In what follows, I will use the word “Anglican” for the Church of England, and the Anglican Communion that grew out of it, concerning the Reformation and post-Reformation periods even when writing of the times before that word came into use. This is for convenience and simplicity. My paper addresses the topic of “Anglicanism: Orthodoxy…
The very title of this post will give some folks the vapours, as they have been brought up in the Post-Tractarian World in which, if Anglicanism is seen as Reformed at all, it is with a small ‘r’ that is immediately followed by the word Catholic. No one on the Reformed side of Anglicanism would…
When, loud and lauded, grifters drift along Who crease their purple pants and sable jackets, I think to beg my memory for a song That bundles sunshine up in yellow packets. Sometimes, however, all I hear is a racket. When funnel clouds demolish mobile homes, We lose both cozy throws and stylish chromes.
Tracts for the Times 2.0 In my next series of tracts, I will be presenting a comprehensive outline of Christian spirituality, as embodied in the Anglican tradition. In Tract #4, I’ll define just what Christian spirituality is. What is spirituality? The word “spirituality” has taken on different connotations in Christianity. Originally, the word was derived…
On a sweeter day of sun and windy sky, The hermit stands in his doorway drinking tea. Though spring declares itself, it’s only January. These gentle southern mountains seem to sigh With longing. Above the trees, a hawk’s thin cry Unspools, a silver thread of hunger. He Listens. Hears his heart’s reply, its plea For…
E. L. Mascall has featured in three recent pieces on The North American Anglican, Clinton Collister’s “Year in Reading,” Gerald McDermott’s “E. L. Mascall: A Theologian in, from, and for the Church,” and Preston Hill’s review of Mascall’s book Christ the Christian, and the Church. Along with Preston Hill and Clinton Collister I have been…
My sister Laurene at twenty returns as a vision: a young bride, slender in a blue suit carrying a simple bouquet of white flowers. It’s May 31st, the 35th anniversary of her death,warm and sunny in the Gulf South as hurricaneseason approaches. I am not surprised by this image, remembering her years before she bore…
As Anglicans, the use of hormonal contraceptives ought to be scrutinized. I have never heard the topic of ‘the pill’ touched from the pulpit, but Christians who affirm the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death cannot practice a laissez faire attitude towards contraceptives, which may act as zygote-abortifacients. Much of the popular…
ON AUTHENTEIN IN 1 Timothy 2:12 The debate around Women’s Ordination in the Anglican Church continues to rage, as thinkers on both sides continue to contend in the unhappy arena created by the “dual integrities” model enshrined in our provincial constitution. When arguments become entangled in the thickets of complex details, it can be useful,…
Flesh he tookInterceding he blestDying he brokeRising he gaveThe manna that savesThe draught of his bloodThat ran over the woodWhich he bore to the pyreWhere he passed through the fireAnd Eve’s tempter was crushedThe death of her deathRaised up for all lifeThat her sons may be savedBy the flesh Mary boreFor the good of the…
