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

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 glory: Glory be to Thee, O Lord most High." The Angels, always some of them invisibly present in our assemblies, could not join in our penitential service, which comes before this, because they never had any sins to repent of: but in our thanksgivings they may and do join, because they, no less than we, are indebted to the Lord for all that they are, and have. He is their All, as He is ours: and so they help us to praise Him: and our minds being, as one may say, in tune for the very highest notes of praise, we go on to our most sacred act of adoration and homage: the Offering of the Consecrated Bread and Wine to God the Father. Which being concluded, we presently break into an earnest prayer to Him that He would, "of His fatherly goodness, mercifully accept that our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving:" and then we lift up our voices to Him in another hymn, "Glory be to God on high, and in earth peace, good will towards men;" the same which the Angels sang on earth to the shepherds, the night our Lord was born. And many, I doubt not, have noticed, and it is a comfortable thought, how nearly in that part of the service we copy our Master's doings at the end of the first Eucharist; for then, it is written, "when they had sung an hymn, they went out;" they went out into the Mount of Olives, to do and suffer all that God's mysterious Providence had appointed, or decreed to permit.

Once again we see here clear expressions of Old High piety in Keble's preaching. Above all, of course, is the reverence for the Book of Common Prayer. Particularly noticeable in this extract is an affection for and confidence in the Prayer Book's Eucharistic rite and, in stark contrast with many Ritualists, no sense whatsoever that this order was insufficient or lacking. Similarly, Keble is perfectly content to employ language which would dismissed as entirely insufficient by later Anglo-catholics: "the Communion Service". Also in the sermon he indicated, very much in Old High fashion, how 'reformed' and 'catholic' terminology were complementary, not contradictory: "in all ages, the Holy Supper has been called the Eucharist. Finally, there is the issue of the offering of the consecrated Bread and Wine in the Prayer of Consecration. Rather than being a Tractarian innovation, this was a view with deep roots in Laudian and High Church thought, in which the offering of the consecrated Bread and Wine was integral to the Eucharist as commemorative sacrifice. Taylor, for example, declared:

I mean it in the matter of sacrificing; which also is true in the most mysterious solemnity of Christianity in the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper, which is hallowed and lifted up from the common bread and wine by mystical prayers and solemn invocations of God.

Likewise, Brevint, in The Christian Sacrament and Sacrifice (1673), a work influential in the Church of England throughout the 'long' 18th century:

the Bread and Wine to be used at the Celebration of Christ's Death: which Bread in the Communion, considered as Sacrament, signifies the natural; but considered as Sacrifice, it represents the mystical Body of Christ, that is, his Church.

What is more, in classic Laudian and High Church fashion, Keble views this offering as defined by the post-Communion Prayer of Oblation.

(The picture is of Keble's parish church, All Saints, Hursley, Hampshire.)

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...

Pride, progressive sectarianism, and TEC on Facebook

Let me begin this post with an assumption that will be rejected by some readers of laudable Practice , but affirmed by other readers. Observing Pride is an understandable aspect of the public ministry of TEC. On previous occasions , I have rather robustly called for TEC to be much more aware and respectful of the social conservatism of the Red states and regions in which it ministers. A failure to do so risks TEC declining yet further into the irrelevance of progressive sectarianism. At the same time, TEC also obviously ministers in deep Blue states and metropolitan areas - and is the only Mainline Protestant tradition in which a majority of its members vote Democrat .* With Pride now an established civic commemoration, particularly in such contexts, there is a case for TEC affirming those aspects of Pride - the dignity of gay men and lesbian women, their contribution to civic life, and their place in the church's life - which cohere with a Christian moral vision. (I will n...

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