Skip to main content

"That we might see the bleak midwinter of our souls": the case for an Old High Church Advent

Many thanks to The North American Anglican for publishing my essay 'Bleak Midwinter: Why we need an Old High Church Advent'.  The essay suggests that the liturgically sparse, almost bare nature of an Old High Church Advent could have continued theological significance and value.  This is particularly so when contrasted with the abundance of contemporary liturgical material which can obscure the Advent proclamation.

Against this background, the sparse nature of an Old High Church Advent could provide a vigorous alternative. The bare nature of the liturgical provision for the season in the classical Prayer Book tradition – no Proper Preface, no seasonal antiphons or canticles, no Advent Wreath prayers – echoes the winter landscape and thus with vigorous, uninterrupted voice the liturgy calls us into deep eschatological hope. We are not overwhelmed or distracted by additional material and numerous themes. Rather, like the winter landscape, we are brought to realize our entire dependence on the Lord’s Advent for life and light.

An Old High Church Advent also would allow us to take cognizance of a warning issued by Rowan Williams in an Advent sermon. The “richness of religious eros” permeating Advent, with its “beautiful, elegiac” tones, can dangerously combine with “the power of our urge to idolatry.” We need, he said, Advent in its “deeper aspect … pushing us back into the experience of Israel and Israel’s unconsoled rejection of idols”, that we may be confronted and challenged by the One who “brings our idolatry – philosophical and mythological alike – to judgement.” We need, in other words, that stark daily proclamation throughout the season of Advent: “when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead.”

The Advent collect, what one late 17th century High Church preacher termed “our incomparable Collect proper for the Season,” stands at the heart of an Old Church Advent. In many contemporary liturgies it has been relegated to merely the collect for the First Sunday of Advent, rather than the determining liturgical text of the season. Other seasonal material crowds these four short weeks. In an era when Anglican liturgy and preaching remains too influenced by the legacy of mid- and late-20th century theologies committed to an unconvincing and unsatisfying overly-realized eschatology, perhaps we do need to rediscover the Old High Church Advent, stripping away some liturgical riches that we might see the bleak midwinter of our souls, standing with the sparsest resources of our own, bare of any merits, before the refining judgement of the Advent of the Lord.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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 ...
25 comments
Read more

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...
19 comments
Read more

1928 practices and the 1979 book: unthinking conservatism or popular piety?

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 ...
2 comments
Read more