"And may most seasonably be sung over again at the Inauguration of our King": the Coronation and the joy of Anglicanism's participatory vision

As we continue today in this realm to celebrate the Coronation of His Majesty the King, I trust readers of laudable Practice will forgive a slightly shorter but no less joyous post, an extract from the sermon by George Morley, Bishop of Worcester, at the coronation of Charles II.

The words give expression to the deeply participatory theological vision which underpins an Anglican understanding of the gift of the polity, what John Hughes described as "a particular sensibility and piety which could be seen as characteristically Anglican: a sense of all creation being in God and God being in all creation, through Christ".

And therefore with Angels and Archangels, and all the Host of Heaven, let us Laud and Magnifie the glorious Name of God, and joyn with the Heavenly Quire in that Heavenly Anthem, which was first sung at the Birth of our Saviour, and may most seasonably be sung over again at the Inauguration of our King, Glory be to God in the highest, on Earth Peace, Good will towards men. And may this Day be Annually and for ever repeated with the same Joy and Exultation wherewith it is now Celebrated. Let the King have alwayes more and more cause to bless God for his People, and let the People have alwayes more and more cause to bless God for their King; and let the prolonging of dayes to the one, be the prolonging of happiness to the other ... And when he hath setled Gods House, and his own, the Church and the State, and seen them both flourish, and like to continue in a flourishing condition; when he is full of dayes and Honour, and when God hath no more work for him to do here; then, and not till then, may he exchange the Crown of cares he is to put on now, for a Crown of Glory which he shall wear for ever; And let all that Love God and the King, their Countrey, and themselves, say, Amen.

God save the King.

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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...

'Whether the Lutheran Churches have right Ordinations and perfect succession of Bishops': Jeremy Taylor, 'Episcopacy Asserted', and Lutheran orders

Amidst the bitter controversies over episcopacy in the Three Kingdoms during the early 1640s, controversies which had become war in Scotland in 1637 and then in England in 1642, Jeremy Taylor wrote his Laudian defence of episcopal order, The Sacred Order and Offices of Episcopacy Asserted and Maintained . He proposed in this work that the non-episcopal Reformed churches could have had episcopally-ordered clergy: Those good people might have had order from the bishops of England or the Lutheran churches, if at least they thought our churches catholic and Christian. Leaving aside the reality that, for example, French Protestants would have been placed in an invidious political position if they had done as Taylor proposed, it is the reference to "the Lutheran churches" which is significant. To begin with, a large portion of the Lutheran churches - those in the German lands - were governed by a system of superintendency. It is almost inconceivable that Taylor was not aware of th...

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