'The judgement and declaration of our Church touching this point, is very sound': the Articles of Perth, feasts of Our Lord, and the Jacobean Church of Scotland

As we abhor the superstitious observation of festival days by the Papists, and detest all licentious and profane abuse thereof by the common sort of professors, so we think, that the inestimable benefits received from God by our Lord Jesus Christ, his birth, passion, resurrection, ascension, and sending down of the Holy Ghost, were commendably and godly remembered at certain particular days and times ...

The Articles of Perth, adopted by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1618, restored the observance of the great feasts of our redemption. The Second Helvetic Confession had said of these observances, "we approve of it highly". The opponents of the Articles of Perth, however, invoked the 1560 Book of Discipline, which dismissed these observances as feasts "that the Papists have invented". In particular, opponents viewed the observances as a binding of the conscience:

imposed vpon the consciences of men without the expresse Commandement of Gods Word, as keeping of holy dayes commanded by men, the feast of Christmasse, and other feasts.

In his 1621 account of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland held at Perth in 1618, David Lindsay - Bishop of Brechin (1619-34 and Bishop of Edinburgh 1634-38) - exposed how perverse was such a reading of this provision of the Articles of Perth:

The iudgement and declaration of our Church touching this point, is very sound; For whatsoeuer is imposed by men, or by Ecclesiasticall Constitution vpon the conscience to bee obserued, as parts of diuine worship, that is not expresly or by necessary consequence contayned in the Word, is contrary to the wholsome Doctrine; as the Papists did the obseruation of Christmasse, and other festiuall dayes ...

The Articles of Perth do not, quite obviously, make any claim whatsoever that observance of the festivals is a requirement of divine law. Indeed, the relevant Article twice states its opposition to "all superstitious observation". Rather, the Articles understand the festivals to be commendable as a means of recalling "the inestimable benefits received from God by our Lord Jesus Christ". And this is also the understanding of these feasts in the Second Helvetic Confession:

if in Christian liberty the churches religiously celebrate the memory of the Lord's nativity, circumcision, passion, resurrection, and of his ascension into heaven, and the sending of the Holy Spirit upon his disciples.

It was exercising such Christian liberty, Lindsay declared, that the Assembly of the Church of Scotland, like the other "reformed Churches ... & particular Churches of the Realme" accepted the request of James VI/I that the observance of the feasts be restored:

[The Assembly] receiued a free, and voluntary Commission, to vote, as they should bee mooued, and perswaded by the motiues, and reasons proponed at the Assembly; otherwise, they had met with preiudice. And therefore, what they concluded according to their Commission, was not obtruded vpon the Churches against their will, but according to their wills contayned in the Commission.

In Christian liberty, and heeding the legitimate advice of the civil magistrate, the General Assembly restored the observance of the Lord's "birth, passion, resurrection, ascension, and sending down of the Holy Ghost" as a wise and prudent means of celebrating the "inestimable benefits" we have received thereby. This was well within the mainstream of continental Reformed thought, practice, and ecclesiology. The Second Helvetic Confession had provided the theological rationale for Reformed churches retaining such feasts. They were observed in many of the continental Reformed churches. And as for James VI/I desiring their observance, this was not radically different from the role of the civil magistrate in, for example, the Dutch Reformed Church - in stark contrast to the order desired by the Scottish Covenanter tradition. Once again, then, we see that Lindsay and the Articles of Perth stand in the mainstream of the continental Reformed tradition, unlike the odd, eccentric stance of their opponents.

(The picture is of a late 17th century drawing of Brechin, Lindsay's See.)

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...

1928 practices and the 1979 book: unthinking conservatism or popular piety?

Those responsible for Earth & Altar - a new blog emanating from a group within TEC - are to be congratulated for an excellent contribution to wider Anglican discussion and debate. The commitment to "an expansively conceived credal orthodoxy as fully compatible with LGBTQ inclusion, gender equality, and racial justice" is an important part of a wider retrieval of creedal orthodoxy within what we might call the post-liberal generation. It is in this spirit that I want to respond to a recent post on the site by Andrew McGowan , Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and Professor of Anglican Studies at Yale Divinity School. Against the background of another round of "ill-defined" liturgical revision in TEC, he understandably urges that a fuller reception of the 1979 BCP should occur before further reforms. In doing so, however, he takes aim at what he describes as "clinging to the ritual structures of 1928" while using the text of 1979. We ...

laudable Practice

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