"The dignity of that holy mystery": the First Exhortation and Anglican Eucharistic piety

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 most comfortable Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ" with "the dignity of that holy mystery", in which penitential preparation led to a deeper gratitude for "our spiritual food and sustenance in that holy Sacrament".

Note, too, Jebb's emphasis on the exhortation sharing in the affective nature of the Prayer Book Communion Office, with its "melody of rhythm" reflecting those rhythms which powerfully shape the Communion Office.

Finally, he points to an example of how the first exhortation was used to sustain a vibrant Eucharistic piety:

In the Cathedral of Christ Church, in Dublin, the first of these Exhortations is duly read at length every month, and before the great Festivals.

Amidst the rather evident failure of the Parish Communion movement - above its failure to promote a Sacramental piety and a culture of preparation for reception - perhaps contemporary Anglicanism would do well to reflect on the example Jebb sets before us.

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