The Rev. Ben Jefferies is a sinner, grateful to the Lord for his mercy. He grew up in England, and emigrated to the United States in 1999. He went to Wheaton College, and several years later discerned a call to ministry and went to seminary at Nashotah House Theological Seminary. He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Duncan in 2014. He currently serves The Good Shepherd Anglican Church in Opelika, Alabama. He served on the Liturgy Task Force of the ACNA from 2015-2019, and was the lead designer for the production of the printed prayer book. He continues as the Assistant to the Custodian of the Book of Common Prayer (2019), and serves on the board of directors of Anglican House Media Ministries. He is married with three daughters.
INTRODUCTION Let us give John Henry Newman, circa 1836 (before his own bishop’s rejection drove him mad for a certainty of his own devising), the first word, on the recent controversy over Iconodulia in the Anglican Church: We have indeed too often fought the Romanists on wrong grounds…we have argued the unscripturalness of image worship…
From Charlemagne to the Homilies: An Addendum to Mr. Devereux I was delighted to see Mr. Devereux’s recent article on Anglican rejection of Nicea II as enshrined in our 16th century formularies. I take his article to be the knock-out punch of an intellectual opponent I myself have buffeted for some time. To extend…
MY STORY WITH NFP I read Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae three weeks before I got married. I was moved to tears by this solemn hymn to Holy Matrimony, and it solidified my growing conviction of the moral need to reject the use of artificial contraception. The logic was crystal clear and dazzling…
A Case for remaining in the ACNA “What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means!” —Romans 3:3-4a The Bride of Christ is wounded and bleeding. She will not die, because the Life she has been united to — Christ himself — is immortal, but some of her…
The question of the inerrancy of Scripture has been freshly addressed in Anglican circles lately. It is such a terribly abstract question, with far too much hanging on semantics. Let us get into the same question from a more practical angle: the battle-scarred territory of Genesis 1-11. Though I didn’t know it by this name,…
Where, O Death, is your sting? If we increase the IV Morphene bolus You won’t feel a thing. There is nothing painful or hateful About this death. Cast your anxieties on Him — Be anxious for nothing. Or X units of…
Part III of III: After Article 29 SUMMARY OF PAST TWO ESSAYS In Part One of these essays, I sought to demonstrate that the Fathers held a real, objective view of Christ’s presence under the form of bread and wine, and that this can be distinguished as differing from the view of the “Jewel-school” of…
II of III: A Comparison of Formularies In part one of my essay I argued that the Church Fathers and the “Jewel School” of Anglican theologians teach a different thing with regard to the Holy Eucharist. I also asserted (without argument) that there is a real difference between the teaching of the Jewel school and…
I of III: Fathers vs. Reformers The Challenge “Show that Hooker and Jewell and Ussher don’t know what they’re talking about. Until that happens, it is hard to take seriously these arguments that one cannot hold both “the faith” of the Fathers and of the Reformers.” Thus Mr. Ramsey threw down a gauntlet back in…
A Letter To a Friend St. Augustine of Canterbury, 2020 Dear Brother ————, I empathize with the tug you feel toward the Roman Church. In the face of regions where the ACNA is yet still feebly established, and in the midst of an ACNA that is a hodge-podge of practice and conviction, and tolerant of…