"The appointed means of restoring the soul to health": Perceval and Old High Church sacramental vitality

From Arthur Philip Perceval's 1836 sermon 'The Case of Naaman' (preached in the Chapel Royal), a rather good example of the sacramental vitality of the Old High Church tradition. Such teaching and piety (and see other examples here and here) exposes how ridiculous it is to suggest that a "drab and spiritually barren environment" preceded the Oxford Movement.

Oh thou afflicted soul, the fountain of Baptism is open for thee; wash, and the leprous spots shall disappear, and thy soul shall be clean: thou shalt cease to be the child of wrath, and shalt become the child of God, an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven . "Wash and be clean;" the fountain of repentance is open to thee. If, after being admitted by baptism to the title of their inheritance, thou hast done ought by sin to weaken thy title, "wash and be clean;" let the salt tears of sorrow fall upon those spots; God will have mercy upon thee, thou shalt be forgiven. "Wash and be clean;" the fountain of thy Saviour's blood, through which alone either repentance or baptism can avail, is open to thee: in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the blood of the covenant is verily and indeed offered to thee, to repair the injuries and breaches which sin may have made. Whatever sins you have committed, however foul the leprosy of thy soul, there is a virtue in that blood, through the mercy of God, sufficient to make all clean: as the Apostle says, "The blood of Jesus Christ the Righteous cleanseth us from all sin" ...

So let the Christian, in humility and faith, make use of the appointed means of restoring the soul to health: of the waters of baptism, which admit to covenant with God; of the waters of repentance, which lead to amendment of life; of the blood of the covenant, received at the Baptismal Font; of the blood of the covenant received in the holy Eucharist; by faith in God's mercy through Christ; and it will happen to him, in regard to the leprosy of his soul, like as it happened to Naaman, in regard to the leprosy of his body.

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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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