The American Church Dictionary and Cyclopedia by William James Miller (free novel 24 .txt) 📖

Three Hours' Service.—A solemn service quite generally held in our Churches on Good Friday, from 12 M. to 3 P. M. in commemoration of our Lord's Agony on the Cross. It usually consists of meditations, or short addresses, on the Seven Words on the Cross, or on kindred topics, interspersed with hymns on the Passion, special prayers, and spaces of silence for private intercession. If well conducted it is a {256} most impressive and helpful service and serves to bring out the awful events of that momentous day when the Saviour of men was cruelly put to death by those whom He came to save.

Thurifer.—The name given to one who bears the censer in services where incense is used.

Thursday, Holy.—(See ASCENSION DAY.)

Thursday in Holy Week.—(See MAUNDY THURSDAY.)

Tierce.—The third hour or 9 A. M. One of the SEVEN CANONICAL HOURS (which see).

Tradition.—A term used in the Thirty-fourth Article of Religion to denote customs, rites, forms and ceremonies of the Church which have been transmitted by oral communications or long established usage, and which though not commanded in so many words in Holy Scripture, yet have always been used and kept in the Holy Catholic Church. For this reason they are revered, practiced and retained in its various branches at the present time. Such traditions are the following:

1. The observance of the first day of the week instead of the seventh.

2. The observance of the Christian Year, or the system of Feasts and Fasts and Holy Seasons according to the events in our Lord's Life.

3. The Baptism of Infants.

4. The use of Liturgical worship.

5. The use of vestments by the ministers in divine service.

6. The arrangement of our churches after the model of the Temple. {257}

7. The observance of the seven hours of prayer.

8. The sign of the Cross in Baptism and at other times.

9. The choral service.

All these traditions of the Universal Church are retained or permitted by the American branch of the Church.

It is also to be noted that by tradition is meant the uniform teaching of the Church from the beginning, i.e., the witness that the Church bears by the writings of the Fathers and the enactments of her General Councils to the Truths of the Christian Religion and the interpretation of Holy Scripture. This is in accord with St. Peter's words, "No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation." Inasmuch as the Church is the "Witness and keeper of Holy Writ," and that it is upon her testimony that we know what is the Bible, it is but reasonable to defer to her interpretation, her universal customs and traditions as to its meaning. (See UNDIVIDED CHURCH; also FATHERS, THE.)

Transepts.—When churches are built in the form of a cross they have two wings, one on each side, projecting at right angles with the nave and chancel. These projected wings, forming the arm of the cross, are called the transepts, north and south.

Transfiguration, The.—A Feast of the Church observed on August 6, in commemoration of our Lord's Transfiguration on the Mount in the presence of His three disciples, St. Peter, St. James and St. John. It is a restored Festival in our Calendar. The American Church having thought good to order a revision of {258} the Prayer-book after a hundred years use of it as set forth in the year 1789, completed this revision in 1892 after fifteen years of labor spent upon it. The first action taken on the subject was by the General Convention in 1883, when among other changes and restorations the Feast of the Transfiguration was restored to the Calendar and appointed to be observed August 6. This date it is thought is the actual time of the year at which the Transfiguration took place. As a day of commemoration, this Festival has been observed in the Eastern Church since A.D. 700, and in the Western Church since the year 450. It was ordered to be universally observed in A.D. 1457. We cannot doubt that its restoration to our Calendar is a decided gain to our spiritual treasury of devotions and instructions, for it commemorates an event in our Lord's Life which has deep significance in relation to our Lord Himself and also to our own spiritual life. Our Lord, before His last journey to Jerusalem, took the three chief Apostles with Him into a high mountain and then as He prayed, He was transfigured before them. His raiment became white as the light, His face shone as the sun, and Moses and Elias appeared and talked with Him. "And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son, hear Him." It was thus that His Divine nature was revealed and enabled the Apostle St. John to testify, "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father." Proper Lessons and Proper Psalms for the services for this day as well as Collect, Epistle and Gospel emphasize the importance of the Feast of the Transfiguration and mark it as one of the {259} great days of the Church. The ecclesiastical color is white.

Trefoil.—An ornament used in Gothic architecture, formed by mouldings in the head of window lights, tracery, panelings, etc., so arranged as to resemble the trefoil, (i.e., three leaved) clover, as an emblem of the Trinity.

Trine Immersion.—The name given to the practice in the Primitive Church, of dipping a person, who was being baptized, three times beneath the surface of the water, i.e., at each name of the three Persons in the Blessed Trinity. When Baptism was by affusion or pouring, as is usual at the present time, the affusion was also trine. The Apostolic canons insisted so strongly on this mode of Baptism that they enjoined that the Bishop or Priest who did not thus administer it should be deposed. This threefold method of Baptism still prevails in the Church and is the only proper method of administering this sacrament.

Trinity, The Holy.—A name applied to the Godhead and signifying Three in One and One in Three—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost—a doctrine which is held by all branches of the Catholic Church, and by the greater number of the various Christian denominations. The word "Trinity" is not found in the Bible and is said to have been first used by Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, in the second century as a concise expression of the Christian Faith concerning the Godhead, that "there is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts or passions; of infinite power, wisdom and goodness; the Maker and Preserver of all things both visible and {260} invisible. And in the unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power and eternity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." (Art. I). The doctrine of the Trinity deals with matter beyond reason but not contrary to reason; is the subject of Revelation and as such is proposed to our faith faculty. For this reason it is called a Mystery of the Gospel.

Trinity Season, The.—The long period between Trinity Sunday and the First Sunday in Advent is so called. Its length is dependent on the time Easter is kept and may include as many as twenty-seven Sundays. The devotions and the Scriptural Lessons are intended to bring before us the moralities of the Gospel and the practical duties of the Christian life. Or as Bishop Coxe has finely expressed it, "The first half of the year is devoted to Doctrine primarily, and to Duty as seen in direct relation to Doctrine. So, the second half is devoted to Duty primarily, and to Doctrine only as reduced to practical Piety, Thus is the Christian Year divided between the Creed and the Decalogue." The Last Sunday of the Season is observed as the "Sunday next before Advent," but is popularly called "Stir up Sunday" from the first two words of the Collect for the Day. The Church color for the Trinity Season is green.

Trinity Sunday.—Trinity Sunday is a Festival of late institution, as the day on which it is observed was originally kept as the Octave of Whitsun Day. It was not until A.D. 1260 that it was first directed by the Synod of Aries to be observed by the whole Church as Trinity Sunday, although Thomas a Beckett is said to have instituted this Festival in England in {261} A.D. 1162, and reference is made to it as early as A.D. 834. The observance of this day is very significant and rounds out or completes the former commemorations of the year. As set forth in "Thoughts on the Services," "The Church's services have culminated; to-day they mount up to the Throne of the Godhead; for knowing the Son and the Holy Ghost, we know the Father also, and that these Three are not three Gods, but one God. The Church to-day celebrates the glory and majesty of God in His essence and in His works. In the word Trinity, she simply sums up what is revealed concerning Him,—that in Substance He is One, but in Persons, Three. . . . The Collect enables us to worship the Unity which exists in the power of the Divine Majesty, even while we acknowledge the glory of the Eternal Trinity." Proper Lessons, Proper Psalms and Proper Preface in the Communion Office emphasize the importance of the Festival and mark it as one of the great days of the Church. The ecclesiastical color is white.

Trisagion.—A Greek word meaning the same as Ter Sanctus, i.e., "Thrice Holy," but it is not used in the Greek Church for the same thing, but is the title of the respond used in the Reproaches and other services, namely, "Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal, have mercy upon us."

Triumphal Hymn.—The ancient name given to the Ter Sanctus, the hymn in the Communion office beginning, "Holy, Holy, Holy."

Triumphant, The Church.—The Church in Heaven. (See CHURCH CATHOLIC.) {262}

Tunicle.—A vestment worn by the Subdeacon or Epistoler at the celebration of the Holy Communion; somewhat similar to the Dalmatic worn by the Deacon or Gospeler, but shorter, narrower and not so elaborately embroidered.

Turning to the East.—(See EAST, TURNING TO.)

Twelfth Day.—A popular name given to the Feast of the Epiphany which occurs twelve days after Christmas. Many social rites and customs have long been connected with the evening of this Festival, which is commonly called "Twelfth Night."

Unction.—(See ANOINTING THE SICK.)

Undivided Church.—In the great work of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century, the Church of England did not seek to introduce innovations, to erect a new church in the place of the old, or to change the old religion for a new religion. What it aimed to do was to retain its ancient heritage, but at the same time to free the old Church from certain grave abuses, to purify the old religion from many harmful superstitions which had sprung up during the Middle Ages. Thus "the continuity of the English Church was the first principle of the English Reformation." In all the work of Reformation, covering a long period of time, the appeal was constantly made to the primitive standards of the Undivided Church; to Holy Scripture as interpreted by the teaching and customs of the Primitive Church, {263} the writings of the Fathers and the decisions of the General Councils. The reasonableness of this appeal will appear when we consider that it is this early age of Christianity, the age nearest to the time of the Apostles, which best preserved the personal instructions of the Twelve, which was most likely to be in accord with the Will of our Lord and which maintained the Church's unity unimpaired. It was during this time, because the Church was one and undivided, that the Canon of Scripture was established, that it was possible to hold the Ecumenical Councils which defined "the Faith once delivered to the Saints," and gave us the Creeds as the "Rule of Faith." For this reason the English Church in her Reformation appealed to the practice, teaching and decisions of the Undivided Church. It was thus she was enabled to preserve her historic continuity. The original Unity of the Church was finally broken by the great schism between the East and the West which took place A.D. 1054, (See TRADITIONS; also FATHERS, THE.)

Unity, Church.—The most apparent, most manifest teaching of Holy Scripture is the unity or oneness of the Church of Christ. It was for this our Lord prayed, "That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me" (St. John 17:25). We have in these words declared the purpose