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Showing posts from January, 2024

'More acceptable on its account': the second Lord's Prayer at Matins and Evensong

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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 consider  the second Lord's Prayer at Matins and Evensong: When it was repeated in the beginning of the service, it was more particularly applied for the confirmation of our pardon, and absolution. Here it has respect to the following prayers, which we have reason to presume will be more acceptable on its account. And if on the former occasion we did not offer any petition with suitable earnestness, we have now an opportunity of compensating for the omission, by asking with greater fervency, what was too slightly passed over before. The reasons Shepherd provides for this second offering of the Lord's Prayer are useful reminders of why the practice has value.  The first and second Lord's Prayer at Matins and Evensong have different functions, with this second use framing the offering of prayer and intercession at this s...

'Influenced by the example of the Lutheran Churches': an 18th century Anglican defence of imagery

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It has been disputed whether Paintings were tolerated or prohibited by the Rules of the Church of England? With these words, Thomas Wilson, Prebendary of Westminster, continued in the Introduction to The Ornaments of Churches Considered, With a Particular View to the Late Decoration of the Parish Church of St. Margaret Westminster (1761) to address the controversy described in the title, surrounding the plan to install a stained glass depiction of the Lord's crucifixion. Referring to the Injunctions , issued at the outset of Elizabeth's reign, and to the 1559 Articles of Visitation , Wilson set forth an interpretation of these documents which had been defended not only by Laudians but also in Jacobean Conformist thought . In other words, here was a well-established historical interpretation which saw in the Church of England the stance of James VI/I , "I am no Iconomachus, I quarrel not the making of Images, either for public decoration, or for men’s private uses": B...

‘Devil us from evil’: kingdom, restoration, communion

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At the Parish Eucharist on the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, 28.1.24 Mark 1:21-28 “Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be quiet and come out of him!’” It is in the very opening chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Mark.   It is the first act of the public ministry of Jesus in Mark's Gospel. It is a scene which must be understood by the author of Mark’s Gospel to reveal something fundamental about the meaning and purpose of Jesus Christ; something of the meaning and purpose of Christian faith. And that can be rather embarrassing for us.   We are, after all, talking about an evil, 'unclean' spirit. And this spirit’s claim that it is not alone: “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?”. And Jesus casting out this evil spirit. ...

'For the Greek church the case is evident': Taylor, the Eucharist, and breathing with both lungs

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In Section IV of The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament (1654), Taylor continues to invoke the teachings of the Greek Fathers and practice of the Eastern Churches. Addressing the matter of how consecration of the holy Eucharist is effected, Taylor points to the East against the late Latin and Tridentine view that the Words of Institution are "wholly called 'words of consecration'": The Greek church universally taught, that the consecration was made by the prayers of the ministering man Justin Martyr calls it "nourishment made eucharistical by prayer;" and Origen calls it "bread made a body, a holy thing by prayer;" so Damascene, "by the invocation and illumination of the Holy Ghost," "they are changed into the body and blood of Christ." But for the Greek church the case is evident and confessed.  Having called upon Greek Fathers to support the view that it is the whole Eucharistic prayer that is cons...

'This ancient form of supplication': The Lesser Litany at Matins and Evensong

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This week's extract from John Shepherd's A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796) considers the Kyries - the Lesser Litany - before the second Lord's Prayer at Matins and Evensong. Shepherd described these Kyries as "a most pathetic address to each person of the Trinity" ('pathetic' was defined by Samuel Johnson's dictionary as "affecting the passions; passionate; moving") and praised the reformers for "their wisdom in retaining this ancient form of supplication, but at the same time translating it into English". He roots their use in the daily office in a canon of the second council of Vaison (539AD) in southern Gaul, adopting the practice from Byzantine usage in the East and in the churches of Italy (which then followed Byzantine practice): The second council of Vaison observes, that in the East, and the provinces of Italy, an useful and agreeable custom prevailed of ...

'Consider the Communion Service': a Keble Epiphanytide sermon and 'our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving'

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In a sermon for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany , on the text "let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually" (Hebrews 13:15), Keble sets out how the Holy Communion in the Book of Common Prayer is "chiefly, and before all else" this "sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving": And the more we know and consider the Communion Service, the better we discern, how much of it is taken up with praising God, and giving Him thanks: first of all in the Creed, the Nicene Creed; which, though not in verses, has all the force and meaning of a most glorious and complete Hymn, proclaiming God's glory and His mercy through Jesus Christ, from the beginning to the end. Afterwards, you know, comes a portion of the service, in which we and the Angels present join in the Chant, wherewith the blessed ones in heaven laud and magnify God's glorious Name, evermore praising Him and saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts; heaven and earth are full of Thy ...

'The visible representation of sacred objects': An 18th century Anglican defence of venerating imagery

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In the Introduction to The Ornaments of Churches Considered, With a Particular View to the Late Decoration of the Parish Church of St. Margaret Westminster (1761), Thomas Wilson - a Prebendary of Westminster - provides what we might regard as a thoroughly Laudian response to those who object that his defence of imagery will inevitably lead to a situation in which reverence will be shown to such 'visible representations': But perhaps it may be affirmed, that some Respect will certainly be paid to the visible Representation of sacred Objects. And why, it may be asked, should it not? Surely the same Veneration is due to them, that we allow to every Thing employed in the Service of God, and more they will scarcely receive ... Should we see then some pious Christian fixed with Attention upon a Picture of the Crucifixon, would it not be absurd and injurious to suppose, that this was an Adoration of the Objects before him, and not the Consequence of his being led into a Train of Refl...

Mortal bodies, heavenly cities: the Christian vocation in a transitory world

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At the Parish Eucharist on the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, 21.1.24 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 “... let even those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who mourn as they they were not mourning …” Yes, more than a few eyebrows were raised this morning during our epistle reading. If we are confused, bewildered, or perplexed by this morning’s reading from Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, good. When a passage of scripture confuses, bewilders, or perplexes us, it calls us to dwell upon it; to ponder it; to consider what it might possibly be saying to us. A significant part of our perplexity about Saint Paul’s words comes from the fact that it seems to contradict what we read elsewhere in the New Testament - including elsewhere in Paul’s letters. ‘Let those who have wives be as though they had none’ - but earlier in this very letter, Saint Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians of the Lord’s teaching on marriage, recalling Jesus’ words “what God has joined togethe...

'The spiritual sense': Jeremy Taylor, the Eucharist, and breathing with both lungs

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In Section III of The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament (1654), Taylor continues to 'breathe with both lungs', invoking fathers and theologians of the East alongside the West.  Discussing John 6, refuting that there "our blessed Saviour taught the mystery of transubstantiation", alongside the Latin Fathers Tertullian, Ambrose, and Augustine, Taylor quotes Athanasius, Origen, and Theophylact (who died in the early 12th century): St. Athanasius ... saith, "The things which he speaks, are not carnal but spiritual: for to how many might his body suffice for meat, that it should become the nourishment of the whole world? But for this it was, that he put them in mind of the ascension of the Son of man into heaven, that he might draw them off from carnal and corporal senses, and that they might learn that his flesh, which he called meat, was from above, heavenly and spiritual nourishment. For, saith he, the things that I have spoken, they ...

'The same spirit of devotion': the use of 'Let us pray' at Matins and Evensong

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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 consider another often overlooked short form of words before the prayers at Matins and Evensong: "Let us pray".  This exhortation, which is often repeated in the ancient Liturgies, as well as in our own, may be considered as an invitation to prayer in general, to ardent and intense prayer in particular. In the ancient Liturgies the assistant deacon is directed frequently to call upon the people to pray, to pray earnestly, and to pray still more earnestly [a footnote refers to this exhortation in "Greek and Oriental Liturgies"]. And the same spirit of devotion our church breathes in her Liturgy by the frequent repetition of the words, "Let us pray." They here remind the people, that as they are now solemnly entering upon the grand duty of supplication and prayer, they should not suffer their thoughts t...

'The chief thing, in which Christian people shew themselves priests': a Keble sermon, the Eucharistic sacrifice, and Old High teaching

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In a sermon for the First Sunday after the Epiphany , on the text "an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices" (1 Peter 2:5), Keble offers - contrary to what this ongoing series has been suggesting, that his sermons stand firmly in continuity with Old High teaching and piety - what might be thought of as a distinctive Tractarian emphasis on the Eucharistic sacrifice: My brethren, what an honour and blessing, what a Divine and comfortable invitation is this, that our Lord should call us, even the least of us, to be partakers of His Altar, and of the holy service there performed: ministers of "the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man". For such we certainly are, as often as we but say, Amen, at the giving of thanks and blessing, wherewith the Priest consecrates the Body and Blood of Christ. We join in the offering; we have part in the spiritual sacrifice: and accordingly when it is over, the Church puts into our mouths t...

'The Ornaments of Churches Considered': An 18th century defence of the Laudian 'beauty of holiness'

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In 1758, with the parish of St. Margaret's, Westminster - the parish church of the House of Commons - requiring restoration, a stained glass window was purchased by the parish, to be installed over a new east end. This Flemish window (pictured) dated to c.1526, having been designed, at the direction of Henry VII, to mark the wedding of the then Prince Henry to Catherine of Aragon. Having purchased the window, the wardens of St. Margaret's became the centre of controversy, as objectors claimed that the design of the window - a depiction of the Crucified Lord - was 'popish', mounting a (failed) legal challenge to the plan to install the window.  This was the context in which Thomas Wilson, Prebendary of Westminster, wrote the Introduction to   The Ornaments of Churches Considered, With a Particular View to the Late Decoration of the Parish Church of St. Margaret Westminster  (1761). It was a thoroughly Laudian defence or ornaments and ceremony, with the "beautifying...

'None know but they that dwell with him': Jeremy Taylor on 'Come and see'

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Philip said to [Nathaniel], 'Come and see' - from the Gospel appointed for The Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B, John 1:43-51. Philip's words are those the Lord first addressed to Andrew and the other disciple of John the Baptist in the John 1:39. These disciples asked of Christ where he dwelt Jesus answered, 'Come and see.' It was an answer very expressive of our duty in this instance. It is not enough for us to understand where Christ inhabits, or where he is to be found; for our understandings may follow him afar off, and we receive no satisfaction unless it be to curiosity but we must go where he is, eat of his meat, wash in his lavatory, rest on his beds, and dwell with him. For the holy Jesus hath no kind influence upon those who stand at distance, save only the affections of a loadstone, apt to draw them nigher, that he may transmit his virtues by union and confederations: but if they persist in a sullen distance, they shall learn his glories as Dive...

'The Christians who use the Egyptian liturgy': Jeremy Taylor, the Eucharist, and breathing with both lungs

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In a previous post , I highlighted how in The Worthy Communicant (1660), Jeremy Taylor evoked Eastern liturgy and piety, in the form of the Liturgy of Saint James, to illustrate the mystery of the Eucharist. This highlights a possible theme in Taylor's writings on the Sacrament: a turn to the East, seeing there a richer Eucharistic theology which, he believed, had more in common with an Augustinian understanding of the Lord's presence in the Eucharist - retrieved in the Latin West by the Reformation - than with Tridentine accounts of transubstantiation. Something of this is seen in the Section I of his The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament (1654). Here Taylor turns to another Eastern liturgy, that - I assume - of Saint Cyril (used by the Copts), to demonstrate how, as he states, "the spiritual sense [of the Lord's sacramental presence] is the most real": For every degree of excellency is a degree of being, of reality, and truth: and ...

'Mutual love and charity': 'The Lord be be you' before the prayers at Matins and Evensong

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Resuming 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 a quite beautiful section on the 'The Lord be you: and with thy spirit' after the Creed and before the prayers. Shepherd here expounds the deep meaning of this too-often overlooked versicle and response, and its particular significance before the offering of prayer at Matins and Evensong. In the ancient offices the words often denote a transition from one part of the service to another, and in this light they may here be considered. Our consciences absolved from sin by confession, our affections elated with praise and thanksgiving, our understandings enlightened by hearing God's word, and our faith strengthened by a solemn profession, we now enter more particularly upon the business of prayer, and proceed "to ask those things which are requisite and necessary as well for the body, as the soul."  Before we be...

'For we too have the star in the East': Keble's Epiphany sermon and Old High piety

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In his sermon Epiphany sermon 'The duty of public worship' (from Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany , 1875), we have yet another example of Keble's preaching reflecting the norms of Old High piety, with little - if any - sense of a Tractarian rupture. This is evident in his description of the spiritual formation which shaped his congregation, a formation grounded in home, catechism, parish church, Sunday worship, Scripture, and Christmas celebrations: For we too have the star in the East: Christ's tokens have shone upon us, and that exceeding brightly. From our very babyhood, as long as we can remember, we have been told of this young Child and of Mary His Mother: our catechisms have told us of Him, we have been taught to name Him in our prayers, and to bow at that Most Holy Name: we have seen His House with the sign of His Cross upon it, far unlike all the other houses around us, and His Day far unlike all the other days of the week: we have been taken into that house,...

'Such interchange of love': Laudian and High Church poetry and hymnody for the Epiphany

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At the Epiphany on previous years, I have sought to illustrate how the preaching and piety of the Laudian and High Church traditions bring us to rejoice in the richness of this festival. This year, we turn to the poetry and hymnody of the Laudian and High Church traditions, poetry and hymnody which draws us to celebrate the rich imagery of the Epiphany, grounded in patristic teaching on the leading of the Star and the adoration of the Magi. In The Golden Grove   (1655), Jeremy Taylor provides a hymn for use 'Upon the Epiphany, and the three wise men of the East coming to worship Jesus'. The hymn begins by drawing our attention to the 'Star of wonder', described by Taylor as "A Comet dangling in the aire", heralding a momentous event of cosmic significance: A Comet dangling in the aire Presag'd the ruine both of Death and Sin; And told the wise-men of a King, The King of Glory, and the Sun Of Righteousness, who then begun To draw towards that blessed Hemi...

‘Where that Bread is, there is Bethlehem’: encountering Emmanuel with the Magi

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At the evening Eucharist for The Epiphany of Our Lord, 7.1.24 Matthew 2:10-11a “On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage.” In the quietness of this evening hour, on this day when we celebrate the Epiphany of Our Lord, we reflect upon the Magi adoring the Christ Child. They see the Christ Child and they kneel before Him in adoration. That immediacy might lead us to think that the experience of the Magi - who could see, reach out, and touch the Christ Child - is significantly different to our experience, as we assemble this evening for these Holy Mysteries. We have heard in Saint Matthew’s Gospel that the Magi “On entering the house … saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage". We, by contrast, gather in a parish church, in a land far away from Bethlehem, many centuries later. Is this feast of the Epiphany merely a commemoration of an ancient, long past event?  Or does the Epiphany - the...

Epiphany Eve: 'the neighbourhood of fruition'

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When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him  - Matthew 2:10-11, from the Gospel appointed for The Epiphany . Mercifully grant, that we, which know thee now by faith, may after this life have the fruition of thy glorious Godhead - from the collect of The Epiphany. The wise men prosecuted the business of their journey, and having heard the king, they departed, and the star (which as it seems attended their motion) went before them until it came and stood over where the young child was; where, when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. Such a joy as is usual to wearied travellers when they are entering into their inn; such a joy as when our hopes and greatest longings are laying hold upon the proper objects of their desires; a joy of certainty immediately before the possession: for that is the greatest joy, which possess...