laudable Practice

November is the month of the departed. The month begins with All Saints' Day, particularly commemorating those "blessed Saints" whom we have known, and then moves into the solemn national and communal recollections of Remembrancetide. The last of the falling leaves, the darkness of the last days of Autumn, and the approach of the year's end evoke a sense of our mortality. It is a month made for walks in old churchyards and mulling over the Burial service. Each week during this month on laudable Practice , there will be a post meditating on the month of the departed through words from Jeremy Taylor, We being with Taylor's 1650 sermon at the funeral of Frances Vaughan, Countess of Carbery, in which he describes how we share with the faithful departed in the Communion of Saints: But then we should do well also to remember, that in this world we are something besides flesh and bloud; that we may not without violent necessities run into new relations, but preserve the...

In truth, I don’t much care for memorial services. The purpose of them is to speak well of the dead; literally, to eulogise. Such events work well for the powerful, the famous and the righteous. “A man of rare ability and distinction, rightly honoured and celebrated, he ever directed our attention away from himself,” said the Dean of Westminster of Prince Phillip. Memorial services don’t require much religion either, which is part of their popularity in a secular age. They are sandwiches of hymns and readings and speeches — and songs can be easily substituted for hymns, poems for Bible passages. So said Giles Fraser in a recent Unherd column.  I happen to profoundly disagree.  It is noticeable that while Cranmer's Burial Office - quite rightly - has a robust focus on grace in Christ and the hope of the resurrection through Christ, Anglican funeral sermons quickly recognised the need to pay tribute to the deceased.  Consider, for example, Jeremy Taylor's sermon at the fun...

I was rather moved when last Thursday I saw a Tweet from the Cromwell Museum  marking the day as the anniversary of the death of Elizabeth Cromwell, wife of Oliver and mother to her husband's short-lived successor as Lord Protector, Richard.  Initially I could not quite grasp why reading about her burial in Northborough parish church (pictured) moved me. This post is an attempt to gather my thoughts and emotions. At the Restoration, Elizabeth had expressed to Charles II "humble and faithful obedience to your Majesty in your government", requesting that Charles would "out of your princely goodness vouchsafe her a protection, without which she cannot expect, now in her old age, a safe retirement". The Cavalier reaction at the Restoration explains the need for the petition.  The bodies of deceased Regicides - including Oliver Cromwell - had been disinterred and hung from the gallows.  Deceased members of Cromwell's family were also disinterred : the bodies of...