laudable Practice

The King's state visit to the United States, marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, had me searching online for photographs of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II attending Episcopal services during their respective state visits.  During his state visit, George VI, with FDR, attended divine service at St. James Episcopal Church, Hyde Park, New York City on Sunday 11th June 1939. The first photograph, taken after the service, shows the King and Queen, President and Mrs. Roosevelt, Bishop Henry St. George Tucker (then PECUSA Presiding Bishop), and two Episcopal clergy.  The second and third photographs are of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip attending divine service in Old North Church on Sunday 11th July 1976, as part of the bicentennial celebrations.  The photographs evoke something that, in many ways, been lost. Reflecting on the photographs, however, is neither a counsel of despair nor a call for reactionary outrage. It is, instead, an i...

The picture is of this year's annual Lantern Service in Old North Church , Boston. The service commemorates the lighting of two lanterns in the church's steeple on 18th April 1775, leading to Paul Revere's famous midnight ride before the Battles of Lexington and Concord. In the 50 years since the bicentennial celebrations in 1976, the service has been an annual fixture. In the words of the Old North Church website: [it] recalls the lights of liberty that shone from Old North’s steeple on April 18, 1775, while reflecting on the meaning of faith, freedom, and American democracy today. The service culminates with the lighting of the church's two historic lanterns. When I looked at photographs of this year's service, what immediately struck me was this photograph. It encapsulates the 'Publick Religion' that traditionally has been part of the Anglican vocation: surplice, tippet, hood, bands - noble and modest; a historic church; a national commemoration.  It is,...

O Lord, save the King ... Endue him plenteously with heavenly gifts ... We beseech thee also to save and defend all Christian Kings, Princes, and Governors; and especially Charles our King ; that under him we may be godly and quietly governed ... It was, over centuries, a characteristic of Anglican liturgy. We regularly - daily at Morning and Evening Prayer, and weekly in the Prayer for the Church Militant - prayed for the King. It was understood to be so integral to the Book of Common Prayer that, at the foundation of the American republic, the prayers for the monarch were transferred to the President : O Lord, our heavenly Father, the high and mighty Ruler of the universe, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers upon earth; Most heartily we beseech thee, with thy favour to behold and bless thy servant The President of the United States, and all others in authority; and so replenish them with the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that they may always incline to thy will, and walk in ...

At the Coronation of His Majesty the King, the Archbishop of Canterbury said this prayer over the oil with which the King was to be anointed: Blessed art thou, Sovereign God, upholding with thy grace all who are called to thy service. Thy prophets of old anointed priests and kings to serve in thy name and in the fullness of time thine only Son was anointed by the Holy Spirit to be the Christ, the Saviour and Servant of all. By the power of the same Spirit, grant that this holy oil may be for thy servant Charles a sign of joy and gladness; that as King he may know the abundance of thy grace and the power of thy mercy, and that we may be made a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for thine own possession. Is this Christian Nationalism? On Sunday 10th November this year, Remembrance Sunday, the Bishop of London will lead the nation in Christian prayer , before the Royal Family, representatives of the Government and Parliament, the Armed Forces, and ex-servicemen's organisations...

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...

Recent days have witnessed the Church of England yet again clumsily demonstrate the default progressive views of its senior hierarchy. With widespread and significant public concern regarding illegal immigration - immigration has overtaken the economy as the primary concern of UK voters - the Archbishop of York responded to Reform's proposal for deporting those who illegally entered the UK by saying "we should actively resist the kind of isolationist, short term kneejerk 'send them home'". In other words, illegally entering the UK should carry no sanction. Attempting to control the UK's borders, according to the Archbishop of York, is "isolationist".  As one commentator stated, the Archbishop's statement "is not part of Christian teaching, it is not a logical outworking of any Christian principle ... It is just the personal view of a generic leftish middle-class English person in 2025". There is significantly increasing public disdai...

It was odd that the Presiding Bishop of TEC chose the Fourth of July this year - the 249th anniversary of the United States declaring its independence - to denounce and renounce "the Protestant tradition of patriotism ... as a tool of dominion". One might wonder why "the Protestant tradition of patriotism" is the particular target of the Presiding Bishop: Catholic and Orthodox patriotisms, after all, cannot be seriously claimed to have avoided the failures known to the Protestant tradition. As for the Presiding Bishop suggesting that TEC in 2025 equates to the Confessing Church in Nazi Germany, this is nothing more than the progressive version of  Eric Metaxas'  partisan manipulation of Bonhoeffer - equally unserious, no less delusional. Leaving aside the fact that this clumsy stance only succeeds in handing over to others the formative and influential "tradition of Protestant patriotism", it is also reveals a deep dislike of the heritage of the Prote...