"A binding apostolical tradition": on the Lenten fast

From The Paschal or Lent-Fast, apostolical & perpetual (1662), a sermon before King Charles II and then expanded for publication, by Peter Gunning, then Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, becoming Bishop of Chichester in 1669. The title of the work goes on to describe "an answer to the late printed objections of the Presbyterians against the fast of Lent". In the dedication to King Charles II - "The most Christian Catholick Defender of our Holy Faith and Church" - Gunning noted of the Easter feast and its preceding fast, "Your Majesties own Royal Ancestours have even in ancient Ages preserved here, and transmitted to posterity This Holy Feast and Fast".

This extract opens with Gunning pointing to the petition in the collect of the First Sunday in Lent following the reference to the Lord's fast in the wilderness, "Give us grace to use such abstinence":

What a lame Exception therefore have you given against the Churches excellent Prayer? But if the Church moreover in this Prayer, and in this Fast, and in some lowly degree of petitioned imitation of her Saviour, hath but imitated the piety, and followed the Doctrine of the Ancient Fathers of the Church, and been a follower of them as they were followers of Christ; then bless we God, who hath given us such a Mother, and God send her more dutifull Children. And if ye ask us, who those Ancient Fathers were, First, S. Austin:

"We are admonished to fast forty days; this the Law, whose person Moses bare; this the Prophets, whose person Elias sustained; this the Lord himself admonisheth us, who as receiving witness from the Law and the Prophets, shone forth in the midst 'twixt those two in the Mount" ...

That the Church hath shewn you any such example of changing so the Fast of Lent, as that you may be allowed by that example not to continue it a Religious Fast, is another untruth ... For we believe the tradition and practise of the Paschal or Lent-Fast to be elder then all General Councils: And do find it in the first General Council, not instituted, or commanded, where it needed not; but in plain words there supposed as a thing long before known throughout the Christian world.

Since our Controversie is about a binding Apostolical Tradition, and no other, one certain mark of such binding Apostolical Tradition is, when the Universal Church which alwayes shall continue Apostolical (because alwayes built upon the rock and foundation which the Apostles have laid) hath never generally by disuse in any age laid it aside, This we defend of the Paschal or Lent-Fast ...

Now shew us if you can when the Paschal Fast of Lent was laid by at any time, or when it began (if not from the Apostles) or when 'twas not (though you cannot tell us the beginning.) but if you can neither, and yet cann't be silent, consider the Rule of St. Augustine so oft by him pressed against the Donatists, that such things which ever have been continued in the Church Universal, nor were at first brought in with any plenary Councel, are to be believed to have come from the Apostles: and tell us whether St. Austin did therein insufficiently, blindly and superstitiously oppose the Donatists ... The Apostles Law binds us to observe the Customs of the Churches of God (whiles the Governours of the Church continue them to be such) and so by authority Apostolical they are to be obeyed.

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...

Pride, progressive sectarianism, and TEC on Facebook

Let me begin this post with an assumption that will be rejected by some readers of laudable Practice , but affirmed by other readers. Observing Pride is an understandable aspect of the public ministry of TEC. On previous occasions , I have rather robustly called for TEC to be much more aware and respectful of the social conservatism of the Red states and regions in which it ministers. A failure to do so risks TEC declining yet further into the irrelevance of progressive sectarianism. At the same time, TEC also obviously ministers in deep Blue states and metropolitan areas - and is the only Mainline Protestant tradition in which a majority of its members vote Democrat .* With Pride now an established civic commemoration, particularly in such contexts, there is a case for TEC affirming those aspects of Pride - the dignity of gay men and lesbian women, their contribution to civic life, and their place in the church's life - which cohere with a Christian moral vision. (I will n...

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