Hymns ‘of’ Thanksgiving and ‘for’ Thanksgiving
As we near the end of a surreal year of turmoil and disruption, it may be a little harder for Americans to give thanks this year (other than for a temporary cessation of political advertising). But of course God’s people have been commanded to give thanks for thousands of years, whether Noah’s family after the…
An Homily of the Worthy Receiving of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ Part II
THE SECOND PART OF THE HOMILY OF THE WORTHY RECEIVING AND REVERENT ESTEEMING OF THE SACRAMENT OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST. In the Homily of late rehearsed unto you ye have heard, good people, why it pleased our Saviour Christ to institute that heavenly memory of his death and passion, and that every…
Epistle and Gospel Variations in the Classic Prayer Books
The liturgical year of the church is about to begin. That means, for Anglicans, that the cycle of proper readings is also about to begin. But to say “the cycle” would overstate the uniformity in what is sometimes called the “eucharistic lectionary.”[1] Some Anglicans use a three-year cycle, adapted from the Revised Common Lectionary. In…
An Homily of the Worthy Receiving of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ Part I
An Homily of the Worthy Receiving and Reverent Esteeming of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ THE great love of our Saviour Christ towards mankind, good Christian people, doth not only appear in that dear bought benefit of our redemption and salvation by his death and passion, but also in that he…
The Relative Positions of the Presider, Table, and Assembly at Communion Part II
Find part 1 here. Facing East Praying ad orientem, facing the east, is a wide-spread, ancient, pre-Christian custom: because the east is the direction of the rising sun, it naturally inspires and expresses hope for the future.[1] For ancient Christians, orientation (in the original sense, “towards the Orient”) also expressed expectation for the second advent…
There Should Never Have Been Three Streams
It has become commonplace among many North American Anglicans to classify themselves as for or against the language of “Three Streams, One River.” Not long ago in this very journal we read, from Dr. Gillis Harp, a very good critique of the increasingly popular notion that within the Anglican renewal three valid “streams” of Christian…
October Falling
–for Jacqueline Cooley, 1944-2018 Last night the trees changed color while I slept. One moment at my window: a new world. Love, do you continue transmuting where you are? Pandemonium of the color wheel. That raucousness. Noise the sky can hear I call October falling. Now, outside, calling you to join me, Love, I kick…
Joy of Every Longing Heart: an Advent Meditation
When Constantine entered Rome on October 29, 312 after the battle of Melvian Bridge, after what was essentially his conversion to Christianity following a vision of the cross, he staged a grand arrival ceremony in the city called an adventus, whereat the conquering king was met with popular jubilation. The party lasted for weeks. Finally,…
Curtain Call
Allow me at my end to be like these Descending leaves that elegantly dance Their final scene, expressing festive peace As they take leave of life. Still colorful, They ornament the sky as Fall’s sun slants To warm their gold, release their sweet fragrance. They’ve felt their feebling stems, and known the call Of gravity’s…
Feast of faith: High Church Eucharistic teaching and piety in the Church of England, 1800-1833
[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…