Articles
Given to Shriven: Quinquagesima
Love divine, all loves excelling,joy of heaven, to earth come down,fix in us thy humble dwelling,all thy faithful mercies crown.Jesus, thou art all compassion,pure, unbounded love thou art;visit us with thy salvation,enter every trembling heart. The stage is set. Christ Jesus has set His face towards Jerusalem, where He knows He is journeying towards certain…
What Makes Infant Baptism Efficacious [Commentary on Browne: Article XXVII (2)]
If “the new birth of the Spirit is closely coupled with new birth by water,” as Browne argues, then a question that follows is how this new birth of the Spirit is applied to infants. The difficulty, as it is often presented, is that whereas “in the case of adults, faith and repentance are necessary…
An Active not a Passive Soil: A reflection on the Gospel for Sexagesima Sunday
‘As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.’ Simple enough, the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God have been given to us. Jesus tells us in this very gospel reading today. The…
The Shape of Cranmer’s Liturgy
Contemporary eucharistic liturgies tend to follow a standard “shape” – a ministry of the Word, culminating in the exchange of the Peace; next, a ministry of the Sacrament, based on the “four-fold shape” of liturgical action first proposed by Dom Gregory Dix: taking, giving thanks, breaking, and giving; and a eucharistic prayer that conforms to…
Septuagesima for the Rest of Us: Pre-Lent with the 2019 Book of Common Prayer
There is an odd rubric at the back of the 2019 Book of Common Prayer: “The last three Sundays before Lent may be observed as Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima.”[1] When I first encountered this direction, it confused me. Having grown up in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and then transitioning to the Anglican Church…
On Article XX and Lay Responsibility
For North Americans, an obvious feature of our culture is consumerism. This is equally true of the church world as it participates in the wider culture. Most everyone who attends a church has (or will) attend numerous other churches of various denominations over his or her lifetime, often solely based on personal choice or preference….
“Old High Church” Planting
Introduction: Is theological rigorism—insistence on conformity to the Prayer Book, and other traditionally “high church” distinctives—conducive to mission and evangelism? The assumption of many (even many high churchmen themselves) is that in order to do successful evangelism, many of their distinctives have to be downplayed. However, history tells another story. Even here in America, in…
Of Article XX of the XXXIX Articles of Religion
An encouragement to the readers and authors of the North American Anglican Of the Authority of the Church. The Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies, and authority in Controversies of Faith: and yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God’s Word written, neither…
Jesus and the Abolition of the Ceremonial Law
Introduction There is some confusion today about the place of what can be called the ceremonial commandments of the Law of Moses, regarding circumcision, meats, sacrifices, ritual cleansing, and observance of the Sabbath. Today, millions of people who consider themselves Christians believe that some or all of the ceremonial laws must still be observed in…
Book Review: “Why I Am Roman Catholic”
Matthew Levering. Why I Am Roman Catholic. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2024. 176 pp. $18 (paper). Reviewing a book by a friend and mentor, especially one whose work aligns with many of your own theological sympathies, is a complex task. It requires threading the needle between admiration and constructive critique, especially when the book…
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