South Carolina Editorial ACC-15 Thinks Thinly Keeping the Prayer Book Alive THE December 2, 2012 LIVING CHURCH CATHOLIC EVANGELICAL ECUMENICAL Next Archbishop of Canterbury The Rt. Rev. Justin Welby $3.50 livingchurch.org EMPTY PEWS? Welcome parishioners home for Christmas with the 1928 Prayer Book. Episcopalians for Traditional Faith Embrace diversity with the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Order your ETF 10th Anniversary Edition of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer in hardcover or paperback. Go to the “Good Books” section of the ETF website — www.etf1928.org. The next issue will be dated December 23 and is our last of 26 issues in 2012. We include meditations for three Sundays in this issue. THE LIVING CHURCH THIS ISSUE | December 2, 2012 Keith Blundy / Aegies Associates The Rt. Rev. Justin Welby, Bishop of Durham NEWS Astonished 4 From Brompton to Durham to Lambeth “To be nominated to this post is both astonishing and FEATURES exciting,” Archbishop-designate Justin Welby said. “It is 10 Don’t Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide something I never expected and the last few weeks By Victor Lee Austin have been a very strange experience” (see “From 11 Keeping the Prayer Book Alive Brompton to Durham to Lambeth,” p. 3). By Prudence Dailey CULTURES 13 13 Sonic Booms from West Texas Review by Paul Wheatley BOOKS 15 The Shape of Participation by L. Rogers Owens Review by David Burrell, CSC 16 Saved by Beauty by Michael O’Neill McGrath Review by Mari Carlson 17 “All Shall Be Well” edited by Gregory MacDonald Review by Leander S. Harding 22 19 18 A Catholic Mother’s Companion to Pregnancy by Sarah Reinhard Review by Amy Lepine Peterson EDITORIAL 19 A Lenten Opportunity CATHOLIC VOICES 22 ACC-15 Thinks Thinly By Peter Carrell OTHER DEPARTMENTS ALIVING CHURCH Sponsor 27 Sunday’s Readings We are grateful to Christ the King Episcopal 30 People & Places Church, Santa Barbara [p. 29], whose generous support helped make this issue possible. The Living Church is published by the Living Church Foundation. Our historic mission in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion is to seek and serve the Catholic and evangelical faith of the one Church, to the end of visible Christian unity throughout the world. December 2, 2012 • THE LIVING CHURCH 3 NEWS | December 2, 2012 From Brompton to Durham to Lambeth When Ladbrokes Bookmakers an- nounced Nov. 6 that it had closed bet- ting on the Canterbury race following a flurry of bets on the Rt. Rev. Justin Welby, Bishop of Durham, it was a strong sign that the Crown Nomina- tions Commission had finished its work and royal approval from Queen Elizabeth II was imminent. After much delay in the CNC’s deliberations, the final stages of the official processes worked rapidly. Justin Welby was phoned by the office of the Prime Minister the pre- vious week and was told he would be sent a letter by Nov. 5. It was delivered to him by hand outside Portcullis House, the parliamentary offices opposite the Palace of West- minster. “I have to admit I opened it right away,” Welby told reporters assembled in the historic Guard Room at Lambeth Palace. So, one of the Church of England’s all-time least-kept secrets is finally out in the light. Justin Portal Welby, Bishop of Durham for only a year, will be enthroned as 105th Arch- bishop of Canterbury on March 21. “To be nominated to this post is both astonishing and exciting. It is some- thing I never expected and the last few weeks have been a very strange experience,” he confessed. In a statement Archbishop Rowan Williams said Welby possessed “an extraordinary range of skills and is a person of grace, patience, wisdom and humour. … He will bring to this office both a rich pastoral experience and a keen sense of international pri- orities, for Church and world.” Welby in turn was generous in his Keith Blundy / Aegies Associates praise of Williams as someone of Bishop Welby: “I’m one of the thicker bishops in the Church of England.” “extraordinary integrity and holiness, immense personal, moral and spiri- tion he quipped: “On the basis that great debt, more than it knows.” tual courage, and of course one of you should only follow failures, this “Let’s be clear,” Welby said in a the world’s greatest theologians and is a great mistake.” press interview in July, “I’m one of philosophers.” Then taking a more serious tone the thicker bishops in the Church of Then, in trademark self-depreca- he added, “The world owes him a England.” Another time he said he 4 THE LIVING CHURCH • December 2, 2012 WINNER OF THE BAIPA AWARD FOR BEST HISTORICAL FICTION In Vain A prequel to the Averillan Chronicles slept through all his lectures at the- by Barbara Reichmuth Geisler ological college. This is a common Author of award winning books Other Gods and Graven Images tactic used by graduates of the famous Eton College (which Princes Paperback, 292 pages $16.95 William and Harry and Prime Minis- ISBN 978-1-935448-05-1 ter David Cameron also attended) to confound or disarm their critics. In a 12th century English Abbey, Lady Beatrice Welby explains his 11-year career is poisoned during a feast in her honor. Was it a in the oil industry in similar terms. “I crime or a dreadful accident? Young Dame Averilla drifted into it because I couldn’t get and Sir Tirel investigate, uncovering a twisted web a job when I left university and I of greed, malice and political intrigue. ended up working with Elf in France “Most highly recommended.” in its international finance team. —Midwest Book Review They needed someone who could speak English and I didn’t know any- LOST COAST PRESS 1-800-773-7782 Amazon.com (also in digital format) thing about anything, so they could Autographed copies available from: BarbaraGeisler.com shape me. I stumbled into the first thing in my life I was reasonably good at, and ended up being group THE MISSION BOOKSTORE OF NASHOTAH HOUSE treasurer in a company called Enter- livingchurch.org AN EPISCOPAL SEMINARY prise Oil.” 2777 MISSION ROAD NASHOTAH, WI 53058-9793 Given his business background for daily news updates Most books seen in The Living Church are available. and relatively short church career, and other services Ask about clergy and church discounts. was he perhaps one of the most (262) 646-6529 “worldly” in the succession of arch- bishops? He said he did not compare with medieval prelates who owned LC2012-3112 vast estates and acquired immense wealth. Replying to another question he said he had first-hand experience of the Episcopal Church, appreci- ated the connection, and certainly would not be telling it how to go about its business. More than being a triumph for his old school, Welby’s appointment is one for Holy Trinity Brompton, the parish church located in Knights- bridge close by the famous Harrods department store. It was at this church that as a young man he and his wife Caroline connected to the Alpha Course. HONOR YOUR Alpha has become a worldwide phenomenon, boasting alumni of 15 LOVED ONES WITH million. It is the single reason why the church in London is bucking a GIFTS FOR LIFE! long-standing trend of numerical decline. It was at HTB (as it is com- monly called) that Welby and his This Christmas, answer Christ’s call by wife, after the tragic death of their helping those whose need is greatest. baby daughter Johanna in 1983, felt Order now: www.er-d.org/GiftsForLife 1.855.312.HEAL (4325) (Continued on next page) December 2, 2012 • THE LIVING CHURCH 5 NEWS | December 2, 2012 (Welby from previous page) and status of people cohabiting in dif- moment it became known that he the call for him to pursue ordina- ferent forms of relationships, includ- was a “possible” for Canterbury. He tion. In 1989 he left a £100,000-plus ing civil partnerships. We must have is playful and delivers a good sound salary as an oil-industry executive. no truck with any form of homopho- bite. By 1992 he was a curate earning bia, in any part of the church.” It was slightly comic to witness £11,000 a year. He stated his support for the the mood of the gathered media in He will bring a positive commit- recent bishops’ statement opposing Lambeth Palace. As the minutes ment to church growth. Welby said he same-sex marriage but added, “I ticked by after the sound of Big Ben is committed to the Fresh Expres- know I need to listen to the LGBT striking 11 a.m., an almost holy, per- sions movement championed by communities, and examine my own haps slightly apprehensive, silence Archbishop Williams. As Dean of Liv- thinking prayerfully and carefully.” began to descend. Was the book- erpool Cathedral he had maintained London newspapers such as the maker’s certainty about to be deliv- traditional worship but also started a Telegraph took this and a rejection ered or — at this late hour — were café church. “We soon found we were of “the language of exclusion” as an the assembled media to be greeted struggling to find space for people, “olive branch” in what is a very by a Richard Chartres or John Sen- having previously struggled to get fraught debate. He pointed out, how- tamu? When Welby appeared along- them to come along.” ever, that what the Church of Eng- side the Lambeth Palace public He is firmly committed to women land does “deeply affects the already affairs director, the sense of relief joining the episcopate.