'The pattern this day set before us': a Hackney Phalanx sermon for the Annunciation

From A Course of Sermons for the Festivals and Fasts of the Church of England (1821) by Joseph Holden Pott - associated with the Hackney Phalanx - a sermon for the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

The fact itself, which has this day been set before us by particular memorial in the sacred office of the Church; the coming of the angel to the blessed Virgin, and the message then announced to her, furnish themes of meditation closely coupled with the great miracle of our redemption by the Incarnation of the Only Begotten Son of God, who took our nature in order to restore it, and to raise it far above its first station in the universe.

How far short shall we fall of the faith of her who was "blessed among women," if we can turn easily to ordinary objects from these first scenes of the Gospel; scenes in which the kingdom of God, and of his Christ was first manifested upon earth, and have been since fulfilled, and will one day be finally accomplished, in the ruin of the common foe to God and man, and in the triumph of faith, humility, and resignation, which have never failed to shine in Christian patterns, and which shall endure for ever ...

The testimony stands as sure, the facts as certain, the happy influences and effects as manifest and lasting, as the monuments of God's accomplished purposes will ever do; as fixed as the counsels and the correspondent issues of his Sovereign Will, to which the blessed Mary declared her full conformity, and on which she built her calm, but dauntless faith, her tried humility, her holy resignation ...

Consider that whole dispensation which has been confirmed in every age by the graces of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men, of the faithful, humble, unshaken, and devoted servants of an Heavenly Lord and Leader. Look well to the fruits of holiness and zeal, of hope and charity, of constancy and patience, and of well-founded and entire dependence on the Will of God, which meet together in the pattern this day set before us.

It is a significant and revealing example of Old High Marian piety. Holden confidently celebrates Mary's role in the Incarnation. There is no embarrassment about traditional honorific titles for Mary: "the blessed Virgin", "the blessed Mary". It is recognised that our faith falls "far short" of Mary's faith and that she is "the pattern" of "the fruits of holiness". All this is - as with earlier Laudian examples, and in contrast to later 19th century advanced Anglo-catholicism - unambiguously Protestant. There are no suggestions of devotions, titles, or doctrines alien to the Prayer Book. Likewise, any notion of invocation is, of course, entirely absent. Here, in other words, is the Reformed Catholic Marian piety of the Prayer Book, derived from the magisterial Reformation, celebrated by the Laudians, maintained by the Old High tradition, and which remains normative for most contemporary Anglicans.

(The picture is of the Annunciation window in Belfast Cathedral. It is a good example of the Reformed Catholic Marian piety of the Old High tradition: a Scriptural, Reformed recognition of the Blessed Virgin.)

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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