laudable Practice

In its ' Alterations agreed on and confirmed in Convention, for rendering the Liturgy conformable to the principles of the American Revolution, and the constitutions of the several states ', the first General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, held in Philadelphia in 1785, set forth a ' Service for the 4th of July '. The thanksgiving appointed for the day included this reference to the events of 4th July 1776: O God, whose Name is excellent in all the earth, and thy glory above the heavens, who as on this day didst inspire and direct the hearts of our delegates in Congress, to lay the perpetual foundations of peace, liberty, and safety; we bless and adore thy glorious Majesty, for this thy loving kindness and providence ... The appointed Epistle opened with the words "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice"; the appointed Gospel concluded with "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed". There is littl...

'Everybody agrees that is the worst in Christendom.' This was the somewhat startling judgment of Mary II, when considering the decayed state of the Church of Ireland shortly after the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. These are the words with which Patrick Little (editor) opens the volume of essays that is The Church of Ireland Under the Stuarts (2025). The essays, covering a wide range of subjects - from the role Trinity College Dublin to cathedral music, from the devotional life of the episcopalian second Earl of Cork during the Interregnum to the role of the bishops in the Irish House of Lords - might be considered as something of a revisionist response to the words of Queen Mary. The Church of Ireland which emerges from these essays has greater spiritual, intellectual, and cultural vibrancy than recognised in Old Hat accounts and enduring populist mythology. The intellectual and cultural vibrancy owed much to Trinity College Dublin, driving the "distinctiveness" of th...

In July 1705, George Bull - consecrated bishop in April - arrived in his new Diocese of St Davids.  In his visitation charges, as he addressed "the principal Parts and Branches of [the] Pastoral Office", Bull made clear his expectations for the preaching ministry of the clergy.  Nelson, in his 1713 Life of Dr. George Bull , notes the Bishop's advice to his younger clergy, advice which might be surprising to contemporary Anglicans: To qualifie them for Preaching, he pressed the Knowledge and Understanding of the holy Scriptures; and in order thereunto, some Skill in the learned Languages, with good Judgment and Discretion, and not without a tolerable Share of Elocution. He advised young Divines, not to trust at first to their own Compositions, but to furnish themselves with a Provision of the best Sermons, which the learned Divines of our Church have published; that by reading them often, and by endeavouring to imitate them, they may acquire a habit of good Preaching thems...

If the Tory idyll of 1685 was threatened by Non-Conformists in Avening , much darker clouds were also gathering. The reign of James II, which had been joyfully welcomed by High Churchmen and Tories as a reaffirmation of the constitutional order, and of the Church of England's place in that order, took on a character which profoundly disturbed the bastions of Tory support for James: parsons and country gentlemen. Contrary to the assurances James had given at his accession, he was determined to undermine the position of the Church of England and to overturn the Church of Ireland.  The response of parsons across the kingdoms was almost unanimous. Their pulpits began to echo with warnings of 'Popery'. This, as Nelson states in his 1713 Life of Dr. George Bull ,  was no less so with Parson Bull: During the Reign of King James the II when our Apprehensions of the increase of Popery were no ways groundless, but founded in those Measures, which we apparently saw were taken to adva...

It is the contention of this book that the abolition of order of bishops and the establishment of Presbyterianism in Scotland was not a foregone conclusion ... The fall of episcopacy in Scotland was neither expected nor inevitable (pp.1 & 7). Ann Shukman's Bishops and Covenanters: The Church in Scotland 1688-1691 (2012) is a story of missed opportunities.  Perhaps surprisingly, it is King William III who emerges as the wise figure in this account of the Scottish church settlement, his desires for comprehension frustrated by a combination of radical Covenanters and Jacobite bishops.  William's initial desire was for the Restoration Church of Scotland to continue, with its combination of episcopacy and presbytery. As Shukman states, "his attitude towards the Scottish Church was rather on balance to have favoured episcopalianism" (p.12). Henry Compton, the Williamite Bishop of London, had made this clear to Alexander Rose, Bishop of Edinburgh, in 1688/89, declaring ...

That the Lord's Supper is a feast on, or after, a sacrifice, is an explication of it which has been adopted by the ablest and most learned men. Dr. Cudworth, a great and venerable name, first suggested it in this country; and it has been firmly supported by the ingenious arguments of succeeding Divines - Vicesimus Knox,  Considerations on the Nature and Efficacy of the Lord's Supper (1799). The priest does not absolve in his own name. He simply promulgates the terms of pardon, granted by the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That this may be misunderstood by none, is probably one reason, for which our form repeats the nominative case. "He," that is, Almighty God, "pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his Holy Gospel" - John Shepherd, A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796). I assure the reader further, that I am none of your passive obedience and non-resis...

On 9th December 1775, Crown forces engaged Patriot troops in the Battle of Great Bridge. It was the first engagement of the Revolutionary War in Virginia. Only weeks later, on 1st January, the Royal Navy bombarded Norfolk, Virginia, with British landing parties being confronted by Patriot militia. The confrontation resulted in the town being burnt to the ground. On the eve of the shelling of Norfolk, and ending the tumultuous year of 1775, David Griffith - then rector of  Shelburne Parish in Loudoun County, northern Virginia - entered the pulpit of Bruton Parish Church, Williamsburg.  Griffith had previously publicly indicated his support for the Patriot cause. Now from the pulpit, amidst the realities of armed conflict and political confrontation, preached on a scriptural text at the heart of Anglican political theology, and often invoked by Loyalist clergy, Romans 13:1&2:  The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth ...

There is a great deal of flaming Heat about Matters, in which more Gentleness and a milder Temper would both look better , and more effectually compass that which is designed by it;  I mean the bringing the Dissenters into our Communion. Bitter Railings, and a rough Behaviour, cannot make many Converts.  Gilbert Burnett's words from the Preface to the 1712 edition of his Discourse of Pastoral Care came to mind when reading William Gibson's excellent Samuel Wesley & the Crisis of Tory Piety, 1685-1720 (2021). Gibson addresses how the High Church and Tory Wesley differed from his Whig and Latitudinarian diocesan, William Wake, during the 'Lay Baptism' controversy of 1708-1712. The controversy commenced when an Anglican convert from Dissent, Roger Laurence (who had been re-baptised according to Anglican rites in 1708), wrote an inflammatory tract entitled  Lay Baptism Invalid, or an Essay to prove that such Baptism is Null and Void when administer'd in opposition...