Contra Tractarians and Latitudinarians, "our Church"

From his 1843 Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of Bangor, Bishop Christopher Bethell - following the publication of Tract XC - responds to the "the state of excitement to which the writings and opinions usually called Tractarian, have given occasion", and in doing so asserts principles of the High Church tradition:

In the first place they appear to have thrown (the phrase is, I believe, their own) themselves into a system, or, I should rather say, have been following the phantom of a system, which they call Catholic, and hold up to admiration as something infinitely superior to the imperfect and lifeless Catholicism of our own Church. For I cannot discover that they have any clear or definite notion of the system which they admire, or have drawn any precise line between Catholic truths and traditions, and Uncatholic errors and corruptions of doctrine and discipline. We must not, however, suffer ourselves to be led astray by the cloudy grandeur of this or any system. We, at least, who have neither leisure nor opportunities for following it out in detail, and tracing it upward to its sources, shall content ourselves with regarding that branch of the Church Catholic and Apostolic to which our services are devoted, as the representative of Catholic truth and the Catholic system; as holding those doctrines and possessing that form of government which the whole Church of Christ, dispersed throughout the world, held and possessed in her best and purest ages. And we shall not allow ourselves to admire or long after any tenets or practices which our Church has rejected as superstitious, or laid aside as unnecessary, under the imposing name of parts of the great Catholic system ...

But while you feel no sympathy with the erroneous views and opinions which have emanated from this school of Theology, you will be equally on your guard against the latitudinarian practices and opinions which they have opposed with earnestness and success. You will not rank among the errors of Tractarianism a strong attachment to the polity and orders of your own Church, as a faithful representative of the Church Catholic and Apostolic; a veneration for her liturgy, and attention to her forms, and ceremonies, and directions; a just sense of the dignity and efficacy of the Sacraments; and a conviction that preaching is not the only means of grace, nor hearing sermons the main part of religion.

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Why I support the ordination of women: a High Church reflection

A number of commenters on this blog have asked about my occasional expressions of support for the ordination of women to all three orders. With some hesitation, I have decided to post a summary of my own views on this matter. The hesitation is because I have sought on this blog to focus on issues and themes which can unify those who identify with or have respect (grudging or otherwise!) for what we might term 'classical' Anglicanism (the Anglicanism of the Formularies and - yes - of the Old High Church tradition). Some oppose the ordination of women (and I have friends and colleagues who do so, Anglo-Catholic, High Church, and Reformed Evangelical). Some of us support it (again, friends and colleagues covering a wide range of theological traditions). Below, I have organised my thinking around 5 points (needless to say, no reference to Dort is implied). 1. The Declaration for Subscription required of clergy in the Church of Ireland states: (6) I promise to submit ...

How the Old High tradition continued

Charles Gore's 1914 letter to the clergy of his diocese, ' The Basis of Anglican Fellowship ', can be regarded as a classical expression of the Prayer Book Catholic tradition. A key part of the letter - entitled 'Romanizing in the Church of England' - addressed the "Catholic movement", questioning beliefs and practices within it which tended to "a position which makes it very difficult for its extremer representatives to give an intelligible reason why they are not Roman Catholics". Gore provides the outlines of an alternative account and experience of catholicity within Anglicanism, defined by three characteristics. What is particularly interesting about these characteristics is their continuity with the older High Church tradition. Indeed, the central characteristic as set out by Gore was integral to High Church claims over centuries: To accept the Anglican position as valid, in any sense, is to appeal behind the Pope and the authority of t...

'Whether the Lutheran Churches have right Ordinations and perfect succession of Bishops': Jeremy Taylor, 'Episcopacy Asserted', and Lutheran orders

Amidst the bitter controversies over episcopacy in the Three Kingdoms during the early 1640s, controversies which had become war in Scotland in 1637 and then in England in 1642, Jeremy Taylor wrote his Laudian defence of episcopal order, The Sacred Order and Offices of Episcopacy Asserted and Maintained . He proposed in this work that the non-episcopal Reformed churches could have had episcopally-ordered clergy: Those good people might have had order from the bishops of England or the Lutheran churches, if at least they thought our churches catholic and Christian. Leaving aside the reality that, for example, French Protestants would have been placed in an invidious political position if they had done as Taylor proposed, it is the reference to "the Lutheran churches" which is significant. To begin with, a large portion of the Lutheran churches - those in the German lands - were governed by a system of superintendency. It is almost inconceivable that Taylor was not aware of th...

laudable Practice

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