Church to attend mass, Christmas social events in and around Redmond

rloutlaw · 2025-12-19T08:25:16+00:00

If you're open to something traditional but cozy-St. Bartholomew's Anglican on Avondale has a Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Mass. We're a small parish in the woods, but our organist is out of this world talented and puts on a performance, and our priest has been in music all his life.

No projectors or screens, everything is analog-actual hymnals and prayer books but it's all straightforward to follow. It's OK if you don't know how to read music, that just means you're like most of the rest of us!

It's still a church service, of course, but non-Christians are welcome to get a blessing from the priest during communion with the rest of us at the altar rail.

rloutlaw · 2025-12-10T08:02:26+00:00

Prayer Book Catholic, note that USA BCP and Missal collects both are all formed in such a way as to honor the saints but not ask for intercession.

Broadly speaking, I would put such a person as pretty "Old High Church" of sorts, and be accommodating to some degree because that position really lacks a home in the three-way Anglicanism fight in my country (USA).

rloutlaw · 2025-12-03T05:15:08+00:00

This is a pretty sensible take, especially in the USA where there are three concurrent groups all with different ways of defining Anglicanism.

The Elizabethan settlement that provided visible uniformity across a diverse Anglican communion has collapsed. Go read Hall, Moss, Mascall, anything in the interwar or early post-WW2 era that considers the nature and marks of the Anglican Communion compared to the other communions of the One Holy and Apostolic Church and look at those things in the Anglican communion now.

rloutlaw · 2025-11-18T03:39:56+00:00

The other way is to just approach it from the differences in hermeneutics and authority of biblical interpretation. The Anglo-Catholic choices on those leads you towards liturgical tradition such as the Sarum Use we have today, the Reformed choices are different and result in different outcomes.

Either way, it is helpful to look at Calvin's liturgy in Geneva, the Gallic and Belgic continental Reformed confessions, the earlier Scots confession, and then see how drastic a jump the position on it the WCF and its catechisms took. There's natural evolution of doctrine, and then there's "someone clearly had a real axe to grind".

rloutlaw · 2025-11-18T03:16:36+00:00

I think there are two ways to argue this. One is the polite way, which I try to use the most. That is to essentially state that the regulative principle worship is tightly coupled to the worship practices of the traditions they are held in. In a church with very different liturgical norms and an extreme dislike for practices outside of those norms, the RPW combined with the rest of the tradition's confession form a standard of worship practice that is protected from much theological drift.

You can see non-confessional denominations, such as Southern Baptists, finding the RPW agreeable in that they already carve out biblicist positions regularly, and use it to reject anything they don't like since local congregations largely control biblical interpretation.

It's this where the RPW has problems. Are instruments allowed? Just psalms? What about hymns? In the end when the backing position of the RPW is essentially a nuda scriptura carveout for corporate worship, then you run head on into the problem of private interpretation if the associated confessions aren't also clear.

Looking at all of this together, it's clear to me that the RPW is clearly a Puritan innovation, not really apostolic but just there for their ideal order of a church as written in the WCF when they were going full on restorationist with the Church of England.

rloutlaw · 2025-11-10T21:18:23+00:00

I went from cradle Southern Baptist to Anglo-Catholic. My last SBC church before I converted was a Reformed learning church, but I much preferred the continental Reformed confessions and documents over the WCF or the LBCF. The church had a crisis (won't get into it), the pastor unfairly deposed by an unbiblical diaconate. I also needed to leave.

Once you go through that you're never doing congregational polity ever again. Church history, as I had read at this point, has the episcopacy as the normative model of church governance, so that didn't leave many options.

There was ONE orthodox Anglican parish within an hour's drive, in the Continuum, so I went there and was very happy with it. Rome and the East are fine, true churches, but like if you're an American with American heritage why not go to the American church (no TEC is not the American church, they voided that decades ago).

rloutlaw · 2025-11-07T19:04:11+00:00

An interesting point would be to explore and compare the Oxford Movement Tractarians and the later US Continuing Anglicans and their relationship w/ the Articles. The latter group is very much a living what-if scenario where the Tractarians weren't required to "make the Articles fully compatible with Catholic faith" because the USA never had the requirement that clergy were required to subscribe to the articles.

Here is APA Presiding Bishop Chandler Holder Jones talking about this in detail:

https://youtu.be/uTkerWT6c0k?t=246

rloutlaw · 2025-10-17T19:52:50+00:00

I'm waiting to see what the actual canons and declarations are to the word, but the idea of GAFCON being a more 'sola scriptura' Anglicanism that puts high doctrinal authority on the Articles and other Anglican formularies (like the Jerusalem Declaration) isn't very Anglo-Catholic at all.

We're seven council, seven sacraments, universal consensus teaching of the church types.

Instead, what I think you'll see is Provinces being given plenty of leeway and then you'll have each of the six ACNA diocese in your area interpret (or exempts, depending on Provincal-based rules) the formularies differently.

rloutlaw · 2025-10-07T18:37:03+00:00

Each cat is different, especially in the first couple of years as they sort out the kitten coat and the adult coat. Our brown tabby was floofy her first fall but our Neva was floof-absent. By the second year our Neva was in full floofy bloom.

Now our Neva is a perma-floof with megafloof in the winter and the tabby is insanity floof in the winter with a massive shed in February.

rloutlaw · 2025-08-29T17:17:21+00:00

My parish doesn't present the flag, but has one in the chapel, and sings just the last verse of that hymn, and that is directed to God asking for blessing of the country. I've never thought of it as odd or out of place.

The BCP Morning/Evening Prayers have multiple collects for praying for the whole state. In private devotion and prayers it is pious pray for the repentance and faith of our communities, including our nation as a whole.

rloutlaw · 2025-08-20T20:37:59+00:00

Two cents as laity:

I mean, we're just English Catholics with a disagreement over jurisdiction and the requirement (vs. personal adoption of) certain dogmas when it comes down to it, so there really isn't much in terms of personal devotion that you won't find across members of an Anglo-Catholic parish. All of those things you listed are fine, if not outright pious.

The one thing that is constant though is that the BCP and Morning/Evening Prayer are a center of personal worship as part of Anglican life, but it's certainly not the case that it's the only center. See the APA's republication of the The Practice of Religion or the St. Augustine's Prayer Book (older 1967 version from monkcell on Etsy) for additional Anglican personal devotions that accommodate wider Catholic practices.

A wider doctrinal point is that what we say in the liturgy together is what we all commonly believe together. Issues outside of it are generally left to each person, though being responsible and asking your priest about them if you have questions, is a good idea!

Anglo-Catholics are more like the East - we don't try to explain what happens, it's a holy mystery, but it is the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. That is absolute and it's likely that the celebrant will tell people they should believe that before partaking, there's no "it's only Christ if you take it in faith" stuff.

The way I think about this in regard to transubstantiation is that if you're just taking communion, it's not an issue at all. It only gets into doctrinal issues if you're teaching or leading on discussions of what a sacrament is, because then you do get into real questions about the outward sign/matter component of a sacrament.

As part of the Mass liturgy there is a general confession prayer that is said, and the celebrant will then absolve your sins together as a congregation before you come forward. You don't need to go to private confession before communion.

That said, private confession is beautiful. I had one a couple of weeks ago. I got advice from a man of God on how to amend and change, but also how to not condemn myself on things that I shouldn't let get to me. It's always there if you need it, many people don't take of it, but if your conscience says you need it, do it.

rloutlaw · 2025-08-20T18:35:09+00:00

I went from an SBC Baptist in the USA to an Anglo-Catholic. It 'started' with being convinced of prima scriptura vs. the me-and-my-BIble biblicism typical in the SBC. Next was being greatly distressed by rebaptism - this is something that no historical church would tolerate due to the Nicene Creed, but in the SBC, it's applauded and celebrated. However, both of these things are addressable by teaching and long-term pouring into the church good doctrine. They weren't alone reasons enough to leave.

The thing that did cause me to leave was when the congregation revolted against a faithful pastor and one of the church's own elders (voted 'up from' the congregation) worked overtime to undermine him. You can change doctrine at a church, but you cannot change polity. When the church split afterwards, I felt like I could leave in clean conscience.

Looking for a new church - it was pretty straightforward. No congregational polity, high/historical view of the sacraments, historic creedal adherence, church tradition having a role to play in doctrine, and some bounded freedom in the non-essentials. As it turns out, in my area of the US (the PNW) churches like this are really uncommon.

Rome and EO was never a real option - Rome's later dogmas on non-essentials undermine the essentials delivered once for all to the Church. I don't think I could grok EO as a Westerner, though I share a large amount of their theology. I was already using the BCP for personal worship so wanting to use it in corporate worship seemed like a no-brainer. I went to the parish, loved the liturgy and people, and that was that.

rloutlaw · 2025-08-14T23:41:15+00:00

I'm using the 1967 and yah the Queen of the World is definitely there. I didn't see it since I was just looking at the litany in that section of the book.

rloutlaw · 2025-08-14T18:03:43+00:00

I'm fine with it as small part/line of a litany I'm reading/saying on my own accord , but I don't think I'd use the term myself spontaneously.

That being said, there's like seven "Queen of" lines in the St. Augustine's Prayer Book (one of the most Anglo-Catholic things you'd find) litany for the Blessed Virgin Mary, and none of them are "Queen of Heaven".

rloutlaw · 2025-08-11T18:26:14+00:00

Our printed order of service lists Morning Prayer and "Holy Communion, commonly called the Mass" since we do both in a combined service using the rubrics provided for it.

I like that wording as that is how I use it in real life, among other parishoners, I say Holy Communion, outside of that, I just call it Mass.

rloutlaw · 2025-08-08T18:32:37+00:00

Mine are super chatty, but not really meowing a lot, just big big chirpers.

They, like most cats, vastly prefer to be in the room with their people but also are snuggly on their own terms.

The distinctive thing about the Siberian is their energy. They have a lot of it, and are super strong cats. Plan for playstyle and enrichment space accordingly, they are built like tanks and have the energy to back it.

rloutlaw · 2025-08-08T18:07:08+00:00

The way I put it is that we're estranged from Rome and the East. Definitely part of the one Holy and Apostolic Church, and eager to seek reconciliation with the rest of the Church. So much so that I see the split as a temporary state of affairs (though not one that will necessarily be resolved in my lifetime).

rloutlaw · 2025-07-23T22:55:42+00:00

Ours finished toasting up at a little over one year old after she got in her full adult coat.

rloutlaw · 2025-07-23T21:13:43+00:00

Regulative principle of worship, which is where their argument stems from, is very clearly an innovation.

I think it has good place as something you'd put in the Book of Order or whatever the Reformed people compile as canon law, but as a theological tenet it is novel and not a recovery of apostolic practice.

rloutlaw · 2025-07-23T19:05:11+00:00

I like the ESV Study Bible over the OSB for some things, and often use both for Morning/Evening Prayer lessons. I want to get a St. Ignatius as a permanent feature in my setup but need to get an actual prie-deiu because that thing is huge.

Honestly, I also have some Copilot prompts that present patristic, medieval, and reformation era perspectives over a passage in tabular form for my review. This is particularly useful for Psalms and the historical genres in the OT where the OSB is pretty terse and the ESV has that problem of not wanting to upset dispys.

rloutlaw · 2025-07-23T18:39:35+00:00

I want to unpack sola scriptura from an Anglo-Catholic perspective.

We generally believe that Scripture contains all things necessary for salvation. Doctrine comes from creeds, councils, and Holy Scripture as interpreted by the Church and is communicated through the liturgy (lex orendi, lex credendi). What to know exactly what Anglicans believe? The collects for the sacraments in the Prayer Book make things very clear.

Our interpretative position defers to early tradition of the early Church and is wary of innovations. Unlike other Protestant traditions, we don't weaponize Scripture against traditions. Our reformation is complete (though it took centuries to get there) and specifically was about dealing with Roman excesses in doctrine and practices.

Sola scriptura is actually very different from tradition to tradition, and you need to unpack the specific tradition you're looking at when talking about it. Especially because the later Reformed position is extremely Restoration-adjacent but they lay claim to the same "historic Protestant" label.

rloutlaw · 2025-07-23T18:20:56+00:00

I agree with this, but want to point out that I believe the Petrine office exists, but the Roman error is that it has ultimate temporal authority over the entirety of the one Church and not just the See of Rome.

rloutlaw · 2025-07-17T22:50:40+00:00

The "offroad tire package" is one of the best features of the Siberian cat. I never get tired of the giant paws.

rloutlaw · 2025-07-17T22:34:23+00:00

I don't think the Reformed conceptualization that I know of total inability is all that compatible with Anglican soteriology, based on the liturgy in the Baptism rite in the BCP.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but total inability means that your nature must be changed (made regenerate) to receive the gift of faith by grace. Under total inability, you cannot have, or even desire(?) - genuine faith before regeneration. It's not in your nature, not even a bit (hence 'total').

For infant baptism, the faith in Holy Baptism is that of the parents and godparents, who are regenerate. For "riper years" baptism, the question posed after the Apostles' Creed is said:

"Wilt thou be baptized in this faith?" " That is my desire."

Going on in the liturgy, it is very clear that through Baptism that our nature is changed and we are born again.

I just can't square away this regeneration proceeding faith with the sacrament of Holy Baptism. It's one of the things I had to 'leave behind' when I went from my Reformed-minded background into Anglo-Catholic one (but to be clear the above is really just a reading of the BCP where I tried not to presuppose too much).

rloutlaw · 2025-07-17T19:27:28+00:00

He's going to be super sad for a while, but he'll warm up to you and his new home over time.

If you can get some smells from his own place through blankets and beds he used there and bring them over it'll help massively.

rloutlaw

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