laudable Practice

At Parish Communion on Saint Peter’s Day, 29.6.25 Matthew 16:13-19 “Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’.” [1] Last Sunday evening, here in our parish church, was the last Choral Evensong before the summer break. As in many other churches here and beyond, prayer was offered unto God in the name of Jesus Christ, the Scriptures were read, and the praises of God the Holy Trinity were sung. At around the same time, the congregation of Mar Elias Orthodox Church, Damascus, had also gathered for their evening liturgy: just as in our parish church, they were offering prayer unto God in the name of Jesus Christ, reading the Scriptures, and singing the praises of God the Holy Trinity. There was then a confrontation at the door of Mar Elias Church. At least one gunman was forcing his way into the church. Members of the congregation sought to push him out. He then detonated the explosives on his suicide vest. At least 25 members of the congregation were killed; 65 ...

I noticed a recent discussion on Anglican 'X' between a 1662 appreciator in the United States and a priest of the Reformed Episcopal Church who uses the PECUSA 1928 BCP. The 1662 appreciator pointed to BCP 1662 as "the standard for global Anglicanism". The Reformed Episcopal priest responded by saying that Anglicanism is "primarily expressed locally" rather than "globally" and that this therefore entails a nationally authorised liturgy, as opposed to any universal claim for 1662. As readers of laudable Practice will be aware, I have a great love of 1662. I had, however, no hesitation in agreeing with the "primarily expressed locally" view. Perhaps it is the Burkean in me, deeply sceptical of abstract claims for universal human authorities, removed from particular circumstances and polities. And then there is the voice of Jewel , affirming the rights and liberties of a national church: Yet truly, we do not despise councils, assemblies, an...

When he turns to 'The Two Prayers after the Lord's Prayer' in the post-Communion of the 1662 rite, John Shepherd, in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801), immediately identifies the scriptural reference which shapes the first prayer, the Prayer of Oblation: A part of the first is principally designed for the practice of the advice given by St. Paul, who "beseeches us by the mercies of God, that we present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service."  The fact that the Prayer of Oblation, following our partaking of the Sacrament, is rooted in the apostolic exhortation, rightly identifies the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist. As Cranmer stated in his True and Catholic Doctrine : Another kind of sacrifice there is, which doth not reconcile us to God, but is made of them that be reconciled by Christ, to testify our duties unto God, and to show ourselves thankful unto...

In our readings from Robert Nelson's The Life of Dr. George Bull (1713), we have previously considered Bull's reading of 'the prayers' (that is, Morning and Evening Prayer), and his ministry from the pulpit . Today we turn to his administration of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. While Nelson is still, at this point, discussing Bull's incumbency in the years following the Restoration, it almost certainly stands as a description of his administration of the sacraments throughout his ministry. In doing so it also reveals something of how the understanding of the Sacraments in Anglicanism throughout the 'long 18th century'. Nelson begins by drawing attention to the frequency of Bull's administration of the Holy Communion in his parish: He Administered the Sacraments of our Holy Religion with great Reverence and Solemnity; The Holy Eucharist, the Mysterious and the Rite and Perfection of Christian Worship, was not performed so often in this Parish, ...

Members of the General Synod heard a debate brought by Burnley vicar Father Alex Frost, calling on the Church of England to be 'bold and ambitious' in its work to attract people from working class backgrounds to lay and ordained vocations ... He said ... "On the ground, in working class communities, there is some wonderful and outstanding work going on, that is fighting injustice, that is saving lives through foodbanks and community projects, that is educating children and standing up for the most vulnerable people in our society." Backing the debate brought by Fr Frost, the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, said there were many 'inbuilt prejudices and barriers' to welcoming people from outside the Church ... "There are so many – in our system – inbuilt prejudices and barriers and cultural difficulties," he said ... Bishop Mark Tanner, Chair of the Church of England’s Ministry Development Board, welcoming the debate, emphasised that vocations wer...

At Evening Communion on the First Sunday after Trinity, 22.6.25 Luke 8:26-39 “As He stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met Him.” Hearing these words at the opening of today’s Gospel reading from Luke chapter 8 might make us think that this passage - found also in the gospels of Matthew and Mark - sounds like a mythical story, far removed from our 21st century lives, on a quiet Sunday evening in late June, in a beautiful parish church. Talk of demons is surely for the fundamentalists: not for us moderate, reasonable Christians.  Except that we read this type of event again and again in the Gospels: of Jesus confronting the demons, of Jesus liberating people from the power of demons. So, no, those of us who like to think of ourselves as moderate, reasonable Christians cannot avoid this aspect of the gospel proclamation of Jesus.  Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, puts it this way: “Forget the mythical apparatus of horns and tails: demons are...

Bright the vision that delighted  once the sight of Judah's seer;  sweet the countless tongues united  to entrance the prophet's ear. It is a Church of Ireland favourite on Trinity Sunday (hymn 316 in our Church Hymnal). This, no doubt, has something to do with the author, Richard Mant, from 1820 to 1848 a bishop in two Irish sees. Mant stood solidly within the Old High tradition, evident from his anti-Enthusiast 1812 Bampton Lectures , his rejection of Ritualism , and his affection for Anglicanism's native piety . His hymn, then, is another expression of Old High piety: such hymns will now be the subject of an occasional series  on  laudable Practice . What particularly connects the hymn to Trinity Sunday? It does, after all, make no specific mention of the Holy Trinity or of the Three Persons of the Godhead. The answer lies in the scriptural passage contemplated by the hymn, the vision of the prophet Isaiah in the Temple (Isaiah 6). While not appointed as a le...

Daniel Waterland was the champion of Trinitarian orthodoxy in the early- and mid-18th century Church of England, challenging those divines promoting non- and anti-Trinitarian theologies. Despite what we might assume, his weighty theological works in defence of Trinitarian doctrine do provide evidence of what I have inelegantly termed 'Trinitarian minimalism'. For example, in his The Importance of the Doctrine of the Trinity Asserted (1734) he stated that " the right faith in the Trinity is short, and plain "; he praised "common Christians" on the matter of the Trinity, contrasting them with " the bolder and more inquisitive, because they are content to rest in generals "; and declared that belief in the Holy Trinity is one of those " Scripture Verities, prime Verities " which, for Christians, "is under Precept, is express Duty". In other words, the Trinitarian confession is not a matter of scholastic speculation but of Scriptur...

Today is the 210th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, the Anglo-Allied and Prussian victory which delivered Europe from the decades of wars and invasions provoked by Napoleon's ambitions. On the eve of Waterloo, the Reverend George Griffin Stonestreet, chaplain to the Guards regiments, administered the Holy Communion in Brussels. Later that day, many of the officers and men in Brussels would be required to assemble and march with haste, as Napoleon's forces moved towards the Anglo-Allied positions at Waterloo. The chalice used at the service (pictured below) is kept in the Guards Museum . On the same day, there was a report that the Chaplain General, John Owen, "gave an address to British troops". Previously, as a Brigade Chaplain, Owen had been warned by officers and men about placing himself too close to the front line. His response had been that his primary duty was "to be of service to those now departing this life". It seems that seven chaplains wer...

In recent years around Trinity Sunday, laudable Practice has considered a stream of thought in divines of the late 17th and early 18th century Church of England which I have (somewhat inelegantly) described as ' Trinitarian minimalism '. To be clear, this is not at all about minimizing faith in the Holy Trinity. Rather, 'minimalism' here refers to a consistent view amongst leading Church of England divines of this era that saving belief in the Holy Trinity - the belief proclaimed from pulpits - was not required to be an exposition of scholastic dogma, but of the revelation of the Trinity in the Scriptures.  One God, Three Persons is not the result of scholastic and philosophical speculations, but is the God witnessed to in the holy Scriptures. Not only is this sufficient for saving faith, but, as Tillotson stated, "the modesty of Christians is contented in Divine Mysteries to know what God hath thought fit to reveal concerning them, and hath no curiosity to be wi...