Looking in a northerly direction on Saint Matthias's Day

On this feast of Saint Matthias, a very simple but yet revealing comparison.

This is what the Second Helvetic Confession says of such observances:

we do not approve of feasts instituted for men and for saints. Holy days have to do with the first Table of the Law and belong to God alone. Finally, holy days which have been instituted for the saints and which we have abolished, have much that is absurd and useless, and are not to be tolerated.

Now contrast it with the Augsburg Confession:

Of Usages in the Church they teach that those ought to be observed which may be observed without sin, and which are profitable unto tranquillity and good order in the Church, as particular holy days, festivals, and the like.

The Book of Common Prayer - both in its 1559 and 1662 forms - is, quite clearly, following the Augsburg Confession rather than the Second Helvetic Confession. Not only does it make liturgical provision for observance of commemorations of the Saints, it also - in 1559 and 1662 - refers to them as "holy days". 1662 added a "Vigil or Eve" to many of these holy days.

We might also note how both the 1559 and 1662 Acts of Uniformity themselves reflect this liturgical commitment - following Augsburg, rejecting the Helvetic Confession - to the observance of Saints' Days. The 1559 Act required acceptance by "the feast of the Nativity of St. John Baptist", that of 1662 by "the Feast of Saint Bartholomew".

Hooker's defence of the Prayer Book's provision of festival and holy days also echoes the reasoning of Augsburg:

Generally therefore touching feasts in the Church of Christ, they have that profitable use whereof St. Augustine speaketh: "By festival solemnities and set days we dedicate and sanctify to God the memory of his benefits, less unthankful forgetfulness thereof should creep upon us in course of time" (LEP V.70.8).

It is another example (alongside episcopacy, liturgy, and images) which should lead us to look in a northerly direction when seeking to define the character of the reformed ecclesia Anglicana, demonstrating how it and the Lutheran Churches of the northern kingdoms shared a reformed Catholicism: liturgical, sacramental, episcopal.

Comments

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