laudable Practice

On this Thanksgiving Day in Canada, laudable Practice turns to an Autumn day in 1820, as - according to an 1851 account of the journey - the Rev'd John West, appointed by the Church Missionary Society, set out for the territory then known as Rupert's Land (now southern Manitoba and parts of eastern Saskatchewan): It was in the autumn of the year 1820 that a little boat of birch-rind might have been seen to leave York Fort, on the western side of Hudson's Bay and after coasting for a while along the shore, enter one of the rivers that flow from the interior. There was nothing in this circumstance to attract the attention of a casual observer - similar boats were continually arriving at, and departing from, the fort during the few bright months of summer and early autumn; this canoe was, as usual, manned by natives, and, as was frequently the case, an European gentleman was sitting at the stern. But if any of God's own people had seen that boat depart, they would have w...

Saturday past, 16th August, was the commemoration of Charles Inglis in the Church of Ireland calendar of 'worthies'. Today, therefore, we have a belated observance of Charles Inglis Day on the blog. Each year, Charles Inglis Day is an opportunity both to reflect on the witness of this son of the Church of Ireland (his father was a rector in the Diocese of Raphoe) and to consider the character of early Canadian Anglicanism, not least in light of the abysmal state of the contemporary Anglican Church of Canada. This year, we consider a short, passing reference in Inglis' 1803 visitation charge , to the clergy of Nova Scotia: It may be proper to add, that, at the present time, great attention is paid to the Improvement of Psalmody by the Members of our Church in England; and that several excellent Publications have lately appeared there, which will much assist those who are disposed to promote, or engage in this laudable design. In a footnote, Inglis highlights two then recentl...

On a recent Sunday without duty, I attended Morning Prayer in a nearby parish. It was a fine example of low church Anglicanism: unfussy Morning Prayer Two (1662 structure, contemporary language), metrical canticles (the parish does not have a choral tradition), and a very good sermon from a lay reader, quoting Augustine and George Herbert.  What particularly captured my thoughts and feelings regarding the service was hymn 343 from the Church of Ireland's Church Hymnal , sung after the sermon: ' We love the place, O God '. As we were singing the hymn, I reflected on how it wonderfully captured an Old High piety that was at home in this low church context (remember, Old High can be the New Low ): Prayer Book, surplice and tippet, a relatively plain church building (stained glass, but no candles, no icons, no statues), said service with hymns, a solid expository sermon.  As the hymn gathers up in thanksgiving the various ministrations experienced in the parish church - prayers...

... thriving into a new reality. Of all the phrases that might be employed to describe the situation of the contemporary Anglican Church of Canada, this is not - how can we express this charitably? - the first that comes to mind.  The phrase is found in a Covenant  (the online journal of The Living Church ) article by Emilie Smith, a priest in the ACoC, responding to David Goodhew's analysis of the woeful situation faced by Canadian Anglicanism. Goodhew, quite rightly, starkly states this is not decline. It is very much worse: First, this is not a church “in decline” or “close to collapse.” This is what collapse looks like. Ecclesial collapse includes large falls in attendance and financial woes. But these are lagging indicators. The key metrics are the numbers of those being baptized and whether a denomination has a healthy age profile, rather than one in which the bulk of congregations are of a certain age. By these indicators, ACoC has already collapsed. It is far too con...

On this Thanksgiving Day in Canada, laudable Practice shares extracts from A Journal of Visitation in Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and along the Eastern Shore of New Brunswick (1843) by Bishop John Inglis (son of Charles). The Journal  provides a quite wonderful insight into how Anglicanism's Reformed Catholic order took root and was nurtured in the Maritimes by the missionary activity of bishops, clergy, and laity. On this Thanksgiving Day, it exemplifies why - not least in light of the profound challenges faced by the Anglican Church of Canada - there is reason to be profoundly thankful for (rather than dismiss, obscure, or forget) the heritage of Canadian Anglicanism. Sunday, May 21. Storm and rain, through which we drove (over a wretched road, with many long and steep hills, and several broken bridges), to the church at Douglas (15 miles). To our surprise the building was well filled by about two hundred persons. The church (St. Peter's) and its burial ground were consecrate...

A recent article on the Covenant site made for incredibly grim reading for those of us who value the heritage of Canadian Anglicanism. Reflecting on newly-published statistics from the Anglican Church of Canada, the opening sentence of the article declared, "Canada is the first major province of the Anglican Communion to have collapsed". While we might have questions about the conclusions drawn by the article, there is little doubt that the statistics to which it refers are devastating. This being so, one might wonder what value or relevance there may be in celebrating the witness and legacy of Charles Inglis. Not only is secular, 21st century Canada far removed from the political, social, and cultural views of the Loyalist Inglis; the predominant progressive concerns of contemporary Canadian Anglicanism are, to say the least, radically different to the Old High thought and sensibilities embodied by Inglis. We might suggest, however, that it is precisely such an approach whi...

As Canadian friends celebrate Thanksgiving, my thoughts turn to Old Holy Trinity, Middleton, Nova Scotia .  During the Summer, I happened across pictures of the church on social media and reproduced them for a post celebrating Charles Inglis , commemorated in the Church of Ireland calendar on 16th August. I then read Brian McConnell's delightful history of Old Holy Trinity, The First Church , a title referring to this being the oldest church built by United Empire Loyalists in the lands that would become Canada.  On this Thanksgiving Day, those of us elsewhere who value Canadian Anglicanism can look to Old Holy Trinity as embodying a heritage, virtues, and theological commitments which represent the best - and, we might add, future hope - of Anglican life and witness in Canada.  Unfashionable though it may be within official Canadian Anglican circles to recall the significance of the Loyalists to the foundation of Anglicanism in the True North, the story of those Loyalist...

To mark this Charles Inglis Day (and mindful that Canadian Anglican friends commemorate Inglis on 12th August), words from his Charge delivered to the clergy of the Diocese of Nova Scotia, at his primary visitation in 1788: With respect to those who are not of our communion, a candid, brotherly and respectful behaviour should be observed towards them, as indeed it should to all mankind. We may be firmly attached to our principles, without illiberality, or a spirit of malevolence to others; and if it be possible, as much as lieth in us, we should live peaceably with all men. It is truly painful and mortifying to see a furious Bigot, pretending a zeal for the Gospel; yet wholly destitute of that temper required by the Gospel, and ignorant of the two first and principal lessons taught by it, Humility and Benevolence. Perhaps he tramples on every dictate of truth and moral rectitude, as well as of charity, that he may serve the contracted system which he has adopted. Such men - and alas! ...

Over recent years, laudable Practice has marked Canadian Thanksgiving Day by giving thanks for particular aspects of the character of Anglicanism in the True North .  This year, I turn to a sermon preached in 1785 , to a settlement of United Empire Loyalists in Sorel, Quebec, by a cleric - John Doty - who had been an active Loyalist during the Revolutionary War. Doty, born in New York, had received orders in the Church of England in 1770, before serving as rector to two churches in the province of New York.  During the American War he was chaplain to a regular British unit and then to the King's Royal Regiment of New York , a Loyalist unit, many of whose officers and men, with their families, found refuge in Quebec at the conclusion of the war. And it was in Sorel, Quebec, that Doty was to be found at the war's end, conducting divine service for the first time in that settlement on - rather ironically - 4th July 1784. According to a history of Christ Church, Sorel - the c...

In 1891, Arthur Wentworth Eaton - Canadian born, but a graduate of Harvard and a cleric of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States - wrote his The Church of England in Nova Scotia and the Tory Clergy of the Revolution .  His judgement on the Nova Scotia Anglicanism into which he had been born was withering:  The chief defect of the Churchmanship of Nova Scotia, is a lack of intellectual breadth, the result of the isolation of the diocese from great centres of thought and action, and there have consequently been many places where the attitude of the Church towards other religious bodies has been narrow and intolerant ... In Nova Scotia the Church may hold her own, but she can never gain greatly until her clergy come to understand that she is not simply the ancient Church of England, or the Church of the Tory people of the American Revolution, but that she is also a Church with infinite powers of adaptation to the intellects and hearts of nineteenth century me...