laudable Practice

Quiet, empty churches relax after strenuous attempts to define the Trinity. Ronald Blythe's words - from a wonderful collection of his writings, Next to Nature: A Lifetime in the English Countryside - speak of these Sundays after Trinity in late June, stretching into July and August. In the parish, Sunday congregations begin to decrease from mid-June, as the holiday season starts. Empty spaces in the pews are noticeable. The choir departs, returning in September. Sunday services are now said rather than sung, with a few hymns. When Choral Evensong resumes, we will be well into September. Parishioners wish each other well for travels.  It is a good time for the parish. A fallow time. A time to enjoy the quieter, simpler rhythms of these Sundays in Summer.  On those Summer Sundays when I am without clerical duties, I enjoy slipping into the back pews of nearby parish churches, hearing the words of Matins, decent hymns, and thoughtful sermons. Sunday Matins is, I think, particul...

For use at the time of a Parliamentary or Civic Election. Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, guide, we beseech thee, the minds of all those who are called at this time to exercise the duty of electing fit persons to serve in Parliament [or, in the Council of this County or City or Town]. Grant that the issue of their choice may promote thy glory and the welfare of this people; and to all those who shall be elected, give the spirit of wisdom, courage, and true godliness. And this we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. It is general election day in the United Kingdom. The above prayer is from the Church of Ireland BCP 1926 . A very similar prayer was provided in the Prayer Book as Proposed in 1928 and in the Canadian BCP 1962. How does the prayer shape our understanding of a parliamentary election? Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom ... It is a deeply Hookerian introduction to the prayer. As Hooker declares: The boundes of wisdome are large, and within them much ...

On the Sundays of July 1815, churches across this Kingdom heard prayers and sermons giving thanks for the victory of Allied arms at Waterloo. In the words of ' The Form of Prayer and Thanksgiving to Almighty God ' at Morning and Evening Prayer on the first Sunday of July: O God the Disposer of all human events ... accept our praise and thanksgiving for the signal victory which Thou haft recently vouchsafed to the Allied Armies in Flanders. Grant O merciful God, that the result of this mighty battle, terrible in conflict, but glorious beyond example in success, may put an end to the miseries of Europe, and stanch the blood of Nations. The thanksgiving reflected the hopes of peace and stability after centuries of bloody conflict unleashed by the Revolution in France. In a sermon preached in the Grange parish church, in County Armagh, on that first Sunday in July, the curate, the Reverend Charles Coleman, gave voice to the understanding of the victory of Waterloo as a deliverance...

Petertide means photos of ordinations on Anglican X/Twitter. Previous Petertides usually resulted in me sighing in grumpy middle-aged male fashion, as Church of England dioceses published photographs of newly-ordained deacons and priests leaping. I was therefore grateful this year to see a quite lovely photograph of a newly-ordained priest of the Church in Wales, with - I am guessing - her mother and her training incumbent, with a brief message referring to "today's indescribable joy". And then the vile, obnoxious comments started on X, mostly from self-proclaimed 'trad Catholics' from the United States. You can guess the type: the sort who have Integralist fantasies about executing gay people, forcibly baptising Jewish children, and setting up a Francoist dictatorship in the United States. Quite why they have any interest in an Anglican ordination across the Atlantic has yet to be meaningfully explained. Then again, however, perhaps fetid Integralist fantasies ar...

The Bishop of Chichester preached before the King, and made a great flattering sermon, which I did not like that Clergy should meddle with matters of state. So Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary on 8th July 1660. The comment stands as representative of the wisdom of Anglican laity over centuries regarding a particular type of 'political sermon'. While a loyal servant of the King and committed to the re-established Church of England, Pepys was no clericalist. A clergyman who "discoursed much" from the pulpit against marital relations during Lent was, in the words of Pepys, "the most comical man that ever I heard in my life" (7th March 1662). A "ridiculous, affected sermon ... made me angry, and some gentlemen that sat next to me" (14th June 1668). A sermon "full of words against the Nonconformists", preached at Whitsuntide, was not "proper for the day at all" (15th June 1663). Pepys here reflected wider sentiment amongst Anglica...