laudable Practice

Over the Christmas season, I was interested in references, on The Lutheran Neoplatonist , the substack of a priest in the Church of Norway, to seasonal Norwegian customs. The first was in a homily for what the Book of Common Prayer terms The Sunday after Christmas Day, or what contemporary Anglican liturgies tend to describe as The First Sunday of Christmas. The Lutheran Neoplatonist , however, pointed to the Norwegian term : what we call “Romjulssøndag” ... in the Church of Norway. Romjul (lit. “space Christmas”) refers to the days of Christmas between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.  Something of this is probably reflected in the experience of many Anglican churches in these Islands and North America on The Sunday after Christmas Day. A smaller congregation after the large congregations for carol services and Christmas Day; perhaps simple congregational carols and less choral music; and the main liturgy of the day rather more modest than Midnight Mass. We might, then, regard Th...

Reflecting on the suggestion made in the post on Epiphany Eve, that Anglican piety particularly rejoices in the Epiphany as the feast of grace fulfilling, not destroying, nature, of nature ordered towards grace, I turn to Jeremy Taylor's meditation on the Magi in The Great Exemplar : As it was an unsearchable wisdom, so it was an unmeasurable grace of Providence and dispensation which God did exhibit to those wise men, to them, as to all men, disposing the ministeries of his grace sweetly, and by proportion to the capacities of the person suscipient. For God called the Gentiles by such means as their customs and learning had made prompt and easy. For these magi were great philosophers and astronomers; and therefore God sent a miraculous star to invite and lead them to anew and more glorious light, the lights of grace and glory. And God so blessed them in following the star, to which their innocent curiosity and national customs were apt to lead them, that their custom was changed t...

On Epiphany 1813, William White, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Presiding Bishop of PECUSA, preached in Christ Church, Philadelphia. The sermon addressed the newly-established Society for the Advancement of Christianity in Pennsylvania, founded by White in the previous year to support the creation of Episcopal churches in the state.  What is striking about the sermon is how it is defined by what White terms "the festival of this day". Remembering that White is regarded as an exemplar of the low church tradition in PECUSA, and that there was little, if any, high church influence in Pennsylvania, the sermons points to how the feast of the Epiphany was meaningfully observed in pre-1833 Anglicanism: It has been often remarked concerning the calling of the Gentiles, that the great event became distinct a prophecy, in proportion as the time of its accomplishment drew near. The truth of this is especially evident in the text. The ...

Richard Gardyner's 1639 Epiphany sermon , preached in Christ Church, Oxford, was in many ways, an exemplary Laudian discourse. Gardyner , who won praise from James I/VI for an oration delivered on behalf of the University of Oxford, was appointed a canon of Christ Church in 1629 and a chaplain to Charles I in 1630. His 1639 Epiphany sermon set forth a traditional piety associated with the feast, saw in the Magi a model of Laudian reverence "before the Altar", and evoked traditional Marian Epiphany iconography . The sermon also demonstrated how Laudians were promoting an attractive alternative soteriology to a rather rigid expression of Calvinistic scholasticism. As Gardyner expounded in the sermon, the feast of the Epiphany was particularly suited to giving voice to this alternative vision, with natural theology, reason, and a natural piety used by the Triune God to draw the Magi to the Incarnate Word: I will not affirme, as some doe, that the holy Spirit himselfe assum...

For these days after the Epiphany, an extract from Samuel Clarke's Epiphany sermon ' On the Meaning of the Name of God ', on the text Malachi 1:11, oft associated with the feast. Clarke here addresses how the prophecy of Malachi, and the call to worship in the Old Covenant, is fulfilled in "the character ... of the Christian worship". And so the adoration of the Magi becomes the sign of the spiritual offering of the Church, that lively sacrifice which honours the God of Abraham amongst the nations: In every place incense shall be offered unto my Name, and a pure Offering. Incense, (which is the Prayers of the Saints, Rev. v.8.) and this phrase, a pure Offering , are plainly intended to express That Spiritual Religion, That Worship of the Father in Spirit and Truth according to the Gospel of Christ, which is opposed to the carnal Ordinances and literal Sacrifices of the Jews, and of which those Sacrifices and external Purifications were but Types and Figures. Hence...

Appropriate for these days after the Epiphany, an extract from a  Christmastide sermon  on John 1:14, preached by John Tillotson in 1680. Here Tillotson sets forth what the Epiphany collect describes as "the fruition of thy glorious Godhead": we have hereby full assurance of a blessed Immortality in another Life, because in our Nature Death and all the Powers of Darkness were baffled and overcome. The Death of Christ, which could not have been without his Incarnation; and so likewise his Resurrection from the dead and his Ascension into Heaven, are sensible Demonstrations to all Mankind of a blessed Immortality after Death; which is the most powerful motive in the world to Obedience and a holy Life ... The Holy men of old were transported with Joy at the obscure and confused apprehension and remote foresight of so great a Blessing, at so great a distance: It is said of Abraham the Father of the faithful, that he saw His Day afar off and was glad: How should we then be affecte...

At Early Communion on Epiphany Sunday 2024 Ephesians 3:8 [1] On this Epiphany Sunday, we hear the Apostle Paul describe his ministry as bringing “to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ”. It is a beautiful description of the truth we celebrate on this day. When the magi present their gifts to the Christ Child, we are pointed to “the boundless riches of Christ” - for the magi’s gifts proclaim the Christ and the rich blessings which flow from Him. The words of the traditional Epiphany carol [2] suggest the meaning of the gifts: Gold - “King for ever, ceasing never, over us all to reign”, for the kingdom brought by Christ is the rule and reign of God, and His kingdom never ends; Incense - “owns a Deity night … worship Him, God Most High”, for Jesus Christ is God with us, the One who "is of one Being with the Father" [3]; Myrrh - “sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying, sealed in the stone-cold tomb”, for in the death and passion of Jesus, the eternal love of God ...

At the Epiphany on previous years, I have sought to illustrate how the preaching and piety of the Laudian and High Church traditions bring us to rejoice in the richness of this festival. This year, we turn to the poetry and hymnody of the Laudian and High Church traditions, poetry and hymnody which draws us to celebrate the rich imagery of the Epiphany, grounded in patristic teaching on the leading of the Star and the adoration of the Magi. In The Golden Grove   (1655), Jeremy Taylor provides a hymn for use 'Upon the Epiphany, and the three wise men of the East coming to worship Jesus'. The hymn begins by drawing our attention to the 'Star of wonder', described by Taylor as "A Comet dangling in the aire", heralding a momentous event of cosmic significance: A Comet dangling in the aire Presag'd the ruine both of Death and Sin; And told the wise-men of a King, The King of Glory, and the Sun Of Righteousness, who then begun To draw towards that blessed Hemi...

At the evening Eucharist for The Epiphany of Our Lord, 7.1.24 Matthew 2:10-11a “On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage.” In the quietness of this evening hour, on this day when we celebrate the Epiphany of Our Lord, we reflect upon the Magi adoring the Christ Child. They see the Christ Child and they kneel before Him in adoration. That immediacy might lead us to think that the experience of the Magi - who could see, reach out, and touch the Christ Child - is significantly different to our experience, as we assemble this evening for these Holy Mysteries. We have heard in Saint Matthew’s Gospel that the Magi “On entering the house … saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage". We, by contrast, gather in a parish church, in a land far away from Bethlehem, many centuries later. Is this feast of the Epiphany merely a commemoration of an ancient, long past event?  Or does the Epiphany - the...

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him  - Matthew 2:10-11, from the Gospel appointed for The Epiphany . Mercifully grant, that we, which know thee now by faith, may after this life have the fruition of thy glorious Godhead - from the collect of The Epiphany. The wise men prosecuted the business of their journey, and having heard the king, they departed, and the star (which as it seems attended their motion) went before them until it came and stood over where the young child was; where, when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. Such a joy as is usual to wearied travellers when they are entering into their inn; such a joy as when our hopes and greatest longings are laying hold upon the proper objects of their desires; a joy of certainty immediately before the possession: for that is the greatest joy, which possess...

From Andrewes' famous "A cold coming they had of it at this time of the year, just the worst time of the year to take a journey, and specially a long journey", to John H. Hopkins's Epiphany carol 'We Three Kings', to Eliot's 'The Journey of the Magi', there has been a warmth to reflection on this feast in Anglican piety. This warmth is very evident in the writings of Jeremy Taylor, who draws out aspects of the Epiphany which have a particular resonance for the form of piety Taylor was seeking to encourage. In his devotional manual The Golden Grove , Taylor provided a series of "Festival Hymns, celebrating the Mysteries and Chief Festivals of the Year", including one for 'Upon the Epiphany, and the Three Wise Men of the East coming to Worship Jesus': A comet dangling in the aire, Presag'd the ruine both of Death and Sin; And told the wise-men of a King, The King of Glory, and the Sun Of Righteousness, Who then begun To draw to...

‘And the heaven was opened’: entering into the mystery of our salvation At the early Eucharist on The Baptism of Our Lord, 2022 Luke 3:15-17,21-22 Along the banks of the River Jordan, it was a routine, everyday occurrence during the ministry of John the Baptist.  Earlier in the chapter of Luke’s Gospel from which we have heard in our Gospel reading today, Luke tells us: “the crowds … came out to be baptized by [John]”. Jesus of Nazareth was one of the crowd.  That itself points us back to the events we have just celebrated at Christmas. The Child born in the manger is one of us.  We know that Jesus, Son of Mary, is, yes, one of the crowd like us.   But this, of course, is not all.  At Christmas we celebrated what we affirm week by week in the words of the Creed. That Jesus of Nazareth is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father” - and that he “was incarnate from the Holy Spirit of the Virgin M...

For God called the Gentiles by such means as their customs and learning had made prompt and easy. For these magi were great philosophers and astronomers; and therefore God sent a miraculous star to invite and lead them to a new and more glorious light, the lights of grace and glory. And God so blessed them in following the star, to which their innocent curiosity and national customs were apt to lead them, that their custom was changed to grace, and their learning heightened with inspiration, and crowned all with a spiritual and glorious event ...  When they came to Bethlehem, and the star pointed them to a stable, they entered in; and being enlightened with a divine ray proceeding from the face of the holy child, and seeing through the cloud, and passing through the scandal of His mean lodging and poor condition, they bowed themselves to the earth; first giving themselves an oblation to this great King, then they made offering of their gifts. Jeremy Taylor  The Great Exemplar ...

Cosin ended his 1653 Epiphany sermon by noting "there are more Sundays belonging to this Epiphany of Christ than one".  In a 1623 sermon at a marriage on the Second Sunday after Epiphany (the appointed Gospel being the miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee), he had expounded the meaning of "Epiphany time": You are to know, then, that this is Epiphany time. You see they are called the Sundays of the Epiphany; and Epiphany time is the time of Manifestation, the time when Christ was pleased to manifest Himself, and make His glory known to the world. According to which, the Church hath suited her office, and fitted us with a course of service, that might help to bring into our minds in order, the things themselves, as they were done here by Christ our Saviour while He was upon the earth. Thus there were three great and prime manifestations that He made of Himself.  The Church begins with them at Twelfth Day. The first, that He made to the Gentiles; and accordingly...

[T]he rhythms and rituals of parish life ... were central to his perception of the ecclesia Anglicana. Kevin Sharpe's description of the values at the heart of the ecclesiastical policies of Charles I can function as a description of the heart of the Laudian vision.  This had been inherited from Hooker's defence of Conformity and emphasis on the formative significance of the reading of prayers and Scripture ahead of preaching: A great part of the cause, whereof religious minds are so inflamed with the love of public devotion, is that virtue, force and efficacy, which by experience they find the very form and reverend solemnity of common prayer duly ordered ( LEP V.25.1) Likewise, Hooker's apologia for the "holiness and virtue we ascribe to the Church more than other places" also provided an anticipation of 'parochial Laudianism': for performance of this service by the people of God assembled we think not any place so good as the Church, nor any exhort...

Diarmaid MacCulloch ends his essay ' The Virgin Mary and Protestant Reformers ' by referring to the emergence in the 1620s of "hints of a different voice within Protestantism".  I am not at all convinced that the examples offered by MacCulloch - "cultured Protestant noblemen" in England displaying "Scriptural scenes from the life of Our Lady in their private chapels", a work by French Protestant divine Charles Drelincourt, and "the clerical party fostered by Lancelot Andrewes" - equate to a "different voice".  In each case, the key doctrinal commitments of the Reformation regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary were affirmed and maintained.   What is more, as has recently been discussed regarding Cranmer's Christmas collect , the Reformed Marian piety of the Lutheran and Zurich Reformations found quiet but earnest expression in the Book of Common Prayer.  That said, perhaps MacCulloch, while certainly overstating matters, rightly ...

Sermons from the Caroline, Restoration, and Revolution eras suggest a lively Epiphany piety within the Church of England, with the significance of the feast as the culmination of Christmas recognised and traditional Epiphany themes echoed.   In a ' Sermon concerning the Epiphany ', preached in Christ Church, Oxford, in 1639, Richard Gardyner (deprived during the Interregnum) encouraged his listeners to adore with the Magi: But let us, who acknowledge Christ our Liege Prince, and Sovereign, like good subjects humbly seek, & come to this God Incarnate, falling down at the Manger, and at the lap of the Virgin, where this blessed Child lieth ... and there behold him given to us, borne for us, sucking, growing, dying, rising again, ascending above the heavens that he may at length bring us thither, where we shall see him face to face, which we beseech him to grant us for his mercies, and merits sake.  In doing so, he notes that he is in disagreement with Calvin's understan...