laudable Practice

Peter Williams was a Welsh clergyman (b.1756) who received holy orders in 1783 and was shortly thereafter appointed chaplain of Christ Church, Oxford. He returned to Wales in 1790, serving a number of Welsh cures thereafter, becoming archdeacon of Merioneth in 1809. He published  A Short Vindication of the Established Church in 1803 (which received a very favourable review in The Orthodox Churchman's Magazine ). There is, in other words, nothing to suggest that Williams was anything other than a faithful cleric of the Church of England, having a quite ordinary, conventional clerical career.  It is this which makes this 1786 Ascension Day sermon before the University of Oxford interesting. The sermon was published: this itself was nothing unusual, as many university sermons were published. It does allow us, however, to read an Ascension Day sermon by a quite ordinary clergyman of the late 18th century Church of England. What we read contrasts sharply with the conventional and...

As we celebrate the Ascension of Our Lord on this Holy Thursday, words from Tillotson's Ascension Day sermon, 'The Circumstances and Benefits of Our Saviour's Ascension': Let us heartily thank God for the whole dispensation of our salvation, by the incarnation and doctrine, by the holy life and meritorious death of our blessed Saviour, and by that demonstration of God’s mighty power and goodness, "which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principalities, and powers, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; having put all things under his feet, and given him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body". The consideration whereof is (as you have heard) a mighty consolation unto us under all the troubles and dangers to which the church of Christ is exposed in this world. He who hath ...

Having addressed the contention of papalist apologists, that the Reformed Church of England was an innovation, a rejection of the 'old religion' for the 'new', and thus a removal of the ancient landmarks, Boys, in his Rogation Sunday sermon , then turned to those who separated from the Church of England, accusing it of being inadequately reformed. Boys' response is fascinating, not least because he emphasises - against Puritan Separatists - not the Reformed nature of the English Church, but its continuities with the patristic era. In other words, he accuses the Separatists, no less than the papalist apologists, of removing the ancient landmarks. Indeed, he sets forth a very forceful critique of the Separatists and their "platform of government": Now concerning Schismatics, and Separatists, as they be worthily surnamed, novelists, even so their platform of government, is a new device, which no Fathers ever witnessed, no Council ever favoured, no Church ever...

Upon these premises, I will infer this conclusion ... that the reformed and conformed Protestants, in the Church of England, do justly condemn both Papists and Puritans, as upstarts and novelists, in removing the most ancient bounds of our forefathers ... Boys' Rogation Sunday sermon , on the text Proverbs 22:28, after addressing the need to maintain the ancient landmarks in the polity, turns to the Church of the realm. Against both Papalist and Puritan, Boys refuted the charge directed by both, that the Church of the Elizabethan Settlement was an innovation, a removal of the ancient landmarks.  Today's post considers Boys' response to the charge from Papalist apologists. Against the emotionally powerful Papalist narrative that the Reformed Church of England was a denial of the 'old religion' - that it was, indeed, a 'new religion' - Boys, after the manner of Jewel's Apology , presented the Reformation of the Church as a recovery of the ancient landmarks...

In a Rogation Sunday sermon , on the text Proverbs 22:28, Jacobean cleric and theologian John Boys - Dean of Canterbury 1619-25 - expounded the vision of the justly, rightly ordered community set forth in Articles 37, 38, and 39. He first set out how traditional Rogationtide practices encouraged a respect for established landmarks and inherited rights, necessary for the justly and rightly ordered community: It is the part of every parishioner and party, to preserve, so much as lieth in him, all the liberties, franchises, bounds, and privileges of the town where he dwells. St Paul in a great extremity, pleaded that he was a citizen of Rome, and the chief captain, who had the charge of him, answered, 'with a great sum obtained I this freedom'; the Church of England in the fourth part of the Sermon, for Rogation week, doth advise parishioners, in walking their perambulation, seriously to consider the bounds of their own Township, and of all other neighbour parishes, bordering upon...

From Richard Field's Of the Church (1606/10), a refutation of the allegation by a Tridentine apologist that the differences "between the followers of Luther and Zuinglius" were in matters of faith, producing a fundamental division between the two traditions. Mindful that Field was a leading divine in the Jacobean Church of England - described by Paul Avis as "one of the most stupendously learned of Anglican theologians in an age when Anglican clerical scholarship was the wonder of the world" - his insistence (following Jewel and Hooker) that the differences between Lutheran and Swiss Reformed eucharistic theologies were not fundamental is a significant insight into an important and influential stream of thought in the Jacobean Church. What is more, note his defence of the 'Zwinglians'. (While Field does also use the term 'Calvinist' for the Swiss, it is clear throughout that he regards Zwingli as the figure who chiefly shaped the Swiss Reformed ...

From the 1872 primary visitation charge of William Connor Magee, Bishop of Peterborough, a classic Old High account of the heart of the Reformation of the Church of England - the restoration of the rights and liberties of a national church: As a Church National, moreover, our Church of England has her inherent and inalienable rights and powers, as distinguished from those of the Church Catholic of which she is a part. The visible Catholic Church is not a despotism, it is a Confederation of independent States, "a republic," as it has been called, "composed of many monarchies," in which each State, that is to say, each National Church, has, if we may so speak, its own distinct and independent State rights. What these rights are, as defined by our own Church, we shall presently have occasion to consider: enough if I observe at present that it was the assertion of these, far more than of any particular doctrines, which was of the essence of the Reformation. Doctrinally...

In introducing the post-Communion, John Shepherd, his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801), draws our attention to the deep significance of this part of the rite. To begin with, he roots the post-communion prayers and thanksgivings in the example of Our Lord: Our Lord concluded his last supper with that admirable prayer, which is recorded by St. John, and a hymn mentioned by St. Matthew, and supposed to be the paschal alleluiah.   One can easily imagine the dismissive response of contemporary liturgists to this suggestion, but surely it has merit. As John Behr - in his superb John the Theologian & his Paschal Gospel (2019) - reminds us, Jesus' prayer in John 17 is "as the priest before the altar". There is, then, a deeply eucharistic character to the High Priestly prayer, for the Holy Communion is the "Sacrament of our Redemption by Christ's death". The post-Communion Prayer of Oblation and Prayer of Thank...

In our readings from Robert Nelson's 1713 The Life of Dr. George Bull , we left Bull in the early months of 1662, newly instituted to the cure of Suddington, beginning to slowly reconcile his parishioners to the liturgy which had prohibited under the Cromwellian regime. Nelson had made the point that the manner in which Bull read the Prayer Book offices "reconciled the Minds of his Parishioners to the Common-Prayer, before the Use of it was Publickly Restored". This leads Nelson to reflect more widely on the significance of the minister reading divine service. In doing so, he was also reflecting a concern later raised by the then  Bishop Bull , would emphasise the significance of "reverence and devotion" in the clergy "Reading Divine Service, or the Prayers of the Church". Nelson, echoing the later Bull, challenges those who fail to recognise the significance of "devout and decent reading of the Prayers of the Church": It is possible, this d...

Yes, you read the title right. But fear not, you stalwart devotees of the 'High and Dry' way, you staunch 'Two Bottle Orthodox' sort. Let me assure you that laudable Practice has not been hijacked by dastardly Puseyites. The old English surplice will continue to be worn, and there will be absolutely no lace on this site. So what is today's post about? It has its origin in two quite different moments. One was Maundy Thursday this year, when I was preaching for a dear friend, an Anglo-catholic. For a brief moment in the eucharistic prayer, I became aware of our different traditions: he was vested in a chasuble and elevated the consecrated elements. What immediately popped into my head was the phrase "how Lutheran". Much more of which shortly. I then returned to my prayers and received from my friend the holy Sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood. The second moment was reading an aggressive, and dislikeable, Roman Catholic commentator respond to a post ...

While doing some background reading on the Bible Society's excellent Quiet Revival report (it is required reading), I came across a very good reflection by Sarah Coppin , a theologian in the charismatic tradition. I will be addressing aspects of the report in subsequent posts, but - amongst many important and insightful points made by Sarah Coppin - this one particularly caught my attention: Be open about the cost of being a Christian. Young men in particular really want to be challenged. Talk about the ways that following Jesus has been hard, and then talk about why it was worth it. Talk about Christian views on sex and porn. Talk about giving money away to the poor. Talk about how Jesus teaches us to forgive our enemies. Talk about the spiritual disciplines. Talk about sacrifice. Tell them to read Bonhoeffer. The reason it caught my attention is that, with Confirmation soon to be administered in the parish, I have been re-reading Jeremy Taylor's A Discourse of Confirmation ...

When all have communicated, the minister shall return to the Lord's table, and reverently place upon it what remaineth of the consecrated elements, covering the same with a fair linen cloth. This Rubric, taken from the Scottish Liturgy, was likewise added in 1661; the ceremony which it prescribes, was probably observed before.  When John Shepherd, in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801), turns to the rubric following the administration of the holy Sacrament, we yet again see a significant example of how a rich eucharistic piety is found in the pre-1833 Church of England. Shepherd - again - turns to patristic sources to explore the meaning of a provision of the Prayer Book rite: This cloth, by the Latin ecclesiastical writers is called the corporal, because it was wrapped round the body of Christ in the Eucharist. It was in use in the time of Isidore Peleusiota, who wrote A.D. 412, and says, "the fine linen cloth, which is str...

The recent election of a new Bishop of Rome made me think about the generous, ecumenical nature of the petitions for the universal Church in the Book of Common Prayer 1662 and its variants. Above all, we must consider the Prayer for the Church Militant in the Holy Communion : ... beseeching thee to inspire continually the universal Church with the spirit of truth, unity, and concord: And grant, that all they that do confess thy holy Name may agree in the truth of thy holy Word, and live in unity, and godly love. We explicitly pray for "the universal Church": not our own communion, not only those in communion with our bishops, not only those who agree with us in the matters of the Reformation debates. We pray for " all they that do confess thy holy Name", all who have been baptised in the name of the Holy Trinity and confess the catholic Creeds.  This, of course, includes our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters and those churches in communion with the See of Rome.  ...

But many of the faithful will be reassured by his conclusion to his address: the Hail Mary. That is to say, the most Catholic of prayers, invoking the Virgin. So said Melanie McDonagh in her Spectator article on the election of Leo XIV. Her comment led me to wonder what might be 'the most Anglican of prayers' for similar high profile situations. I am not, of course, talking about the very unmemorable 'topical prayers' produced, for example, for the Church of England website. Rather, the issue is what might be the Anglican equivalent to the place of the Hail Mary in Roman Catholic piety. Three prayers come to mind. They are prayers that should be routinely encouraged by Anglican churches on social media, in public pronouncements, and at significant national and international moments. Rather than instantly forgettable, newly-devised 'topical prayers', prayers which are rooted in and embody Anglican piety should be consistently provided and their use consistently ...