About A “Manual For Priests” (1968)

I GLANCED at the clock. To my surprise, I found that I had been talking for nearly an hour; that in that time I had outlined a book, carefully picked out a good easy-to-read bold-face type, and as carefully selected some material to go into that book. In the instant of realization Father McDonald, S.S.J.E., looked at me very seriously, then grinned, and said, “All right, it’s up to you to get that book out.” I was still in shock when Father left; his good-bye was “Now get going!”

It took four whole days to rebuild the front stairs in the old Mission House on Bowdoin Street, Boston, after I had completely wrecked them coming down the quickest way, heavy metal file in my right hand, big heavy suitcase in my left. But it took several times four months to rebuild me! After three months on fracture boards in hospital, I was moved to the then tiny priest’s apartment just off the sacristy of Saint Anne’s Convent Chapel, in Arlington Heights, Massachusetts.

The Sisters took wonderful care of me as their Chaplain, but the future seemed very much less than bright. Then Father McDonald came out to see me. First he heard my confession and got me back into a state of grace. Then we had a little visit, which Father conducted rather skillfully. We began by speaking of problems we had encountered in ministering to hospital patients; then the difficulties sometimes met in finding the right forms for particular ministrations; of certain things well presented in books long out of print and now difficult to obtain; that there was no longer a book in print that had all that was needed under one cover. Then it was that Father said to me, “Get that book out.” Long ago I had learned that it was much simpler not to argue with Father McDonald; after all, you would end up doing what he wanted done! But was I really the person to do the job? I thought not. But then, it would not be published in any case; and it would be really good to have something to take my mind off myself!

And so I began. First of all, certain things every parish priest needed in his business. These I carefully listed. As then Chairman of our Department of Publications I had heard from Chaplains who had special needs. Then there were priests serving the foreign-born. For some of them I had unearthed some urgently needed special blessings. A search of my files brought out the fact that some preliminary work had already been done.

At first, I was only able to put in half an hour a day. Later I was able to add fifteen minutes in the afternoon. The great day came when I was able to work a total of one hour. That day, Father Williams, S.S.J.E., my then Superior, came out to see me.

“What are you and Father Mac up to?”

“Oh, we’re just doing a bit of plotting.”

“Boy, come clean! I’m your Father Superior, and I have a right to know!”

“You certainly do have that right. It’s just a wonderful piece of busy work. The grand thing about it is that I can’t think of pains and rubrics in the same instant. Take today. For sixty whole minutes I was quite unable to think about how much I hurt.” And I told him the whole story of Father Mac’s visit, and the blessing it had brought me.

“Let me see what you have done.” I handed him the folder of completed copy.

“Don’t tell me this is all,” he said, after reading the packet.

“No indeed; that is only what has been completed. Here is a list of other things yet to be done, which really belong to the core of such a compilation. Then I think we would need what is on this list; perhaps, if the book were to be done for publication, things on this other list should be carefully considered. But I don’t see it being published.”

He looked over the lists very carefully, then reread the completed portion. “Father, you are under obedience to publish. Get going.” Thus began one of the most interesting years of my life. A small four-page flyer, announcing A MANUAL FOR PRIESTS, was sent out to bishops and clergy all over the country, together with heads of Diocesan Altar Guilds. Many advance orders came in, together with many special requests from the clergy. Every request was carefully considered; if three priests cared enough to ask for one specific thing, we could be sure that there were a minimum of two dozen who wanted just that item. Once the book was out, this was clearly shown. For every special request inserted, we received an average of thirty letters of thanks.

I remember vividly one particular request. A most pleasant young priest from Nebraska blew in one afternoon. “I’m specially interested in Holy Unction, and I want to see what you are doing with it.”

We went over the relevant galleys with great care. “This is all very good, so far as I can see; but I wonder if you would add something for me?”

“What would help you?”

“As you know, I come from the Bible Belt. My little Mission is made up of individuals, rather than families. In ministering to my people when they are sick, I have to give the Bible reference for every thing I do before their relatives will allow me to go on. Of course I know the references in Saint Mark and Saint James, but not every young priest stationed in a place like mine will have them at the tip of his tongue!”

Together we found just the right spot for Saint Mark 6:13 and Saint James 5:14-15, and there they have been ever since. The young priest was right; there were many Thank You notes for the references.

The book went everywhere. It was a textbook in Departments of Pastoral Theology in some of our seminaries. Nor has its usefulness been confined to Episcopalians. One of the most appreciative users was a Baptist clergyman who lived in Maine. Moravians, Methodists and Presbyterians have valued it; Missouri Synod Lutherans have given the book a warm welcome.

Portions of the book have been translated into Spanish, French, Old Norse (for clergy of the Icelandic Lutheran Church) several Filipino dialects and several of the American Indian tongues.

The book has gone through four editions since 1944, and a fifth edition is now being printed by the Riverside Press of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The book has never been a presentation of what the Editor thinks the clergy ought to have; the thing that makes the Manual useful is that clergy of all schools have told the Editor what they want and need. With each edition there has been a careful scrutiny of proposed new matter; sometimes two suggestions have been combined to make a better third thing.

New features of this forthcoming fifth edition include some new blessings, including The Blessings of a Space Craft; a collection of Various Prayers, ranging in time from Mozarabic Spain (A Prayer for the New Year) to A Prayer for Nursing Homes, A Prayer for Worker Priests and Deacons, and A Prayer for Explorers in Outer Space. There are collection of Ecumenical Graces and Ecumenical Blessings. We hope that the new Index of Prayers will be helpful to many.

The Editor deeply grateful to wise counsellors, Bishops, Priests, Deacons and lay-folk who have helped with the making of this book through the years. I am even more grateful to my Superiors, past and present, for the privilege of having a part in the service of so many of my brethren in the sacred ministry through the editing of this book. May God bless all the users of the Manual most richly; I hope they will remember me at God’s Altar as I pray daily for them.

—Earle Hewitt Maddux, S.S.J.E., in Cowley, Vol. 39, No. 4, 1968, pp. 125-131.

Revival of the Sub-Diaconate (1923)

ON March 18th, according to the South African Church Chronicle, the Bishop of Johannesburg, South Africa, the Rt. Rev. A. B. L. Karney, formally admitted seven men to the sub-diaconate in his Cathedral church. And the Church Standard, of Sydney, Australia, states that on the evening of Easter Tuesday, Apr. 3d, the Archbishop of Brisbane, the Most Rev. Gerald Sharp, D.D., “appointed” a man to the same office of the subdiaconate.

In South Africa, during the war, a large proportion of the clergy were released for service with the forces, and their places were taken by lay-readers. It was thought that some of these might he admitted to the permanent diaconate; but It was found to be Inexpedient to admit men in secular employment to holy orders.

The idea of the sub-diaconate was then introduced in the synod of the clergy of Johannesburg, and was referred by them to the bishops of the province, who finally passed a resolution allowing the Inauguration of this office.

The service of admission followed in its main idea the ordination service in the Prayer Book, viz., Sermon, Presentation, Litany, Holy Communion. The admission took place after the collect, and consisted, not in the laying-on of hands (this according to the advice of the York Committee), but in the Bishop’s taking each man’s hands between his own bauds, and admitting him “to the office of sub-deacon in the Church of God”; after which the chalice and the book of the Epistles were successively put into his hands, with an appropriate charge. One of the newly-admitted sub-deacons read the Epistle, and two of them assisted in the administration which followed.

In addition to those duties which have been, of old, connected with the office of sub-deacon, they will also be allowed, if specially licensed by the bishop, to administer the chalice, to baptize in the absence of priest or deacon, and to publish banns of marriage. All these were allowed for in the York report and by the Bishops’ resolution. They will be licensed to one parish in particular, but will be allowed to minister over the Diocese generally, as need requires.

In Australia, the Archbishop made plain that be was appointing to on office rather than ordaining, as he did not use the laying on of hands for mission, but only in blessing at the end of the office. Neither was he vested in cope and mitre, as at an ordination. The functions of the sub-deacon, the Archbishop said, are those assigned to the second assistant at a high celebration by the writers on ceremonial. Explaining, he said:

“For some centuries, in our Church, there were men holding minor Orders. Minor Orders are distinct from Holy Orders. The term Holy Orders is confined, and is to be confined, to the three Orders of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, which have come down to us from the first days and are with us in unbroken succession today. One of these minor Orders, as they were called, is that of sub-deacon. Lest there should be confusion, lest the distinction between minor Orders and Holy Orders should be minimised, it were better perhaps to use the expression appointment to the office of sub-deacon and not the expression ordaining a sub-deacon. It is an appointment to an office rather than an ordination to a ministry. Therefore in appointing our brother a sub-deacon tonight, I shall not lay hands on him at the time of giving him his office (or appointment) as though I were ordaining him: I shall lay my hands on his head in blessing at the end, but not at the time of giving him the office, or appointment. Similarly I have purposely not brought tonight my cope and mitre, as I should if this were an Ordination. An Ordination, a conferring of Holy Orders, as you know, would take place in the morning with a celebration of the Holy Eucharist.

“Now, you who are members of the congregation of this church, know that you sometimes have a high celebration of the Holy Eucharist, when the celebrant is attended and assisted by two others, whose vestments and whose duties are different from those of servers. (The Rubric before the General Confession in the Communion service which runs thus ‘Then shall this general confession be made in the name of all those that are minded to receive the Holy Communion, by one of the ministers’ seems to contemplate a minister or ministers other than the celebrant himself.) Sometimes these two are called epistoler and gospeller, for one reads the Epistle and one the Gospel. More commonly, and probably more correctly, they are called deacon and subdeacon. That is the old name for it. The deacon must always be a man in Holy Orders, but may be a deacon, or a priest, or a bishop; but if he is the gospeller at a high celebration, he is termed a deacon, even though he be a bishop. When I consecrated the Bishop of Carpentaria some months ago, the deacon and the sub-deacon at the celebration of the Holy Communion were both bishops. But the sub-deacon at a high celebration need not be a man in Holy Orders. He often is, he usually is, but he need not be. When your rector came to mo to ask me to appoint our brother a sub-deacon I was glad to consent, in order that lie might have authority to perform his office. His duties (in the book called the Priest’s Prayer Book) are said to be to aid the deacon in his ministry; to serve at the altar of God; to care for the holy vessels, linen, and books thereof, keeping them in readiness, purity, and order; to read the epistles in the church; to minister the oblations at the Offertory; to see that all things prepared for Divine Service, and to perform such duties the Church and parish as shall be enjoined him by lawful authority.’

—The Living Church, June 9, 1923, p. 185.

Former Old Catholic Priest Ordained (1925)

Sacramento, Calif.—On Saturday, February 21st, the Rev. Theodore Bell, formerly a priest of the Old Catholic Church in England, was ordained sub conditione to the diaconate by the Rt. Rev. William Hall Moreland, D.D., Bishop of Sacramento. The service was in Trinity Pro-Cathedral, Sacramento, and the presenter was the Rev. E. S. Bartlam, President of the Standing Committee.

The Rev. Mr. Bell had been ordained by a successor of Bishop Mathew, Bishop of the Old Catholic Church in London, but, as the status of the Old Catholic Church in England had been seriously questioned by two Lambeth Conferences and the recommendation made by that body that anyone applying for orders be ordained sub conditione, that recommendation was carried out by the Bishop of Sacramento. Before taking steps for the ordination, the Bishop conferred with the Bishops of the Province of the Pacific on Mr. Bell’s ordination under Canon 12, and he received their unanimous approval after the candidate had passed the necessary examinations of the Examining Chaplains and the Standing Committee.

Mr. Bell has been for three years a resident in the Diocese of Sacramento, and he has been tried out in the mission field. For the past year Mr. Bell has been in charge of St. Peter’s Church, Red Bluff, and in that church Bishop Moreland will advance him to the priesthood, sub conditione.

The Living Church, March 7, 1925, pp. 647-648.

The Visiting Bishops at the General Convention, Portland, 1922

Back Row—Father Karachales, Greek priest in charge of work in Oregon; Father Boris, chaplain secretary to Bishop Aftimios; Archdeacon Anthony Bashen, attending Archbishop Gerassimos; the Rt. Rev. A. U. DePencier, D.D., Bishop of New Westminster, Canada; Bishop Goraszd of the Serbian National Orthodox Church; Deacon David, attending Bishop Panteleimon.

First row—Bishop Aftimios, head of the Syrian mission to the United States; Archbishop Gerassimos of Beirut, Syria; Archbishop Panteleimon, of Neapolis, Palestine.

—The Living Church, September 23, 1922, p. 718.

Placid Mammana, 66, Realtor, Bank Official

Placid “Pat” Mammana, 66, owner of Mammana & Son Real Estate and Insurance, 314 S. 17th St., Wilson, was stricken yesterday in his home, 230 N. 13th St., Easton, and was dead on arrival at Easton Hospital.

A past president of the Easton Real Estate Board, he was a vice president and director of the Phillipsburg Trust Co.

He was a former director of the Volunteers of America and was the first president of the Young Democratic Club of Easton. He was active in state Democratic affairs.

Mr. Mammana was a member of the First Presbyterian Church, Easton.

In 1957 he was named to Who’s Who in the Italian-American Community.

A native of Easton, he was the son of the late Dominic L. and Maria Fillipa Sacchetti Mammana.

Surviving are his widow, the former Katherine Voight; a son, Joseph E. of Easton; a daughter, Mrs. Marie M. Malone, Palmer Township; five brothers, Joseph Frank, and Michael, all of Easton; Louis of Phillipsburg; Anthony of Las Vegas, Nev.; two sisters, Josephine Komareck, Oxon Hill, Md., Mrs. Mamie Schleider, Houston, Texas; six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Services and interment will be at the convenience of the family. Arrangements are in charge of the Ashton Funeral Home, Easton.

—The Express, Easton, Monday, January 7, 1974

Mrs. F.S. Troxell, 70, of Wilson, Mother of 15

Mrs. Minnie Campbell Troxell, 70, of 1805 Spring Garden St., Wilson, died unexpectedly at 5 p.m. yesterday at her home.

Mrs. Troxell was the wife of Frederick Stewart Troxell. She was the mother of 15 children. Mr. and Mrs. Troxell celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in May.

Born in Bethlehem Township, she was a daughter of the late Thomas and Lillian Rothrock Campbell.

She was a member of St. John’s Lutheran Church, Farmersville.

Surviving, in addition to her husband, are eight sons, Arlington and Fred Jr., both of Phillipsburg; Earl, Easton; Floyd, Palmer Township; Thomas, Riegelsville; Raymond R. Sr., Forks Township, former Easton school director; Charles, Stockertown, and George, Wind Gap; seven daughters, Mrs. Minnie Jones, Phillipsburg; Mrs. Margaret Andrews, Easton; Mrs. Janet Stone, Palmer Township; Mrs. Gladys Sparrow, Wind Gap; Mrs. Jean Beam, Hecktown; Mrs. Blanche Strunk, Nazareth, and Mrs. Bessie Steed, Claymont, Del.

Also surviving are six sisters, Mrs. Ella Kincaid, Bethlehem; Mrs. Maude Wilson and Miss Alice Campbell, both of Philadelphia; Mrs. Myra Banko, Mrs. Emma Garris and Miss Bessie Campbell, all of Easton; three brothers, Wilson, Thomas, and Harry, all of Easton; 29 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

The funeral will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Shillinger Funeral Home, Easton.

Easton Express, Thursday, October 20, 1960, p. 45.

Intinction and the Withheld Chalice (1919)

To the Editor of The Living Church:

THOUGH Boston is confessedly the hub of Fad-dom it is a real trial to loyal Catholic Churchmen to have the new ideas and fads of Church experiments tried out on us. I quote from a letter received to-day from a noble Christian woman who left last week for a hospital expected to undergo a serious operation—and, wishing to be fortified by the Sacraments of the Holy Catholic Church, went to her extremely “low” service. She writes me: “I went to church on Ascension Day, and oh, was so heartsick when I found the beautiful service mutilated by intinction. Do write to someone to beg the Church to give back to the faithful the comfort of the great Sacrament.”

Having been of the C.B.S. for over twenty-five years, I fulfill my pledge by protesting through your wide-spread columns.

Surely it is needless here; but even in Colorado—great Sanatorium state, where I spent the winter of 1916-1917—my soul revolted against the practice. If It is what we believe It to be, how can anyone receive any injury from the consecrated Chalice? With the “première pas qui coute,” no wonder the chalice is withheld entirely in a certain great metropolitan church, since priests as well as bishops may juggle with the rubrics. But I’m wondering if Low and Broad St. Bartholomew’s knows that it is a distinctly “Roman” custom!

I hope the “discussions” will never “be closed” until the time sanctified usage is restored. Yes, even in Colorado.

Louise A. Chapman, Boston, June 2nd.

—The Living Church, June 21, 1919.