'The cup in the Eucharist': Le Mesurier's Bampton Lectures, the common cup, and Old High rejection of sacerdotalism

In the sixth of his 1807 Bampton Lectures, On the Nature and Guilt of Schism, Le Mesurier's questioning of Roman Catholic claims, in traditional Old High fashion, can (obviously) leave us, in a radically changed ecumenical context, very uncomfortable. That said - as, hopefully, this series of posts has demonstrated - there are significant explorations of Anglican piety amidst the polemics. This is also the case with today's short extract:

I must bid you recollect that other act of most abominable presumption, by which, in express derogation of our Lord's institution, the cup in the eucharist is denied to the laity; thus also unduly exalting the clergy above their brethren: which practice they themselves justify only as a mere ordinance of the church.

It is a reminder of how receiving in both kinds - fundamental to Anglican eucharistic practice - exemplifies, and is very close to the heart of, the domesticity of Prayer Book piety, with its rejection of a sacerdotal and clerical elite. Priest and faithful alike receive in both kinds, in the hand. Such a rejection of sacerdotalism was an enduring feature of the Old High vision, to be emphasised in R.W. Jelf's 1844 Bampton Lectures.

For Martin Thornton, the domesticity - "a sane 'domestic' spirit" - of Anglican piety has significant cultural and ecclesial roots, bearing fruit in the Prayer Book, in a very Benedictine manner, serving as a rule for "an integrated and united community", in which the distinction between priest and lay person is solely in terms of ministerial function, with no "priest-lay gulf". In the words of Jelf:

True, the priest must intercede for the people; but so also must the people intercede for the priest; even as we find St. Paul, while he is careful to assure his disciples that he makes mention of them in his prayers, so does he likewise entreat their special intercessions for himself, and this upon the plain principle, that the prayers of all the faithful were as effectual as his own.

The domesticity of Anglican piety, the Old High rejection of sacerdotalism, the Prayer Book as common rule for cleric and lay person; all this finds a quiet, homely but potent focus - as Le Mesurier suggests - in the Cup being given into the hands of the laity at the holy Sacrament.

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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