The ministry of the priest and the Advent of the Lord

From Mark Frank's sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent, on Mark 1:3, "Prepare you the way of the Lord, make His paths straight". Frank here sets before us a powerful description of the Anglican understanding of the pastoral nature of the ministry of the priest - in the words of the Ordinal, "Messengers, Watchmen, and Stewards of the Lord" - as a foretaste of the Advent of the Lord:

The ministers of the Gospel, they come first; they have the greatest share with St. John Baptist, to go before the face of the Lord to prepare His way. But how? To give knowledge of salvation, says old Zacharias, to His people for the remission of sins; or somewhat more, even to give remission too, to give absolution; so to absolve them, is some part at least of the minister's share; but to baptize also with the Baptist, and to consecrate with Christ Himself, is to prepare His ways too, to make way for Him. To raise the valleys: to comfort the dejected, the cast down and afflicted soul against his sorrows, the penitent against his sins, the fearful against the fear of death, the weak-hearted against trouble and persecution; to encourage them to lift up their heads and look to the recompense of reward, to raise up the grovelling souls of men from earth and flesh to heaven and heavenly business. 2.To cast down the mountain of pride and singularity, schism and heresy, that lift up themselves against the obedience of Christ. To rectify the perverse and crooked souls of men. And to smooth and soften them; to lay the way of Christ smooth and plain before them, make them know His yoke is easy and His burden light, by continual preaching to them, and instructing them, so preparing them for the way of Christ. Thus the minister prepares His way in the people's hearts; sometimes cleansing the young infant's way by baptism, and sometimes rectifying the young and old man's ways by advice and exhortation; sometimes clearing them with absolution, sometimes purifying them with the Holy Sacrament, some way or other always preparing them against the Lord's coming. And it lies upon him so to do.

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Why I support the ordination of women: a High Church reflection

A number of commenters on this blog have asked about my occasional expressions of support for the ordination of women to all three orders. With some hesitation, I have decided to post a summary of my own views on this matter. The hesitation is because I have sought on this blog to focus on issues and themes which can unify those who identify with or have respect (grudging or otherwise!) for what we might term 'classical' Anglicanism (the Anglicanism of the Formularies and - yes - of the Old High Church tradition). Some oppose the ordination of women (and I have friends and colleagues who do so, Anglo-Catholic, High Church, and Reformed Evangelical). Some of us support it (again, friends and colleagues covering a wide range of theological traditions). Below, I have organised my thinking around 5 points (needless to say, no reference to Dort is implied). 1. The Declaration for Subscription required of clergy in the Church of Ireland states: (6) I promise to submit ...

How the Old High tradition continued

Charles Gore's 1914 letter to the clergy of his diocese, ' The Basis of Anglican Fellowship ', can be regarded as a classical expression of the Prayer Book Catholic tradition. A key part of the letter - entitled 'Romanizing in the Church of England' - addressed the "Catholic movement", questioning beliefs and practices within it which tended to "a position which makes it very difficult for its extremer representatives to give an intelligible reason why they are not Roman Catholics". Gore provides the outlines of an alternative account and experience of catholicity within Anglicanism, defined by three characteristics. What is particularly interesting about these characteristics is their continuity with the older High Church tradition. Indeed, the central characteristic as set out by Gore was integral to High Church claims over centuries: To accept the Anglican position as valid, in any sense, is to appeal behind the Pope and the authority of t...

'Whether the Lutheran Churches have right Ordinations and perfect succession of Bishops': Jeremy Taylor, 'Episcopacy Asserted', and Lutheran orders

Amidst the bitter controversies over episcopacy in the Three Kingdoms during the early 1640s, controversies which had become war in Scotland in 1637 and then in England in 1642, Jeremy Taylor wrote his Laudian defence of episcopal order, The Sacred Order and Offices of Episcopacy Asserted and Maintained . He proposed in this work that the non-episcopal Reformed churches could have had episcopally-ordered clergy: Those good people might have had order from the bishops of England or the Lutheran churches, if at least they thought our churches catholic and Christian. Leaving aside the reality that, for example, French Protestants would have been placed in an invidious political position if they had done as Taylor proposed, it is the reference to "the Lutheran churches" which is significant. To begin with, a large portion of the Lutheran churches - those in the German lands - were governed by a system of superintendency. It is almost inconceivable that Taylor was not aware of th...

laudable Practice

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