Holy Thursday: "our hope and all we seek"

In his Easter Day sermon 1613, Lancelot Andrewes identifies a unity in the Epistles appointed for Christmas Day (Hebrews 1.1), Easter Day (Colossians 3.1), and Ascension Day (Acts 1.1). He points to all three setting forth the proclamation of the Incarnate Word sitting at the right hand of God, the hope and sign of humanity redeemed. This, he says, is the centre and culmination of our salvation. It is a powerful statement of the significance of Holy Thursday* and the related article of the Creed:

These we heard of at His birth, in the Epistle then. This we hear of again at His rising, or second birth, from the grave, in the Epistle now. This we shall hear of again at His Ascension too. This is remembered in all as the fruit of all, at every feast set before us as our hope and all we seek, to sit with Christ, at the right hand of God.

*Holy Thursday is used in the Prayer Book tradition (1662, Ireland 1926, PECUSA 1928, Canada 1962) as a term for Ascension Day. Its popular usage is attested to in the diary of Parson Woodforde: "After breakfast I walked out with the Ladies to see the New-Chapel and to attend divine Service there this morning being Holy-Thursday" (13th May 1790).

(The photograph is of Ascension Day Choral Mattins on the Fell Tower, Christ Church, Oxford.)

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