laudable Practice

The Church of Scotland knows as little of Protestantism undefined as the Church of England and Ireland do. The words of Burke , from 1792, came to mind when reading a Church Times  story on how the Church of Scotland is intent on further abandoning its rich heritage and its vocation as a national Church. Judging by the  Church Times , the Kirk's 'Theological Forum and the Faith Action Programme Leadership Team' (with that hideous title you immediately know just how bad its report will be) has explicitly stated its intense dislike for the Church of Scotland: The Church has a self-image and identity which is based upon its history as a national church with a parish system of a minister and a building within each geographical area, secured by its former role as a key part/member/constituent in national and political life ... That self-image and identity served the Church well for four centuries from the Scottish Reformation of 1560 onwards but is now hampering the change neede...

On Saint Patrick's Day, Bruce Springsteen posted on social media a series of photographs from the island of Ireland. Amongst the photographs was this one, in a church immediately identifiable as a rural Church of Ireland parish church.  The photograph captures the quiet, modest piety of Irish Anglicanism, a quiet, modest piety which was the traditional characteristic of those churches termed Protestant Episcopalian.  We see here a parish church designed for worship according to the Book of Common Prayer, with its modest ceremonies, its words shaping and sustaining the faith of generations, its rites marking the passage of years and lives; a Reformed Catholick church, in which liturgy and sacrament are reverently, faithfully celebrated, with the plain glass and walls, and absence of imagery, reflecting classically Reformed concerns; in which prayer desk and pulpit embody the good and godly routine of Sunday Morning Prayer and sermon, quietly nourishing the faithful; in which th...