laudable Practice

Yesterday was Gloriana Day. Elizabeth I was born on 7th September 1533. When the Book of Common Prayer was lightly revised in 1604 following the Hampton Court conference, at the beginning of the reign of James I/VI, a black letter day for the obscure Saint Evurtius was introduced to the Kalendar on 7th September. It was a way of marking the anniversary of Elizabeth's birth. Gloriana Day invites us to give thanks for the Elizabethan Settlement and recognise how that Settlement, despite the awkward embarrassment of 21st century Anglicans, offers a wise path for a contemporary Anglicanism so often confused about its identity. We see this wisdom in one of Elizabeth's bishops, John Aylmer (1521-94), Bishop of London from 1577. Strype's 1701 Historical collections of the life and acts of the Right Reverend Father in God, John Aylmer  offers us an insight into how Aylmer embodied the Elizabethan Settlement.  Aylmer's allegiances were made abundantly clear when he, then an Arch...

It is the eve of Gloriana Day, the discreet commemoration of the birthday of Elizabeth I (7th September, marked by the obscure St. Evurtius) introduced to the BCP Kalendar in 1604. As such, it is a day to rejoice in and give thanks for the Elizabethan Settlement, the Reformed Catholic order of Elizabeth's Church: its episcopally-ordered ministry, the decent rites of the 1559 Prayer Book, the modestly Augustinian Articles of Religion, and the quiet, sober dignity of the Elizabethan parish church. And it is to that quiet, sober dignity of the Elizabethan parish church that our thoughts turn on this eve of Gloriana Day, aided by a sermon  by of one the pillars of the Elizabethan Settlement, John Jewel, preached in the presence of the Queen. In the sermon, Jewel referred to David's joy in the return of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem: Therefore when the Tabernacle was restored; when the Arke was fet home from Obed-edom, and set in the mount Sion; when religion Revived, which t...

The queen's majesty, of her godly zeal, calling to remembrance how necessary it is to the advancement of God's glory, and to the establishment of Christ's pure religion for all her loving subjects, especially the state ecclesiastical, to be knit together in one perfect unity of doctrine, and to be conjoined in one uniformity of rites and manners in the ministration of God's holy word, in open prayer and ministration of sacraments, as also to be of one decent behaviour in their outward apparel ... It is Gloriana Day.  In 1604, the year after Elizabeth I's death, the obscure commemoration of St. Evurtius on 7th September was added to the Prayer Book Kalendar. It marked the day on which Gloriana had been born in 1533. Today, in other words, is a day to give thanks for the Elizabethan Settlement. Last year on Gloriana Day, laudable Practice rejoiced in Elizabeth's Prayer Book , the Book of Common Prayer 1559, the liturgy which carried the "mellow light" o...

It is Gloriana Day. In 1604 the Prayer Book Kalendar was revised to include the little-known St. Evurtius, commemorated on 7th September.  It marked the day on which Gloriana, Elizabeth I, had been born.  7th September, therefore, is Gloriana Day, a day to rejoice in the Elizabethan Settlement. On this Gloriana Day, laudable Practice gives thanks for the Book of Common Prayer 1559 .   Our thanksgiving begins with recognition that it was Elizabeth who restored the Book of Common Prayer. The opening words of the 1559 Act of Uniformity remind us what would have been lost if Mary had remained on the throne and established a succession:   Where at the death of our late sovereign lord King Edward VI there remained one uniform order of common service and prayer, and of the administration of sacraments, rites, and ceremonies in the Church of England, which was set forth in one book, intituled: The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of Sacraments, and other rite...

In 1604 the little-known St Evurtius was added as a Black Letter Day to the Prayer Book Kalendar.  It allowed for commemoration of the birthday of Gloriana, Elizabeth I, who had died the previous year.  7th September, therefore, is Gloriana Day, a day to rejoice in the Elizabethan Settlement. To mark the occasion, words from a 1594 sermon by Lancelot Andrewes, rejoicing in Elizabeth's reign and her fidelity to the ecclesiastical settlement, the "corner-stone" which this latter-day Zerubbabel had laid "in a troublesome time", maintaining it in the face of Papalist and Puritan hostility, ensuring that it flourished into the "Head-stone". The Elizabeth Settlement continues to shape and define the Anglican experience: Prayer Book and married clergy, national churches and Choral Evensong, Hooker and Andrewes. Those of us whose Christian life is nourished and sustained within the Anglican tradition - a small part of the universal church and, in many places,...

In 1604, at the outset of the reign of James I/VI, a Black Letter commemoration was added to the Prayer Book calendar for 7th September, that of St. Evurtius.  Why the interest in an obscure bishop of ancient Gaul? It was because the commemoration of St. Evurtius happened to mark the date on which Elizabeth I was born in 1533.  It ensured that the day would be recalled with thanksgiving for the reign of Elizabeth and for the Settlement she established. Today, in other words, is Gloriana Day.  To mark the day, here are words from the famous 1588 sermon of Richard Bancroft (appointed Bishop of London in 1597 and Archbishop of Canterbury in 1604), defending the Elizabethan Settlement as the best expression of Magisterial Protestantism against both Puritan and Roman alternatives. When the Queen's most excellent Majesty had first obtained the crown, (which God of his great mercy grant she may long enjoy) as a most zealous Solomon, Jehoshaphat, and Josiah, her principal care w...