"Neither animated against his enemy by hatred or revenge": a sermon from the War of 1812

Ending this short Remembrancetide series of extracts from wartime sermons of Anglicans across the centuries, today an extract from John Strachan's sermon in York, Upper Canada, before the Legislative Council and House of Assembly, at the outset of the War of 1812. (Strachan would, in 1839, become the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto.) Strachan's words are a powerful reminder of the obligations combatants have to the enemy and the need for Christians to mortify the spirit of war:

A Christian Soldier is neither animated against his enemy by hatred nor revenge. These malignant passions have no influence on his operations, finding that gentle means have failed in bringing his enemy to reason, he confines himself to such acts of violence as shall bring him back to equitable terms of accommodation. In making war he keeps peace continually in his view, and whatever does not tend to bring it about, he conceives improper to be done. He separates the actions of his enemy from his person, the former he condemns, the latter he still considers worthy of his good will ... no conduct on the part enemies can free us from the obligation of doing them all the good that we can, after they have lost the power of doing us evil ...

It may be further observed, that by pursuing an enemy with hatred and revenge, we transform him into a private enemy and consider a man who has never done us any personal injury, and who has done only what he has been commanded, as guilty of his country's faults. But in wars between Nations, the individuals selected for carrying on hostilities, are seldom those who have injured us, and this ought to be an additional motive for us not to put them to needless pain, but to rest content with taking such measures as may successfully resist attacks, embarrass their Rulers, and bring them back to as sense of justice. Accordingly when we have taken any of our enemies and deprived them of the power of doing us an injury, we ought lo use them with kindness, they are now incapable of hurting us, and in our treatment of them, we can safely comply with the precept in the Gospel.

The picture is of the memorial to Sir Isaac Brock, the 'Hero of Upper Canada', who died in the Battle of Queenston Heights, 1812.

Comments

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...

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 ...

laudable Practice

Search This Blog