laudable Practice

In  An answer to Monsieur de la Militiere (1653) - a response to a Roman apologist - Bramhall invokes the diverse expressions of patristic eucharistic theology in East and West to defend the Church of England's rejection of transubstantiation.  He also points to diverse eucharistic practices in the patristic churches, justifying the historic diversity of practice East and West, and within the West after the Reformation.  Underpinning this generous orthodoxy are twin affirmations made by Bramhall prior to this section.  Firstly, that "The Holy Eucharist, which is the Sacrament of peace and unity, ought not to be made the matter of strife and contention". Secondly, the belief in "a true Real Presence; which no genuine son of the Church of England did ever deny ... Christ said, 'This is My Body'; what He said, we do steadfastly believe". We may well find different observations in those days: as one Church consecrating leavened bread, another unleavened; on...

On 23rd January, the parish in which I serve celebrated its monthly Choral Evensong and anticipated Candlemas with music, readings, and prayers from today's feast.  The liturgical purist in me was, of course, somewhat sceptical when the suggestion was first made.  It was, however, a very meaningful way - on a dark, cold January evening - to emphasise the significance to the Epiphany season of the feast of the Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin. It became, in a way, an Evensong of Our Lady during Epiphanytide, with the Magnificat (Stanford in G) and the anthem, 'When to the temple Mary went', beautifully celebrating the role of the Blessed Virgin.  This was a fitting recognition of the Marian dimension of Epiphanytide in the traditional one year Eucharistic lectionary. The Blessed Virgin is found in the Gospel readings for the Epiphany, the First Sunday after the Epiphany (the finding in the Temple), and the Second Sunday after the Epiphany (the Miracle at Cana). Epipha...

From Bramhall's  Protestants' Ordinations Defended , a response to a Roman apologist who claimed that Anglicans have "pared away" all sacrifice from the Church's life.  Particularly interesting is Bramhall's statement that the Anglican understanding of the Eucharistic sacrifice as "a means ordained to apply" Christ's propitiatory sacrifice is also that of "the moderate Romanists": First, they acknowledge spiritual and eucharistical sacrifices, as prayers, praises, a contrite heart, alms, and the like.  Secondly, they acknowledge a commemoration, or a representative Sacrifice, in the Holy Eucharist.  Thirdly, they teach, that this is not " nuda commemoratio " - "a bare commemoration" without efficacy, but that the blessed Sacrament is a means ordained by Christ to render us capable, and to apply unto us the virtue, of that all-sufficient Sacrifice of infinite value, which Christ made upon the Cross; which is as far as...

‘Then we will see face to face’: the life of the world to come At the early Eucharist on the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, 2022 I Corinthians 13 “We look … for the life of the world to come.”  Week by week we declare this in the Creed we profess at the Eucharist. It is, however, probably one of those aspects of the Christian Faith that many of us shy away from. There has been a tendency, stretching back over the last century, for Christians to focus on those aspects of the Faith that are primarily concerned with the life of this world, not the life of the world to come.  We want others to know, in the words of the Christian Aid slogan, that Christians ‘believe in life before death’. But, while it is obviously important to remind ourselves of our commitment as Christians to the life of this world, we fail to say something of foundational significance if we avoid the Creed’s declaration: “We look … for the life of the world to come”. Words from Saint Paul in our epistle read...

From Bramhall's Protestants' Ordinations Defended , a description of what he calls elsewhere "the grace of holy Orders". He begins by noting how the Church of England regards Holy Orders as instituted by Christ; that the Anglican ordination rite embodied this belief; that it was a theology and practice shared with the Churches of the East; and that, while the Tridentine formula and porrectio instrumentorum were entirely unnecessary, their substance regarding the Eucharistic sacrifice was to be found in the Anglican ordination rite. They teach, that Ordination is a Sacrament; and we do not much oppose it. It is either weakness or frowardness, to wrangle about the name, when men agree upon the thing. We do believe, that Ordination is a sacred rite or action instituted by Christ, wherein, by the imposition of hands, the holy Orders of Bishops, Priests or Presbyters, and Deacons, are conferred ... Neither do we say this only, but we prove it manifestly. First, by the ins...

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, ...

Many thanks to the North American Anglican for publishing my essay '"I quarrel not the making of images": The theology and practice of images in the Jacobean and Caroline Church' . The essay points to the Elizabethan Settlement creating space for a modest but real iconography, which flourished in the Jacobean and Caroline Church.  This was the case not just with avant garde and Laudian opinion but also in mainstream Conformity. --- This is reinforced by the fact that the defence of imagery was not the preserve of avant garde and Laudian opinion. Most obviously, this was seen in the words of another Supreme Governor, James VI/I : I am no Iconomachus, I quarrel not the making of Images, either for public decoration, or for men’s private uses: But that they should be worshipped, be prayed to, or any holiness attributed unto them, was never known of the Ancients: and the Scriptures are so directly, vehemently and punctually against it. Mindful that James’ care for cons...