph Frary [professor of Systematic Theology at St. Andrew's Seminary] of the Episcopal Church of the Philippines and I are organizing an ecumenical Anglican Use Evening Prayer. This will be likely in September at St Andrews Theological Seminary Chapel at Cathedral Heights, E Rodriguez Avenue, Quezon City. We hope we can have this on September 8, the Nativity of Our Lady. [Marymas! A very special day for me too!] No date is more proper than September 8. England is Mary's Dowry!
I would like to invite you and your family to join us in prayer and help us get more people interested to pray with us. [I will attend but I will try to be incognito. Definitely, your intentions will be in my prayers.]
We would need your prayers still, especially now. We envision this prayer with some things in mind
1) Its ecumenical dimension, celebrating the historical patrimony we have with Anglicans which we Catholics and many Anglicans have lost. [Beautiful!]
2) The Pope's Apostolic Constitution [Anglicanorum coetibus] that has begun the restoration of all things Anglican to its proper home in the Church. [Come home to the Catholic Church!]
3) The importance of a sacramental life as laypeople and clergy in living our ecumenical witness with our separated brethren (*and witness to Catholics too!).
4) Also our prayer intentions for our beloved Philippines that God may spare us from the time of troubles ( a very Anglican way to say it!).
We would ask you to pray that the evangelical dean of St Andrew's Theological Seminary [Very Rev. Tomas S. Maddela] would be gracious enough to allow us to use his chapel as the Holy Spirit has shown us the way. We also would ask you to pray that our Roman Catholic authorities, the local bishop [Most. Rev. Honesto Ongtioco of Cubao] and the rest of the clergy would be gracious enough to discern that the Holy Spirit is leading us to pray. [I would definitely pray that their hearts be open.]
There will be many challenges to face. One is getting enough people to join us and the other one is meeting the financial costs.
Sincerely yours
Benjamin Vallejo Jr PhD
***
Before I comment further, I'll share you some photos of the seminary chapel.
The exterior of the chapel
Schedule of Liturgical Services
A boat hanging in the ceiling of the chapel, reminding seminarians to become fishers of men.
Altar of the seminary chapel.
The candles on the side makes me think that Anscar Chupungco had a hand in this. (joke!)
Look at the altar! Perfect for the EF Mass! No need for a Vatican II type wrecknovation.
***
This is indeed wonderful news for Filipino Episcopalians and Filipino Catholics gathering together to pray that our Episcopalian brethren come back home to the Church, benefiting from the gracious offer of Pope Benedict in the Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum coetibus.
Isn't it surprising, that after the issuance of the Motu Propio Summorum Pontificum 9SP) and the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus (AC) , you can hear a mosquito fly because of the deafening silence of Filipino bishops, save a handful, who reacted favorably to the Pope's actions?
I cannot remember a single thing that the CBCP did concretely with regards to the SP and AC except for the dreadful and ironically dumb directive of Cardinal Rosales restricting the implementation of SP in the Archdiocese of Manila. I had to use the word dumb because who ever wrote that document clearly has no idea what SP is all about. The last line of the directive is a clear indication who wrote it: "That in all things God may be glorified." AC, right?
Isn't it wonderful that the Holy Spirit now works among the laity so that the His Will be done to bring about the restoration of the sacred in the Church and that the lost sheep may be brought back into the one fold of Christ, which is the true ecumenism of Vatican 2?
Aren't the words of Archbishop Fulton Sheen prophetic?
PLEASE PRAY FOR THE MEN WHO ARE WORKING TO MAKE THIS A REALITY...
PRAY FOR THE DEAN...
PRAY FOR THE BISHOP OF CUBAO...
Thanks for spreading the word. BTW, the Episcopal Cathedral altar is located at the east end of the Church in conformity to Anglican tradition. Fr Frary says that some Masses are celebrated ad orientem still since the altar is stuck to the wall.
ReplyDeleteI hope your readers will like this
ReplyDeleteA Prayer for the Anglican Use:
O Holy Ghost, the Lord, who gavest the Church the gift of tongues that
Christ might be known by peoples of divers nations and customs:
watch over the Anglican heritage within thy Church, we pray thee,
that led by thy guidance and strengthened by thy grace, that
Anglican Use may find such favor in thy sight that its people may
increase both in holiness and in number, and so show forth thy glory,
who livest and reignest with the Father and the Son, one God,
world without end. Amen.
Thanks from me too for posting this. Anyone interested can get in touch with Ben or me directly if they need more information. We are active on a number of email lists and websites including the Anglican Use Yahoo Group and the Anglo-Catholic blog and its forum.
ReplyDeleteMay God bless your work.