laudable Practice

From  A Course of Sermons for the Festivals and Fasts of the Church of England  (1821) by Joseph Holden Pott - associated with the Hackney Phalanx - a sermon for Saint Bartholomew's Day. Preaching on the Gospel of the Day (Luke 22:24-30), and pointing to the accounts given by "ancient writers" of the apostle's "labours and his martyrdom", Pott explains (in fine Old High fashion - and note the reference to Cranmer's wisdom) how this festival, together with the festivals of the other apostles, edifies and encourages us in the life of Faith: In addition, therefore, to the stated Sabbaths which rank first in dignity and order, and make such indispensable and welcome claims upon the loan of time, the żeal and wisdom of the early ages have marked the Christian calendar with many profitable invitations to religious exercises and devotion; to public prayer and private recollections, as each one may be able. At such times the lives of those who stand distinguishe...

From  A Course of Sermons for the Festivals and Fasts of the Church of England  (1821) by Joseph Holden Pott - associated with the Hackney Phalanx - a sermon for Saint Peter's Day. Preaching on a text from the Gospel of the day - "thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church" - Pott avoids both those readings which remove Peter from the apostolic college and those which, in response, "have been carried too far in an opposite direction".  Against both, he affirms the "marks of favor and distinction ... first pledged to this Apostle": Our Lord's words have indeed been wrested to a meaning plainly foreign to the facts which followed, and to the whole history, and recorded circumstances of the Apostolic age. They who have so restrained our Lord's words to one Apostle in favor of their own assumed dominion, did not put forward that groundless claim until after the lapse of some ages of the Christian era, in which no trace can be found o...

From A Course of Sermons for the Festivals and Fasts of the Church of England (1821) by Joseph Holden Pott - associated with the Hackney Phalanx - a sermon for Saint John Baptist's Day.  Yet again Pott demonstrates the rich understanding of the liturgical calendar which could be found in the pre-1833 Church of England. He also provides a statement of the characteristic Old High suspicion of the excessive asceticism which would - in the next decade - become evident amongst some Tractarian elements. Serious repentance, as Pott states, does not not require us to withdraw to caves. This was the Old High fear, that excessive and demonstrative asceticism - itself a form of Enthusiasm - undermines the ordinary living out of the Gospel amidst daily responsibilities and duties. The memory of him who comes so commended to us by the testimony of our Blessed Lord, may well be marked for celebration in the Christian Church. Time itself may well contribute to this just regard for the name of on...

Cranmer's decision to use the pre-Reformation post-communion prayer for the Annunciation as the collect of the feast bequeathed to Anglicans a prayer of great theological richness.  This post-communion prayer came to the pre-Reformation Latin rites from the 8th century Gregorian Sacramentary .  It was a prayer which shaped over centuries how Latin Christians had celebrated the Annunciation. In using it as the collect for the feast in the Book of Common Prayer, Cranmer no doubt was attracted by how the emphasis on grace reflected his Reformed theological agenda: "We beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts".  It is the grace of God which is the cause of the Blessed Virgin's fiat .  This also points to Augustine's insight: Yes, of course, holy Mary did the will of the Father. And therefore it means more for Mary to have been a disciple of Christ than to have been the mother of Christ. It means more for her, an altogether greater blessing, to have been ...

On this feast of Saint Matthias, a very simple but yet revealing comparison.   This is what the Second Helvetic Confession says of such observances: we do not approve of feasts instituted for men and for saints. Holy days have to do with the first Table of the Law and belong to God alone. Finally, holy days which have been instituted for the saints and which we have abolished, have much that is absurd and useless, and are not to be tolerated. Now contrast it with the Augsburg Confession : Of Usages in the Church they teach that those ought to be observed which may be observed without sin, and which are profitable unto tranquillity and good order in the Church, as particular holy days, festivals, and the like. The Book of Common Prayer - both in its 1559 and 1662 forms - is, quite clearly, following the Augsburg Confession rather than the Second Helvetic Confession.  Not only does it make liturgical provision for observance of commemorations of the Saints, it also - in 15...

Three classically Anglicans reasons to rejoice on the commemoration (in the calendar of the Prayer Book as Proposed in 1928, the English Missal, the Canadian BCP 1962, and TEC's BCP 1979) of Saint John Chrysostom. 1. The fact that the name of Saint John Chrysostom is given to one of the Divine Liturgies of Orthodoxy suggests how the witness of Chrysostom places the liturgy as the heart of the Church's life.   The Homily ' Of Common Prayer and Sacraments ' places the Book of Common Prayer in the tradition of the Divine Liturgy:  Basilius Magnus, and Iohannes Chrysostomus did in their time prescribe publike orders of publike administration, which they call Liturgies, and in them they appointed the people to answer to the prayers of the Minister. The Homily also points to Chrysostom's sermon on 1 Corinthians 14 , in which he emphasises the relationship between the anaphora in the vernacular and the peoples' 'Amen': If you shall bless in a barbarian tongue, ...

‘And the heaven was opened’: entering into the mystery of our salvation At the early Eucharist on The Baptism of Our Lord, 2022 Luke 3:15-17,21-22 Along the banks of the River Jordan, it was a routine, everyday occurrence during the ministry of John the Baptist.  Earlier in the chapter of Luke’s Gospel from which we have heard in our Gospel reading today, Luke tells us: “the crowds … came out to be baptized by [John]”. Jesus of Nazareth was one of the crowd.  That itself points us back to the events we have just celebrated at Christmas. The Child born in the manger is one of us.  We know that Jesus, Son of Mary, is, yes, one of the crowd like us.   But this, of course, is not all.  At Christmas we celebrated what we affirm week by week in the words of the Creed. That Jesus of Nazareth is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father” - and that he “was incarnate from the Holy Spirit of the Virgin M...