"To celebrate the Advent of the Lord": an early PECUSA sermon for Advent

During this Advent laudable Practice is sharing extracts from the sermons of Cornelius Roosevelt Duffie, Rector of Saint Thomas, New York City, 1824-27. The sermons demonstrate the vitality of the pre-1833 Old High observance of Advent. Note in this extract how we are exhorted to "celebrate the Advent of the Lord", how reference is made to "this season of Advent celebrated by the Church". Also noteworthy is how the first and second advents are held together, interdependent acts of the divine purpose that is the coming of the Kingdom and the restoration of all things.

Finally, we might also hear the deeply evocative quality of the Old High observance of Advent which was later echoed in the bidding prayer for the Nine Lessons and Carols: "Let us read and mark in Holy Scripture the tale of the loving purposes of God from the first days of our disobedience unto the glorious redemption brought us by this Holy Child". Something of this is also seen in the Episcopalian Washington Irving's 1819 essay 'Christmas', in which he describes how the Prayer Book's Advent services "dwell on the beautiful story of the origin of our faith, and the pastoral scenes that accompanied its announcement". He goes on to say, "They gradually increase in fervour and pathos during the season of Advent". Duffie's sermon, typical of such pre-1833 Old High Advent preaching, might lead us to suggest that the Nine Lessons and Carols - and, indeed, the Advent Procession - have deep roots in Old High Advent piety.

From that melancholy day, when the first man by transgression lost his high estate, and forfeited his happiness, the hope and expectation of our miserable race were constantly carried forward to the promised coming of that second Man, the seed of the woman, who was to repair the dreadful breach, and to be the restorer of all things ...

My brethren, to us all this is past. That advent which preceded the first appearing of the Saviour, and which had been celebrated for ages, has been terminated by his actual manifestation in the flesh. The Messiah, in expectation of whose coming multitudes embracing the promises had died in faith, has appeared. We can now look back upon that long train of preparation, during which states and empires, in their rise and fall, in their commotions and repose, had all tended to bring about that great day of God's appointment, "the fulness of time," when the Deliverer should appear.

We have witnessed the fulfilment of the promise, agreeably to which Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility. We have read the prodigies of his life. We are familiar with the beneficence of his character. And the circumstances of cruelty and of suffering which marked his precious death, have often been rehearsed in our ears. What was to others prophecy, has to us become history; and in the minute and wonderful coincidences which we discover, we have the fullest evidences of the truth, and of the faithfulness of God.

It is upon these evidences of his faithfulness and of his truth, my brethren, that the Church founds the call upon her members, still to celebrate the Advent of the Lord. For much as has been fulfilled, it is only a small part of that which is predicted concerning him. The first coming of Christ, according to the Scriptures, is now to us a confirmation and a proof, that, according to the Scriptures, he will come again; come in his glorious majesty in the last day; come to reward and to doom; to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe; and to punish the wicked and unbelieving with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. Still, therefore, is this season of Advent celebrated by the Church. Still does she pray, "Thy kingdom come;" still call upon her members so to regard the message, and the object of the first coming of their Lord, that at his second coming to judgment, they may be prepared to meet him.

This is the object and the purpose to which the present season is devoted by the Church. She calls upon us now again to reflect, that the kingdom of heaven is at hand; to consider that our interest and our duty are concerned in our readiness for its approach; to give our diligence to prepare the way of the Lord.

(The painting is George Harvey, 'Nightfall, St. Thomas Church, Broadway, New York', c. 1837.)

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 ...

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