Bramhall: "We refuse no communion with any Catholic Christians at this day"

From Bramhall's Discourse III: A Reply to the Bishop of Chalcedon (1656), a response to a work by the Roman titular Bishop of Chalcedon, in which it was claimed that the Church of England had forsaken sacramental communion with "all the ancient Christian Churches":

But for all ancient Churches, Grecian, Armenian, Ethiopian, & c. - none excluded, not the Roman itself, - we are so far from forsaking them, that we make the Scriptures, interpreted by their joint belief and practice, to be the rule of our reformation. And wherein their successors have not swerved from the examples of their predecessors, we maintain a strict communion with them. Only in rites and ceremonies, and such indifferent things, we use the liberty of a free Church, to choose out such as are most proper for ourselves, and most conducible to those ends for which they were first instituted, that is, to be advancements of order, modesty, decency, gravity, in the service of God, to be adjuments to attention and devotion, furtherances of edification, helps of memory, exercises of faith, the leaves that preserve the fruit, the shell that preserves the kernel of religion from contempt ...

Lastly, for communion in Sacraments, we have forsaken no Sacraments either instituted by Christ or received by the primitive Christians. We refuse no communion with any Catholic Christians at this day, and particularly with those ancient Churches which he mentions, though we may be, and have been, misrepresented one unto another (yea, though the Sacraments may be administered in some of them not with out manifest imperfection), whilst sinful duties are not obtruded upon us as conditions of communion. Under this caution we still retain communion in Sacraments with Roman Catholics. If any person be baptized or admitted into Holy Orders in their Church, we baptize them not, we ordain them not again ...

And yet we do not censure them [i.e. the Roman Communion] for these innovations in the use of the Sacraments or the like, nor thrust them out of the communion of the Catholic Church, but provide for ourselves, advise them as brethren, and so leave them to stand or fall to their own Master. So on our parts there is a reformation, but no separation.

From The Works of The Most Reverend Father in God, John Bramhall, Volume II.

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