The Episcopal Church has posted a new message on its home page, and I’m a bit baffled about it.

This line struck me as peculiar:

“We believe in amendment of life, the forgiveness of sin, and life everlasting.”

“Forgiveness of sins” sounds familiar. So does “life everlasting.” But what is “amendment of life?” The phrase doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. I did a Google Book search and stumbled upon several references to “amendment of life” but it’s a fairly obscure turn of phrase. “Amendment of life” is often mentioned in connection with the word “repentance.”

In “A History of Auricular Confessions and Indulgences in the Latin church, Volume 2″, Henry Charles Lea, writes the following: “In the early Church, as we have seen, repentance was held to imply conversion of heart and amendment of life…”

The welcome statement appears to be the work of a committee. My hunch is that “amendment of life” wasn’t in the original draft.

Perhaps it originally said something a bit more poetic [and traditional] such as: “We believe in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sin, and life everlasting.”

There’s still no Spanish translation posted, by the way…

Here’s the entire new welcome message:

“As Episcopalians, we are followers of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The Episcopal Church has members in the United States, as well as in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Haiti, Honduras, Micronesia, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Venezuela, and the Virgin Islands.

We strive to love our neighbors as ourselves and respect the dignity of every person.

The Episcopal Church is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and traces its heritage to the beginnings of Christianity.

Our liturgy retains ancient structure and traditions, and is celebrated in many languages.

We welcome men and women, married or celibate, to be ordained as bishops, priests, and deacons.

We believe in amendment of life, the forgiveness of sin, and life everlasting.

Lay people exercise a vital role in the governance and ministry of our Church.

Holy Communion may be received by all baptized Christians, not only members of the Episcopal Church.

We uphold the Bible and worship with the Book of Common Prayer.

We affirm that committed relationships are lifelong and monogamous. Episcopalians also recognize that there is grace after divorce and do not deny the sacraments to those who have been divorced.

We affirm that issues such as birth control are matters of personal informed conscience.

We celebrate our unity in Christ while honoring our differences, always putting the work of love before uniformity of opinion.

All are welcome to find a spiritual home in the Episcopal Church.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 6:40 pm and is filed under Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.