laudable Practice

Many thanks to The North American Anglican for publishing my essay ' Draw near with faith: Is closed communion historically Anglican? '. The essay seeks to be a response to issues raised by the (in the very best sense of the term) provocative ' Is open communion historically Anglican? ', highlighting that neither 'open' nor 'closed' work as appropriate descriptions of historic Anglican practice.  Rather, historic Anglican practice was shaped by a more Hookerian approach, "deeper and richer than vacuous 'open table' discourse, while also more explicitly focussed on the Christological center than can be the case with ‘closed communion’ practices". Below is the section of the essay which addressed the role of the Catechism and the Rite of Confirmation in giving expression to this Hookerian approach. ------ 'The solemn promise and vow of your Baptism': Catechism and Confirmation What, then, of the Prayer Book’s requirements regardi...

Yesterday the rite of Confirmation was administered in the parish.  Almost any mention of Confirmation in contemporary Anglican circles is fated to lead to the statement that it is 'a rite in search of a theology.'  It has been oft-repeated in an Anglican context regarding Confirmation since the 1960s and has now achieved the status of an almost unchallenged orthodoxy. This state of affairs, however, is the deliberately engineered outcome of a particular theological and liturgical agenda.  The statement was promoted in order to undermine and obfuscate the theological rationale for and coherence of the rite of Confirmation. It is now the case within Anglicanism that Confirmation is 'a rite in search of a theology' because the theology underpinning and interpreting the rite amongst Anglicans over centuries was rejected. ' A Sermon on Confirmation ' by Thomas Secker (Archbishop of Canterbury 1758-68) exemplifies what was the normative theology of Confirmation.  The...

In their sermons for the annual 29th May thanksgiving, two Archbishops of Canterbury (one serving, one future) - the 'Latitudinarian' John Tillotson (1691-94) and the High Church Thomas Secker, described by Ingram , and criticised by some contemporaries, as the "Laud figure of the age" (1758-68) - revealed the extent of the ' unity and accord ' which shaped Anglicanism through the 'long' 18th century. The sermons point to a shared narrative regarding the most divisive periods in the recent history of the English church and state - the civil wars of the 1640s and the Revolution of 1688. They also indicate a common theological underpinning to this narrative, concerning providence, the necessity of government, and the blessings of civil peace. In his 1693 Restoration Day sermon , Tillotson commenced by stating the grounds for thanksgiving, in the words of the official title for the liturgy of the day "the Restoration of the Government after many Year...

They know of no Power in a Priest to pardon Sin, other than the Declaring the Gospel Pardon, upon the Conditions on which it is offered. Burnet, in the famous 1712 Preface to the Third Edition of his Pastoral Care , declared this to be one of the principles of "the Low Church-men" (noting 'I myself am ranked among them').  This conviction was reflected in the Proposed 1689 BCP's revision of the Special Absolution in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick: Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to his Church to absolve all sinners who truly repent, and believe in him, of his great mercy forgive thee thine offences; and upon thy true faith and repentance, by his authority committed to me, I pronounce thee absolved from all thy sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Should this proposed revision be dismissed as a 'Low Church' rejection of priestly absolution, retained at the Reformation in order that - in Laud...

In the days following Quinquagesima Sunday, with Lent close, laudable Practice likes to draw attention to the gift of the Absolution pronounced at Mattins and Evensong, pointing to the robust Old High Church teaching on its efficacy.  (See here and here for previous years.) This year we turn to Thomas Secker (Archbishop of Canterbury 1758-68). In his Sermon II 'On the Liturgy' , Secker contrasts the Absolution at Mattins and Evensong with "Popish absolutions ... given in private", stressing the Prayer Book absolution makes no claim to "sacerdotal Power".  This, however, Secker emphasizes, rather than leading us to devalue the Absolution at Mattins and Evensong, points to its greater power .  In a wonderful line he describes it as a form "which tends very powerfully to comfort Men, but can never mislead them, because it leads them to trust only in God's Mercy". He continues by expounding the rubric directing that the Absolution is "prono...