laudable Practice

That it may please thee to illuminate all Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, with true knowledge and understanding of thy Word; and that both by their preaching and living they may set it forth and shew it accordingly, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. This petition in the Litany has, I think, a particular resonance in Advent Ember Week. Many bishops, priests, and deacons will be preparing Christmas sermons during this week. As they prepare to preach on the great festival of the Incarnation, it is right that this petition in the Litany is offered with particular intention, that the truth of the Incarnation will be proclaimed from pulpits at Christmas. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, And was made man ... The petition in the Litany is not only a prayer that error will not be taught from pulpits by bishops, priests, and deacons in Christmas sermons; it is also a prayer that the saving truth will be procla...

At 10pm on the Sundays of Advent, the prayers, psalms, and anthems of Compline are to be heard on BBC Radio 3 . As Gerry Lynch said in his Church Times review, "these seasonal broadcasts of Compline continue to be a reminder that radio does not need to be pacy to be engaging". Amidst the ecclesiastical, domestic, social, and commercial activities of the season, these broadcast services of Compline offer thirty minutes of contemplation on Sunday evenings, rooted in the Church's prayer and the Advent hope. It is an immersion in prayer and liturgical music that calls us to be still.  There is nothing rushed, loud, or demanding. We are invited to a stillness as distractions abound, even late on a Sunday evening. It is in the stillness that the words and music of Compline hold us before the One who is, and was, and is to come.  The broadcasts reflect the generous ecumenism of the Anglican choral tradition, with texts, music, and composers from across the Christian traditions....

Our  Advent series of Marian reflections from Jeremy Taylor's The Great Exemplar today comes to the Visitation. Taylor offers a beautiful, rich meditation, rejoicing in the meeting of "two mothers of two great princes": It is not easy to imagine what a collision of joys was at this blessed meeting: two mothers of two great princes, the one 'the greatest that was born of woman' and the other was his Lord, and these made mothers by two miracles, met together with joy and mysteriousness; where the mother of our Lord went to visit the mother of his servant, and the Holy Ghost made the meeting festival, and descended upon Elizabeth, and she prophesied. Never but in heaven was there more joy and ecstasy. The persons who were women, whose fancies and affections were not only hallowed, but made pregnant and big with religion, meeting together to compare and unite their joys and their eucharist, and then made prophetical and inspired, must needs have discoursed like serap...

In this Advent Ember Week, we return to Atterbury's 'A Sermon preached before the Sons of the Clergy', preached in December 1709. As the name of the charity suggested, many of its members were sons of those in holy orders - and not a few of these were themselves in holy orders. Reflecting this, the sermon rejoiced in what has been a characteristic of Anglicanism over centuries, the common experience of clergy being descended from clergy: If then others may be allowed to glory in their birth, why may not we? whose parents were called by God to attend on him at his altar? were intrusted with the dispensation of his sacraments, with the ministry of reconciliation, with the power of binding and loosing? were set apart to take heed to the flock of Christ, Acts xx. 28, over which the Holy Ghost made them overseers, and to feed the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood; to hold forth the word of life, to speak, to exhort, and to rebuke with all authority? Tit. ii. 1...

To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him: neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws which he set before us. Dan. 9.9,10 At Evensong in Advent, I use this penitential sentence (found in 1662 and 1926), from Daniel's great confession on behalf of Israel, mourning in lonely exile: In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.  And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes ... The sentence is a stark reminder throughout the days of Advent of why "thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility" - "for us men and for our salvation", in the words of the Nicene Creed, for we all stand with Daniel and ancient Israel, mourning in lonely exile and in n...

In this Advent series of Marian reflections from Jeremy Taylor's The Great Exemplar , we turn to the Blessed Virgin's post-Annunciation journey to Saint Elizabeth. At this point, Taylor evokes one of the most significant aspects of the Protoevangelium : Her haste was in proportion to her joy and desires, but yet went no greater pace than her religion. For as in her journey she came near to Jerusalem, she turned in, that she might visit his temple, whose temple she herself was now; and there, not only to remember the pleasures of religion, which she had felt in continual descents and showers falling on her pious heart, for the space of eleven years' attendance there in her childhood, but also to pay the first fruits of her thanks and joy, and to lay all her glory at his feet, whose humble handmaid she was in the greatest honour of being his blessed mother. Having worshipped, she went on her journey, 'and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elizabeth.' It...

On Christmas Eve 1710, Francis Atterbury -  later Bishop of Rochester, then Dean of Christ Church, Oxford - preached in the Rolls Chapel, Chancery Lane, London. His text was Matthew 11:3, the words of Saint John the Baptist, "Art thou he that should come? or do we look for another?". The sermon contained a number of significant Advent themes, evidence of how the liturgical observance of Advent (and other seasons) shaped early 18th century Anglican preaching. At the outset of the sermon, Atterbury defined the season:  At this time of advent, particularly dedicated by the church to a devout commemoration of our Saviour's coming in the flesh, and set apart to prepare us for a worthy celebration of the approaching feast of his nativity ... As with his early Advent 1709 sermon , we see Atterbury here giving voice to a well-established understanding of Advent as oriented towards Christmas. There is much to value in this, not least the quite natural recognition of the approach ...

now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility ... Despite what the Advent purists tell us, that Advent stands entirely apart from Christmas, that any anticipation of the celebrations of the Lord's Nativity pollutes Advent, Cranmer's collect for the season - prayed from Evensong on the eve of Advent Sunday until Christmas Eve - sets before us, throughout Advent, morning and evening, the approach of the Nativity. Cranmer could, of course, have composed the Advent collect without any reference to the Nativity. This is the case, after all, with the collects for Advent II and IV. While, however, this may be true of those two collects, it is not the case with the pre-1662 collect for Advent III : Lord, we beseche thee, geve eare to our prayers, and by thy gracious visitacion lighten the darkenes of our hearte, by our Lorde Jesus Christe. It is difficult, I think, to contend that this collect is not an anticipation of Christmas. ...

Repent ye; for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. S. Matt. 3.2. At Matins in Advent, I use this penitential sentence (found in 1662 and 1926), the proclamation of Saint John the Baptist. The dark December mornings begin with the words of the Forerunner, cutting through the cold, the pressing demands of the approach of the festive season, thoughts too easily distracted by the prospects of busy roads and Christmas-card writing. The odd, discomforting character of John - "his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey" - is what I need alongside the the joyous anticipation of Advent: an incessant reminder from the Judean wilderness that all is not well, with the world, with the Church, with me. That Our Lord takes for Himself these very words of John (Matthew 4.17) emphasises their significance. That John, he who is "more than a prophet", "among them that are born of women there hath not risen a great...

Francis Atterbury's ' A Sermon preached before the Sons of the Clergy ' was delivered on 6th December 1709, in the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul, London. Atterbury, later Bishop of Rochester, was then Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. The Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy had been established in 1655, receiving its Royal Charter in 1678. It held a yearly festival in Saint Paul's in order to raise funds for poorer clergy, and the widows and children of deceased clergy. Atterbury's sermon referenced the season in which the event occurred: It is said of our Blessed Saviour (whose Advent we now celebrate) that he came Eating and Drinking, and that he went about doing good. I join these two Parts of his Character, because He himself often exerted them together, and made use of the One, as affording him fit Opportunities to abound in the Other. He disdained not to appear at great Tables and Festival Entertainments, that he might more illustriously manifest his Divine Ch...

Having earlier this week praised Victorian Anglicanism, today's post is an example of how earlier Georgian norms could continue to be found in the Victorian era. In a Stir-up Sunday sermon , John Keble favourably refers to the practice of Ante-Communion: If any go on profanely rejecting the Holy Communion altogether, the Church, he would perceive, is not to blame for it, who has not only enjoined all her children to communicate at least three times a year, but also encourages, wherever it may be, Communion on every Lord's day; and to put us in mind of that sacred duty, appoints certain portions of the holy service to be said at the Lord's Table, even when the Sacrament is not administered. Mindful that this collection of Keble's sermons was published in 1878, this reference certainly suggests that the practice of Ante-Communion was known past the mid-19th century. What is more, not only does Keble not criticise the practice, he actively praises it: Ante-Communion "...

At Parish Communion on The Sunday before Advent, 23.11.25 Jeremiah 23:5 “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” [1] The words are those of the prophet Jeremiah, speaking to God’s ancient people Israel, in a time long before the birth of Christ. And it is in those centuries long ago that our journey this morning begins. Jeremiah’s words of hope about a king descended from the line of David stand amidst other words spoken by the prophet - words of challenge and warning for the people of Israel. Their faithlessness, their worship of false gods, their refusal to walk in the ways of the Lord; this was bringing close a time of calamity. Jeremiah foresaw what would soon come to pass.  The bitterness and shame of defeat, of banishment, of exile, far from the Promised Land.  The kingdom established in times past by the great King Da...

O Lord, raise up (we pray thee) thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through the satisfaction of thy Son our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be honour and glory, world without end. Amen. Jeremy Taylor in his sermon ' The Invalidity of a Late or Death-bed Repentance ', from his Golden Grove sermons: This is the sum total of repentance: we must not only have overcome sin, but we must after great diligence have acquired the habits of all those Christian graces which are necessary in the transaction of our affairs, in all relations to God and our neighbour, and our own person. It is not enough to say, "Lord, I thank Thee, I am no extortioner, no adulterer, not as this publican;" all the reward of such a penitent is that when he hath escaped the corruption ...

In the conclusion of his sermon ' Of a Future Judgement ', Samuel Clarke provides three applications of the scriptural proclamation of the Last Judgement. Reflecting a key concern of 18th century Church of England preaching, Clarke again emphasises that this teaching calls us to holy living: "then let us continually be aware, that all Other expectations whatsoever, are mere Deceits". To reject this as 'moralism' is, quite frankly, to entirely ignore vast swathes of the New Testament, as Clarke's references illustrate.  Also noteworthy is Clarke's use of words from II Maccabees, a reminder that references to the Apocrypha were standard in the preaching of all three divines quoted in this short series. The fact that we see this in Tillotson and Clarke evidences the fact that this was by no means a 'high church' characteristic: it was a standard Church of England practice, in accordance with Article VI. Finally, the preaching of these three divine...

In the final extract from Bishop Bull's sermon ' The Vanity of this Life, the Eternity of the next ', he summarises how - in the words of Article VII - "both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to Mankind by Christ". This insistence on the unity of the covenants grounds the Christian hope in God's enduring purposes, "the old catholic faith" stretching back to patriarchs and prophets.  We can detect here, I think, an affirmation of a Reformed approach to reading of the Scriptures of the Old Covenant, a refusal to stand the New Testament against the Old, declaring the same hope in both, "the doctrine of a future life and judgment". As the Advent season begins again for us the cycle of feasts and observances which lead from Incarnation, to Cross, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, Bull's sermon is a call to read and hear the Scriptures of the Old Testament as a proclamation of our salvation in Christ, in expectation...

This week brings to a close the short Advent series of posts from sermons on the Last Things by divines of the 18th century Church of England. As we come to the conclusion of each of the sermons, it has hopefully been demonstrated that they are evidence - contrary to the stubbornly enduring Old Hat view of Anglicanism in that century - of a lively, robust, and vibrant proclamation of the Last Judgement in 18th century Anglican preaching. Today we turn to the conclusion of Archbishop Tillotson's sermon ' Of the Certainty of a Future Judgment '. Here Tillotson exhorts that we are to live as if the Last Judgement "were already and actually present", calling us to a serious repentance and reclaiming us for the duties of Christians: the gospel plainly declares that all this shall be, and thou professest to believe it. Why then dost thou not live as if thou didst believe these things? Why should not that which will certainly be, have to all reasonable purposes the same ...