Easter Day: 'the Gospel dispensation, of which they were to be the Ministers'

From Francis Atterbury's sermon for Easter Day 1718, 'Some Reasons assigned for our Saviour's appearing chiefly to his Apostles after his Resurrection', preached at Westminster Abbey. Here Atterbury sets forth how the Church's ministry, doctrine, and sacraments both flow from the Lord's Resurrection and proclaim the Resurrection. Particularly significant is how this understanding of the Church in the post-Resurrection accounts in the Scriptures - "these short Accounts" - is, for Atterbury, sufficient, requiring nothing to be added for our salvation.

But as our Saviour, during his forty Days Stay on Earth, fully enabled his Apostles to attest his Resurrection, so did he qualify them duly to preach his Doctrine; for he taught them the Things pertaining to the Kingdom of God, i.e. to the Gospel Dispensation, of which they were to be the Ministers, and to his Church, which they were to gather, constitute, and govern ...

This Promise he had made them the very Night before his Passion. I will not leave you comfortless, said he, even for so long a time, as till the promised Comforter shall come; I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the World seeth me no more; but ye see me. At that Day (the Day of my Return to you) You Shall know that I am in my Father, and You in Me. Ye shall understand somewhat of that Mystical Union that is between my Father and Me, and between Me and my Church, the Society of Christian Believers. Without all Question, what he then promised, he now performed; and therefore, we may be sure, discoursed to them concerning the great Articles of our Faith, the high Mysteries of Christianity.

The Scripture Accounts of these things are short: However, even from these short Accounts we learn, that he commanded them to make Proselytes in all Nations, and to baptize them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: And we cannot doubt but that, when he directed this Form, he made some Discovery to them concerning the Nature and Offices of these Three Persons of the ever blessed Trinity, in whose Names they were to baptize.

He told them, that all Power was given him, in Heaven, and in Earth; and in virtue of that Power, he gave them also Power, not of baptizing only, but of remitting and retaining Sins. He sent them, as he was sent by the Father; and sufficiently directed them to send others, as they were sent, who were, in like manner, to continue that Mission, by the Promise he made to be with them always, even to the End of the World.

The Sacrament of his Body and Blood he had instituted, while living; and now therefore he celebrated it together with them: For he took Bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave unto them, and was known of them in thus breaking of Bread: a Phrase, which in the Acts manifestly refers to the Eucharist; and may justly therefore be understood of it here, in the Story of our Saviour.

In a word, he opened their Understandings, that they might understand the Scriptures, and all the Prophecies concerning himself; and he bade them teach all Nations to observe all things that he had commanded them: Which two Passages comprize the Knowledge of what relates both to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church, both to the Faith and Practice of a Christian.

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After a break for Easter, laudable Practice will return on Monday 13th April. A blessed Easter to all readers.

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 ...

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