laudable Practice

In the Middle Ages, the poor were regarded as our brothers and sisters in Christ to whom we were bound in love. After the Reformation, poverty came to be seen as a sign of God's punishment and ... a problem to be dealt with through discipline and often punishment. So said Timothy Radcliffe OP - now a cardinal - in a 2012 letter to the Daily Telegraph , critiquing the late Hilary Mantel's praise for Thomas Cromwell. It is, of course, a rather standard Roman Catholic meme, entirely lacking in serious historical research, the result of 'Merrie England' fantasies encouraged by some readings of Duffy's panegyric of pre-Reformation English religion. Ironically, Radcliffe's letter opened by stating that Mantel "is not as good a historian as she is a novelist". At the heart of this fantasy is the view that with the dissolution of the monasteries, the care for the poor provided in pre-Reformation England by religious orders was abolished, to be replaced by grub...

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 ...

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...

Quiet, empty churches relax after strenuous attempts to define the Trinity. Ronald Blythe's words - from a wonderful collection of his writings, Next to Nature: A Lifetime in the English Countryside - speak of these Sundays after Trinity in late June, stretching into July and August. In the parish, Sunday congregations begin to decrease from mid-June, as the holiday season starts. Empty spaces in the pews are noticeable. The choir departs, returning in September. Sunday services are now said rather than sung, with a few hymns. When Choral Evensong resumes, we will be well into September. Parishioners wish each other well for travels.  It is a good time for the parish. A fallow time. A time to enjoy the quieter, simpler rhythms of these Sundays in Summer.  On those Summer Sundays when I am without clerical duties, I enjoy slipping into the back pews of nearby parish churches, hearing the words of Matins, decent hymns, and thoughtful sermons. Sunday Matins is, I think, particul...

Anglicans should have a love for Rogationtide. But, no, Rogationtide is not a peculiarly Anglican observance. Rogation Days are, after all, rooted in the practice of the Latin Church . And it is joy to read, for example, of a Church of Scotland parish observing Rogation. The more Christian traditions that (re)discover Rogationtide, the better. This post, therefore, is not attempting to declare Rogationtide as property of the Anglicans. It is, however, seeking to suggest that Rogationtide should have a particular resonance for Anglicans.  This is partly because Rogationtide reflects a significant strain in Prayer Book piety. The exhortation at the opening of Morning and Evening Prayer calls us to "to ask those things which are requisite and necessary, as well for the body as the soul". In the Litany we petition, week by week, "That it may please thee to give and preserve to our use the kindly fruits of the earth, so as in due time we may enjoy them". In the General ...

Summer is a fallow time in the parish. The choir leave for July and August. Parish activities wind down. Clergy duties ease. Sunday congregations grow smaller, parishioners enjoying holidays. It is a time to be cherished. A sabbath in the parish year. A time when the busy routines of parish life pause, and the gift of rest and recreation brings refreshment to body, mind, and spirit. The mind that comes to rest is tended In ways that it cannot intend: Is borne, preserved, and comprehended By what it cannot comprehend. - Wendell Berry, Sabbaths, 1979 II. Sunday services can take on a different character during Summer. Hymns but no choral music. Gloria, Gospel responses, and Sanctus said, not sung.  I rejoice in the gift of the Anglican choral tradition, particularly Choral Evensong. Sundays in Summer, however, can bring a different gift, something of the quietness of Early Communion. Said Evening Prayer on Sunday evenings in Summer has, for me, a particular delight. It is a time whe...

To end our readings from The Life of John Lonsdale (1868) - Bishop of Lichfield 1843-67 and exemplar of the Old High tradition - two extracts from sermons preached by Lonsdale in the last years of his life. Both extracts point to the Old High tradition continuing to present in English parish, over three decades after the beginning of the Oxford Movement.  The first sermon was delivered at the restoration of a parish church in 1863. It is implied in the sermon that the restoration followed Victorian norms, moving away from some 18th century features.  Despite this, Lonsdale emphasised a continuation of simplicity: And still the work is of a simple kind: it is still ... characterized by that simple grace which best becomes the sacred edifices of the Church of England; simple, solemnly simple, as that Church is in its ritual, and forms of worship. Here was the authentic voice of the Old High tradition, rejoicing in - rather than mocking and rejecting - the modest, quiet liturgic...

A recent article by Alison Milbank - whose The Once and Future Parish will be published in the Autumn - in New Directions (the magazine of Forward in Faith) offers an excellent summary of the cause at the heart of the Save the Parish movement. She captures how the parish is a sign of the sacramentality of place: "Place itself is sacramental for a Christian and an Anglican Christian especially".  This reflects the insight of John Hughes , his identification of "a particular piety and sensibility which could be seen as characteristically Anglican: a sense of all creation being in God and God being in all creation, through Christ". Also of significance is how Milbank relates the parish to the Book of Common Prayer: the way of life of a traditional parish cherishes liturgy itself as rhythm, inhabits custom and ceremony, values natural and human bonds, and is inherently sacramental.  The widespread adherence to the Book of Common Prayer among rural congregations is ev...

This is not a post concerning Traditionis custodes .   That is a matter for Roman Catholic friends to discuss and debate.  When reading some contributions to this debate, however, I was struck by the following statement from an insightful article in the Church Life Journal : Many traditionalist Catholics see this liturgical bomb exploding with some very dangerous theological and ecclesio-political shrapnel. Normally North American or European, they see the curtailing or elimination of the pre-conciliar liturgy as a threat to carefully curated socio-cultural traditionalist havens (parishes, schools, social networks, online communities), where the putative rot of “modernity” or “the culture” and the errors or even heresies rampant in the post-conciliar Catholic Church can be held at bay, ideally to be eventually reversed. Whether or not this accurately describes Roman Catholic communities using the 1962 Missal is for others to determine.  It does, however, rightly ide...

During long months of the pandemic, millions of us turned to nature. Our research on the mental health impacts of the pandemic showed going for walks outside was one of our top coping strategies and 45% of us reported being in green spaces had been vital for our mental health. Websites which showed footage from webcams of wildlife saw hits increase by over 2000%. Wider studies also found that during lockdowns, people not only spent more time in nature but were noticing it more. It was as if we were re-discovering at our most fragile point our fundamental human need to connect with nature. So said the UK's Mental Health Foundation , introducing the theme of this year's Mental Health Awareness Week: nature.  This builds, of course, on an increasingly well-recognised body of research, ably summarised - with compelling personal accounts of mental health - by Lucy Jones in Losing Eden: Why Our Minds Need the Wild (2020) and Isabel Hardman The Natural Health Service: how nature can...

... I stay Awhile within this church: its simple Furnishings, and storied windows say More to me of heaven than the pale Abstractions of theology. A day Spent in an empty church has been as full Of goodness as an age elsewhere. I feel Its peace refresh me like a holy well. Reading Malcom Guite's 'responsive poem' on Psalm 84 led me to think of how examples of his poetry could be considered as a poetic celebration of what laudable Practice has previously described as the Old High, New Low tradition: how the reserve and modesty of the Old High Church tradition can now appear to be 'Low'.  Guite himself echoes something of this when he says that this particular poem gives expression to "my love of the simple, ancient English parish church".  This simplicity has deep roots, as indicated in the account of the parish church given in the  Homily for Repairing and Keeping Clean of Churches : God's house, the church, is well adorned with places convenient t...

[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...

I was rather moved when last Thursday I saw a Tweet from the Cromwell Museum  marking the day as the anniversary of the death of Elizabeth Cromwell, wife of Oliver and mother to her husband's short-lived successor as Lord Protector, Richard.  Initially I could not quite grasp why reading about her burial in Northborough parish church (pictured) moved me. This post is an attempt to gather my thoughts and emotions. At the Restoration, Elizabeth had expressed to Charles II "humble and faithful obedience to your Majesty in your government", requesting that Charles would "out of your princely goodness vouchsafe her a protection, without which she cannot expect, now in her old age, a safe retirement". The Cavalier reaction at the Restoration explains the need for the petition.  The bodies of deceased Regicides - including Oliver Cromwell - had been disinterred and hung from the gallows.  Deceased members of Cromwell's family were also disinterred : the bodies of...