CHRISTCHURCH Blessed Mary MacKillop and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta could soon feature in Anglican liturgies in New Zealand. In 2006, the Rev. Bosco Peters, Christs College chaplain and webmaster of the ecumenical liturgy website www.liturgy.co.nz, proposed a motion to that end at the Christchurch diocesan synod.
If the formal approval process is completed, these names would join other post-reformation Catholics in New Zealands Anglican calendar.
A New Zealand Prayer Book He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa, published in 1989, has Sts John Vianney, Maximilian Kolbe, Rose of Lima, Teresa of Avila, Martin de Porres and Francis Xavier in its calendar, as well as Mother Suzanne Aubert, founder of New Zealands only religious order the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion.
There is no thought that holiness is limited to Anglicanism, Rev. Peters said.
He proposed C.S. Lewis and Taizés Br Roger also be added.
New Zealands Anglican church produced its first revised calendar in 1972, including post-
Reformation Catholics.
Before then it used material from older Church of England calendars, which included pre-Reformation saints, but not the later Catholic figures.
The formal process for approval requires passing a bill at General Synod, positive votes at diocesan synods and equivalents, a confirmation by a newly-elected General Synod and a years wait to see if there are any appeals.
After this it becomes part of our binding shared liturgical life, he said.
The move has yet to go through General Synod a second time, but Rev. Peters said it is uncontroversial.
Readings and prayers for the relevant days are being prepared for the celebration of the Eucharist, he said.
