laudable Practice

Jeremy Taylor's 1647 The Liberty of Prophesying has often been interpreted as an aberration in his body of works. For those who present Taylor as a straightforward 'Laudian', The Liberty of Prophesying  is to be dismissed as the unfortunate influence of Chillingworth and Great Tew, quickly forgotten by its author, who returned to conventional 'Laudian' ways. For those who praise The Liberty of Prophesying as an anticipation of the Broad Church tradition, it is a matter of regret that Taylor abandoned this spirit for conventionally harsh High Church tendencies. What both approaches overlook, however, is how central themes of The Liberty of Prophesying echo throughout Taylor's work. The place it gives to the conscience and reason, and a scepticism about excessive claims for ecclesiastical tradition, are both prominent in  Ductor Dubitantium, or the Rule of Conscience , published in 1660. Likewise, the critique of Augustine, fundamental to Taylor's 1655  Unu...

As he reviews the doctrine of Absolution in A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume I (1796), John Shepherd notes that "the ancient church" saw Absolution embodied in four practices: The dispensation of Absolution, as practised in the ancient church, is reducible to these four heads: 1. The Absolution of Baptism, and of the Supper of the Lord, or sacramental Absolution. 2. The Absolution of reconciliation to the church, and re-admission into its communion. 3. The Absolution of word and doctrine, or declaratory Absolution. 4. The Absolution of prayer, or precatory Absolution. These four heads shape his review, as he addresses each in turn. We begin, then, with the Sacrament of Baptism: The sacrament of baptism was esteemed by the Fathers the most universal Absolution. To adopt the words of antiquity, it was the grand, the divine indulgence in the Christian church. It was the Absolution, or remission of all those sins, which the party baptized...

He told them that the house of theirs to which he alluded was this their church, in which he now addressed them for the first time; that their most welcome and proper manner of bidding him God-speed would be their patient obedience to his teaching of the gospel; but that he could put forward no claim to such conduct on their part unless he taught them the great Christian doctrine of works and faith combined. Thus did Mr. Arabin preach himself into the living of St. Ewold's in Barchester Towers . Trollope here echoes what was a significant critique of Solafidianism. That critique was the mainstream view of the 18th century Church of England and maintained by the 'Orthodox' into the 19th century. A fine representation of this critique is seen in the primary visitation charge of Thomas Burgess, Bishop of Salisbury (received holy orders in 1784, consecrated to the episcopate 1803), delivered to his clergy in August 1826. In the preface to the published version of the charge, B...

The fact that George Bull was 71 when he was consecrated Bishop of St Davids has already been referenced in our readings from Nelson's 1713 Life of Bull . Bull's age had a particular impact on one aspect of his episcopal ministry - the administration of Confirmation: It was matter of great Grief to the good Bishop, that by the Decay of his Strength, and by his frequent Indispositions, he was prevented from Travelling over his Diocese, in order to administer in all the Parts of it, that Holy Apostolical Rite grounded upon Scripture, as expounded by Catholick Tradition, which for some time hath been known and distinguished in the Church, by the Name of Confirmation ... Nelson's description - "that Holy Apostolical Rite" - reflects the settled, consistent understanding of Confirmation found amongst Anglican divines across the 'long 18th century'. The apostolic nature of the rite is seen in, for example, a 1693 sermon in the Diocese of London, ' A Sermon...

'Inclusive Orthodox' is a term I have never warmed to. Nor is it a term I have ever used to describe myself. Today's post is an attempt to explain why this is so in five reasons. Firstly, the term became popular within a TEC constituency in the early 2000s and came to be also found in other parts of the Protestant Mainline in the United States. This locates its origins in the cultural and ecclesial concerns of the Mainline in the early 21st century United States. It is, then, a response to a very specific cultural and ecclesial context. Its application to other, quite different, cultural and ecclesial contexts is, at the very least, a matter for some debate. Seeking to apply the term on this side of the Atlantic strikes me as unconvincing as British political parties following the trends of US politics: this tends to be embarrassingly awkward at best and usually out of step with the actual concerns and experience of British society. Put bluntly, Inclusive Orthodoxy is a mic...

'Everybody agrees that is the worst in Christendom.' This was the somewhat startling judgment of Mary II, when considering the decayed state of the Church of Ireland shortly after the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. These are the words with which Patrick Little (editor) opens the volume of essays that is The Church of Ireland Under the Stuarts (2025). The essays, covering a wide range of subjects - from the role Trinity College Dublin to cathedral music, from the devotional life of the episcopalian second Earl of Cork during the Interregnum to the role of the bishops in the Irish House of Lords - might be considered as something of a revisionist response to the words of Queen Mary. The Church of Ireland which emerges from these essays has greater spiritual, intellectual, and cultural vibrancy than recognised in Old Hat accounts and enduring populist mythology. The intellectual and cultural vibrancy owed much to Trinity College Dublin, driving the "distinctiveness" of th...

In his review of Absolution in A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume I  (1796), John Shepherd declares the fundamental doctrinal position underpinning the practice of Absolution in the Prayer Book: The ancient teachers of Christianity, whether Priests or Prelates, arrogated to themselves, in the dispensation of Absolution, no power, which was not purely ministerial. Agreeably to the doctrine of Holy Scripture, the Fathers unanimously maintain, that "God alone can forgive sins."  By 'ministerial', Shepherd means that which is stated in the Absolution at Morning and Evening Prayer: and hath given power, and commandment, to his Ministers, to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the Absolution and Remission of their sins: He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel.  The forgiveness of sins is a fundamental work of the Godhead, as Shepherd sees reflected in patristic dis...

From Jeremy Taylor's Golden Grove sermons, for " the summer half-year ", Sermon XII, ' Of Christian Prudence, Part III '. Taylor's critique of extraordinary claims to the Spirit offers an important defence of the religion of reasonable, sober, ordinary Anglican piety. Here is wisdom, urging us to hold to "the ordinary ways" - characterised by "reason, and sober counsels" - that lead to "the common country": But if any man pretends now to the Spirit, either it must be a private or public. If it be private, it can but be useful to himself alone, and it may cozen him too, if it be not assisted by the spirit of a public man. But if it be a public spirit, it must enter in at the public door of ministries and divine ordinances, of God's grace and man's endeavour: it must be subject to the prophets; it is discernible and judicable by them, and therefore maybe rejected, and then it must pretend no longer. For he that will preten...

In July 1705, George Bull - consecrated bishop in April - arrived in his new Diocese of St Davids.  In his visitation charges, as he addressed "the principal Parts and Branches of [the] Pastoral Office", Bull made clear his expectations for the preaching ministry of the clergy.  Nelson, in his 1713 Life of Dr. George Bull , notes the Bishop's advice to his younger clergy, advice which might be surprising to contemporary Anglicans: To qualifie them for Preaching, he pressed the Knowledge and Understanding of the holy Scriptures; and in order thereunto, some Skill in the learned Languages, with good Judgment and Discretion, and not without a tolerable Share of Elocution. He advised young Divines, not to trust at first to their own Compositions, but to furnish themselves with a Provision of the best Sermons, which the learned Divines of our Church have published; that by reading them often, and by endeavouring to imitate them, they may acquire a habit of good Preaching thems...

Following on from Friday's post on PECUSA worship in 1900, and reflecting on a recent photograph from Pohick Church with the description "the old Virginia tradition", I came across Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia (1857), by William Meade, Bishop of Virginia 1841-62. Meade refers to the "liberty" and "variety" regarding the surplice that "has ever existed in the Church of Virginia". What is more, he also presents this as within the canonical context established and maintained by PECUSA: As to the vestments, the same liberty and the same variety has ever existed in the Church of Virginia, without interruption to its harmony. It is well known that the controversy in our Mother Church concerning the use of the surplice was a long and bitter and most injurious one ... At the revision of the Prayer Book by our American fathers, this and other changes, which had long been desired by many in England, and still are, were at once mad...

In March 1900, the US publication Literary Digest provided a fascinating glimpse of life in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Noting the "marked demarcation in matters of doctrine and worship" within PECUSA, the article provided a breakdown of "the relative strength of the High-, Low-, and Broad-Church parties". High Church is defined as "not elaborate ritual alone" but also "the importance of the sacraments" and a belief "in the place of the church, as preceding the Bible, not founded upon it". Low Church is taken to mean "attach[ing] less importance to the sacraments", being "evangelical in method, and sometimes "employ[ing] extempore prayer". As for Broad Church, it refers to "the liberal constructionists, sometimes of the Bible, oftener of church practises". Perhaps what is most significant about these introductory comments is that a Low Church, evangelical tradition...

In recent years, laudable Practice has turned to the commentary of John Shepherd on the Book of Common Prayer. Beginning in March 2023 , we considered his  A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796). June 2024 commenced a series of posts - concluding in August 2025 - on the Holy Communion in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801). Today, at the beginning of June, the month when ordinations usually take place in Anglican churches, we return to the first volume and begin a series on Shepherd's review of Absolution in the theology and practice of the Prayer Book.  Shepherd opens his consideration of Absolution in the Prayer Book by stating his intention to place it in the context of "the primitive Church": Without stating in detail the disputes that have existed between Christians of different denominations, and which have oftentimes terminated in contrary extrem...