laudable Practice

From a 1694 sermon by John Sharp, Archbishop of York, preached on the Second Sunday in Lent.  Addressing 'The government of the thoughts', the conclusion of the sermon was an expression of an Anglican distrust of Enthusiasm (' the Weird ') for undermining the ordinary, normal routines and rhythms of our lives as embodied, social beings.  In the midst of Lent, this has some particular relevance, reminding us that Lenten disciplines should not detract from or undermine our ordinary, normal duties, interactions, and well-being.  Lent, in other words, should not be Weird . Notwithstanding what I have hitherto said, concerning the Diligence with which we are to keep our Hearts; yet this is always to be remembered, That with our Diligence we must be careful to join Discretion. My Meaning is this, We must have a care not to intend our Thoughts immoderately, and more than our Tempers will bear, even to the best things: But we must so keep our Hearts, as at the same time to pre...

They know of no Power in a Priest to pardon Sin, other than the Declaring the Gospel Pardon, upon the Conditions on which it is offered. Burnet, in the famous 1712 Preface to the Third Edition of his Pastoral Care , declared this to be one of the principles of "the Low Church-men" (noting 'I myself am ranked among them').  This conviction was reflected in the Proposed 1689 BCP's revision of the Special Absolution in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick: Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to his Church to absolve all sinners who truly repent, and believe in him, of his great mercy forgive thee thine offences; and upon thy true faith and repentance, by his authority committed to me, I pronounce thee absolved from all thy sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Should this proposed revision be dismissed as a 'Low Church' rejection of priestly absolution, retained at the Reformation in order that - in Laud...

Minimising Cranmer's influence on Anglicanism has been, since the mid-19th century, a rather common phenomenon.  This is usually rooted in an embarrassment over his clearly Reformed convictions and the implications of this for Anglicanism.  When it comes to Hooker, while denials of any 'Hookerian school' also tend to be commonplace, an acceptance of his influence on what would become Anglicanism is less controversial.  Rowan Williams , for example, identifies "Hooker's legacy" as contributing to what is "distinctively Anglican". What, however, if shared Cranmerian and Hookerian themes - themes dependent on shared theological sources - have profoundly shaped the Anglican experience?  Diarmaid MacCulloch's essay ' Tolerant Cranmer? ' immediately suggests one feature of the Cranmerian influence on Anglicanism.  The essay begins by referring to Cranmer as a "cautious, well-read humanist".  This itself might put us in mind of Hooker ...

This (obviously wise and sensible) tweet from a Roman Catholic bishop in the state of Texas , issued amidst the crisis afflicting that state, is quite striking from an Anglican perspective.  The various iterations of the Book of Common Prayer do, of course, set before us the discipline of fasting and abstinence during Lent.  In 1662 the 'Forty Days of Lent' are 'Days of Fasting, or Abstinence'.  In TEC's BCP 1979, the days of Lent are 'observed by special acts of discipline and self-denial', while in the CofI BCP 2004 they are 'Days of Discipline and Self-denial'. None of this, however, amounts to a 'law of Lenten abstinence'.  While parliamentary statute and royal proclamations required Lenten observance from the reign of Edward VI to that of Charles II, the 1604 Canons imposed no duty or law of fasting, and no ecclesiastical sanction for non-observance, beyond requiring clergy to announce the approach of fast days during public worship: E...

Another example of the Old High Church understanding of the Absolution in "the daily service" is seen an 1818/19 Charge given by John Henry Hobart, Bishop of New York:   In the service of the Church the Churchman recognizes the power of authoritative absolution in the Christian ministry, founded on the declaration of Christ to his apostles, and through them to their successors to the end of the world - "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." While he acknowledges this power in the due administration of the sacraments and of ecclesiastical discipline, he considers it as also exercised in the sentence of absolution in the daily worship, by which he maintains God certifies, to those who truly repent and believe, the pardon of their sins. But while in making this absolution a part of the daily service, he differs from his Protestant brethren in general, he even more essentially differs from the Church of Rome...

In an  Ash Wednesday 1682 sermon in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, Peter Manby, Dean of Derry, challenged "the popular mistake and abuse of the Word Superstition" regarding Lenten discipline.  The sermon begins by emphasising the discipline of fasting during Lent: Not to trouble you with any needless enquiries into this mysterious Fast of our blessed Saviour; I shall treat of it no otherwise than as matter of example to us, and shall endeavour only these two things, First. To evidence our obligation to the Virtue of Abstinence; especially at this time, so solemnly observ'd by the Christian Church ever since the Apostles days. Secondly. I shall recommend it from the consideration of those good Fruits and Benefits that result from it. As to the first; if Abstinence be a Christian duty, the neglect of it must be our sin; and whether we be obliged to it or no, we may soon be advised by the many precepts and examples both of the old and new Testament ... As the preparin...

From Richard Mant's 1836 The Churches of England and Rome Compared , an example of Old High Church teaching on the sufficiency of the general absolution at the daily service and Holy Communion, and how private confession was to be understood as a "rare occurrence".  Also significant is the emphasis on absolution "not as a judicial, but as a ministerial act", characteristic of the Anglican ethos of pastoral, rather than sacerdotal, ministry: according to the provisions of the Church of England, the "Absolution," pronounced by the minister in ordinary cases, has a general reference to the whole congregation; and it is only on one special occasion , the terms of which make it of rare occurrence, that it takes in this respect a different character ... No such confession is esteemed necessary or required by the Church of England: in common cases, a general confession of sin is provided by her as the preliminary to absolution, such confession being addressed...

Throughout Lent, laudable Practice will be considering Restoration- and Revolution-era Lenten sermons and what these suggest regarding the Lenten discipline and piety of the Church of England at the time.  On this first day of Lent, words from a 1679 sermon  (by High Churchman Benjamin Camfield ) on the Commination, described in the sermon as "such a Solemnity".   While the sermon laments the absence of a more widespread observance of the first day of Lent (probably an enduring complaint of parish clergy!), the fact that the ' Note to the Reader ', which prefaced the published sermon, addressed "Friend[s] to an Orderly Piety and Christian Life" is suggestive of a wider recognition of the significance of the day in the Restoration Church.  Also of note is the reference to Shrove Tuesday, indicative of a cultural recognition of the idea of Lenten abstinence.  The fact that the first day of Lent is referred to in the sermon as Ash Wednesday is not without sig...

For Shrovetide, a 1680 Quinquagesima - "Shrove-Sunday" - sermon , preached in Norwich Cathedral, which takes for its text words from the Epistle appointed for the opening Sunday of Septuagesimatide, "but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection".  The sermon explicitly commends "the Fast of Lent":  I am come the second time upon a Shrove-Sunday (I cannot tell whether by chance or choice) to perform the Pulpit-Office of the day; and I know not how I should better manage that Province, than by minding you of the approaching Fast of Lent, nor how better to dispose you for that, than by presenting you with a Map of St. Paul's Austerities. If I should propound unto you this day the example of Christs forty days fast in the Wilderness; you would say happily, that was Miraculous ... who is like unto the Lord our God? who by the power of his Divine Nature could support the frailties of his Human: well therefore we press not Christ's example, but w...

In the days following Quinquagesima Sunday, with Lent close, laudable Practice likes to draw attention to the gift of the Absolution pronounced at Mattins and Evensong, pointing to the robust Old High Church teaching on its efficacy.  (See here and here for previous years.) This year we turn to Thomas Secker (Archbishop of Canterbury 1758-68). In his Sermon II 'On the Liturgy' , Secker contrasts the Absolution at Mattins and Evensong with "Popish absolutions ... given in private", stressing the Prayer Book absolution makes no claim to "sacerdotal Power".  This, however, Secker emphasizes, rather than leading us to devalue the Absolution at Mattins and Evensong, points to its greater power .  In a wonderful line he describes it as a form "which tends very powerfully to comfort Men, but can never mislead them, because it leads them to trust only in God's Mercy". He continues by expounding the rubric directing that the Absolution is "prono...

The very reason the Church of England has survived and flourished over centuries is because ministry has evolved. The Anglican stability that people rightly cherish - as do we - is the result of our willingness to change. So said the Archbishops of Canterbury and York in this week's Spectator .  And they are, of course, correct.  The very idea of 'Reformation', after all, is dependent upon a recognition that the absence of change can mean the Church failing to be faithful.  As the messages to the seven churches in the Revelation to John indicate, an openness to change is part of what it means to be attentive to God's purposes: "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches".   It was, however, what the Archbishops go on to state in defence of this point that particularly caught my attention: As the theologian Hans Küng once observed: ‘To stay the same when everything else around you changes is not to stay the same.’ We might wond...

The 1689 Proposed Book of Common Prayer holds something of a bogey-man status in the High Church tradition, a wicked Latitudinarian plot to undermine the catholic nature of the BCP.  Over the next few weeks laudable Practice will consider aspects of the 1689 revision, questioning if they represent a rupture with the Laudian tradition. Perhaps one of the most immediately noticeable proposed revisions was the use of 'Minister' rather 'Priest' consistently throughout the rubrics in the Communion Office .  It has to be admitted that this did represent a change from 1662.  It was not, however, a complete rupture.  The 1662 Communion Office did use 'Priest' in most rubrics, but not in every case.  Ten rubrics use the term 'Minister'.  Many such examples clearly indicate that 'Priest' and 'Minister' are being used interchangeably.  For example: Then shall the Priest, turning to the people, rehearse distinctly all the TEN COMMANDMENTS ... Mini...

I did not clap for Captain Sir Tom Moore.  Why? Well, because I am a relatively conservative middle-aged male, a crusty Old High Churchman, and an Ulster Protestant who is distinctly uncomfortable with such public displays of emotion, regarding them as tacky and lacking in respect.  A dignified moment of silence and a thanksgiving for Captain Tom at Evensong seemed much more appropriate. Which leaves me with the question if I am part of the "cult of White British Nationalism" that has been alleged by some within the Church of England as the essence of "the cult of Captain Tom".  To be clear, my concern here is the theology of the term used.  The cleric who originally tweeted it rightly withdrew the Tweet and apologised.  That should have been the end of the matter.  It was not.  He was subject to vile racist and homophobic online attacks.  (I have previously sought to articulate my thoughts on this example of 'cancel culture' from the Right.) A c...