laudable Practice

Many thanks to The North American Anglican for publishing my latest essay, ' Feast of Faith: High Church Eucharistic Theology and Piety in the Church of England, 1800-1830 '.  What might perhaps be of some interest to readers is the essay's denial that a separate stream of (Scottish and American) Episcopalian Eucharistic theology can be invoked against the Reformed norms of the late Georgian High Church tradition.  This applies to both understanding the presence of the Lord in the Sacrament and the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist. On the Lord's presence: The consistent theme of Scottish Episcopalian writers during these decades was not how they represented a different stream of sacramental theology. Their emphasis, rather, was on how Scottish Episcopalianism shared the same sacramental theology as the English Church. William Skinner – later Bishop of Aberdeen and Primus – commenced his 1807 defense of the Scottish liturgy with such a declaration: "The Episcopa...

In an 1826 exchange with a Roman Catholic apologist , Henry Phillpotts (appointed Bishop of Exeter in 1830) provided an account of "the doctrine of our Church" regarding "the real presence in the Sacrament".  It is another example of the vibrancy of pre-1833 High Church Receptionism.  Particularly worthy of note is the distinctive High Church emphasis on this providing a "more real" understanding of the Lord's presence in the Sacrament than a 'carnal' eating: I proceed to state more fully what is indeed the doctrine of our Church on this subject. She holds then, that after the consecration of the bread and wine they are changed not in their nature but in their use; that instead of nourishing our bodies only, they now are instruments by which, when worthily received, God gives to our souls the body and blood of Christ to nourish and sustain them: that this is not a fictitious, or imaginary, exhibition of our crucified Redeemer to us, but a real ...