'The plainest and most instructive portions of the New Testament': the one year lectionary at the Holy Communion

Having addressed the reading of the Epistle and Gospel in the Communion Office, John Shepherd - in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801) - also reflects on the particular passages of Scripture set forth as Epistle and Gospel readings for each Sunday of the year. His comments provide an excellent recommendation of the one year lectionary as setting before us "some of the plainest and most instructive portions of the New Testament". Mindful of the current state of North Atlantic Anglicanism, after decades of poor preaching and poor catechesis, underpinned by poor theology, we might suggest that a few decades of having the one year lectionary - "some of the plainest and most instructive portions of the New Testament" - proclaimed and expounded year after year could be a useful and appropriate means of aiding teaching focussed on grounding us more robustly in the heart of the Faith.

Long before the division of the sacred Books into chapters and verses, which is a modern invention, and unknown to antiquity, it was customary, both in the Greek and Latin Churches, to read, at the celebration of the Eucharist, some of the plainest and most instructive portions of the New Testament. With respect to the different portions which we read, they are so judiciously selected, that it would be difficult to find other passages more interesting, and more pertinent to the occasion and the season. The Epistles either enforce the practice of Christian virtue, or contain manifestations of divine mercy, or assurances of pardon and forgiveness. The Holy Gospel relates either some remarkable narrative of the life or death of Christ; some eminent miracle, important parable, or some striking part of his divine discourses. The Epistles convey instruction in the mysteries of our salvation; but the Gospel presents us with the example of Jesus, to the imitation of which all other knowledge is but subservient.

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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

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