Thanksgiving for Anglicanism in the True North: Old Holy Trinity, Middleton, Nova Scotia
On this Thanksgiving Day, those of us elsewhere who value Canadian Anglicanism can look to Old Holy Trinity as embodying a heritage, virtues, and theological commitments which represent the best - and, we might add, future hope - of Anglican life and witness in Canada.
Unfashionable though it may be within official Canadian Anglican circles to recall the significance of the Loyalists to the foundation of Anglicanism in the True North, the story of those Loyalists, defeated and banished, left behind by Progress, establishing communities in an uncertain context, building church and polity with few resources, has important biblical resonances, and offers an example of how the Anglican way can take root even in the midst of historic defeat and cultural marginalisation. As such, it might be suggested that the story of the Loyalists offers some interesting and instructive parallels with the cultural context now experienced by the Anglican Church in Canada.
Those Loyalists, seemingly vanquished and cast aside by Progress, who first built Holy Trinity, established a simple, modest parish church, to sustain an Anglican community - a reminder that the modest beauty and decent order of the Anglican way can take root even in a harsh climate, in times of affliction.
The Loyalists carried with them a vision of peace, order, and good government that was grounded in Anglican thought and piety. As the first minister of Old Holy Trinity wrote in 1783 (quoted by McConnell in his history), this vision had been tried in the fires of revolutionary zeal in their homeland:
what they have suffered from their fanatical brethren in New England has convinced them of the necessity of attaching themselves to the Church of England as the only way to support the British Constitution for whose defence they have cheerfully sacrificed their all.
Despite the passage of centuries and the much changed nature of Canadian society, the Loyalists are a reminder that part of the Anglican gift and vocation is to embody, encourage, and shape a peaceable, justly ordered community in the True North, against loud populism and aggressive enthusiasm.
McConnell's history of Old Holy Trinity notes that Charles Inglis, first Bishop of Nova Scotia, ensured that the church conformed to his design for the churches of his diocese, consecrating it in 1791. The deep connection between Inglis and Old Holy Trinity thus points to another way in which this church calls us to give thanks on this day: it is a sign of the Reformed Catholic faith and order to which Inglis was committed and which he promoted.
In this visitation charges, Inglis robustly called his clergy to an ecclesial vision embodied in the Prayer Book, episcopal order, the "primitive fathers ... which every clergyman should read", reverent administration of the Sacraments, and a moderation and generosity, for "we may be firmly attached to our principles, without illiberality, or a spirit of malevolence to others".
Inglis, therefore, brings us to the deep centre of Anglicanism, the deep centre which enriches, sustains, and holds together in unity Prayer Book catholics and Prayer Book evangelicals; those who admire the Cambridge Platonists and those who value a thoughtful Broad Church tradition; those of us who are High and Dry and those whose hearts are strangely warmed; the sermons of Tillotson, the preaching of the Hackney Phalanx, Simeon's sermons on the excellency of the liturgy, and Newman's plain and parochial sermons; those who cherish Sunday Matins and those for whom Parish Eucharist is the Sunday norm; those who are nourished by Choral Evensong and those whose sustenance comes from a quiet, contemplative celebration of the Eucharist, early on Sunday morning.
Reflecting on Old Holy Trinity on this Thanksgiving Day, therefore, we are led to give thanks for the wells dug by Charles Inglis in Canada, wells that can continue to refresh and renew Canadian Anglicanism.
And then there is the Book of Common Prayer. Old Holy Trinity was a church built for the rites and ceremonies of the Prayer Book, at Holy Table and font, at prayer desk and chancel. We might very well recollect words from the Preface to the Canadian BCP as we think of those sharing in prayer, Word, and Sacrament in Old Holy Trinity during the century in which the church was used for regular public worship:
The Book of Common Prayer is a priceless possession of our Church. By its intrinsic merits, as a book designed for the reverent and seemly worship of Almighty God, it has endeared itself to generation after generation of devout Christians throughout the world.
... this Book of Common Prayer is offered to the Church, with the hope that those who use it may become more truly what they already are: the People of God, that New Creation in Christ which finds its joy in adoration of the Creator and Redeemer of all.
It was the use of the Book of Common Prayer which gave to Old Holy Trinity is essential identity as an Anglican church. As Robert Crouse said:
More than any other factor, that common liturgy has served as a principle of cohesion, providing common standards of worship and teaching, among Churches in many ways diverse ... the relative stability of the Prayer Book tradition has provided a focus of unity, in which Anglicans could recognize their self-identity. Everything distinctively Anglican is embraced by, fostered by, and preserved by that tradition, so that the Prayer Book constitutes, in fact, the fullest expression of the consensus fidelium for Anglicans.
To consider Old Holy Trinity on this Thanksgiving Day is to be brought to give thanks for the Book of Common Prayer in the life of Canadian Anglicanism, and for the continued place and role of the 1962 BCP, an edition of the Prayer Book which Crouse described as "an excellent piece of work, which commended itself to Canadian Anglicans in general, and did much to bring us together in our liturgical life".
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