One of the hallmarks of many “nondenominational” denominations within the United States and Great Britain is the eschewing of any manner of distinctive clerical uniform or vesture when ordained ministers lead Christian worship. The rationale behind these abstentions is that such clothing sets the minister “apart from the people,” smacking of clericalism, unduly calling attention…
Anti-Methodism and Theological Controversy in Eighteenth-Century England: The Struggle for True Religion. By Simon Lewis. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. 224 pp. $85 (cloth). Peter B. Nockles notes in The Oxford Movement in Context that there is a “myth” that the eighteenth-century Church of England saw a “collapse of High Churchmanship” (6). In a…
(a fable for children and others) for Ellie “A king—long years ago, When nights were long and dark And forests thick and dangers oh! So dangerous—lost his spark, Lost his remarkable spark Of joy. A meadowlark . . .” Part One: In Search of Meadowlarks Catherine had a friend. Her friend was Emma May. They…
Article XI. Of the Justification of Man. WE are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works or deservings: Wherefore, that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more largely…
The chaste moon cackles over fields of white and pours its pregnant wrath upon a black crepe sky where seems the sun will never rise nor fill its run on this, the longest night. Beneath her blushing falseness tramps a lone and lonely hireling; bit with frost in callouses and cuts, near lost to winter’s…
Continuing to read in Knots Untied, Ryle has this to say about the Articles’ “studied moderation about things nonessential to salvation, and things about which good Christian men may differ.” (2) Let us mark, in the next place, as we read the Articles, their studied moderation about things nonessential to salvation, and things about which good Christian…
Can you feel the wait? The weight of sin. The weight of glory. The pause of movement, Creation waits, Its Maker sleeps. Down into the pit Descends the One Who made the depths. All of Sheol Looks up and gazes Upon the Savior. The Alpha who spoke Light into existence Illuminates the dark…
Faithful cross! above all other, one and only noble tree! None in foliage, none in blossom, none in fruit thy peer may be; sweetest wood and sweetest iron! Sweetest weight is hung on thee. Bend thy boughs, O tree of glory! Thy relaxing sinews bend; for awhile the ancient rigor that thy birth bestowed, suspend;…
Article X. Of Free Will. THE condition of man, after the fall of Adam, is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to faith, and calling upon God; wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of…
The church was chilly, though the King had come to hear the sermon; no braziers set out; chill of December. Andrewes, golden-tongued, delivered words describing the long route the Magi took, the trials they endured: In solsitio bumali—”the dead of winter”; they rode wearying miles obscured by fog and snow; high prices paid for bread; camels…
