Keep the Stir-up in Stir-up Sunday
Stir-up Sunday is always the last Sunday before Advent and takes its name from a prayer said in the Anglican church, which reads: ‘Stir-up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." - Mirror 'When is Stir Up Sunday 2018' 23.11.18.
This weekend is traditionally known as “Stir Up Sunday”, the last Sunday before advent ... - What's On TV 21.11.18.
Stir-up Sunday, always the last Sunday before Advent, takes its name
from a prayer said in the Anglican church, which begins: ‘Stir up, we
beseech thee, O Lord...’ - Waitrose website
If Alison Milbank is correct, and "secularism in our country is a loss of habits", it should follow that the Anglicanism would seek to maintain those habits and customs which point to and draw us into sacred time. And as the other Milbank states:
If Alison Milbank is correct, and "secularism in our country is a loss of habits", it should follow that the Anglicanism would seek to maintain those habits and customs which point to and draw us into sacred time. And as the other Milbank states:
Stir-up Sunday retains a significant cultural hinterland. That secular media outlets refer to it again this year is evidence of this. It is recognised as the last Sunday before Advent in a way that cannot easily be said of other Sundays in the Church's year. It also has a traditional custom associated with it - the preparation of the Christmas pudding. Now, yes, it is easy to mock, but such customs embed the liturgical year in the popular mind and in the home. In the absence of such customs, the liturgical year too easily becomes an abstraction, which is precisely why the Church over centuries has encouraged and blessed popular customs associated with feasts and fasts.Fall in weekly Church attendance but rise at Christmas suggests only way forward us a more liturgical one. Stress and promote festivals and special days in Church’s calendar. Stop giving impression of Calendric flatness.— john milbank (@johnmilbank3) November 16, 2018
So with this cultural hinterland, widespread recognition, and popular traditional custom, why have contemporary Anglicans in these Islands rejected Stir-up Sunday in favour of a liturgical observance from another tradition dating back only a few decades? Why contribute to the secularism that is "a loss of habits"?
While the feast of Christ the King has only been observed on the last Sunday of 'ordinary time' since 1970 (it was originally observed on the last Sunday of October), its 1925 creation by Piux XI responded to a particular context faced by the Roman Catholic Church in various countries:
If We ordain that the whole Catholic world shall revere Christ as King, We shall minister to the need of the present day, and at the same time provide an excellent remedy for the plague which now infects society. We refer to the plague of anti-clericalism, its errors and impious activities.
The institution of the feast, therefore, was caught up with a particular understanding of ecclesiastical polity quite alien to the Anglican tradition's understanding of the relationship between the Church and the civil magistrate. This perhaps contributes to the 'artificial' feel within Anglicanism of the innovation that is the feast of Christ the King.
Also significant, the feast disorders and disorients the Christian year. The kingship of Christ is celebrated at Ascensiontide, grounded in the saving events of the Paschal Mystery. The traditional collect for the Sunday after Ascension Day captures this:
O God the King of glory, who hast exalted
thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph
unto thy kingdom in heaven ...
Apart from its revelation in the Paschal Mystery, the Lord's kingship can too easily become an abstraction, reflecting much usage of 'Kingdom' in a certain type of contemporary theological discourse. Against such abstraction, the Scriptural witness points to the Ascension as the manifestation and proclamation of Christ's Kingship. Even apart from the narratives of the Gospels, this is seen in, for example, St Paul's teaching to the Ephesians:
Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.
Addressing the widespread failure to meaningfully and joyfully celebrate Ascension Day is not helped by the disordering of the Christian year which occurs when Christ the King is celebrated apart from that great feast in the Paschal season.
So let's keep the Stir-up in Stir-up Sunday.
Christ the King is also celebrated on Palm Sunday, in those places where the Liturgy of the Palms is restored. Stir Up Sunday, as an anticipation of Advent, seems more in keeping with the feel of the season. As to your wider point about times and seasons and customs, we have an embarrassment of riches that has been ignored or put away, but we can't afford to wait any longer to bring it all back out. And rooting the Parish or other community in the place, not only for the customs and culture, but 1) with the sense that the community has a spiritual responsibility to every one of our neighbors "within the bounds"; and 2) that the community belongs, in some way, to everyone within the bounds as well, are essential points of view that, at least in the US beyond the old Anglican heartlands of, say, Virginia, have been lost. Most Episcopal churches seem to be religious clubs of a voluntary membership, rather like other kinds of covenant based Protestants. I can't see how this isn't a church killer in the long run.
ReplyDeleteYes, good point about Palm Sunday. This emphasises, I think, the link between the kingship of Christ and the Paschal Mystery.
DeleteIt is interesting that you mention Virgina. A friend who recently visited that state and experienced worship in a historic Episcopal parish mentioned that the sense of culture and community was still evident. As to what to do when this is lost, it is an important question. It can be re-established - not least because the creation of a culture shaped by and oriented towards the customs and practices of the Faith is a part of evangelisation. As John Milbank has said of the English context, "Congregations tend to flourish where also a lively folk culture is being revived".
As you state, voluntary membership just doesn't do. Faith needs to be embedded in domestic and cultural life. Considering our current cultural context, in which many are seeking 'thicker' identity, I cannot see how this is not an evangelistic opportunity for the Church in general, and Anglicanism in particular.
Brian.