Mindful of the traditional Advent themes of the Four Last Things, it was appropriate that Timothy Stanley's recent interview with Rowan Williams addressed the matter of our deathbed. In the course of the interview Stanley said, "I would want the Last Rites when I’m dying, and if the hospital sent for the local Anglican cleric, I might not get it, because not every Anglican does it". And, Stanley quite rightly protests, "on my death bed, I would want to know what I’m going to get". Stanley's critique is not entirely unfair. There are Anglican clergy - let's call them the neo-Puritans - who think that extemporary prayer and a Bible reading of their choice will suffice at the deathbed. That, however, is weak, pale stuff. And certainly not the Real Thing. For that we turn to the Book of Common Prayer : Here shall the sick person be moved to make a special confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with any weighty matter. After which co...
Old High - Burkean - clerk in holy orders