laudable Practice

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, ...

Throughout Advent, I will be posting some Marian extracts from Jeremy Taylor's Great Exemplar , demonstrating how in Taylor we see that a thoroughly Protestant understanding (evident, for example, in his Dissuasive , with its robust critique of Tridentine Marian practices) is no barrier to a tender reverence for the Blessed Virgin Mary.  We begin today with words from the outset of Taylor's account of 'The History of the Conception of Jesus'. Here we see how Taylor's depiction of the Blessed Virgin evinces love and reverence, a quiet joy that the grace of God had prepared her for "a full measure of honour": In the days of Herod the king, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a holy maid called Mary, espoused to Joseph; and found her in a capacity and excellent disposition to receive the greatest honour that ever was done to the daughters of men. Her employment was holy and pious, her person young, her years florid and s...

While no doubt principally written to address Orthodox concerns, the recent statement from the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith,  Mater Populi Fidelis , provides significant confirmation of a central feature of the Christological confession shared by the Roman Catholic Church and the Churches of the Reformation. The Dicastery's judgement that the application to the Blessed Virgin Mary of the titles 'Co-redemptrix' and 'Mediatrix' is "always inappropriate", despite such titles being invoked by some popes, including John Paul II, led to the document robustly affirming "Christ's unique salvific mediation": Given the necessity of explaining Mary’s subordinate role to Christ in the work of Redemption, it would not be appropriate to use the title “Co-redemptrix” to define Mary’s cooperation. This title risks obscuring Christ’s unique salvific mediation and can therefore create confusion and an imbalance in the harmony of the truths of the Chr...

A final extract from a sermon by Bishop Bull (d.1710) entitled ' The Blessed Virgin's low and exalted condition ', on the text Luke 1:48-49. In this extract Bull echoes  Jewel (in debate with Harding) and Calvin  in invoking Augustine's teaching on the Lord's words in response to the woman who declared "Blessed is the womb that bare thee". Here, in the closing words of his sermon, Bull again gives voice to a thoroughly Reformed understanding that the Blessed Virgin Mary, while reverenced as the Mother of the Lord, is not set apart from us in the economy of salvation but, rather, shares with us the "chiefest blessedness" of being in Christ: The blessedness of the holy Virgin is not so altogether proper to her, or incommunicable to others, but that the meanest sincere Christian may share with her in the better part of it. Wonderful and full of comfort are the words of our Saviour, where, when a certain woman, hearing His excellent discourse, cried ...

Continuing with extracts from a sermon by Bishop Bull (d.1710) entitled ' The Blessed Virgin's low and exalted condition ', on the text Luke 1:48-49, we see how Bull defends the use of the Magnificat at Evening Prayer - a practice Hooker also had to defend against the same objections - by emphasising that the canticle rejoices in "our common salvation", the salvation we share with the Blessed Virgin. This is a particularly significant emphasis, rather beautifully expounding what it means to say or sing the Magnificat at Evening Prayer and powerfully reminding us that Our Lord's Mother does not stand apart from that "common salvation": In a word, the Son of God, therefore, honoured the blessed Virgin so far, as in and from her to become man, that He might advance human nature, by assuming it into the unity of His divine Person; and that being born of her, He might procure, not only hers, but our common salvation. So that every one of us may sing the M...

Continuing with extracts from a sermon by Bishop Bull (d.1710) entitled ' The Blessed Virgin's low and exalted condition ', on the text Luke 1:48-49, having established the grounds for Reformed reverence of the Blessed Virgin, Bull now turns to examples of "extravagant honour" towards her, refused and rejected by the Church of England: I will mention some few instances of extravagant honour which the Papists give, but we of the Church of England utterly refuse to yield, to the blessed Virgin , out of a true zeal to the honour of God. We will not give her lavish and excessive attributes, beyond what the Holy Scriptures allow her, and the holy men of the primitive Church afforded her. We will call her "blessed," as the mother of our Lord, in the sense above explained. But we dare not call her "queen of heaven," "queen of Angels, Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles," "source of the fountain of grace," "refuge of sinners,...

Continuing with extracts from a sermon by Bishop Bull (d.1710) entitled ' The Blessed Virgin's low and exalted condition ', on the text Luke 1:48-49, having noted last week Bull's inherently Protestant understanding of the reverence due to the Blessed Virgin, today we see how he further articulates the grounds for this reverence in the grace and truth of the Incarnation: What was the singular grace and favour bestowed on the blessed Virgin. A most transcendent favour it was. For ... She was of all the women, of all the virgins in Israel, elected and chosen by God, to be the instrument of bringing into the world the long-desired Messias. All the virtuous daughters of Jacob, a good while before the revelation of our Saviour, but especially in the age when He appeared, (the time wherein they saw the more punctual and remarkable prophecies concerning the coming of the Messias fulfilled,) desired, and were not without hopes each of them, that they might have had this honour...

From a sermon by Bishop Bull (d.1710), entitled ' The Blessed Virgin's low and exalted condition ', on the text Luke 1:48-49. Bull, noting the Church of England's reverence for the Blessed Virgin, provides an explicitly and inherently Protestant understanding of this reverence: We think and speak most respectfully of her, and do not ordinarily mention her name without a preface or epithet of honour, as "the holy," "the blessed" Virgin, and the like. We do, by the appointment of our Church, sing or rehearse in our daily service her excellent Magnificat; and thereby we testify our assent to, and complacence in, those singular favours that God is therein said to have bestowed on her; and, together with her, we finally return the praise and glory of all to God alone. We celebrate two annual festivals in her memorial, the Feasts of her Annunciation and Purification. And if we could think of any other honour that we could do her, without dishonouring God t...

In some parts of the Anglican Communion, 15th August is marked as 'Saint Mary the Virgin' (TEC BCP 1979), 'The Blessed Virgin Mary' (Common Worship), or 'The Falling Asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary' (Canadian BCP 1962). In the Church of Ireland, today is merely the Thursday of the Eleventh Week after Trinity. Our equivalent Marian observation is 8th September, celebrating the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary (a provision also permitted as an alternative to 15th August in Common Worship). This wisely avoids any confusion which may arise, in the Irish context, in light of our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters celebrating the Assumption on this day. Whether we, as Anglicans, are observing this day a Marian observance or not, however, is rather beside the point. We all rejoice that the Blessed Virgin Mary shares in the heavenly glory with "all thy saints departed this life in thy faith and fear", the hope of "all thy whole Church". This is se...

In The Great Exemplar , when reflecting upon the Annunciation, Jeremy Taylor echoes the long-established tradition that the Blessed Virgin Mary was at prayer when the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her: "she was in her oratory, private and devout". The illustration which accompanied Taylor's reflections (pictured) was also clearly based on the equally long-established iconography of the Annunciation. Here, then, is a deeply traditional Marian piety within a reformed context (for Taylor, as a good Laudian son of the Church of England would not countenance prayers invoking Mary).  What then follows is profoundly beautiful meditation on the "quiet religion" of the Blessed Virgin, with Mary a model for the vast majority of Christians in a way that is not and cannot be so with Saint Paul. What is more, Taylor here presents the Blessed Virgin as a contemplative, encouraging us in a "quiet and silent piety", in "those graces which walk in a veil and silen...

'Mary is for life, not just for Christmas' It was an Anglo-catholic response on 'X' to an evangelical asking, when about to address a gathering of pastors on the theme of preparation for Christmas, "what would be the most helpful thing for me to say to the pastors?". After smiling at the online ecclesiastical humour, the phrase did strike me as a very good description of the Marian piety of Prayer Book Anglicanism. This day on which we commemorate the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a particularly appropriate occasion to deliver an Old High affirmation of 'Mary is for life, not just for Christmas'. The role of the blessed Virgin - the title for Mary used in Article II of the Thirty-nine - in the mystery of the Incarnation is confessed twice daily, morning and evening, in Prayer Book Matins and Evensong.  Every day of the year, we confess in the Creed "born of the Virgin Mary", a recognition that our redemption in and through the Lord...

Now follows a remarkable and interesting song of the holy virgin, which plainly shows how eminent were her attainments in the grace of the Spirit ... She announces that this kindness of God will be kept in remembrance throughout all generations. But if it is so remarkable, that it ought to be proclaimed everywhere by the lips of all men, silence regarding it would have been highly improper in Mary, on whom it was bestowed ... Let Papists now go, and hold us out as doing injury to the mother of Christ, because we reject the falsehoods of men, and extol in her nothing more than the kindness of God. Nay, what is most of all honourable to her we grant ... We cheerfully acknowledge her as our teacher, and obey her instruction and commands - from Calvin's Commentary on Luke 1 , on the Magnificat. Twelve: that is the number of times Calvin uses the term "holy virgin" in his commentary on Luke 1.  In Luke 2, he uses the term on four occasions. It is testimony to Calvin's rev...