laudable Practice

He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel. Wherefore let us beseech him to grant us true repentance ... The absolution at Morning and Evening Prayer declares the precatory nature of absolution: the bishop or presbyter is praying that God's forgiveness would be known by the penitent. As we continue with readings from John Shepherd's discussion of absolution in A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume I (1796), we see how he points to patristic sources as confirming the precatory nature of absolution: the Absolution was not the act of the priest but of God. In the writings of the Fathers and the decrees of councils, to the efficacy of the prayers and intercessions of the priest, is the remission of sin often ascribed. The Prayer Book form of absolution at Morning and Evening Prayer, and at the Holy Communion, are therefore profoundly and deeply patristic: "The priests," says Chrysosto...

With a slightly later Summer break this year, Jeremy Taylor Week on Laudable Practice has missed his commemoration on 13th August (the date of Taylor's death in 1667). We resume, however, with a week of posts considering an aspect of Taylor's thought. This year's Jeremy Taylor Week will consider what seems to be a quite overlooked theme in Taylor's works - the place he gives to the thought of classical Roman philosophers.  The topic suggested itself as I read through Taylor's Golden Grove sermons last year. The sermons regularly invoked the writings and thought of classical Roman philosophers. This led me to explore such references in other Taylor works, were the same pattern is found. In other words, this was a consistent characteristic in Taylor's writings. What hinted at the significance of this characteristic was a comment in Ian Green's Humanism and Protestantism in Early Modern English Education (2009), noting that the "conservative episcopalian...

In his discussion of absolution in A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume I (1796), John Shepherd accepts that ordained ministers have "powers to absolve judicially" in matters of ecclesiastical discipline. This, however, is only so in matters of discipline. Outside of this, absolution is "ministerial" and thus declaratory.  As seen in previous posts in this series, Shepherd has pointed to the administration of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper as acts of ministerial absolution. Now he turns to another means of ministerial absolution, what he terms "the Absolution of Word and Doctrine": [this] appears to be that which constitutes the most material part of the ministry of reconciliation, committed by Christ to his ambassadors on earth. (2 Cor. v. 18, 19.) The exercise of this Absolution consists in publishing the terms and conditions, on which remission of sins, reconciliation to God, and everlasting sal...

In his  Instructions in Reading the Liturgy of the United Church of England and Ireland (1826), the Rev'd John Henry Howlett (1781–1867) described the most appropriate tone for the reading of Prayer Book divine service - "mild, tranquil, and dignified": What can be more so, than to hear the language of the meek and lowly Jesus, delivered with a stern, haughty, authoritative tone? "In our blessed Lord's discourses and instructions, (says Paley) all was calmness. No emotions, no violence, no agitation, when he delivered the most sublime and affecting doctrines, and most comfortable or most terrifying predictions. The prophets before him fainted and sunk under the communications which they received from above; so strong was their impression, so unequal their strength: but truths that overwhelmed the servants of God, were familiar to his Son" (Paley's Sermons, edited by E. Paley, Vol. ii. p. 34.) This striking peculiarity in our Lord's discourses and in...

In his review of Absolution in A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume I  (1796), John Shepherd declares the fundamental doctrinal position underpinning the practice of Absolution in the Prayer Book: The ancient teachers of Christianity, whether Priests or Prelates, arrogated to themselves, in the dispensation of Absolution, no power, which was not purely ministerial. Agreeably to the doctrine of Holy Scripture, the Fathers unanimously maintain, that "God alone can forgive sins."  By 'ministerial', Shepherd means that which is stated in the Absolution at Morning and Evening Prayer: and hath given power, and commandment, to his Ministers, to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the Absolution and Remission of their sins: He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel.  The forgiveness of sins is a fundamental work of the Godhead, as Shepherd sees reflected in patristic dis...

In recent years, laudable Practice has turned to the commentary of John Shepherd on the Book of Common Prayer. Beginning in March 2023 , we considered his  A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796). June 2024 commenced a series of posts - concluding in August 2025 - on the Holy Communion in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801). Today, at the beginning of June, the month when ordinations usually take place in Anglican churches, we return to the first volume and begin a series on Shepherd's review of Absolution in the theology and practice of the Prayer Book.  Shepherd opens his consideration of Absolution in the Prayer Book by stating his intention to place it in the context of "the primitive Church": Without stating in detail the disputes that have existed between Christians of different denominations, and which have oftentimes terminated in contrary extrem...

I had occasion this week, in preparation for delivering a presentation on Charles Inglis, to re-read his 1768 work An Essay on Infant Baptism: In which the Right of Infants to the Sacrament of Baptism is Proved from Scripture . While not the focus of this work, Inglis did address the meaning of the references to regeneration in the Prayer Baptismal rite. He expounded what he clearly understood to be the settled, consistent, and uncontroversial view of Church of England divines - that the Sacrament of Baptism bestows that grace which brings us into the covenant of Jesus Christ, but it is not that grace which renovates, or regenerates, the heart. The latter is a "a progressive, internal Renovation of the Soul"; the former, in the words of the Prayer Book rite, "graft[s] into the body of Christ's Church".  Three things are particularly significant with regards to Inglis' account of this "relative and federal" regeneration by Holy Baptism. Firstly, thr...

I noticed a recent exchange on X between the commentator Peter Hitchens and an Anglo-catholic cleric on the subject of priesthood. It began as a debate on the ordination of women as priests but - perhaps not unsurprisingly - turned to the issue of the nature of this office.  Hitchens stated: my bit of the CofE has ministers, not priests, and tables rather than altars.  As we might expect, the Anglo-catholic cleric responded with this statement: the Church of England has priests, which are a type of minister. The 1662 refers to priests several times and contains a form for ordaining them. The vicar of your parish is, legally, a priest. Hitchens came back: The Prayer Book, which is famously ambiguous on many matters, also uses the term 'minister'. So do some Anglicans, of which I am one ... The exchange demonstrates what I have previously described as the historic Anglican difference between the language of order and the language of pastoral ministry. The language of order - bi...

The services were decently and demurely read in their parish churches, chanting was confined to the cathedral, and the science of intoning was unknown. One young man who had come direct from Oxford as a curate to Plumstead had, after the lapse of two or three Sundays, made a faint attempt, much to the bewilderment of the poorer part of the congregation. Dr. Grantly had not been present on the occasion, but Mrs. Grantly, who had her own opinion on the subject, immediately after the service expressed a hope that the young gentleman had not been taken ill, and offered to send him all kinds of condiments supposed to be good for a sore throat. After that there had been no more intoning at Plumstead Episcopi. It is an amusing incident from Barchester Towers , Trollope's 1857 novel. Amusing as it is, it also reflects mid-19th century Anglican experience. We hear something of Mrs. Grantly in the 1862 edition of Reading the Liturgy , a work which originally had the subtitle "addressed ...

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 ...

Some are put away, because the great excess and multitude of them hath so increased in these latter days, that the burden of them was intolerable; whereof Saint Augustine in his time complained, that they were grown to such a number that the estate of Christian people was in worse case concerning that matter, than were the Jews. And he counselled that such yoke and burden should be taken away, as time would serve quietly to do it. But what would Saint Augustine have said, if he had seen the Ceremonies of late days used among us; whereunto the multitude used in his time was not to be compared?  Quoting Cranmer's ' On Ceremonies ' during Holy Week might be seen as somewhat provocative. Anglican liturgies during this week, after all, now tend towards a multitude of ceremonies. My purpose in this post, however, is not to be provocative, nor to critique those who value the many various ceremonies of Holy Week (palm procession, foot washing and altar stripping, veneration of the ...

Amongst the revisions to 1662 in the Church of Ireland's 1878 Book of Common Prayer , one is often overlooked. In 1662, in the Lessons Proper for Holy Days, we find the "Annunciation of our Lady".  In 1878 this became "Annunciation of B.V.M.". There was precedent for this. The 1689 Liturgy of Comprehension simply had "Annunciation". In  PECUSA's 1789 revision it became "Annunciation of Virgin Mary". 1878, therefore, was following a well-established pattern of omitting "our Lady". This was a wise revision. While there were some examples of 'advanced' opinion in the 1630s employing the term 'our Lady' - in particular, Mark Frank's Annunciation sermon - the term was not used in the ninety-six sermons of Lancelot Andrewes , edited by Laud and Buckeridge, and published by royal authority in 1636. Likewise, it is not found in Taylor's The Great Exemplar , even when it affirms Mary's perpetual virginity, ...