laudable Practice

Angels ascending and descending: why we celebrate Michaelmas At Mattins on the feast of Saint Michael and all Angels Ps.103:19-22 - Genesis 28:10-17 - John 1:47-51 (1) Change and chance: words to describe the rather ordinary, unpromising circumstances leading to the events in today’s two readings, from Genesis and St John’s Gospel. Jacob is fleeing from a family dispute: his circumstances have changed for the worse.  He is tired, physically and emotionally. Apart from his family, he has no shelter.  He chances upon a spot with a stone as a pillow, where he sleeps in the open. Here he dreams, a dream which promises great change for Jacob. Nathanael has been urged by his friend Philip to meet a rabbi he has chanced upon from Nazareth.  Nazareth - that backward place from which no good thing can come. Reluctantly he goes, unconvinced that a rabbi with such an obviously unremarkable background will have anything significant to say. A chance encounter from which gre...

Cranmer's response to the Privy Council, following Knox's attack on the rubric in the 1552 Book of Common Prayer directing kneeling to receive the Sacrament, is striking in how Hooker-like it sounds.  Or, more accurately, it shows how Hooker's defence of both the idea and practices of conformity stood in profound continuity with that articulated by Cranmer. In condemning Knox's agitation: I trust ye will not be moved with these glorious and unquiet spirits which can like nothing but that is after their own fantasy and cease not to make trouble and disquiet when things be most quiet and in good order - Cranmer. Herein lieth the greatest danger of all.  For whereas the name of divine authority is used to countenance these things, which are not the commandments of God, but your own erroneous collections; on him ye must father whatsoever ye shall afterwards be led, either to do in withstanding the adversaries of your cause, or to think in maintenance of your doings...

Parliament tonight was a place of fear and loathing, not a place of debate and discussion - BBC Political Editor, Laura Kuenssberg , 26th September 2019. I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty - I Timothy 2:1-2. From this, two advantages result. First, hatred towards those who are without is done away; for no one can feel hatred towards those for whom he prays: and they again are made better by the prayers that are offered for them ... For God has appointed government for the public good ... For they are a sort of bulwarks thrown up before us, within which those who are enclosed are in peace and safety - Chrysostom, Homily 6 on I Timothy, addressing 2:1-2. The bitterness and division in our public life in the United Kingdom is all too obvious.  Yesterday in the House of C...

These tendencies I dub the "romantic" and the "classical".  One can briefly sum up the difference between them by saying that the former sees Wordsworth's "feeling intellect" as lying at the heart of theology, while the latter sees the role of an entirely "objective reason" as vital for theological practice - John Milbank, 'The New Divide: Romantic versus Classical Orthodoxy', Modern Theology , January 2010. While Milbank's description of what he terms 'romantic orthodoxy' addresses a rather different context, I am wondering if it can have some significance for Anglican renewal.  The 'orthodoxy' is here taken as read, a necessary affirmation of the Augustinian faith and sacramental order of the Book of Common Prayer and the Articles of Religion.  But what of the 'romantic' aspect? Milbank elaborates on this by referring to "the passions, the imagination, art, ethos etc".  To take words from ...

... the supremacy of the crown must not (according to our constitution in Church and State) be considered as an arbitrary and unlimited supremacy. Everything in England is limited by law: and nothing more than the power of the sovereign. In matters of State, the power of the crown is limited by the two houses of Parliament; in the affairs of the Church, it is limited also by the two houses of Convocation. Legally and constitutionally, the sovereign, or the sovereign's government, can do nothing concerning the state of the Church, her doctrine and discipline, without first consulting the clergy in Convocation, and the laity in Parliament; so that, when we acknowledge the supremacy of the crown, we do not put our consciences under the arbitrary guidance of the sovereign or the ministry; for we know that legally nothing can be imposed upon us, but what has received the consent of our clergy and laity, as represented respectively. E.H. Browne's An Exposition of the T...

There is a pathological reticence to take our own history seriously as a spring for inspiration. The words are from a post launching a new project, The Hour: Anglican, Catholic, Left .  There is much to welcome in the project, not the least of which is the commitment to Anglican ressourcement : Anglicans are more likely to study Barth, Moltmann, or Balthasar than Mascall, Julian, or Laud. Seminarians learn about the mythical “stool” of Richard Hooker but the best modern work on him is in French. Few take the time to read him. Such ressourcement is indeed necessary if "the myth of Anglican mediocrity" is to be exposed. Alongside this, other aspects of the The Hour's agenda point to it being a positive force in the Anglican theological landscape.  That the first quarterly issue, to be released on Christmas Day, will focus on the Daily Office is an excellent expression of what a contemporary Tractarianism can offer wider Anglicanism (and see Tract 84 on this very...

Show us thy mercy, O Lord: and grant us thy salvation - Psalm 85:7.  Psalm 85 is said or sung at Evensong on the 16th day of the month (which was Monday of this week). ... and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree - Romans 11:17.  In the 1922 (England)/1926 (Ireland) lectionary, Romans 11:1-24 was the New Testament  lection at Mattins today. One of the joys of praying Mattins and Evensong in the Prayer Book tradition is becoming aware of the theological significance and spiritual meaning of the ordering of these rites.  For example, that Te Deum   - the Church's song celebration of the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation - follows the Old Testament lection at Mattins, draws us to recognise that the God whom we encounter in the story of Israel is the Triune God, that the Incarnation is the fulfilment of the promises to Israel. Saying Psalm 85 at Evensong on Monday was a reminder that of the six versicles and responses pre...

From  High Church theologian  Godfrey Faussett 's 1838 sermon critiquing the Tractarians - ' The Revival of Popery ', delivered from the same pulpit from which Keble preached the 1833 Assize sermon and Newman preached his plain and parochial sermons - an early indication of growing differences over Eucharistic doctrine between the High Church tradition and the Movement, mindful that Pusey's famous 1843 sermon is normally regarded as signalling the break with Old High Church Eucharistic doctrine: The distinction required clearly lies between the body and blood of Christ being spiritually included in the elements, and spiritually received by the faithful; or, as Bishop Taylor explains it, "We by the real spiritual presence of Christ do understand Christ to be present, as the Spirit of God is present in the hearts of the faithful, by blessing and grace".  The naked and unqualified and therefore ambiguous expression real presence, now so systematical...

... in Heaven it is always autumn, His mercies are ever in their maturity - John Donne, Christmas Day sermon, 1624 . Today is the first of the September Ember Days, heralding the approach of Autumn.  As with each period of 'The Ember Days at the Four Seasons', these days of prayer and abstinence prepare us for the new season, orienting us to receive the change of seasons as gift.  The closing days of Summer in mid-September, the approach of Autumn, mark a time of renewed labour and activities in parish, in school, in workplace.  Amidst this renewed labour, this new round of activities, the September Ember Days, with their call to prayer and abstinence, prepare us to receive the gift of Autumn with gratitude and thanksgiving. In a poem which uses Donne's words as the title, Elizabeth Spires describes Autumn as "a slow and radiant happening".  Deep colours in the landscape, the glow of early evening sunsets, hedgerows abounding with berries: there is a glori...

In the preface to an 1838 sermon, 'The Revival of Popery' (a robust critique of the Tractarians), High Church theologian Godfrey Faussett gave warning of how the Oxford Movement would undermine established and broadly accepted High Church practices by inaccurately relating them to a theology and piety foreign to Anglicanism.  Faussett here addresses use of the term 'altar': though excluded from our formularies at the Reformation, [it] has survived in the language of the people, and may innocently continue to do so, unless injudicious men revive the idea of its connexion with a proper sacrifice.  The pre-1833 popular and uncontroversial use of 'altar' can be widely attested.  It appears in Parson Woodforde's diaries.  Waterland explains its meaning in the context of a classically Reformed Eucharistic understanding: The holy table is called an altar, with regard to the spiritual services, that is, sacrifices sent up from it, and so it is a spiritu...

From Tracts for the Times , Number 15 , a hearty endorsement of the traditional High Church defence of the Reformation of the ecclesia Anglicana : The English Church did not revolt from those who in that day had authority by succession from the Apostles. On the contrary, it is certain that the Bishops and Clergy in England and Ireland remained the same as before the separation, and that it was these, with the aid of the civil power, who delivered the Church of those kingdoms from the yoke of Papal tyranny and usurpation ... The people of England, then, in casting off the Pope, but obeyed and concurred in the acts of their own spiritual Superiors, and committed no schism. Queen Mary, it is true, drove out after many years the orthodox Bishops, and reduced our Church again under the Bishop of Rome, but this submission was only exacted by force, and in itself null and void; and, moreover, in matter of fact it lasted but a little while, for on the succession of Queen Eliz...

Nothing that the patristic church held is denied . We might think that this claim by ' A Better Intentionalism ' regarding the Articles of Religion can be welcomed.  It appears, after all, to echo Jewel's declaration in the Apology : we do show it plainly that God's holy Gospel, the ancient bishops, and the primitive Church do make on our side, and that we have not without just cause left these men, and rather have returned to the Apostles and old Catholic fathers. This, however, is not what 'A Better Intentionalism' is suggesting.  Rather, following a well-established Tractarian path, it is invoking "the patristic church" against the Reformation: we are in a position today to see that there are some areas in which the doctrine of a Parker or Cranmer actually does differ from that of the early centuries of the Church . What are these areas?  Oddly, 'A Better Intentionalism' fails to provide an answer other than asserting that Chry...

For instance, the Belgic confession specifically refutes that in Communion Christ is received by the mouth. But a plain reading of Chrysostom or Cyril of Jerusalem plainly shows they believed precisely this. The 39 Articles do not disavow it.  True it is, that the animating  spirit  of the Articles, tends in the direction of Reformed teaching. No doubt. But at the level of the letter, there is room within them to believe the catholic faith as the early fathers held it. And there are little clues hidden here and there, that such a belief is not just possible but warranted, such as the crucial word, “given” in Article 28: “The Body of Christ is  given , taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner.” If the presence of Christ were not somehow affixed to the elements of bread and wine, there could be no way of defending that it is  given.  In strict receptionism, it is not given by the priest at all, but only received by the ...

A final extract from  from  George D'Oyly , in  Sermons, chiefly doctrinal, with notes  (1827), this time from Sermon VI, a fine example of the warm piety flowing from the Receptionism (" there is no presence of Christ in the Eucharist to him who unworthily receives")  of the Hackney Phalanx: Thither let them bring, what all may bring with them if they will, some feelings of devout affection towards God, some emotions of sorrow for their many errors and miscarriages, some sincere resolutions of amending their conduct for the future; and He who wills the death of no sinner, who calls to those who are laden with their sins to come to Him and He will give them rest—He will in His gracious mercy, approve their services, however imperfect, will accept their tribute, however insufficient. He will gladly receive them prostrate before His altar, and will grant unto them pardon and grace. He will enable them so spiritually to eat the flesh of their Redeemer, and to d...

Yesterday's post ,  from  George D'Oyly , Sermon V 'On the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper' in  Sermons, chiefly doctrinal, with notes  (1827), gave a sense of how the High Church Receptionism of the Hackney Phalanx robustly affirmed a true participation in the Lord's Body and Blood for those faithfully receiving the Sacrament.  In the same sermon, D'Oyly reinforces this with comments on the Apostle's words in I Corinthians 10:16: Here then we have the distinct declaration of the Apostle that there is, in the holy Supper, not merely a commemoration, but a communion ... The worthy receiver therein spiritually eats of the flesh, and drinks of the blood of his blessed Redeemer; and, together with the revived and renewed remembrance of His Redeemer's sacrifice, he derives peculiar benefit from that sacrifice. This is a key part of D'Oyly's insistence throughout the sermon that the alternative to the Roman doctrines of transubstantiation and ...