Advent:  A season in the cycle of life of the Church that begins the Church Year.  It is traditionally the four weeks before Christmas, at which we celebrate the “coming” (L. ad+vene) of the Christ.

Anglican:  Having to do with the land or people of the Angles (as in Angles and Saxons):  Angle-Land comes to us as England, thus, having to do with the English land or people.  The Anglican Church (below) originated during the reformation of the 1500’s in England.

Anglican Church:  A historic, world-wide, missionary Church that is built around three values: outreach to the world, worship, and making disciples of Jesus Christ.  It can be effective in almost any culture and is currently in 165 nations with over 75 million world-wide members.  St. Peter’s Church is an Anglican Church.

Apostles:  The literal definition of “apostle” is a special messenger, delegate, one commissioned for a particular task or role or one sent forth with a message. In first century, Jesus called 12 men from among His disciples to serve as His representatives; the role is associated with the office of bishop today although a leader can fulfill an apostolic ministry without being a bishop. The office of apostle is understood as God’s anointing for extending the kingdom of God, breaking in new territory and overseeing larger sections of the Body of Christ.

Apostolic Succession:  Apostolic Succession in the broadest and most basic sense refers to passing along the Faith and Fellowship of the Apostles in the life of the Church. This succession is carried on through a variety of means. The Scripture, historic Creeds, Sacraments, and the lineage of Bishops, Priests and Deacons all assist the Church to pass on the Apostolic Faith and Life.  Sometimes people refer to Bishops as being in Apostolic Succession. This means being in an unbroken line of consecration from the time of the early undivided Church. This speaks of continuity in ministerial order, but it is important to keep in mind that this refers only to those who are truly faithful in apostolic succession, that is believe and teach the Faith of the Apostles and seek to fulfill the Great Commission.

Ash Wednesday:  The first day of the Church season of Lent, being 40 days before Easter, always falls on a Wednesday.  Other than Good Friday, it is the most penitential day of the Christian year.

Baptism:  From the Gr. baptizo, meaning to immerse with the connotation of soaking.  It symbolizes both cleansing with water and burial and resurrection.  It is the universal initiation rite for all Christians.  Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us as his children and makes us members of Christ's Body, the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God .

Bishop:  The word “bishop” is Latin.  The Greek word used in the New Testament is epi-scopos or “over-seer.”  It is both a pastoral and administrative office (remembering that ministry is at the heart of administration).  His title is “The Right Rev’d” and the Bishops of the Anglican Mission in the Americas are elected by the House of Bishops of the Province of Rwanda, Africa.

Blended Worship:  A term meaning worship which blends the old with the new, the traditional with the contemporary, the ancient and the modern, and the best of the past with the best of the present.  This ancient / future worship is something that we embrace at St. Peter’s Church.

Catholic:  Catholic (small 'c'):  The literal meaning of the word “catholic” is “universal” and refers to the Christian Church and traditional Christian teaching which has been upheld “in all times and places.” Used in lower case, it does not refer to the Roman Catholic Church.  The Nicene Creed affirms that Christians are members of “one holy catholic and apostolic church."  See also "Roman Catholic" below.

Celebrant:  The presiding officer at a service of Holy Communion is called a “celebrant.”  This term is used because the church is celebrating, with great thanksgiving, what God has done for us in Christ.

Chalice:  A goblet for communion wine.

Charismatic:  From the Gr. charis, meaning “grace.”  All Christians are charismatic, because all Christians have experienced God’s grace and gifting.  In a narrower sense, it is the tradition within Christianity that emphasizes the power of the Holy Spirit, including the manifestations of the Spirit as demonstrated in the first century Church, described in Scripture and experienced throughout church history.

Christian:  A person who has consciously received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and, ideally, who has been baptized in the name of the Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit and, ideally, who conscientiously continues in the Faith through a life of discipleship.

Church Year:  There are many calendars by which people actually live.  What we refer to as “the calendar” is actually a hodge-podge of various schemes that have evolved over the centuries.  Other “calendars” we follow are school calendars, fiscal calendars, sports seasons, etc.  The Church Calendar follows a cycle of sacred events and seasons.  Beginning with Advent, there follows Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost, punctuated by various feasts and fasts.

Collect:  A prayer used by the whole church “collectively.”  Originally it referred to a prayer, spoken by the leader of a worship service, in which he “collected” the various spontaneous prayers which had been spoken and summarized them in a concise form.  Some of these prayers endure and are “collected” in our Book of Common Prayer.

Confirmation:  The rite (particular service in the Church) during which a person publicly professes their faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord in the presence of witnesses.  It is a time when such a person “confirms” as an adult the promises that were made of their behalf at baptism.  Because confirmation is, by definition, an adult profession of faith, we don’t present candidates for confirmation until they reach “adulthood.”

Cranmer, Thomas:  (b. 1489) Archbishop of Canterbury under Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary Tudor.  He was executed by Mary in 1556.  He was the architect of the English Reformation and the author of The Book of Common Prayer and the first several versions of the Articles of Religion.

Creeds:  The Christian Church recognizes two major creeds—the Nicene and Apostles—as statements of belief which were upheld as authoritative by church councils of the first centuries of the church.  These creeds are authoritative in the Anglican Church.

Cursillo:  A lay renewal movement within the Anglican church that focuses on spiritual retreats and small group accountability.

Disciple, Discipleship:  A Christian disciple is one who believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and is dedicated to living in obedience to His Word (as found in Scripture). Discipleship is the act of learning to live out one’s faith, and the church is called to mentor and guide new believers in the journey of discipleship.

Doxology:  A Gr. word which literally means glorious words.  Generically it refers to any hymn of praise.  Liturgically it is used to refer to hymn presented as the first corporate act in the service of Holy Communion.

Easter:  The Feast that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus.  Originally it was held at the time of the Jewish Passover, a practice that accords with the first Easter.  Unfortunately, over the centuries, the date for Easter was manipulated to align with pagan festivals that celebrated the arrival of Spring and fertility (hence “easter bunnies” and “easter eggs”--even the name “easter” derives from Ester, a pagan fertility goddess).  Yet, even with all this, the truth remains that Jesus did bodily and historically rise from the dead in place and time.  Despite its rather sordid etymological and chronological genealogy, it celebrates a real event that changed the world.

Edward VI:  Son of Henry VIII by Jane Seymour.  He acceded to throne at age nine after his father's death in 1547.  During his reign, the country was guided by several "protectors" with overt Protestant leanings.  This somewhat abrupt shift toward Protestantism set the stage for the "catholic reforms" of Mary Tudor (“Bloody Mary”), who acceded to the throne at Edward's death in 1553.

Elizabeth I:  Queen of England from 1558 to 1603.  One of the great monarchs of all time.  Under her leadership, the Spanish Armada was defeated (thus making England the ruler of the seas), the settlement of the Americas was begun and the Church of England was firmly established.  It was under Elizabeth’s rule that Anglicanism was defined.

Elizabethan Settlement:  The name usually given to the series of events instituted by and at the request of Queen Elizabeth during the latter part of the 16th century that brought religious peace to England.  The "settlement" steered a course which affirmed the basic tenets of Protestantism while maintaining a moderate reformation of practice, polity, and theology that preserved many contacts with the Roman Church.

Epiphany:  Gr. for a revealing or a bringing to light.  It refers to the season after Christmas.  During this season, the church focuses on the revelation of Christ to the Gentile world as symbolized by the visit of the Magi to the Christ child.

Evangelical:  The evangelical tradition within Christianity emphasizes the authority of Scripture, the proclamation of the Gospel, the need for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, evangelism and outreach/missions.

Evangelism:  Evangelism is the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ, a proclamation empowered by the Holy Spirit such that others believe in Him as Savior and follow Him as Lord within the Christian Church.

Eucharist:  The Gr. word for thanksgiving.  It is another word for Holy Communion, or the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

Fraction:  When the bread is broken during the liturgy of Holy Communion.

Fundamentalist (ism):  Technically, it is adherence to the five “fundamentals” articulated by Christian theologians early in the 20th Century:  (1) the authority of Scripture, (2) the virgin birth, (3) the divinity of Christ, (4) the belief that Christ’s death paid for our sins, and (5) the bodily resurrection of Jesus.  This term, however, is almost always used pejoratively to refer to a style of churchmanship which is perceived to be narrow-minded and backward thinking.  This is as inaccurate as it is unfortunate.

Grace:  Grace is a divine gift from God—unmerited and freely given as an act of love. In the Christian faith, “grace” refers particularly to God’s gift of salvation through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ but also refers to the acts of love God pours out on His people

Great Commandments and Great Commission:  Jesus’ mission to His church is two-fold. First, He commands those in the Church to love the Lord with all of your heart and to love all others as you love yourself (Great Commandments). Additionally, He commands us to go into the world, proclaiming His message of salvation, baptizing new believers and teaching them to obey all He has taught (Great Commission).

Glossary:  From the Gr. glossa, meaning “tongue.

Good Friday:  The Friday before Easter Sunday on which the Church remembers our Lord’s death.  It is the most solemn and penitential day of the Christian year.

Henry VIII, King:  King of England from 1509-1547.  A brilliant but volatile monarch.  Under his leadership, the Church in England reclaimed its independence from the church of Rome.  He was actually quite a renaissance man.  He was a scholar, but not a gentle-man.  Not only did he write a cogent defense of the Roman Catholic doctrine of seven sacraments, some historians believe he wrote the tune Greensleeves.

Holy Orders:  In the Anglican tradition, the church recognizes three “orders”—bishops, priest and deacon who are set aside for ordained ministry. The offices of bishops, priests and deacons are outlined in Scripture and formally established in the early Church. These ancient orders were retained as an expression of continuity with the historic Church.

Holy Table:  A table (usually with legs as opposed to an altar which is usually solid) set apart for the special purpose of celebrating Holy Communion.

Hooker, Richard:  (1554?-1600)  Archetypical Anglican divine whose most famous work, the seven volume Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity was published over a period of 68 years from 1594-1662.  His clear thinking helped to regularize and articulate classical Anglicanism's three-fold theological emphasis on  Scripture, tradition, and reason.  But as Hooker reminds us, it is scripture that informs and enlightens our traditions and reason.

James:  One of the Jesus’ twelve disciples, aka “Son of Thunder” because of his volatile temperament. 

Kairos:  Gr. for fullness of time or appropriate season.  Kairos is also a prison ministry based on the Cursillo model.

Lay person (laity):  A lay person is a member of the Christian community. All members are considered “ministers” but are not ordained into Holy Orders.

Lent:  From the L., referring to a lengthening of days, as the days grow longer in the spring.  It traditionally refers to the 40 weekdays before Easter which developed as a time of preparation and penance in anticipation of baptism and covenant renewal at Easter.

Liturgical:  See below.  Usually referring to a worship service that has certain consistent, formal, stylized elements.  Having said that, almost all churches have a liturgy or a regular pattern of worship. 

Liturgy:  A Gr. word that literally means work of the people.  It is the “work” which the entire congregation (lay and ordained) does in service of the Lord in worship.  A worship “service” does not serve the people in the pew, it serves the Lord Who Alone is the true Audience.

Luther, Martin:  (1483-1546) Almost certainly the most significant single figure of the Protestant Reformation and one of the most towering figures in all of human history.  He was a German monk and scholar whose celebrated struggles to find holiness in the context of the Medieval Christianity led him to rediscover the central biblical truths that salvation is a gift, given by God's grace and received by faith alone.  His insights into the nature of Christian vocation, the priesthood of all believers, the nature of civil vs ecclesiastical government, and the nature of sanctification in the context of a real world with real people changed the whole economy and politics of the Western world.

Mary Tudor:  The Queen of England from 1553 to 1558.  Henry VIII's daughter by Catherine of Aragon.  She tried to return England to Roman Catholicism.  Her harsh efforts at "reform" soured the English people on radical religiosity of any stripe.  This, in turn, set the stage for Reformation known as the Elizabethan Settlement and the birth of the Anglican Church as we now know it.

Pentecost:  An Old Testament Feast that occurs 50 days (hence pente) after Passover.  It is also known as the Feast of Weeks because it occurred after seven seven day periods.  It was on the day of Pentecost that the gift of God’s Holy Spirit came as promised to the disciples (see, Acts chapter 2).

Protestant (ism):  A very hard word to define.  The scrupulous reader is referred to a good theological dictionary.  In the meantime, these brief excerpts from the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church will have to do:  "The system of Christian faith and practice based on acceptance of the principles of the Reformation.  The chief characteristics of original Protestantism, common to all its denominations,  are the acceptance of the Bible as the only source of revealed truth, the doctrine of justification by faith only, and the universal priesthood of all believers."

Rector:  An old English word meaning “ruler.”  The Rector is the head clergyman in an Anglican church.  At St. Peter’s we use the term Senior Pastor for what traditionally would be referred to as a Rector.

Reformed: Another hard-to-define word.  Broadly speaking, it refers to those beliefs and practices which grew out of, or are identified with, the Reformation, especially on the Protestant side.  The word is often used by those outside of Protestantism as a synonym for "Protestant" (which it sometimes is) but when used by those within Protestantism it is used as a nuanced reference to the more Calvinistic followers of the Reformation.

Roman Catholic:  That part of the one holy catholic and apostolic church which is overtly aligned with the Roman See and looks to the Bishop of Rome as its head on earth.

Sacraments:  Sacraments are defined as “outward and visible signs of an inward spiritual grace” (gift) given by Christ. There are two chief Sacraments of the Gospel: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper (also called Holy Eucharist or Holy Communion). These sacraments were instituted by Christ directly.

Sacristy:  A room, usually attached to or very near the sanctuary where the communion vessels and other semi-sacred stuff (such as candles, offering plates, etc.) are cleaned and stored.

Sanctuary:  Often used to refer to the entire inside of a church, it technically refers only to that place within the rails surrounding the altar.  L. holy place.

Shrove Tuesday:  The day before Ash Wednesday.  It is known in the culture as “Fat Tuesday” (Mardi Gras) growing out of the custom of removing all fat from the house in preparation for Lent.  The word “shrove” is a variation of the old English word “shrive,” meaning “repent.”

Sin:  A state of being, not to be confused with individual “sins.”  Individual sins are the symptoms of an attitude of the human heart which the Scriptures call “Sin.”  Think of it as the big “I” in the middle, thus sIn:  “I want what I want when I want it.”  This inherently human, ego-centric view of the world leads us to act in a way that deprives God of His rightful place as Lord.

Stewards (Board of Stewards):  The managing body of laypersons who determine fiscal and procedural policies for our Church and maintain accountability to our Biblical and Historic Anglican values.  The scope of their oversight and responsibilities are found in our By-Laws.

Thirty-nine Articles of Religion:  The 39 Articles of Religion are the essential beliefs of the Anglican Church established by Convocation of the Church in 1563 based on an earlier set of articles of religion drafted by Thomas Cranmer. Cranmer served as the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1553 until his martyrdom in 1566. Along with Scripture and the ancient Christian Creeds, the Articles of Religion sum up Anglican beliefs.

Tongues:  Ecstatic utterances brought forth by the Holy Spirit either as a means of worship (e.g. I Corinthians 11-14) or as a means of proclamation (eg. Acts 2).  They are neither something to be afraid of nor are they the defining mark of true spirituality.

Unction:  A fancy and funny-sounding word that means, “anointing.”  We will often anoint the sick with oil as we pray for their healing and we anoint those at baptism with oil as a sign that they are marked at Christ’s own forever.  There are historical documents that suggest that the anointing at baptism has been a practice of the Church since the 2nd century.

Vestments:  Vestments are the historic robes worn by members of the clergy during worship services and are rooted in the earliest Christian practice. Not all Anglican clergy dress alike—they have dressed differently at different times in history and in different places. Some clergy today dress just like the laity, adding only a stole worn during the celebration of the Sacraments to designate their role in the worship service.

Wafer:  A bread-like substance stamped in the shape of a circle with a cross in the middle which, unlike real bread, keeps “fresh” virtually forever in the cupboards of churches, even in humid Arkansas which is itself a miracle equivalent to manna in the desert (see, Exodus chapter 16).