"To prepare ourselves for those days of memorial": a Hackney Phalanx sermon for Lent II

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 - an extract from a sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent. Pott here sets forth a thoroughly patristic understanding of Lent as a preparation for the celebration of the Lord's Passion, together with the benefits of Lenten observance for the renewal of the interior life. As mentioned in previous posts in this series, this is striking testimony to the vitality of the liturgical spirituality in the pre-1833 Church of England and, in this particular case, to the observance of Lent:

The subject well deserves our notice at this period of the year; when, as members of one household, who are connected in one form of discipline, and bound to keep one fellowship, we are invited, for wise and beneficial purposes, to prepare ourselves, by special exercises of the mind, and by fit expressions in the life and conduct, for those days of memorial, when the sufferings of our Redeemer are particularly set forth in the pious offices, and solemn celebrations, of the Christian Church.

... where such times of rest and suspension, for the purpose of religious offices, are slighted, in the same proportion will the work and influences of repentance be prevented; and to what degrees the growth of evil habits will arise by such neglects, is plain from evident experience. The benefits, indeed, of those frequent exercises of retired devotion, which distinguished the earlier ages of the Church, are now too plainly disregarded.

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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...

Pride, progressive sectarianism, and TEC on Facebook

Let me begin this post with an assumption that will be rejected by some readers of laudable Practice , but affirmed by other readers. Observing Pride is an understandable aspect of the public ministry of TEC. On previous occasions , I have rather robustly called for TEC to be much more aware and respectful of the social conservatism of the Red states and regions in which it ministers. A failure to do so risks TEC declining yet further into the irrelevance of progressive sectarianism. At the same time, TEC also obviously ministers in deep Blue states and metropolitan areas - and is the only Mainline Protestant tradition in which a majority of its members vote Democrat .* With Pride now an established civic commemoration, particularly in such contexts, there is a case for TEC affirming those aspects of Pride - the dignity of gay men and lesbian women, their contribution to civic life, and their place in the church's life - which cohere with a Christian moral vision. (I will n...

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