laudable Practice

Amidst many Anglican posts during Holy Week and Easter on 'X' of Chrism Eucharists, foot-washings, altars of repose, and Easter Vigils, there was another current to be detected. Small in number, perhaps, but some posts on 'X' during this highpoint of the liturgical year might be regarded as suggesting that the ordinary, modest, reserved Anglican piety of the Old High tradition can continue to have resonance and appeal. We begin with the excellent Episcopalian Reformed theologian Fleming Rutledge on Good Friday: It is a minority POV these days, but for me today, a noonday service with powerful sermon and the "old" Prayer Book service with all the readings and prayers but no communion and no "veneration of the cross" seemed perfect to me. — Fleming Rutledge (@flemingrut) March 29, 2024 Good Friday is surely a day for such a stark, unfussy liturgy, not overwhelming the senses, a liturgy which stills us in heart, mind, and soul before the myster...

And Buried. That he might suffer every thing of humane nature, he was by the care of his friends and disciples, by the leave of Pilate, taken from the Cross, and embalmed (as the manner of the Jews was to bury) and wrapped in linen, and buried in a new grave, hewn out of a Rock; and this was the last and lowest step of his humiliation. He descended into Hell. That is, He went down into the lower parts of the earth, or (as himself called it) into the heart of the earth; by which phrase the Scripture understands the state of separation, or of souls severed from their bodies: by this his descending to the land of darkness, where all things are forgotten, he sanctified the state of death and separation, that none of his servants might ever after fear the jaws of Death and Hell; whither he went, not to suffer torment (because he finished all that upon the Cross) but to triumph over the gates of hell, to verify his death, and the event of his sufferings, and to break the iron bars of those l...

Many thanks to the North American Anglican for publishing my essay ' Do we need the Easter Vigil? The liturgical and theological coherence of an Old High Easter Eve '.  The essay emerged, firstly, from my own experiences of the Vigil in smaller congregations and, secondly, from serving in parishes which do not observe the Vigil.   To be clear, this essay is not for those who observe the Vigil and who do it well.  It is for those of us who do not observe it, assuring us that the liturgical and theological coherence of a traditional Prayer Book Easter Eve has much to commend it. Below, the section of the essay which considers Ante-Communion on Easter Even. Alongside Mattins and Evensong, there is also the Ante-Communion of Easter Eve. Ante-Communion on this day has a particular resonance, gathering the Church before the Tomb, “the grave, and gate of death,” in the knowledge of the Resurrection. It orients us towards and assists in preparing us for the celebration of t...