laudable Practice

After addressing the matter of the rite of Confirmation, Robert Nelson - in his 1713 Life of Bull - turns to Ordination: The September after the Bishop came into The Care his Diocese, he had a publick Ordination; and the same time every Year, was employed after the same manner. After the other Ember Seasons he Ordain'd but a small Number, more or less, as occasion required. September Embertide, then, was the usual Ordination season in the diocese of St Davids under Bishop Bull. His requirement was that candidates for holy orders presented themselves to him in "at least a Month before Ordination Sunday" (indicating that the rite of Ordination occurred on the Sunday of the Embertide): The first thing therefore that Bishop required of such Candidates, was, that they should make their personal Appearance before him, at least a Month before Ordination Sunday. At such their Appearance, they produced their Testimonials and Titles, and were examined by one of his Chaplains, and ...

This week's reading from Robert Nelson's The Life of Dr. George Bull (1713) is a quite beautiful passage that might be regarded as a commentary on the Ordinal's Ordering of Priests. Two gospel readings are provided for the Ordering of Priests, Matthew 9:36ff and John 10:1ff. In the former, Our Lord is "moved with compassion" for the crowds following Him. In the latter, He reveals Himself as "the good shepherd", the One who has come "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly". Both gospel readings set the context for the bishop's declaration: Have always therefore printed in your remembrance, how great a treasure is committed to your charge. For they are the sheep of Christ, which he bought with his death, and for whom he shed his blood. The Church and Congregation whom you must serve, is his spouse and his body ... Wherefore consider with yourselves the end of your ministry towards the children of God, towards ...

The report that a bishop of the Church of England in South Africa (CESA) ordained seven deacons on 22nd May for ministry in the Church of England has, as we might expect, raised more than a few questions. Let me say at the outset, that I have considerable sympathy for CESA. (I use this title as I think REACH-SA is rather gauche.) In our parish we had a lovely gentleman, recently deceased, who was born in South Africa and had served in the Royal Navy in the Second World War. His father was a clergyman in CESA because, he told me, "the Church of the Province was far too popish". I also have no doubt that for quite a few Irish Anglicans, worship in CESA might seem rather more familiar than in CPSA. So, yes, I do sympathy for CESA and its situation vis-a-vis the Anglican Communion.  This sympathy, however, does not extend to refusing to ask questions about a serious breach of episcopal and canonical order by means of this intervention in the life of the Church of England. The e...

On this Whitsun Ember Day, we turn to Tillotson's sermon 'The Authority of Jesus Christ, with the Commission and Promise He Gave to the Apostles', on the text Matthew 28:18-20.  In rooting apostolic ministry - that is, the ministry of the Apostles and those whom Tillotson twice describes in this sermon as their "successors" - in the dominical command to baptise in the Triune Name, Tillotson first places the Trinitarian confession at the very heart of church's faith and life, and thus of the faith to be proclaimed by the ordained minister: As for the form of baptism, "in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," it plainly refers to that short creed, or profession of faith, which was required of those that were to be baptized, answerably to the reciting of the precepts of the law, at the baptizing of proselytes among the Jews: now the articles of this creed were reduced to these three heads, "of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,...

It appertaineth to the Office of a Deacon, in the Church where he shall be appointed to serve, to assist the Priest in Divine Service ... When the fifth question at the Ordering of Deacons sets forth the wider duties of the diaconate, William White - in his Commentaries Suited to Occasions of Ordination (1833) - raises the issue of a permanent diaconate as a means of providing for divine service, sermons, and Holy Baptism in communities where it would be impracticable to have an incumbent: But the institution would be still more useful in places in which, because of the small number or the poverty of the people, there can be no permanent provision for a minister devoting his whole time to the service of the sanctuary; an evil, which would be in some measure remedied by the appointment to the deaconship of a proper character, wherever it should offer, with the view not only of his distributing to the poor, but further, for the reading of the Scriptures and discourses, and for baptizin...

Will you diligently read the same unto the people assembled in the Church where you shall be appointed to serve? Answer. I will. Addressing the fourth question in the Ordering of Deacons, William White's Commentaries Suited to Occasions of Ordination (1833) points to how patristic accounts regularly emphasise the significance of the public reading of holy Scripture in the liturgies "of the primitive Church": Of the many marks manifested by this Church, of her being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, there may be considered the importance which she gives to the public reading of the Holy Scriptures, as not one of the least. There is no branch of the service of the primitive Church more demonstrative than this. In the apology of Justin Martyr, edited within half a century of the decease of the last of the apostles; and in the account which the apologists gives of the worship of the Christian assemblies of his day, this is distinctly noticed, as a part of...

Do you think that you are truly called, according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, and according to the canons of this Church, to the ministry of the same? In reflecting upon the second question in the Ordering of Deacons, William White's Commentaries Suited to Occasions of Ordination (1833) addresses the apostolic nature of the Church from which the candidate receives holy orders: To justify the candidate in believing that he is called according to the will of Christ, he should be convinced, after due inquiry, that the Church to which he looks for ordination, is a true apostolick Church, deriving its authority from that founded by the apostles. For since they did confessedly found a communion, and since it did confessedly transmit its ministries, there seems no possible right to the name of a Christian Church at present, but in succession from the originally established body. What then is the result, but that an opinion, formed under due care, is a prerequisite of admission ...

Following last week's introduction to this series on William White's Commentaries Suited to Occasions of Ordination , we now turn to the substance of White's work. The Commentaries are structured around the questions addressed to candidates in the Ordering of Deacons and the Ordering of Priests. It is not without significance that ( with one - rarely used - exception ) the PECUSA Ordinal was the same as that of the Church of England. The questions addressed to the candidates for holy orders, therefore, were the same as in 1662. The first question in the Ordering of Deacons concerned the nature of the call to orders: Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this Office and Ministration, to serve God for the promoting of his glory, and the edifying of his people? Answer: I trust so. White emphasises the understanding of ministerial call embodied in this question: it is not an immediate, direct call to which reference is being made but, rathe...

On this Ember Wednesday, an extract from Bishop Beveridge's sermon 'Ministers of the Gospel, Christ's Ambassadors '. Beveridge, one of those identified by Hampton as a leading Reformed divine in the post-1662 Church of England, here articulates a key and consistent characteristic of Conformity in the long 18th century: the conviction that the episcopal constitution of the Church of England was an apostolic order.  This was not a negative judgment on the circumstances of the continental non-episcopal Reformed churches. In another of his sermons, Beveridge refers to "this or any other reformed Church", phrasing which quite clearly refuses any 'unchurching' of non-episcopal churches. Indeed, we might argue that the very confidence Beveridge demonstrates in the constitution of the Church of England allowed for generosity towards non-episcopal Reformed churches .  Beveridge's sermon, however, does exemplify how the episcopal succession and the Ordinal...

It is the Friday of September Embertide. Today I am thinking of a dear friend who will be priested in coming days. My mind turns towards words from Jeremy Taylor, from his work  Clerus Domini , on "the divine institution, necessity, sacredness, and separation of the office ministerial". Taylor's words are an exposition of the formula repeated at the laying on of hands in the Ordering of Priests in the 1559 Ordinal : Receive the holy goste, whose synnes thou doest forgeve, they are forgeven: and whose sinnes thou doest retaine, thei are retained: and be thou a faithful despensor of the word of god, and of his holy Sacramentes. In the name of the father, and of the sonne, and of the holy gost. Amen. This formula became a particular focus of controversy when Apostolicae Curae declared that 'Receive the Holy Ghost' was insufficient, going on to strangely suggest that the addition in 1662 of 'for the office and work of a Priest" indicated that Anglicans under...