"He took the very local possession of glory": Hooker on the Ascension

When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death: thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers - from the Te Deum, at Mattins.

In Book V.45 of the Lawes, Hooker reflects on these words from the Te Deum and in doing so provides a superb account of this celebration in the daily office of the salvific significance of the Ascension:

As Christ hath purchased that heavenly kingdom that perfection whereof is glory in the life to come, grace in this life is a preparation thereunto; so the same he hath 'opened' to the word in such sort, that whereas none can possibly without him attain salvation, by him 'all that believe' are saved. Now whatsoever he did or suffered the end thereof was to open the doors of the kingdom of heaven which our iniquities had shut up. But because by ascending after that sharpness of death was overcome he took the very local possession of glory, and that to the use of all that are his, even as himself before had witnessed, 'I go to prepare a place for you,' and again, 'whom thou hast given me O Father I will that where I am they be also with me, that my glory which thou hast given me they may behold,' it appeareth that when Christ did ascend he then most liberally opened the kingdom of heaven to the end that with him and by him all believers might reign ... We cannot better interpret the meaning of those words than Pope Leo himself expoundeth them whose speech concerning our Lord's ascension may serve instead of a marginall gloss, 'Christ's exaltation is our promotion, and whether the glory of the head is already gone before thither the hope of the body also is to follow. For as this day we have not only the possession of paradise assured unto us, but in Christ we have entered the highest of the heavens.' His opening the kingdom of heaven and his entrance thereinto was not only to his own use but for the benefit of all believers.

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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

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'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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