laudable Practice

It is appropriate that we commemorate the Royal Martyr in winter.  The bitter cold that led Charles to don two shirts on the day of his execution has a symbolic significance.  With this King's death at - in the words of the Prayer Book office for the day - "the hands of cruel and bloody men", the cold day of Hobbes and Locke had its grey dawn. As George Grant powerfully argued in his English-Speaking Justice , the dismal vision of Hobbesian and Lockean contractualism, in which justice "is conceived as the external convenience of contract" and "has nothing to do with the harmony of the inward life", was to empty of meaning the shared life of the commonweal: Increasingly, the substance of the common good was expressed rationally only as contractual reason, to the exclusion of those loyalties which gave content to that good in more traditional societies. Without "the denser loyalties of existence", in a public realm grown grey by the pa...

From what was most likely one of the last 30th January sermons commemorating the Royal Martyr in the Thirteen Colonies, words from the 1780 sermon by Charles Inglis , then Rector of Trinity Church, New York, on the text 'Fear God, honour the King': THIS serves to point out the close Connection between those Duties; it also places our Obligation to Honour the King in a striking Light, however it may be disregarded by some People. Duties which God hath thus united and joined together, no Man should ever presume to put asunder. THE tragical Event which we are enjoined by our Church to commemorate this Day, naturally suggests the Consideration of this Subject - particularly the latter Part of it, honouring the King. A Failure in this Duty did once involve our Nation in all the Horrors of Rebellion and Civil War. To such Lengths did the Phrenzy of Enthusiasm, and Republican Ambition push on the Sons of Rebellion at that Period, that they imbrued their Hands in the Blood of th...

The Church of Ireland's 1870 Declaration is often regarded (both within Ireland and in other provinces of the Communion) as a 'low church' document.  It is not.  It is, rather, a classical expression of traditional Anglicanism, thoroughly Laudian, animated by the Old High Church vision. On this eve of the commemoration of the Royal Martyr, there is perhaps no better way of illustrating this than by comparing the text of the Church of Ireland's Declaration with the words of the Royal Martyr, the King who - in the words of Jeremy Taylor - "died in the profession of her Religion". ------------------------------------- The Church of Ireland doth, as heretofore, accept and unfeignedly believe all the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, as given by inspiration of God, and containing all things necessary to salvation; and doth continue to profess the faith of Christ as professed by the Primitive Church. Neither shall we ever give Way to the...

From the article by Frances Ward in the Church Times , on the late Roger Scruton: His secular friends insist that Scruton continued to be an atheist; that his Christianity was merely cultural Anglicanism.  It was that, certainly - but also more.  He regained his religion through philosophy, not as a leap of faith, but as an appreciation of a deep ordering to life, culture, and meaning which ultimately leads to God. Not only is this an excellent description of Scruton's Anglican faith, it also summarises how Anglicanism has traditionally engaged with culture and society.  A rich natural theology has underpinned such Anglicanism. Yes, it has been rightly and necessarily qualified by a robust Augustinian recognition of original sin, but this has not been interpreted so as to obscure the meaning of the first article of the Creed, that God is the maker of heaven and earth .  In other words, the "deep ordering to life, culture, and meaning which ultimately leads to G...

Dec. 13th 1776 This day being appointed a Fast on our Majesty's arms against the rebel Americans, I went to Church this morning and read the prayers appointed for the same.  I had as full a congregation present as I have in an afternoon on a Sunday, very few that did not come ... Feb. 4th 1780 This being a Day a for general Fast to be observed thro’ the Kingdom, to beg of Almighty God his Assistance in our present troubles being at open rupture with America, France and Spain, and a Blessing on our Fleets and Armies; I therefore went to Weston Church about ii o’clock and read the proper Prayers on the Occasion ... there was a very respectable congregation that attended at it. April 19th 1793 This being a Day appointed to be observed as a publick Fast in these seditious times and France (the avowed disturbers of all Peace in Europe) having declared War against us, unprovoked, I walked to Church about 11. o'clock and read Prayers provided on the occasion ... a large C...

Notes to encourage, using words of Laud, a "decent uniformity" in the saying of the Prayer of Consecration (also known as the Eucharistic Prayer). 1. Versus populum It is  de rigueur within contemporary Anglicanism.  The noble North End tradition (which only became associated with a low church stance in the later 19th century) has almost entirely died out across North Atlantic Anglicanism, with a few hold-outs in Ireland and England, and ad orientem is identified with a particular expression of minority Anglo-Catholicism. What should the response be of a contemporary Laudianism to this state of affairs?  While there is a good case for renewing the North End tradition as part of a rich classical Anglican Eucharistic theology and practice , it is unlikely that it will again become a widespread, unifying practice.  As for ad orientem , Sarah Coakley's suggestion, that rather than embodying a Tridentine theology of priesthood it points to the priest "representi...

It is with some trepidation that I return to the issue of the orans gesture, following on from Tuesday's post on the issue. I do not want readers to think that I am obsessing about this now conventional gesture within Anglicanism, a gesture which does not seem to carry any particular significance in contemporary use beyond indicating the solemnity of the prayer offered. That said, I have been struck by the lack of reference to orans in classical Prayer Book commentaries.  Let me give some examples from the early 19th century. An 1807 commentary by Andrew Fowler, a priest in PECUSA, on the BCP 1789 provided only a brief restatement of the rubric, with no reference to gesture beyond the priest standing. The prayer of consecration, which is to be said by the priest, standing, after he hath so ordered the bread and wine, that he may with the more readiness and decency break the bread. Similarly Mant in his 1820 Notes   only makes reference to the priest standing, and...

Those responsible for Earth & Altar - a new blog emanating from a group within TEC - are to be congratulated for an excellent contribution to wider Anglican discussion and debate. The commitment to "an expansively conceived credal orthodoxy as fully compatible with LGBTQ inclusion, gender equality, and racial justice" is an important part of a wider retrieval of creedal orthodoxy within what we might call the post-liberal generation. It is in this spirit that I want to respond to a recent post on the site by Andrew McGowan , Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and Professor of Anglican Studies at Yale Divinity School.  Against the background of another round of "ill-defined" liturgical revision in TEC, he understandably urges that a fuller reception of the 1979 BCP should occur before further reforms. In doing so, however, he takes aim at what he describes as "clinging to the ritual structures of 1928" while using the text of 1979.  We ...

In  The History of the Troubles and Trial of William Laud , we read of an interesting rejection by Laud of the orans gesture now commonly used by Anglican priests during the consecration of the Eucharist.  Laud was responding to an allegation by critics of the 1637 Scottish book , that the rubric before the Prayer of Consecration encouraged the gesture.  The rubric reads: Then the Presbyter standing up, shall say the prayer of consecration, as followeth, but then during the time of consecration, he shall stand at such a part of the holy Table, where he may with the more ease and decency use both his hands. As Laud points out, "use both his hands" quite clearly has reference to the manual acts prescribed in the rubrics of the Prayer of Consecration.  Laud's accusers, however, had a rather fanciful notion that something quite different was being indicated.  Laud quotes them: He must have the use of both his Hands, not for any thing he hath to do about the...

From   John Jebb's  1843  The Choral Service of the United Church of England and Ireland: Being an Enquiry into the Liturgical System of the Cathedral and Collegiate Foundations of the Anglican Communion , a description of the first exhortation in the Communion Office : ... one of the most complete, heart-searching sermons in our language, composed with a freedom and melody of rhythm unequalled perhaps in any human composition, it is impossible to say.  What is striking about this description is the stark contrast with the prevailing liturgical orthodoxy within Anglicanism today, in which the exhortations are damned as expressions of a gloomy and negative spirituality.  For Jebb, as a representative of the Old High Church tradition, it was anything but this.  Rather, it was the embodiment of a vibrant Eucharistic piety which had marked Anglicanism throughout the 'long' 18th century. This was a Eucharistic piety which held together the grace of "the ...

As it so happens, this coming Sunday is the day in the church’s calendar when we remember the first miracle performed by Christ, turning water into wine. This trumps ‘Dry January’. The words are from a Giles Fraser column on the late Roger Scruton's philosophy of wine .  And, indeed, in the traditional Prayer Book lectionary, the Gospel reading appointed for Holy Communion on The Second Sunday after the Epiphany is John 2:1-11.  Not so, however, in contemporary lectionaries, in which this reading is only heard every third year. Fraser's words highlight this characteristic weakness in contemporary lectionaries: why should it be only every third year that we hear of the joy of the Lord's miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee?  This, after all, is one of the Lord's epiphanies, and in the traditional lectionary, following on from the adoration of the Magi on the Epiphany and the Christ Child in the Temple on The First Sunday after the Epiphany, it is rightly pla...

'Integral humanism' provides a way of understanding our relation to culture and society, including very concrete material practices. In his essay 'Anglicanism as Integral Humanism: A de Lubacian Reading of the Church of England' (2013, to be found in the volume A Graced Life ), the late John Hughes set out an understanding of what he regarded to be "a strong, perhaps dominant, tradition" within classical Anglicanism: an "integral humanism" which avoided "the theological and philosophical dualisms of the late medieval and early modern period", and given expression in "concrete material practices" within the Anglican tradition.  The term itself - "integral humanism" - he took from the French Roman Catholic philosopher and theologian Jacques Maritain. This vision of a "theocentric humanism" is convincingly (and superbly) applied by Hughes to the Anglican experience. Hooker's work, in particular, he ident...

In his The Life of Archbishop Laud (1836), Charles Webb Le Bas (a representative of the Old High Church tradition, and a member of the Hackney Phalanx), challenged the Whig interpretation's portrayal of Laud as the supporter of clericalism and arbitrary power.  Against this, Le Bas points to Laud as a defender of liberty against the ecclesial and civic authoritarianism of the systems of both Rome and Geneva.  Episcopacy as a bulwark against the exalted claims of papacy and presbytery; the determination "not to suffer unnecessary [doctrinal] Disputations, Altercations, or Questions to be raised" (from His Majesty's Declaration ) rather than theological systems promoting "curious and unhappy differences"; and the commitment to promote and protect the civic peace; here was Laud's defence of the liberty and peace of the Church and Commonwealth, against ecclesial and theological claims contrary to both.  A significant understanding of the Anglican trad...

Regaining religion The decline of Christianity, I maintain, involves, for many people, not the freedom from religious need, but the loss of concepts that would enable them to assuage it and, by assuaging it, to open their knowledge and their will to the human reality. For them the loss of religion is an epistemological loss - a loss of knowledge. Losing that knowledge is not a liberation but a fall -   Gentle Regrets: Thoughts from a Life (2006). In Gentle Regrets , Scruton offered both a personal narrative and a broader cultural analysis to provide an alternative to casual, commonplace assumptions about the inevitability of secularism.  Interpreting the process of secularisation as loss (contrary to to some influential liberal and evangelical Anglican accounts, united by their hostility to the memory of popular Anglican practice and conformity), Scruton insisted "that the loss need not occur".  The significance of this narrative is emphasised when it is plac...