"We have our Jerusalem": A Hackney Phalanx Sermon for Low Sunday

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 First Sunday after Easter, on the disciples encountering the Risen Christ on the road to Emmaus. Reading this passage, it is difficult not to think of similarities with Newman's Sermons Plain and Parochial, which itself reminds us that Newman's theologically rich and engaging preaching stood in continuity with earlier Old High preaching, rather than contrasting with supposed 'High and Dry' sermons.

... a wide field opens to our view at this season, when we stand, as it were, between the periods of our Redeemer's resurrection and his return to the realms of light; and when the public offices and service of our Church invite us to commemorate that term of our Lord's continuance in the scene of his ministry and converse upon earth ... the state to which we belong, is by avowed profession, by the ministration of the word and sacraments through all its cities, towns, and villages, a Christian Church. Thus we have our Jerusalem, for the welfare and increase of which we have to pray, and in which it is incumbent upon us to hold a spiritual converse, and to maintain a regular communion.

... let us endeavour earnestly to keep our place among those who love the laws, and obey the ordinances of his household. Such dispositions will make part in that happiness, which will endure when base pleasures turn to shame, and when care less indolence and unrepented follies shall bear the weight of their just punishment; when the riches and the glories of this world shall fade from our remembrance; and when they only shall inherit everlasting wealth, who have cherished in their hearts the fear and love of God, returning from past errors, where they may have strayed unhappily from their first engagement; or pursuing that good path, in which they have made a gradual progress, holding fast the promises which have been sealed in the Redeemer's precious blood, and ratified yet more completely by his glorious and triumphant resurrection.

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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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