laudable Practice

Reading through recent editions of the Church Times , I came across Alister McGrath's respectful and insightful obituary for the elder statesman of contemporary evangelical Anglicanism, Jim Packer .  What originally caught my eye, however, was the title given to the obituary on the front page of the 31st July edition: "Anglican Puritan". Now, yes, Packer did do his doctoral research on Richard Baxter and encouraged study of writers usually described as 'Puritan'.  A rather significant qualification, however, is required.  Packer was a thorough Conformist.  Consider his commitment to episcopacy : "Part of the significance of the historic episcopate in Anglicanism is as a sign of the intention to maintain the whole of the apostolic faith".  He described the Articles of Religion as securing for Anglicanism "the truest, wisest and potentially richest heritage in all Christendom".  And his love of and praise for the BCP was not quite what was tru...

ALMIGHTY God, giver of all good things, who of thy great goodness hast vouchsafed to accept and take these thy servants unto the office of Deacons in thy Church: Make them, we beseech thee, O Lord, to be modest, humble, and constant in their ministration; to have a ready will to observe all spiritual discipline; that they having always the testimony of a good conscience, and continuing ever stable and strong in thy Son Christ, may so well behave themselves in this inferior office, that they may be found worthy to be called unto the higher ministries in thy Church; through the same thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and honour world without end. Amen. From the Form and Manner of Making Deacons, BCP 1662 ( Ireland 1926 , and PECUSA 1928 ). Of all of the provisions in the classical Anglican rite for the Making of Deacons, perhaps nothing has attracted so much vitrolic criticism as this prayer at the conclusion of the rite, with its reference to "inferior office"...

From Horsley's 1800 Charge to the clergy of the diocese of Rochester, a reminder that 'High and Dry' preaching was to be robustly Christocentric and doctrinal: But if, instead of thus preaching Christ, you are content to preach only Socrates or Seneca, — if, instead of the everlasting gospel of the living God, you preach some extract only of your own, accommodated, by a bold retrenchment of mysteries, to the blindness and the pride of human reason, - depend upon it, animated enthusiasm will be an overmatch for dry frigid ethics; superstition will be an overmatch for all such mutilated gospels; and crafty Atheism, taking advantage of the extravagance of the first, the insipidity of the second, the enormities of the third, and of the rash oncessions of half-believers, will make an easy conquest of them all. In delivering the great mysterious truths of the gospel, and I repeat it, the whole gospel, with all its mysteries, must be preached in all congregations - I would advise...

The debacle surrounding the supposedly invalid baptism conferred on a priest (although, of course, if the Baptism was invalid he had not been validly ordained priest) in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit raises a number of issues of interest to classical Anglican sacramental theology. The doctrinal note from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith  judged that the illict baptismal formula in question - ' We baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit' - resulted in such baptisms being invalid, requiring baptism to be administered in forma absoluta (i.e. not a conditional baptism) to those who had received the illicit formula.  As a consequence, the individual priest who first alerted the ecclesiastical authorities to his concerns regarding his baptismal status, had to be confirmed and ordained deacon and priest because, as the Archdiocese rightly noted, "other sacraments cannot be validly received in the soul w...

Addressing, in episcopal charges in 1800 and 1806, what he termed "the Calvinistic controversy", Samuel Horsley exhorted his clergy to avoid the debate.  Instead, he emphasised that both Calvinist and Arminian could be in good standing in the Church of England: I know not what hinders but that the highest Supralapsarian Calvinist may be as good a churchman as an Arminian; and if the Church of England in her moderation opens her arms to both, neither can with a very good grace desire that the other should be excluded (Charge of 1800). Such "moderation" was embodied in the Articles, to which both Calvinist and Arminian could subscribe (akin, we might note, to the approach taken by many of the early Reformed confessions in contrast to the Westminster Confession): and by God's grace I will persist in the assertion to my dying-day, that so far is it from the truth that the Church of England is decidedly Arminian and hostile to Calvinism, that the truth is this, tha...

Amongst the various interpretations of the words of Jesus in John 1:48 to Nathanael - i.e. Saint Bartholomew - one in particular has caught my imagination over the years: 'under the fig tree' as a figure of speech for study of the Scriptures.  This then lead's to Nathanael's confession of faith, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel", a confession deeply rooted in the promise of the Scriptures of Israel. Cranmer's collect for Saint Bartholomew the Apostle can be read as echoing this understanding: O ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who didst give to thine Apostle Bartholomew grace truly to believe and to preach thy Word: Grant, we beseech thee, unto thy Church, to love that Word which he believed, and both to preach and receive the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. After the example of Bartholomew/Nathanael - the one 'under the fig tree' - we are called to love, preach, and receive the Word. This is a theme which reson...

The call by evangelical Anglican blogger Psephizo for CofE bishops to "throw away their mitres" produced the expected online responses: Anglo-Catholic outrage at rejection of an expression of episcopal order and evangelical support for the well-known apostolic preference for chinos and open-neck shirt (St. Paul, of course, being known to dress like an accountant on a night out). Perhaps the most tenuous of Psephizo's arguments is the suggestion that the mitre speaks of the episcopate as a high priestly order, "a piece of attire which communicates absolute authority and sacerdotal priestly ministry".  This, we are told, is because it reflects the turban worn by the high priest in the Old Testament.   It is odd for an evangelical Anglican to insist that mitres have an explicitly sacerdotal meaning: it is rather like those weird medieval readings of symbolic meaning in all parts of the liturgy.  My guess is that very few people indeed - mitre-wearing bishops incl...

From Newman's Parochial and Plain Sermons , Volume 2, Sermon 12, ' The Reverence Due to the Virgin Mary '.  Newman here outlines the rationale for the reserve demonstrated in the Kalendar of the classical BCP regarding Marian feasts, restricting these to the Purification and the Annunciation.  This wisdom - a reserve which, as Newman states, is "following the example of Scripture" - should continue to shape Anglican liturgical practice.  Which means that tomorrow, 15th August, should simply be the Saturday following the Ninth Sunday after Trinity.   ... the more we consider who St. Mary was, the more dangerous will such knowledge of her appear to be. Other saints are but influenced or inspired by Christ, and made partakers of Him mystically. But, as to St. Mary, Christ derived His manhood from her, and so had an especial unity of nature with her; and this wondrous relationship between God and man it is perhaps impossible for us to dwell much upon without some pe...

On this day in 1667, Jeremy Taylor died.  To mark the commemoration, words from his Sermon XIV, 'Of Growth in Grace' .  In many ways, this extract serves as a rather wonderful summary of the Conformist and Laudian vision, of why the routines and cycles of Common Prayer, parish life, and ordinary duties matter: And now the first part of this duty is, to make religion to be the business of our lives;–for this is the great instrument which will naturally produce our growth in grace, and the perfection of a Christian. For a man cannot, after a state of sin, be instantly a saint; the work of Heaven is not done by a flash of lightning, or a dash of affectionate rain, or a few tears of a relenting pity: God and his church have appointed holy intervals, and have taken portions of our time for religion, that we may be called off from the world, and remember the end of our creation, and do honour to God, and think of heaven with hearty purposes and peremptory designs to get thither....

Some final extracts from Vicesimus Knox's Considerations on the Nature and Efficacy of the Lord's Supper (1799). Firstly, Knox points to the origins of the 'feast upon a sacrifice' theme, the most significant and influential account of the Sacrament in the 18th century High Church tradition: That the Lord's Supper is a feast on, or after, a sacrifice, is an explication of it which has been adopted by the ablest and most learned men. Dr. CUDWORTH, a great and venerable name, first suggested it in this country; and it has been firmly supported by the ingenious arguments of succeeding Divines. They have , indeed, given additional confirmation to it; but the honour of the original idea should, I think, be assigned to CUDWORTH alone. Secondly, he expounds the richness of this theme: The partaking of the feast, after the grand Christian sacrifice, is also a participation in it, and confers all its advantages. The Eucharist is this feast, this epulum sacrificiale ; to be ...

In a 1790 Charge to his clergy, Horsley addressed the need to respond theologically to the challenges posed by Dissent and Methodism.   He noted that some clergy abstained from doing so "from a fear, as I conceive, of acquiring the name and reputation of high churchmen".  This led him to address the meaning of the term: To be a high churchman, in the only sense which the word can be allowed to bear, as applicable to any in the present day, - God forbid that this should ever cease to be my public pretension, my pride, my glory! To be a high churchman in the true import of the word in the English language, - God forbid that ever I should deserve the imputation!  A high-churchman, in the true sense of the word, is one that is a bigot to the secular rights of the priesthood, one who claims for the hierarchy, upon pretence of a right inherent in the sacred office, all those powers, honours, and emoluments, which they enjoy under an establishment; which are held indeed by...

Further extracts from Vicesimus Knox's  Considerations on the Nature and Efficacy of the Lord's Supper (1799), recommended by Horsley.   What is particularly striking about these passages is the emphasis on the emotions, a reminder that 'High and Dry' should not be taken to mean that a lively piety of the heart was discouraged, particularly regarding reception of the Sacrament. Not withstanding the cold and comfortless representations of the detractors from the dignity and benefit of Sacramental Communion, it is certain that the whole of the tranfaction is begun and completed in love. It is a delightful exercise of the finest affections or sensibilities of the human soul. The name Eucharist signifies the expression of gratitude, always a pleasing office, and more especially delightful when, shewn to the God who is love itself, and multiplies his benefits in proportion as they are gratefully acknowledged. This holy feast after the Sacrifice, the great Sacrifice once ...

In two recent Living Church articles, David Goodhew has reflected on the significance of Jane Austen for Anglican theology and spirituality.  In the first article , he proposed the "informal beatification" of Austen: Anglicans lionize the faith of George Herbert, male priest and poet. So why do we, mostly, ignore the faith of Austen, lay-woman and novelist? Jane Austen deserves just as much recognition as Herbert for the way she, like him, lived out her vocation as a writer within her vocation as a follower of Jesus. Herbert’s wonderful poems fuel faith; Austen’s novels, were they better understood, could do the same. Anglicanism currently hides Jane Austen under a bushel. It is time we put that right. The second article offered a reading of the Ordinal through the lense of Mansfield Park : Learning to be a priest is the center of Mansfield Park. This novel is Austen’s ordinal. The narrative shows us how to approach ordained ministry. Like all of Austen, it treats this them...

From Donne's Sermon XCVI : The transfiguration of Christ, is the best glass to see this resurrection, and state of glory in. But how was that transfiguration wrought? We content ourselves with St. Hierome's expressing of it, Non pristinam amisit veritatem, vel formam corporis; Christ had still the same nature, and real body, and he had the same form, and proportion, and linaments, and dimensions of his body, in itself. Transfiguratio non faciem subtraxit, sed splendorem addidit, says he; It gave him not another face, but it superimmitted such a light, such an illustration upon him, as, by that irradiation, that coruscation, the beams of their eyes were scattered, and disgregated, dissipated so, as that they could not collect them, as at other times, nor constantly, and confidently discern him. Moses had a measure, a proportion of this; but yet when Moses came down with his shining face, though they were not able to look long upon him, they knew him to be Moses. When Christ was ...

In his Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of Rochester, 1800 , Horsley referred to one particular work on the Sacrament of the Eucharist: It is with much satisfaction that I recommend to your perusal a work not long since published upon this sublime subject, by a learned divine of this diocese, under the title of “ Considerations on the Nature and   Efficacy of the Lord's Supper .” The author was Vicesimus Knox (ordained deacon in 1775, priest in 1776), and the work in question was published in 1799.  It is another example of the rich Eucharistic doctrine present in the late Georgian Church: Man, through Divine mercy, is rendered, in the Eucharist, a partaker of the Divine nature. A food to the soul is supplied by the Sacrament, in consequence of which it is nourished, and arrives at that wonderful improvement in goodness and purity, which resembles in kind, though not in degree, the Divine; hence the Eucharist has been named, by great divines, THE SACRAMENT OF NUTRITION...

From Horsley's Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of Rochester, 1800 , on "the sacrament of the Lord's Supper", another example of the vitality of High Church eucharistic doctrine and piety in the Georgian era: But the frequency of the celebration will be of little use, unless your people are well instructed in the nature and use of this most holy and mysterious ordinance. If they are suffered to consider it as nothing more than a rite of simple commemoration of Christ's death - a mere external form of thanksgiving on the part of the  receiver, they will never come to it with due reverence. You will instruct them, therefore, in the true nature of a sacrament, - that the sacraments are not only signs of grace, but means of the grace signified; the matter of the sacrament being, by Christ's appointment and the operation of the Holy Spirit, the vehicle of grace to the  believer's soul. The Lord's Supper is in this sense a sacrament in the very highest im...

From Horsley's Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of St Asaph, 1806 , addressing what he terms "the Calvinistic controversy: But if ever you should be provoked to take a part in these disputes, of all things I entreat you to avoid, what is now become very common, acrimonious abuse of Calvinism and of Calvin. Remember, I beseech you,  that some tenderness is due to the errors and extravagancies of a man eminent as he was in his day for his piety, his wisdom, and his learning, and to whom the Reformation in its beginnings is so much indebted. At least take especial care, before you aim your shafts at Calvinism, that you know what is Calvinism and what is not, - that in that mass of doctrine which it is of late become the fashion to abuse under the name of Calvinism, you can distinguish with certainty between that part of it which is nothing better than Calvinism, and that which belongs to our common Christianity and the general faith of the Reformed Churches; lest, when you mea...