laudable Practice

Theologian Andrew Davison is one of the very interesting scholarly voices in contemporary Anglicanism. With Alison Milbank, he wrote For the Parish (2010), a key text for those reasserting the centrality of the parish in the face of the insubstantial alternatives proposed by 'fresh expressions' thinking. Why Sacraments? (2013) offered an engaging sacramental theology, rooted in Catholic thought but also open to Reformed insights.  Astrobiology and Christian Doctrine: Exploring the Implications of Life in the Universe (2023) provides a serious Christian approach to the possibilities of life elsewhere in the universe. Participation in God: A Study in Christian Doctrine and Metaphysics (2020) provides one of the most significant contemporary explorations of a theme which has gained renewed attention in both Catholic and Protestant thought.  Davison is, then, a weighty theological voice. He also stands firmly within the Anglo-Catholic tradition. Both of these factors give...

In a 1708 Visitation Charge to his clergy, Bishop George Bull outlined "the principal parts and branches of the Pastoral office", noting five of these. The list begins as follows: "First, Reading Divine Service, or the Prayers of the Church". Reading divine service is placed ahead of preaching and, indeed, administering the Sacraments. Bull continues: First, Reading Divine Service, or the Prayers of the Church. This some may think to be a slight and easy matter, that needs not any advice or directions; but they are very much mistaken. For to the reading of the Prayers aright there is need of great care and caution. The Prayers of the Church must be read audibly, distinctly, and reverently ... the Prayers of the Church are to be read with great reverence and devotion, so as to excite and kindle devotion in the congregation. Thus the Prayers of the Church are to be read, if we would keep up the reputation of them, and render them useful to the people. As laudable Pra...

Continuing with extracts from John Shepherd's A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796), we turn to the Lessons in at Matins and Evensong. Shepherd addresses the practice of two Lessons from the Old and New Testaments: Though the two covenants differ in language and form, yet in sentiment and substance they agree: for they are in fact but two different parts of one and the same system, the former being introductory and preparatory to the latter ... "What is the law," says Justin Martyr, "but the prediction of the Gospel? and what is the Gospel, but the law fulfilled?" "Things there prefigured," says Austin, "are here performed." "Between the two Covenants," says Chrysostom, "there is neither repugnance, nor contrariety of meaning; the difference is merely verbal. I have repeatedly said, that two Covenants, two handmaids, and two sisters, are the attendants on one Lor...