Advent with the Hackney Phalanx: "the season of retirement, of self-examination, of prayer, of abstinence"

From A Course of Sermons, for the Lord's Day throughout the Year, Volume I (1817) by Joseph Holden Pott - associated with the Hackney Phalanx - a sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, setting before us the example and teaching of St John the Baptist as a pattern for Christian repentance:

Let it not be thought, then, that the well chosen season of retirement, of self-examination, of prayer, and abstinence as occasion may require, or necessity permit, with every token of sincere and heartfelt sorrow for things done amiss, or things left undone, for faults and follies deplored perhaps, but yet not wholly cured, or for misdeeds and neglects which have succeeded of some other kind; let us not think that these things are no longer: useful or expedient; that there is no garb of humiliation in the Christian household. They must have smaller experience in the way that leads to that safe and honoured path; which goes forward to the realms of perfect freedom, who can make light of the pattern of repentance ...

Let us remember, then, that the holy Baptist's character and manners are not foreign to the Christian rule. Although they present one only aspect of that pattern, yet it is alas! that which may frequently be most proper and becoming to us. In a word, let us learn from him what those exercises are which belong to penitence and reformation, in whatsoever measures or degrees we find them to be needful ...

Thus, also, let it be again remembered, that although the garb of John be not the sole garment of the Christian Church, nor his mode of life the standing pattern and example for the Christian candidate, yet his discipline will find its place, and will not want its occasions if we form right examinations of ourselves. They who live much in the world, if they would serve God truly, will not fail to find the fitness of the pattern in many a day of recollection.

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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...

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

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