[M]orality enjoins no observance of one day in seven – no feast of faith in sacramental rites upon the body and blood of the Redeemer.[1] It is a commonly told story in Anglicanism. In the century before 1833, Anglican sacramental practice and spirituality was a “drab and spiritually barren environment.”[2] Communion was infrequent; altars (or should…
The Presence of Christ and the Problem of “History” Among the problems of most ‘quests for the historical Jesus’ is the illusion of distance. It is assumed that the “Jesus of History” stands quite apart from our time. Granting his existence, the most charitable inquisitor still maintains that the man Jesus is quite foreign to…
One of the several contentious issues that pits Anglican against Anglican today is the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. Unlike other controversies, such as the insights or errors of women’s ordination, or the insights or errors of adopting elements of the Pentecostal tradition into our own, the question of baptismal regeneration is actually directly addressed within…
A Response to Fr. Ben Jefferies’ “Is the Eucharistology of the Anglican Reformation Patristic?” As a regular reader of the North American Anglican, I understand that Fr. Jefferies’ recent triple-header of articles taking up (editor) Mr. Ramsey’s challenge to demonstrate the contradiction between the fathers and reformers on sacramental theology is a major event. It…
