Reformed High Churchman
Fr. Paul A. F. Castellano
Reformed Anglican, Calvinist highchurchmen, theologian, philosopher, published author, husband, N.Y. Sicilian.
Fr. Paul A. F. Castellano, MAR, MA, ThM, Ph.D., and Ph.D. (ABD), is an Anglican Priest and Curate for St. Michaels at St. Andrews Anglican Catholic Mission in the Diocese of New Orleans of the Anglican Catholic Church. He has taught at the middle school, university, and seminary levels and is currently working on completing a second Ph.D. via online education (pending V.A. financing) at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.
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The Book:
As it is in Heaven
By Fr. Paul A. F. Castellano
Have you ever wondered why there are so many different ways for Christians to organize and worship? If you come from an evangelical church, do you puzzle over the practices in traditional liturgical churches -- why they do all the kneeling, sitting, standing, and everyone reciting the same thing at the same time? Do you sometimes feel there's something missing in your own worship service? If you attend a traditional church, do you understand why your church has a liturgy? Does it seem meaningless to you -- as if you're only going through the motions with little to no spiritual impact on your life? As It Is in Heaven, written by Father Paul A. F. Castellano, uncovers the answers to these and many more questions about the traditional church and the governmental structures that support it. As you read, you will gain deep biblical understanding about these structures, helping to enrich the foundations of your faith and give you a new appreciation for the traditions that have stood the test of time.
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So, Who Are We?
A. We are Reformed by which we mean:
1. The Church is never to be stagnate, we are to be "Reformed and always Reforming."
2. This Reforming must be via the active engagement of God's inerrant, infallible Word which is our sole absolutely infallible authority. However, the active engagement MUST include the historical wisdom and authority of Christ's Church and the judicious and necessary use of reason. While neither rise to the level of absolute, infallible authorities equal to Scripture, they are nonetheless, authorities to which we must listen and take account.
3. We are Reformed theologically as we are informed by the history of the Churches understanding of such coming to us through the Apostle Paul, St. Augustine, Gottschalk (Godelsec), St. Thomas Aquinas, Jan Hus, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Jewel, John Whitgift, Francis Turretin, George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, John Williamson Nevin, Phillip Schaff, J.I. Packer, R.C. Sproul, John Frame, and so many more.
B. We are High Church, by which we mean:
1. We understand that ALL expressions of worship include and advance some form of ritual and ceremony.
2. We understand that ALL ritual and ceremony must be able to be derived from God's infallible Word within the theological context of a comprehensive understanding and inclusion God's Covenantal relationship with His creation in general and mankind in particular.
3. All proper ritual and ceremony therefore, is necessarily connected to and an extension of the Old Covenant understanding of worship as an intrusion of Heavenly worship into Earth, an extension of the Heavenly Kingdom as it informs the Earthly Kingdom, the connection of the two predicated upon a correct understanding of the above it was revealed to us from God through Moses on Mt. Sinai.
4. This covenantal connection drives us from a Mosaic understanding of ritual and ceremony to a Christiological understanding of ritual and ceremony. The pattern and structure remains consistent, it is the theological content that changes. Hence, pattern and paradigm remains consistent from Old to New. It is the outworking of the theological content of that pattern and paradigm that changes from Old to New while not violently discarding the previous paradigm.
Please feel free to ask any questions.
