There are things in Church life that are normal but also become rare or optional or even impossible.  Consider, for example, the normative, logical pattern for entering the Church:  repentance and the embrace of faith in Christ (conversion), instruction in the essentials of Christianity (catechesis), baptism, confirmation or chrismation, and reception of Holy Communion.  This ..read more

I have written elsewhere in this blog on The Clergy and Politics.   Readers of that post will note my disapproval of clergy who violate the ‘distinction of offices’ by confusing their private opinions about lesser prudential, worldly, and political matters with their proper and superior office and authority as teachers of religion and morals.  In ..read more

Some clergy seem to believe that more is better:  that longer services are better than shorter; that longer sermons are better than shorter; that more prayers are better than fewer; that a permissive rubric permitting an addition or expansion should be dragooned into service; and that the more liturgical functions that can be crammed into ..read more

I am not sure if he invented the term, but Father Robert Hart often speaks of ‘the two One True Churches’.  Father Hart also speaks of the ‘Branch Fact’, as opposed to the Branch Theory of the Catholic Church.  Both terms deserve consideration and are, I think, very useful. The problem suggested by Two One True Churches is the implausibility of many versions of claims made on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church and of the Eastern Orthodox Churches.  It is simply implausible to suppose that either the Roman Church or the Eastern Church is simply and exclusively coterminous with t ..read more

Over 40 years ago I took a class on British theology in the early 20th century taught by Thomas Langford, the sometime dean of the Duke divinity school and sometime provost of the university.  From that class I chiefly recall one very suggestive set of facts and one very arresting speculation. The suggestive fact flowed from British Methodist history, and it concerned the danger of relying too heavily on ecumenical projects and Church-union schemes. The Methodist movement following the death of John Wesley in 1791 formed various ‘connections’, which most now would tend to call Churches. S ..read more

WE beseech thee, Almighty God, mercifully to look upon thy people; that by thy great goodness they may be governed and preserved evermore, both in body and soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, etc. There seems nothing very seasonal about this collect.  It makes no clear reference to the main themes of Passiontide.  Likewise, it makes no clear reference either to the epistle (with Paul’s allegorical interpretation of Genesis themes) or to the temple controversy in the gospel:  both of which can easily be connected with Passiontide. While not particularly seasonal, the collect is ..read more

Lent IV.  Florence, SC, 2024 Galatians iv, verse 22-23 – Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh: but he of the freewoman was by promise. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen. C.S. Lewis once said, speaking of modern Bible versions, that as the Bible was translated more and more it seemed to be read less and less.  We can’t assume any more that most people know what a prodigal son is or who Lazarus and Dives are.  Which makes an epistle such as ou ..read more

Theologians and churchmen often underestimate the importance of uncertainty and ignorance.  This ‘uncertainty factor’ can be as important in practical as in theoretical matters, particularly in practical ecumenical relations. In sacramental matters people often distinguish ‘validity’ and ‘invalidity’.  In practical terms in any given ecclesial body that distinction often reduces to a distinction between ‘recognizable’ and ‘unrecognizable’.  That is, a valid sacrament for a given Church or ecclesial body is a sacrament that the body in question recognizes as equivalent in most re ..read more

(In this article I consider narrowly the place of the Psalter in the daily Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer.  I do not consider here other important matters concerning the Psalter, including notably the translation thereof and its liturgical uses outside the Offices. All rights reserved by the author.) In the Anglican liturgical tradition, embodied in the classical editions of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP), the reading or singing of the Psalter is a very prominent element of the daily Offices of Morning Prayer (or Mattins) and Evening Prayer (or Evensong).  Precisely how promi ..read more

A recent conversation on a Continuing Anglican social media group concerned, among other things, the use of altar flowers during Pre-Lent (or the ‘Gesimas’ or Shrovetide, as you please).  The question drew much interest with answers including judgements that such flower use is Bad or Good or Somewhere Between.  ‘Between’ included the idea of greenery only, as a transition towards a flowerless Lent.  One laywoman suggested, tongue firmly in cheek I’m sure, the use of cacti as a semi-penitential altar decoration. At first glance the whole conversation reminded me of Archbishop Cah ..read more