I the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost (I John 5: 7) The spirit, the Word, and the Father –Three in One – from eternity, gatheredThe earth, sky, and waters together. II the spirit and the water and the blood (I John 5: 8) The spirit, the water, the bloodBear witness on earth…
We tend to think of the Book of Common Prayer as a collection of rituals, but its original preface presents it as a means for hearing the word of God. Cranmer’s Preface recommends it with these words: [H]ere you have an order for prayer (as touching the reading of holy scripture) much agreeable to the…
Perhaps through a flattering overvaluation of the part that we play in them as clergy or scholars, we often suppose that ideas and practices prevail in the social arena chiefly through strength of arguments. Consequently, we can easily overlook the frequently decisive role played by such things as shifts in political and institutional power, by…
Most of us are familiar with the term “liberal arts,” but few of us stop to consider this curious term. Why “liberal”? Presumably not because these are the arts favored by political progressives (even if many historic “liberal arts colleges” have become quite “liberal” in that sense). Those who do attempt to attach an etymology…
P.D. James makes several morose references to the abandonment of the “old book” or “old liturgy” in the childless 2021 England of her dystopian novel The Children of Men (COM). By “old liturgy” she is referring to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, a book containing a marriage rite which stresses procreation as the first…
