A decent order: Thomas Cranmer and Anglicanism's native piety

In the final chapter of The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village, Eamon Duffy refers to William Shepherd, a sometime Augustinian monk who conformed to the Elizabethan Settlement, becoming vicar of a small Essex parish. He quotes Shepherd defending the Book of Common Prayer (1559) as the "decent Rits of the church of Christ" (p.177).

On this commemoration of the martyrdom of Thomas Cranmer, that word "decent" has caught my attention. It was a word Cranmer himself used in describing the rites and ceremonies of the reformed liturgy:

this godly and decent order of the ancient Fathers (in 'Concerning the Service of the Church');

it is thought good to reserve them still, as well for a decent order in the Church (from 'Of Ceremonies').

It also appears consistently in documents which created a context for this liturgy. The 1559 Elizabethan Injunctions directed:

the holy table in every church be decently made.

The Canons of 1604 employ the word on numerous occasions:

kneeling reverently and decently upon their Knees;

the principal Minister using a decent Cope;

Every Minister saying the Publick Prayers, or Ministering the Sacraments, or other Rites of the Church, shall wear a decent and comely Surplice;

in all Churches within the Realm of England, convenient and decent Tables are provided and placed for the Celebration of the holy Communion ... covered in time of Divine Service with a Carpet of Silk or other decent Stuff thought meet by the Ordinary of the place.

The Making of Deacons and Ordering of Priests in the 1662 Ordinal also make use of the word:

each of them being decently habited.

What is the significance of 'decent' in describing the achievement of Thomas Cranmer and Anglicanism's native piety? It suggests that which is seemly and modest, standing apart both from the gaudy and the anarchic. 'Decent' does not overpower us with 'shock and awe', but nor does it leave us confused and lost.

In the 'Advertisment' of The Christian Year, Keble refers to the "domestic nature" of the Book of Common Prayer, its "soothing tendency". Now this should not be misinterpreted. Domesticity is no weak, shallow experience. It is, rather, love and communion.

You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:

So I did sit and eat.

The "decent order" of Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer, and of Anglicanism's native piety, embodies this domesticity: home, where the absence of both the overpoweringly gaudy and the distractingly anarchic enables the rhythms of grace and love to nurture us over the years.

The domestic rhythms of this decent order nurture and nourish amidst wrongdoing and forgiveness, in morning light and day's end, in approaching and leaving the Table with gratitude:

the Scripture moveth us in sundry places to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness; and that we should not dissemble nor cloke them before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father ... He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel;

O Lord, our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day ... Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord;

We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies ... Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving ... Almighty and everliving God, we most heartily thank thee, for that thou dost vouchsafe to feed us.

Furniture, music, attire, neither overwhelming nor distracting, are decent and seemly, serving and enriching these domestic rhythms, but not overpowering or displacing them.

Here, perhaps, we find something of the emotional power of Cranmer's achievement, a cause of the affection for his decent order. The domesticity of its decent rites and ceremonies nurtures heart and soul in the communion of love and grace, day by day and year by year, through hearing and receiving, in desires and petitions, in this transitory life.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amen.

Here endeth the Order of Evening Prayer throughout the Year.

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...

1928 practices and the 1979 book: unthinking conservatism or popular piety?

Those responsible for Earth & Altar - a new blog emanating from a group within TEC - are to be congratulated for an excellent contribution to wider Anglican discussion and debate. The commitment to "an expansively conceived credal orthodoxy as fully compatible with LGBTQ inclusion, gender equality, and racial justice" is an important part of a wider retrieval of creedal orthodoxy within what we might call the post-liberal generation. It is in this spirit that I want to respond to a recent post on the site by Andrew McGowan , Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and Professor of Anglican Studies at Yale Divinity School. Against the background of another round of "ill-defined" liturgical revision in TEC, he understandably urges that a fuller reception of the 1979 BCP should occur before further reforms. In doing so, however, he takes aim at what he describes as "clinging to the ritual structures of 1928" while using the text of 1979. We ...

laudable Practice

Search This Blog