laudable Practice

On this feast of Our Lord's Nativity, an extract from Lancelot Andrewes' sermon for Christmas Day 1623 , on the text 'That in the dispensations of the fulness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in Heaven and which are on earth even in Him' (Ephesians 1:10). Here Andrewes, in a richly patristic fashion, sets forth the recapitulation of all things in the Incarnate Word, the recapitulation in which we participate through the Eucharist, in anticipation of the "merry joyful feast" that will be the renewal of all things. As we confess the Incarnation of the Word, receive the Holy Mysteries, and celebrate this day and season with joy, Andrewes provides a beautiful, powerful meditation on our salvation: All in heaven recapitulate into One, that is God; all in earth recapitulate into one, that is man. Gather these two now, and all are gathered, all the things in either. And now at this last great recollection of God and man, ...

At the Parish Eucharist on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, 24.12.23 Luke 1:26-38 “The angel said to [Mary], ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you’.” Every Christmas, we hear it at our carol services: “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary”. Every Christmas, we sing about it in our carols: ‘Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child’, ‘Late in time behold Him come, Offspring of a Virgin's womb’. Every Sunday, when we gather for the Eucharist, we declare it to be part of the Church’s faith in the Nicene Creed: ‘was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary’. At Baptism, at Confirmation, and daily at Morning and Evening Prayer in the Church of Ireland, we profess our faith in it, in the summary of the Christian faith that is the Apostles’ Creed: ‘conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the ...

As Christmas approaches, it is usual to find some online Anglican voices protesting at the use of 'Midnight Mass' to describe the First Eucharist of Christmas.  Usually these are robustly Protestant voices, angered by the use of a term which - it is contended - was entirely rejected at the Reformation.  At other times - perhaps rather more surprisingly - it can be a minority of Anglo-catholics, criticising its use in Anglican parishes which do not otherwise describe the Eucharist as 'Mass'.  Let us begin with those Protestant voices.  That 'Mass' ceased to be used in the Church of England as a title for the Eucharist in 1552 is a fact. There was good reason for this in light of the significant differences between the Prayer Book Eucharist and the Tridentine Mass: communion in both kinds, denial of of the eucharistic sacrifice as a propitiatory sacrifice, use of the vernacular, rejection of the doctrine of transubstantiation for more deeply Augustinian accounts o...

In The Great Exemplar , when reflecting upon the Annunciation, Jeremy Taylor echoes the long-established tradition that the Blessed Virgin Mary was at prayer when the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her: "she was in her oratory, private and devout". The illustration which accompanied Taylor's reflections (pictured) was also clearly based on the equally long-established iconography of the Annunciation. Here, then, is a deeply traditional Marian piety within a reformed context (for Taylor, as a good Laudian son of the Church of England would not countenance prayers invoking Mary).  What then follows is profoundly beautiful meditation on the "quiet religion" of the Blessed Virgin, with Mary a model for the vast majority of Christians in a way that is not and cannot be so with Saint Paul. What is more, Taylor here presents the Blessed Virgin as a contemplative, encouraging us in a "quiet and silent piety", in "those graces which walk in a veil and silen...

As we consider extracts from Keble's Advent sermons in his Sermons for the Christian Year: Advent to Christmas Eve , we turn to a sermon for the Third Sunday in Advent, beginning Advent Ember Week.  In referring to the Prayer Book collect of the week, Keble sets forth a vision of ordained ministry that would have been very familiar from Old High pulpits. The "mysteries" referred to in the collect are, he says, the two Sacraments: and note, two  Sacraments. The meaning of these Sacraments is expounded by means of the Catechism. Alongside the two Sacraments is preaching, the proclamation of "the mysteries of His Word". Yet again, in other words, we see Keble's Advent preaching suggesting little in the way of a distinctive Tractarian spirituality; instead he is standing firmly in continuity with Old High preaching and piety. And this so much the more, as we, who minister in the Church of God, whether worthily or unworthily, have a trust in some respects greater...

Last week , we reflected on how John Shepherd, in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796), expounded the meaning of the place of the Apostles' Creed at Matins and Evensong. This week, we consider Shepherd's account of the ceremonies accompanying the Creed - that it is said by the congregation, standing, facing east, with the head bowed at the Name of Jesus.  Shepherd begins by noting that there is salvific significance to the congregation joining with the minister in the saying of the Creed: It is the confession of every person present, and therefore every one ought personally to pronounce it with the minister. It should be remembered, that our Creed does not, like our prayers, run in the plural number. The minister does not say in the name of the congregation, "We believe," but he for himself, and every individual for himself, is directed to say, "I believe" ... every man must believe for h...

That it may please thee to illuminate all Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, with true knowledge and understanding of thy Word; and that both by their preaching and living they may set it forth and shew it accordingly,  We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. In this Advent Ember Week, with Christmas close, this petition from the Litany has a particular relevance, bringing us to pray for bishops, priests, and deacons who will preaching on the feast of the Nativity. In his ' Rules and Advices ' to his clergy, Jeremy Taylor emphasised the importance of preaching at the principal feasts: Let every Preacher in his Parish take care to explicate to the people the Mysteries of the great Festivals, as of Christmas, Easter, Ascension-day, Whitsunday, Trinity Sunday, the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary; because these Feasts containing in them the great Fundamentals of our Faith, will with most advantage convey the mysteries to the people, and fix them in their memories, by the solemni...

From Jeremy Taylor's sermon for Advent Sunday - ' Dooms-Day Book: or, Christ's Advent to Judgement ' - a particularly powerful extract on how Christian duties to the poor are to be understood in light of the Lord's advent and and the last judgement: Every man that lives wickedly disgraces the religion and institution of Jesus, he discourages strangers from entring into it, he weakens the hands of them that are in already, and makes that the adversaries speak reproachfully of the Name of Christ; but although it is certain our Lord and Judge will deeply resent all these things, yet there is one thing which he takes more tenderly, and that is, the uncharitablenesse of men towards his poor: It shall then be upbraided to them by the Judge, that himself was hungry and they refused to give meat to him that gave them his body and heart-bloud, to feed them and quench their thirst; that they denyed a robe to cover his nakednesse, and yet he would have cloathed their souls wit...

For the final time, an extract from Le Mesurier's 1807 Bampton Lectures, On the Nature and Guilt of Schism . Here Le Mesurier provides a description of Anglicanism combining modesty, a gentle native pride, and a quiet confidence. It remains an attractive and wise description, a reminder of how Anglicanism, at its best, has no need for exalted claims, for faithfully administering Word and Sacrament for the salvation of souls is sufficient. Perfection I do not attribute to her; for God has given perfection to no mortal being, and to no institution upon earth, however proceeding originally from himself. By the very infirmity which shews itself in almost every act of every man, and of every body of men, we are forcibly and hourly reminded that we have no "continuing city" here; but that we must look for happiness, and for reward, to state of things far different, and "to come." Yet I must say that it is a great blessing, and a great privilege, too apt to be despised...

Having considered John Shepherd's reflections on the canticles at Matins and Evensong in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796), we now turn to the Apostles' Creed. Many contemporary Anglican versions of the daily office, of course, omit the Creed as unnecessary or perhaps even as a distraction from the purpose of daily prayer. Shepherd robustly demonstrates otherwise, pointing to the Creed as shaping our response to the reading of holy Scripture and providing the basis for our prayers to the Triune God: That the place in which the Creed stands in our Morning and Evening Prayer, is the most proper that could be chosen, will be evident, if we consider, what precedes, and what follows it. 1. Before it, are the Lessons taken out of the Holy Scriptures. "Faith comes by hearing," and we having heard the word of God, profess our belief of it ... We trust it will profit us, who immediately after hearing it,...

 As we consider extracts from Keble's Advent sermons in his Sermons for the Christian Year: Advent to Christmas Eve , we turn to a sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent. As indicated last week , what guides these readings is my view that little, if anything, distinguished Keble's preaching from sermons delivered in Old High pulpits.  Today's extract is a particularly striking example of this. Reflecting on the words of the collect for the Second Sunday of Advent, Keble urges faithful private reading of holy Scripture, and a serious devotion to such reading of the Scriptures.  Two particular aspects of this extract are worth noting. Firstly, reflecting Old High convictions, the Scriptures of the New Testament are regarded as "the new law": in other words, we "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" the teaching of the New Testament in order that it may bear fruit in our lives. Good works and the moral life are the fruit of reading the Scriptures, not the...

There are eleven penitential sentences at the beginning of Morning and Evening Prayer in BCP 1662 . It is not without interest that eight of these eleven sentences are from the scriptures of the Old Testament. This can have an important significance during the season of Advent, placing the Church alongside ancient Israel in hearing the call to repentance, acknowledging that our sins are those of faithless Israel. Three of the sentences particularly demonstrate this. The first sentence, Ezekiel 18:27, is part of the prophetic discourse which concludes, "Therefore will I judge you, O house of Israel". Similarly, Joel 2:13 follows the prophet's call, "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion". Daniel 9:9-10 is from Daniel's confession, acknowledging of Israel, "we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and done wickedly, and rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgements".  These sentences, therefore, in a particular way place the Church ...

'Mary is for life, not just for Christmas' It was an Anglo-catholic response on 'X' to an evangelical asking, when about to address a gathering of pastors on the theme of preparation for Christmas, "what would be the most helpful thing for me to say to the pastors?". After smiling at the online ecclesiastical humour, the phrase did strike me as a very good description of the Marian piety of Prayer Book Anglicanism. This day on which we commemorate the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a particularly appropriate occasion to deliver an Old High affirmation of 'Mary is for life, not just for Christmas'. The role of the blessed Virgin - the title for Mary used in Article II of the Thirty-nine - in the mystery of the Incarnation is confessed twice daily, morning and evening, in Prayer Book Matins and Evensong.  Every day of the year, we confess in the Creed "born of the Virgin Mary", a recognition that our redemption in and through the Lord...

Continuing with extracts from John Shepherd's A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796), we turn to the Deus Misereatur at Evensong. Shepherd emphasises that rather than being a poor alternative for the Nunc Dimittis, and so to be avoided, Deus Misereatur's significant similarities with the Song of Simeon point to the unity of the covenants and the Gospel as the fulfillment of the hope of Israel: Admitting this psalm to be prophetical of the Gospel dispensation, we shall discover a close affinity between it, and the preceding hymn. The psalm prays for that "saving health," which Simeon rejoiced to see; for the conversion of the nations, and for evangelical blessings. It likewise foretells the joy and gladness that shall accompany the more general diffusion of the knowledge of the Gospel of Christ. What is more, the use of this psalm in Christian prayer also gives expression to the Apostle's vision of th...

During the weeks of Advent, laudable Practice will consider extracts from Keble's Advent sermons in his Sermons for the Christian Year: Advent to Christmas Eve . Guiding these readings is my view that little, if anything, distinguished Keble's preaching (and the same could be said of Newman's Plain and Parochial Sermons ) from the sermons delivered in Old High pulpits. In particular, Keble displays an understanding of Anglican piety that was distinctly traditional. In this extract from an Advent Sunday sermon on the 1662 gospel reading (Matthew 21:1-13), Keble both evokes the piety of the Prayer Book and gently reflects on the passing of another year, with a characteristically Old High emphasis - contra the Enthusiasts - on "little silent ways" in the Christian life. Our very Prayer books seem to ask us, now on the morning of Advent Sunday, how we have used them during the year that is past. We have turned over their leaves regularly. Have our minds and hearts ...

On the last days before Advent, a sharp frost fell on Jeremy Taylor country.  It provided a deeply evocative landscape in which to pray, for the last time this year, the Stir-up collect and in which to gather in the darkened parish church on Sunday evening for the Advent Procession. Frost. It is the cold Winter of Narnia. In his wonderful new book Paths in the Snow: A literary journey through 'The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe' , Jem Bloomfield notes that Narnia's everlasting Winter, under the spell of the White Witch, is an echo of the carol: Adam lay y-bounden Bounden in a bond Four thousand winter Thought he not too long. Narnia's Winter, says, Bloomfield, is "quite a precise description of Advent ... 'Always winter, but never Christmas' gets over the sense of waiting which this period involves".  And so we wait amidst the harsh frost in Jeremy Taylor country in these early days of Advent, giving voice to the ancient yearning of Israel and the Ch...

At the early Eucharist on Advent Sunday, 2023 Mark 13:24-37 “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” Advent begins with words from Jesus to shake us. Jesus is sitting on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, Mark tells us, “opposite the Temple”. His disciples have expressed their awe at the imposing sight of the Temple.  Jesus’ response begins this apocalyptic discourse: “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down”. It is a declaration that all earthly things pass: all empires, all institutions, all claims to power, all ideologies, all ages, all possessions … they pass, they do not endure. Our reading then  opens with Jesus quoting the Prophet Isaiah, speaking to the ancient people of Israel in the face of the power and might of the of Babylonian empire. Isaiah declared that the grandeur, wealth, and pride of...

We are in the dark days before Advent.  The darkness, the cold, the quiet landscape on the cusp of Winter, with the only liturgical marker being the Stir-up collect: this gives particular character to these days, days when we wait in cold and darkness for Advent.  We might even think of it as an ecclesiastical 'microseason', to use a term beautifully explored in Nature's Calendar: The British year in 72 Seasons (2023).  Indeed, the book identifies a late November microseason which falls around Stir-up, entitling it 'Even the Light Grows Cold', saying of this microseason: As November unfurls the light lowers, casting long shadows. This is the moment in the year when the bronze and golden leaf fall comes to its end, and in these conditions our eyes recalibrate ... Our colour vision shifts in late November, when the axis of the earth has shifted so that the sun's rays reach us at oblique angles and the colours of deciduous foliage have first transmuted and then di...