'Continually mortifying all our evil and corrupt affections': Penitence and the Prayer Book

... remembering always, that Baptism doth represent unto us our profession;

At the conclusion of the Prayer Book Baptism offices for infants and for adults, the priest who has administered the Sacrament is to exhort, in the former case, the godparents of the newly baptised, and in the latter case, the newly baptised. The words of the exhortation are rooted in the Apostle's words, "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?". And, after the manner of the Apostle, the declaration "that Baptism doth represent unto us our profession", calls us to recognise that the covenant of grace into which we are placed by Holy Baptism requires life-long penitence, that we may not forsake this grace: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"

which is, to follow the example of our Saviour Christ, and to be made like unto him ...

We walk in the covenant of grace, into which we are initiated by Baptism, by bearing the fruit of Christ-likeness. But we err and stray like lost sheep; we follow the devices and desires of our own hearts; we offend against God's holy laws and commandments. The grace accompanying the means of repentance calls us back throughout our earthly lives to the living out of the gift of Baptism: "by the grace of God we may arise again, and amend our lives" (Article XVI). Repentance necessarily involves us forsaking the ways of sin and following after "the example of our Saviour Christ", in His patience, grace, mercy, and faithfulness.

that as he died and rose again for us, so should we, who are baptized, die from sin and rise again unto righteousness ...

We are to "die from sin and rise again unto righteousness", day by day, that - in the words of the Absolution at Morning and Evening Prayer - "those things may please him which we do at this present; and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy". Such is the "obedience unto righteousness" of which the Apostle speaks.

continually mortifying all our evil and corrupt affections ...

These words set before us the reality of penitence: not a vague regret at faults and failures, but a renunciation of our specific sins in our hearts, that the heart may be good soil, capable of bearing good fruit. To "truly and earnestly repent" of our sins, therefore, is the outworking of the prayer offered before Holy Baptism is administered: "that the old Adam ... may be so buried, that the new man may be raised up in him".

and daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of living.

The repentance that is a dying to sin and living unto righteousness is necessary to the living out of the covenant of Holy Baptism. And so we pray for the congregation in the Prayer for the Church Militant: "truly serving thee in holiness and righteousness all the days of their life". The fruit of the regenerating grace of God in Christ, of which Baptism is the efficacious sign, is that holy living characterised by repentance. In the words of Jeremy Taylor, it is our "restitution to the state of righteousness and holy living, for which we covenanted in Baptism".

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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