"Ever espousing the cause of ... all things laudable": Anglicanism and the common welfare

On this General Election day in the United Kingdom, words from George Berkeley's Advice to the Tories Who have Taken the Oaths (1715). Berkeley here provides an excellent summary of why classical Anglicanism embodied (in Prayer Book, Articles, sermons, and practice) a robust view of the polity and of political duties: this is inherent to the Church's life and mission because of the significance of the polity in shaping "the common welfare". Without a robust political theology (evident in the Prayer Book tradition, strikingly absent from most contemporary liturgies), this significant area of our common life is untouched by the Church's proclamation, thus undermining the credibility and meaningfulness of that proclamation.

Two Things there are which influence Men with a Regard for Religion; a Sense of its Truth, and a Sense of its Usefulness. The first of these can affect those alone who are really Christians: The latter may have a more extensive Influence, and cause even Infidels to pay an outward Respect to that whereon they apprehend the common Welfare to depend. In proportion as you lessen either of these Motives, you do a manifest Disservice to Religion ...

That which, in the Eye of Reason, gives any Church or Religion the Advantage above others, is the Influence it hath upon the Lives of its Professors. It is upon this foot that the Church of England, ever espousing the Cause of Virtue, Loyalty, and all Things laudable, in opposition to Libertines, Rebels, and Fanaticks, hath maintain'd her Credit and Esteem with wise Men.

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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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