But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light… (1 St. Peter 2. 9) You might be wondering this morning how exactly I plan to weave the words just quoted from St. Peter’s first Epistle into this morning’s lections. St. Peter seems to be speaking of something rather grand, elevated, and regal, or of a reality that is radically other than the … [Read more...]
Trinity X
We begin today’s sermon with the words of Richard J. Foster: Recently I experienced a special grace which I believe was from God. It is the gift of tears. I had been considering my sin and the sin of God's people. I had also been meditating on the gospel teaching (and ancient teaching of the Church) on "compunction"--heart sorrow. As I did this, God graciously helped me to enter into a godly mourning in my heart on behalf of the Church, and a deep, tear-filled thanksgiving at God's patience, … [Read more...]
William Law: On the Spirit of Love, continued
[Love-2.1-11] Why are Love, Knowledge, Wisdom, and Goodness said to be infinite and eternal in God, capable of no Increase or Decrease, but always in the same highest State of Existence? Why is his Power eternal and omnipotent, his Presence not here, or there, but everywhere the same? No Reason can be assigned, but because nothing that is temporary, limited, or bounded, can be in God. It is his Nature to be that which He is, and all that He is, in an infinite, unchangeable Degree, admitting … [Read more...]
News of Coming Events and the 2018 Conference
After the great success of our conference last January we are delighted to announce the dates for the PBS ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2018 on The Prayer Book: Doctrine, Liturgy and Life in St. John’s Church and the DeSoto Hotel* Savannah, Georgia Wednesday 24th - 26th January 2018 NB some rooms are available this week at a special rate at the DeSoto hotel until 22nd September _____________ And happening even sooner! : Can a thousand flowers bloom? The Proposed Revision of … [Read more...]
Trinity IX
Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. (St. Luke xvi. 9) In last week’s Gospel we prayed that God’s never failing providence that ruleth all things both in heaven and in earth [might] put away from us all hurtful things and [might] give to us those things which are profitable (Collect: Trin. VIII) for our salvation. And this week Jesus illustrates how we might apply what we know of God’s providence to … [Read more...]
Excellence
Have you ever noticed that the Christian Church spends lots of time worshiping a Jesus Christ that is external to it? What I mean is that the Christ, who is the Saviour of the world, is kept outside of the church’s walls, and even outside of the people’s hearts. He is appealed to in public prayer and He is allowed to be involved in the life of the church to an extent but not wholly and completely. This is probably the case because the churches are full of lukewarm and tepid believers. Such … [Read more...]
Trinity VIII
For the very beginning of [wisdom] is the desire of her discipline; and the care of discipline is love. And love is the keeping of her laws; and the giving heed unto her laws is the assurance of incorruption. And incorruption maketh us near to God. (Wisdom vi. 17-20) The Book of Wisdom is traditionally ascribed to Solomon, son of David and King of Israel. He lived some nine hundred years before the birth of Jesus Christ, and he is known for his wisdom. The First Book of the Kings tells us … [Read more...]
Trinity VII
Graft in our hearts the love of Thy Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and keep us in the same… (Collect Trinity VII) You must have noticed that in addition to our Scriptural lessons appointed to be read each Sunday we read or pray something called a Collect. A Collect is a short general prayer of a particular structure used in Christian liturgy. (Wikip…) In the tradition of Common Prayer the Collect gathers or sums up into one prayer the theme of the day or … [Read more...]
New Print Edition of the Anglican Way now out
We are pleased to announce that the latest edition of the Society's Journal is now available in print and online -Canon Alistair Macdonald-Radcliff THE ANGLICAN WAY Vol 40, No. 2 Summer 2017 For the full text please go to https://anglicanway.org/print-edition/ AW-vol40no2_Web Contents: “Prevent Us O Lord”, Dwelling, Walking And Serving In The Book Of Common Prayer, by Rowan Williams, Master oF Magdalene College, Cambridge, Former Archbishop of Canterbury (Article … [Read more...]
William Law: The Spirit of Love
William Law: The Spirit of Love [Love-2.1-9] Theophilus. ‘Tis true, Theogenes, that God can only then begin to make known his Mercy and Patience, when the Creature has lost its Rectitude and Happiness, yet nothing then begins to be in God or to be found in him, but that which was always in him in the same infinite State, viz., a Will to all Goodness, and which can will nothing else. God’s Goodness is a Name which we give to His Nature. His Nature is Pure Goodness. Or we might say that God … [Read more...]
Trinity VI
Pour into our hearts such love towards thee, that we, loving thee above all things, may obtainthy promises, which exceed all that we can desire. (Collect, Trinity VI) I do not know how often we think of the promises of God. If we are like most men, we don’t. Our consciences don’t seem to be alerted and awake to God’s intention and plan for us. We don’t seem to be planning and preparing for a future with God in Heaven. Or if we do, it is of secondary importance to this life. We are so … [Read more...]
Trinity V
…The people pressed upon him to hear the word of God… (St. Luke v. 1) It must always be the case that good Christians should be pressing upon [Jesus] to hear the Word of God. (Idem) But hearing the Word of God is one thing, and doing it is quite another. St. James tells us to be…doers of the Word, and not hearers only. (St. James i. 22) This is where most well-intentioned Christians find trouble. After all, we can read God’s Word and hear it, but how can we do it? The problem seems to be … [Read more...]
Man comes to be as he comes to know. Coming to know is part and parcel of becoming a true human being. Coming into knowledge, therefore, is in need of the same cause as coming into being. This salient feature of created human nature is ignored by most pseudo-scientists and pseudo-philosophers. They are pseudo because they will not admit of the need for God the First Cause in their acquisition of knowledge. Evidently, they believe that there exists no Being who Knows. But if there is no being who … [Read more...]
Trinity III
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. (1 St. Peter v. 6,7) Trinitytide is all about participating in the life of God the Holy Trinity. In the season of Trinity, we are exhorted to return to God the Father, through Jesus Christ the Son, and by the effectual sanctification of the Holy Ghost. What we are invited to participate in is nothing short of the eternal dynamism of the Triune … [Read more...]
I AM
In stillness and silence Moses, the Lord’s Prophet, seeks and searches for God in Himself. What or who he searches for is what is not anything that he has experienced or encountered in the universe around him. In the universe are changing, moving, growing, and becoming beings. In himself he finds a changing, moving, becoming, being. He knows himself to be never the same, always changing, always becoming something that he was not before. Not only can he not step in the same river twice but he is … [Read more...]
The Society Mourns the Passing of Bishop Geoffrey Rowell
BISHOP GEOFFREY ROWELL Requiem aeternam dona eis.... It is with the deepest sadness that the Society has learned of the passing of Bishop Geoffrey who was, only months ago, to have given a paper at the Society's recent conference Anglicanism Catholic and Reformed. This would have been on the theme of the distinctive Anglican understandings of holiness and it was only with great reluctance that he withdraw, on account of the then early, but already acute, stages of the illness … [Read more...]
Ascension I
Ascension-tide is the briefest liturgical season in the Church Year. It lasts only ten days. We believe that on the fortieth day after Easter Christ ascended to the Father. Ten days later the Holy Spirit was sent into the womb of the nascent Church on the feast of the Pentecost or Whitsunday. So, we have but a few days to examine the significance and meaning of the Ascension for us. The Ascension is Jesus Christ’s return to the eternal state that He shares, as Son, with the Father and the … [Read more...]
Ascension
It seems rather odd that no sooner have the Apostles been warned against gazing into the starry heaven in pursuit of Jesus’ Ascended nature than their Elizabethan successors have taken to exhorting us to do precisely that. The Angels of the Lord –two men standing by the Apostles in white apparel rebuke the Apostles. Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. (Acts … [Read more...]
Audio of two further Sessions including Dr Arnold Klukas opening the Session on Liturgy Now at the PBS 2017 Conference
Recordings of two further sessions of the PBS Conference can be accessed below. In the first, Dr. Arnold Klukas, the recently retired Professor of Liturgy at Nashotah House, gives the lead presentation. He opened a discussion of the challenges facing the Anglican liturgical heritage if it is to preserve authentic continuity. He was joined in reflecting upon the different contexts of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom by Fr Gavin Dunbar, Dr Jesse Billet and Fr. … [Read more...]
Audio of the Session on Science and Faith at the PBS Conference 2017
A recording of the Conference Session on Apologetics, Science and Faith addressed by Dr. Paul Julienne, the distinguished Physicist and the Society's lead blogger in this field, can be accessed below. He addressed the question: How should science and faith relate to one another? Dr. Paul S. Julienne … [Read more...]
Audio of Drs. Joan O’Donovan, George Westhaver and Jesse Billet, from the PBS Conference 2017
Audio recordings of the Papers given by three more of our principal speakers at the 2017 Conference can be accessed below: The Papers given were: The Public Authority of the Church in the Cranmerian Tradition, by Dr. Joan O’Donovan, University of Edinburgh Incarnational Reading: A Tractarian View of the Authority of Scripture by The Revd. Dr. George Westhaver, Principal of Pusey House, Oxford “The Holy Scriptures, or … [Read more...]
Audio of Professor Oliver O’Donovan and Fr Gavin Dunbar at the PBS Conference 2017
Recordings of two further Sessions at the PBS Conference of 2017 are now available below. They comprise Session II, Sanctification by Dr. Oliver O’ Donovan, Professor of Moral Theology, Edinburgh and formerly Regius Professor at Oxford and Session III The nature and future of the Reformation liturgy by The Revd. Fr. Gavin Dunbar, PBS President … [Read more...]
Audio of Professor Neil Robertson from the PBS Conference 2017 now available.
We are delighted to make further recordings of the main Sessions of our 2017 Conference available now and also wish to advise that a print edition with all the texts and summaries of the interlocutor discussions etc. will be made available in due course. By clicking on the virtual buttons below you will be able to hear the remarks of Dr. Neil Robertson Professor of Humanities, University of King’s College Halifax in SESSION IV, “It is required that you do awake your … [Read more...]
Holy Tuesday
The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. (Isaiah l. 5) The Lord Jesus Christ has been pinned to the gibbet or the Cross of Calvary. His ears are open always to His Father’s voice. He will not rebel nor revolt in the time of His agony. He will find neither bitterness nor resentment in his heart of hearts. He has come to do the will and work of His Eternal Father, and the Father’s will and Word is always begotten in Him. He will open His ears to what … [Read more...]
Palm Sunday 2017
I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see you to it. (St. Matthew 27. 24) We in the Christian church are called to stillness, silence, and contemplation during Holy Week. The silence is our response to the Passion and Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. Holy Week has been set aside from the time of early Church ponder our Lord’s suffering in silence. If we approach this time with a diligent and determined concentration, we will, no doubt, find that it will provoke our … [Read more...]
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 16
- Next Page »