'The restoration of quietness and peace': the Prayer for the King's Majesty at Matins and Evensong

Loyalty to her king is the boast, and the glory of the Church of England. The spirit of Christian Loyalty breathes in her devotional offices, and has ever been displayed in the lives of her sons.

When, in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796), John Shepherd opens his discussion of A Prayer for the King's Majesty with the comment above, we might assume that this reflection on the prayer will be a straightforward example of a stereotyped muscular Anglican High Toryism. Shepherd, however, presents a reading of the prayer much more nuanced than the stereotype. He notes how critics of Anglicanism and the Prayer Book misinterpret A Prayer for the King's Majesty:

By the enemies of the established church, this and similar passages in our Liturgy have been misrepresented, as recommending aggrandizement and conquest.

He goes on to provide a cautious, reserved reading of the prayer, emphasising that it seeks the "quietness and peace" of the realm", not the "aggrandizement" suggested by critics:

On Christian principles, the church must presuppose, that Christian princes will engage in no wars, which are not undertaken in just and necessary defence. She knows, that all war, excepting in cases of unjust aggression from abroad, or unnecessary resistance to the measures of government at home, is equally repugnant both to the letter and spirit of the religion taught by Jesus Christ. In her offices day by day she prays for peace. In her Litany, or general supplication, thrice a week, she deprecates war, and from "battle and murder" entreats deliverance. Whenever the prays for a blessing on the arms of her sovereign, and for victory over all his enemies, she must be understood to pray for the ends of victory: The preservation of the lawful and just rights of his Majesty, and of these Realms, deliverance from the power of enemies, and the restoration of quietness and peace

Shepherd, in other words, demonstrates the continued relevance of A Prayer for the King's Majesty for those of us in the realms of His Majesty the King in these decades of the 21st century, marked by unjust wars, threats and invasions, and by political movements and visions threatening our quietness and peace.

Comments

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...

'Whether the Lutheran Churches have right Ordinations and perfect succession of Bishops': Jeremy Taylor, 'Episcopacy Asserted', and Lutheran orders

Amidst the bitter controversies over episcopacy in the Three Kingdoms during the early 1640s, controversies which had become war in Scotland in 1637 and then in England in 1642, Jeremy Taylor wrote his Laudian defence of episcopal order, The Sacred Order and Offices of Episcopacy Asserted and Maintained . He proposed in this work that the non-episcopal Reformed churches could have had episcopally-ordered clergy: Those good people might have had order from the bishops of England or the Lutheran churches, if at least they thought our churches catholic and Christian. Leaving aside the reality that, for example, French Protestants would have been placed in an invidious political position if they had done as Taylor proposed, it is the reference to "the Lutheran churches" which is significant. To begin with, a large portion of the Lutheran churches - those in the German lands - were governed by a system of superintendency. It is almost inconceivable that Taylor was not aware of th...

laudable Practice

Search This Blog