laudable Practice

Many an admiring reader of the "Christian Year" heard with regret that the author of it had written his last work, "On Eucharistical Adoration," with the object of defending the worship of Christ's Body and Blood in the Eucharist, or of His Humanity present there. By these expressions we have to hope that he means no more than the worship of Christ Himself present, for, in truth, they have a rather Nestorian savour.  In The Teaching of the Anglican Divines in the Time of King James I and King Charles I on the Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist (1858), Henry Charles Groves - a clergyman of the Church of Ireland - gave expression to the Old High lament that the traditional High Church parson of The Christian Year had become the Tractarian of On Eucharistical Adoration . The radical change in Eucharistic theology between these two works - from the Virtualism of the former to the explicit rejection of Hooker in the latter - is itself an indicator of the rupture occasi...

There is no concept of "consecration" anywhere in the service at all. The only "moment" is reception—and the only point where the bread and wine signify the body and blood is at reception. If a point of "consecration" has to be sought - then it is at reception. This, of course, is the famous and influential judgement of Colin Buchanan in What Did Cranmer Think He Was Doing? It is, perhaps, no surprise that laudable Practice rather firmly rejects Buchanan's interpretation. Cranmer, after all, did have a theology of consecration, as set out quite clearly in his Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ (1550): Consecration is the separation of any thing from a profane and worldly use unto a spiritual and godly use. And therefore when usual and common water is taken from other uses, and put to the use of baptism, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, then it may rightly be c...

Though we have already either in the Morning Prayer, or Litany, or both, prayed for the King's Majesty, yet the Communion being an office distinct from them, and originally performed at a different hour, it was proper that a prayer for the King should be inserted here likewise, and the Church has for the sake of variety provided us with two Collects, either of which may be used. With these words John Shepherd - in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801) - turns to another distinctive provision in BCP 1662, the praying of the Collect for the King before the Collect of the Day. He notes how both of the Collects provided include petitions for the Sovereign's duty "to defend in the exercise of true religion": In these Collects the subject of petition is nearly the same; but this distinction may be observed, that in the latter we pray exclusively for the King, while in the former we pray both for King and people, that is, fo...

Continuing with extracts from a sermon by Bishop Bull (d.1710) entitled ' The Blessed Virgin's low and exalted condition ', on the text Luke 1:48-49, having noted last week Bull's inherently Protestant understanding of the reverence due to the Blessed Virgin, today we see how he further articulates the grounds for this reverence in the grace and truth of the Incarnation: What was the singular grace and favour bestowed on the blessed Virgin. A most transcendent favour it was. For ... She was of all the women, of all the virgins in Israel, elected and chosen by God, to be the instrument of bringing into the world the long-desired Messias. All the virtuous daughters of Jacob, a good while before the revelation of our Saviour, but especially in the age when He appeared, (the time wherein they saw the more punctual and remarkable prophecies concerning the coming of the Messias fulfilled,) desired, and were not without hopes each of them, that they might have had this honour...

From a 1773 speech by Burke in the House of Commons, in which he points to the gracious and generous latitude in the 18th century Church of England regarding the Articles of Religion, with particular reference to Article 17.  There are those of the Dissenters who think more rigidly of the doctrine of the Articles relative to Predestination than others do. They sign the Article relative to it ex animo, and literally. Others allow a latitude of construction. These two parties are in the Church, as well as among the Dissenters; yet in the Church we live quietly under the same roof. I do not see why, as long as Providence gives us no further light into this great mystery, we should not leave things as the Divine Wisdom has left them. We see here a Burkean wisdom for Anglicanism; a gracious, wise, rational latitude, after Burnet , regarding the Articles of Religion (clerical subscription to which, we must recall, was robustly defended by Burke); a recognition that probing beyond that w...

From a sermon preached in Ballymena Parish Church, County Antrim, on 31st August 1862, responding to Nonconformist commemorations of the bicentenary of the so-called 'Black Bartholomew', the anniversary of the Act of Uniformity 1662. The preacher was the Incumbent, the Reverend Edward Maguire.  Maguire noted that in his "dealings and intercourse with my Presbyterian and other dissenting friends in this and every other place, I have sincerely endeavoured to maintain peace, harmony, and good will towards all". However, "the causeless revival of the 'Black Bartholomew' controversy" had to be addressed in order to defend "my beloved Church from much unmerited obloquy and censure".  In the sermon, Maguire set forth the reasonableness and moderation of the provisions of the Act of Uniformity: In a Church which holds, and rightly holds, that Episcopal ordination is essential to constitute a minister of her sanctuary, it was not to be expected tha...

Continuing his critique of Pusey in The Teaching of the Anglican Divines in the Time of King James I and King Charles I on the Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist (1858), Henry Charles Groves - a clergyman of the Church of Ireland - addresses the "simple question" raised by Pusey: But with Dr. Pusey, "the simple question is, 'is our Lord and God present there?'" He must indeed be simple that would allow that. It certainly is the simple question with the Romanists, when defending themselves against the attacks which their Protestant assailants make on them. But the simple question with Anglican divines was, "Is the Lord sensibly present there?" It was thus Cosin argued.  Groves quotes from Cosin's Notes on the Book of Common Prayer , in which - as with Andrewes - a thoroughly Reformed understanding of the Eucharist is evident: True it is that the Body and Blood of Christ are Sacramentally and really (not feignedly) present, when the blessed Bread a...

They made no part of any ancient Liturgy, neither, if my information be correct, are they read in the Communion office of any of the reformed Churches, except our own: And in ours they were first inserted at the review of Edward's Liturgy in 1552. When John Shepherd - in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801) - refers in this manner to the reading of the Commandments in the Communion Office, we might assume he is being critical of the provision. Those of us who are devotees of the Cranmerian Communion Office, however, have no need to fear: Shepherd offers a robust defence of this distinctive provision. He declares that "the order for the rehearsal of [the Commandments] here, requires neither vindication, nor apology": When the Commandments are read, we should remember that they are not the words of the minister, but of God himself, and we should hear them with the same humility, the same reverence, and the same determinati...

From a sermon by Bishop Bull (d.1710), entitled ' The Blessed Virgin's low and exalted condition ', on the text Luke 1:48-49. Bull, noting the Church of England's reverence for the Blessed Virgin, provides an explicitly and inherently Protestant understanding of this reverence: We think and speak most respectfully of her, and do not ordinarily mention her name without a preface or epithet of honour, as "the holy," "the blessed" Virgin, and the like. We do, by the appointment of our Church, sing or rehearse in our daily service her excellent Magnificat; and thereby we testify our assent to, and complacence in, those singular favours that God is therein said to have bestowed on her; and, together with her, we finally return the praise and glory of all to God alone. We celebrate two annual festivals in her memorial, the Feasts of her Annunciation and Purification. And if we could think of any other honour that we could do her, without dishonouring God t...

What it thy duty towards thy Neighbour? My duty towards my Neighbour is to love him as myself, and to do to all men as I would they should do unto me ... To honour and obey the King, and all that are put in authority under him: To submit myself to all my governors ... To hurt nobody by word nor deed ... To bear no malice nor hatred in my heart: To keep my hands from picking and stealing, and my tongue from evil-speaking, lying, and slandering. I grew up in a society scarred by riots: mobs throwing petrol bombs; properties and businesses destroyed; sectarian thugs intimidating communities. Apart from the values of my law-abiding parents, and their deep sense of obligation to our neighbours, what most shaped my view of such disorder were the above words learnt in Catechism class in the parish church during my early teens. My duty towards my neighbour - flowing from the Commandments, as the Catechism demonstrates - was to be given expression in respect for lawful authority, for the K...

A recent article on the Covenant site made for incredibly grim reading for those of us who value the heritage of Canadian Anglicanism. Reflecting on newly-published statistics from the Anglican Church of Canada, the opening sentence of the article declared, "Canada is the first major province of the Anglican Communion to have collapsed". While we might have questions about the conclusions drawn by the article, there is little doubt that the statistics to which it refers are devastating. This being so, one might wonder what value or relevance there may be in celebrating the witness and legacy of Charles Inglis. Not only is secular, 21st century Canada far removed from the political, social, and cultural views of the Loyalist Inglis; the predominant progressive concerns of contemporary Canadian Anglicanism are, to say the least, radically different to the Old High thought and sensibilities embodied by Inglis. We might suggest, however, that it is precisely such an approach whi...

In some parts of the Anglican Communion, 15th August is marked as 'Saint Mary the Virgin' (TEC BCP 1979), 'The Blessed Virgin Mary' (Common Worship), or 'The Falling Asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary' (Canadian BCP 1962). In the Church of Ireland, today is merely the Thursday of the Eleventh Week after Trinity. Our equivalent Marian observation is 8th September, celebrating the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary (a provision also permitted as an alternative to 15th August in Common Worship). This wisely avoids any confusion which may arise, in the Irish context, in light of our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters celebrating the Assumption on this day. Whether we, as Anglicans, are observing this day a Marian observance or not, however, is rather beside the point. We all rejoice that the Blessed Virgin Mary shares in the heavenly glory with "all thy saints departed this life in thy faith and fear", the hope of "all thy whole Church". This is se...

The previous post in this series referred to a distinctive of the Cranmerian Communion Office - opening with the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer is followed by another distinctive, the Collect for Purity. A sign of its significance in Anglican piety is that most contemporary Anglican eucharistic rites continue to pray this Collect at the beginning of the liturgy. Ireland's BCP 2004 has a rubric following the Collect for Purity, stating "or another suitable opening prayer". Thankfully, in the twenty years since the introduction of BCP 2004, I have not attended a single celebration of Holy Communion in which the Collect for Purity has not been prayed.  John Shepherd - in his 'The Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion' in A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801) - significantly points to this Collect as preparation both for reception of Holy Communion, when the Sacrament was admi...

On this commemoration of Jeremy Taylor (he died on this day in 1667), we consider two short extracts from his work, demonstrating one of the most compelling and attractive aspects of his thinking - its eirenic character. We begin with a passage from his  The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Blessed Statement (1654): That which seems of hardest explication is the word corporaliter, which I find that Melancthon used; saying, 'corporaliter quoque communicatione carnis Christi Christum in nobis habitare'; which manner of speaking I have heard he avoided after he had conversed with Oecolampadius, who was able then to teach him and most men in that question ... Here is Taylor praising the eucharistic theology of Oecolampadius, the figure who probably has the best claim to the title 'father of Reformed eucharistic theology'. As Bruce Gordon notes (in his excellent biography of Zwingli ), Oecolampadius was "in many respects ... Zwingli's theological better...

The very finest words in the Church of Ireland's modest Prayer Book revision of 1878 are to be found in the closing paragraph of the Preface : And now, if some shall complain that these changes are not enough, and that we should have taken this opportunity of making this Book as perfect in all respects as they think it might be made, or if others shall say that these changes have been unnecessary or excessive, and that what was already excellent has been impaired by doing that which, in their opinion, might well have been left undone, let them, on the one side and the other, consider that men's judgements of perfection are very various, and that what is imperfect, with peace, is often better than what is otherwise more excellent, without it. I first encountered these words as a precocious teenager, sitting in the parish church before Sunday Morning Prayer, and browsing through the Prayer Book, bought as a Confirmation present and carried with me each Sunday, as was then normal ...

... the Church of England is the best Reformed Church in the world. Jeremy Taylor's declaration in his sermon at Bramhall's funeral would have won the vigorous agreement of Bramhall's predecessor as Archbishop of Armagh, Ussher. Something of this was indicated by  Richard Parr , a chaplain to Ussher and later biographer, describing how the Archbishop viewed the fate of the Church of England in the 1640s as "the greatest blow that had been ever given to the Reformed Churches". When Charles Richard Elrington - Regius Professor of Divinity, Trinity College Dublin - edited the works of Ussher in the mid-19th century, his introduction used the same phrase to describe Ussher's view of the Churches of England and Ireland: "the best reformed in the world". For Taylor, no less than for Ussher, the Churches of England and Ireland were Reformed . Both Taylor the Laudian and Ussher the Reformed Conformist were sons of the Reformation. In controversy with Count...