laudable Practice

What practices from 18th century Anglican might have relevance for contemporary Anglicans? Below, three suggestions prompted by some recent hints at such practices having continued relevance. And flowing from this, a proposal for how these could assist in sustaining and renewing Anglican life, presence, and witness. Firstly, this photograph (from the Prayer Book Society Facebook page ) of Evensong at Coombes Church , in the Diocese of Chichester, wonderfully captures how Evensong does not require an organ and large choir.  There is something in the photograph reminiscent of the 18th century West Gallery tradition and its less formal approach to music in divine service.   The vibrant, popular West Gallery tradition was intensely disliked by Victorian parsons under the spell of the Ecclesiological Society, pushed aside in favour of organs and robed choirs. It does not take much imagination, however, to think of its relevance for contemporary smaller churches, without organi...

In the third of his 1844 Bampton Lectures,  An inquiry into the means of grace, their mutual connection, and combined use, with especial reference to the Church of England , Jelf  - one of those whom Nockles lists as the 'Zs', the post-1833 continuation of the Old High tradition - offered a classic Old High account of the ministry of reconciliation given to the ordained.  Contrary to Tractarian and later Anglo-catholic accounts which interpreted this to be private confession and absolution - an interpretation far removed from the lived experience of most Anglicans, in the 19th century and now - Jelf and the Old High tradition provided a vision of the ministry of reconciliation rooted in and expressed through the parson's ministry of Word and Sacrament. This understanding had deep roots in the Laudian tradition.  Richard Montague  stated,  "Reconciling by the whole office and function of the ministry".  Likewise  Jeremy Taylor  said  of t...

In his   Answer to Cardinal Perron  (1612), Casaubon noted the call of James I for key reforms to the Roman liturgy: use of the vernacular; communion in both kinds: an end to private masses; no adoration of images or relics; and the removal of invocation of saints.  Alongside this, James, as he had stated in  his 1616  Premonition  concerning the Bishop of Rome, would, if "the forme of the ancient Church be restored ... acknowledge his primacie". Such reforms, according to Casaubon, would be a basis for intercommunion between the Churches of Europe: For the communion of the faithfull consisteth much in the publike exercises of pietie: and this is the chiefe bond of union so much desired by good men. Wherefore if Christians could but agree about this, why might not all Europe communicate together? only, granting a libertie to schoole-Diuines with moderation to debate other opinions. Which were a thing much to be wished, and that foundation once laid, by the ...

Wise counsel from Jeremy Taylor, delivered during the dark days of the Interregnum, on the offering of Morning and Evening Prayer: Keep strictly, as much as you are able, to those times of the day, which you have designed to appear in before the Lord for then you offer up not only your prayers, but the strict observation of set times, which is a double sacrifice, and an evidence that you will not dispense to pretermit that holy work for any avocation [i.e. minor occupation]. He that refers himself at large to pray, when he is at leisure, gives God the worst of the day; that is, his idle time. I account them prudent, therefore, that are precise in keeping canonical hours of prayer, as they call them, so they pray to God alone, who alone knows their heart and so they pray "with the Spirit, and with the understanding": that is, in a tongue wherein they know what they say, and understand the language wherein they vent the meditations of the Spirit. This was the milk that the chur...

From  A Course of Sermons, for the Lord's Day throughout the Year , Volume II (1817) by Joseph Holden Pott - associated with the Hackney Phalanx - an extract from a sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity. Preaching on II Kings 5:13 - Naaman's servant exhorting him to heed Elisha's call to wash in the Jordan - Pott identifies this with the "ordinary path of faith and duty" laid out in Scripture, contrasting it with a spirituality characterised by " vain singularitics, or fantastic zeal".  This extract epitomizes Old High piety, its rejection of ' the Weird ', its pastoral wisdom, and its embodiment of the gentle yoke: We have the same reason which is here urged upon Naaman inducing us to exert a cheerful readiness in our obedience to the word of God, as it is made known by a merciful Redeemer. His yoke is easy, and his burden light. How great cause then have we to address ourselves with joy and thankfulness, to keep the terms and conditions ...

In the deluge of commentary that accompanied this year's Lambeth Conference, the references to 18th century Anglican church history in the Archbishop of Canterbury's second keynote address  were, strangely, entirely ignored.  I am, of course, being somewhat ironic.  After all, the Archbishop's views on 18th century Anglicanism do not have quite the headline-making power as his management of the human sexuality debate.   His views on the 18th century church, however, are not without significance and not least because caricaturing 18th century Anglicanism has frequently been a sign that those involved are seeking to reorder Anglicanism.  Ryle, for example, promoting his own brand of Victorian low church evangelicalism, absurdly regarded 18th century Anglicanism as defined by "natural theology, without a single distinctive doctrine of Christianity, cold morality, or barren orthodoxy". Newman famously condemned "the last miserable century", which actually wo...

In the third of his 1844 Bampton Lectures,  An inquiry into the means of grace, their mutual connection, and combined use, with especial reference to the Church of England , Jelf  - one of those whom Nockles lists as the 'Zs', the post-1833 continuation of the Old High tradition - celebrated the historic succession maintained by the ecclesia Anglicana . He did in terms which exemplified the Old High tradition, considering Reformation and catholicity as complementary rather than contradictory (unlike the Tractarians). His rejoicing in the preservation of the historic succession amidst the trauma of the 1640s and 1650s reflects Old High native pride in the restoration of the Church and episcopate, in a manner echoing  Taylor's great sermon at the restoration of the Irish episcopate in 1661. And underpinning it all is a profound sense of gratitude for the episcopal succession as a gift of grace. And here let us pause to offer our thanksgivings to Him, from whom "every go...