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...]
“To foreign lands no sound of her is come” – Reflecting on the expansion of the Anglican Communion then and now….
At a time when the future of the Anglican Communion as a true Communion, rather than mere Community is under some travail, it is interesting to see how different the perspective was in the middle of the last century when the Revd. Walter Stowe (1895-1989) enthused most optimistically in his article ahead of the 2nd Anglican Congress held in Minneapolis in 1954, entitled, “The Expansion of the Anglican Communion” in the Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, (Vol. … [Read more...]
1928 Ordo Calendars
St. Andrew's Academy: 1928 Ordo Calendars and more. http://whithornpress.standrewsalmanor.org … [Read more...]
Prayer Book Society Colloquium on Daily Prayer
PBS Colloquium on Daily Prayer Flyer draft 2 … [Read more...]
Epiphany I: My Father’s Business
Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business? (St. Luke ii. 49) In Christmas Tide we directed our mind’s eye to the new birth of Jesus Christ in our hearts and souls. And so now in Epiphany Tide our eyes are opening as Christ the Light begins to illuminate and enlighten us about the character of the new life which God desires us to live. Epiphany comes to us from the Greek word, epifaneia, and it means manifestation or striking appearance. In the Church of the East, Epiphany is called … [Read more...]
Christmas Day 2015
And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the Heavenly Host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men. (St. Luke ii. 13,14) One of the most compelling instruments to foment belief in the Christ as the Son of God are the details that describe Him as the Son of Man. What I mean is that the New Testament is not full of particular moments that overturn or destroy nature and her course. Rather, on the whole, we read of a … [Read more...]
Advent IV Epistle: Thomas Aquinas with Commentary
Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. (Phi. iv. 4, 5) The Apostle exhorted us in the end of the preceding Epistle that we should reserve all things to Christ, the true Judge; but, lest we should be overcome by the long delay, he said that He was about to come in a very little while. The Lord, he said, is at hand. What we consider to be a long time is but the twinkling of an eye in relation to God’s eternity. So a long time … [Read more...]
Advent II 2015
Heaven and Earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. (St. Luke xxi. 33) Advent is that season which is all about preparing for Christ’s coming. What is coming to us is what endures forever. With eager expectation we await the one permanent and eternal thing that is all-important and all-defining for the life of any Christian. In the cyclical life of the Church, once again we prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ at Christmas time. Christ Jesus is the permanent Word of God made … [Read more...]
Exceptions and Rules
One finds it more than a little bit alarming to think that the largest church in Christendom might be about to schism because some of its "elders" are ruled by exceptions rather than by the rules. Any half-wit knows that one cannot run anything on the basis of exceptions. Exceptions are only and ever exceptions because they are rules. And if one wishes to see what happens to churches that are governed by exceptions and not rules just look at Mainline Protestantism in postmodern America. There … [Read more...]
Trinity XIX
There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines. All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased. (Jeremiah xxx. 13, 14) Our opening verses come to us from the 30th Chapter of the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah. What the prophet is describing is the sorry and desperate … [Read more...]
William Law: Address to the Clergy, xxiv-xxvi
[Addr-24] Now when Christ had told them of the Necessity of an higher State than that they were in, and the Necessity of such a comforting illuminating Guide, as they could not have till his outward Teaching in human Language was changed into the Inspiration, and Operation of his Spirit in their Souls, He commands them, not to begin to bear Witness of him to the World, from what they did and could in an human Way know of him, his Birth his Life, Doctrines, Death, Sufferings, Resurrection, … [Read more...]
St. Michael & All Angels
THERE was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. (Rev. xii. 7) Today we celebrate our Patronal Feast. A Patronal Feast refers to the Patron Saint or Angel for whom certain churches, basilicas, or cathedrals are named. Our Patrons are St. Michael, who happens to be both a Saint and an Angel, and all the other Angels. St. Michael has the added distinction of being … [Read more...]
Pusey House Theological Conference 2016
http://www.puseyhouse.org.uk/2016-theological-conference.html … [Read more...]
Trinity XV
Ye cannot serve God and Mammon (St. Matthew vi: 24) Our Gospel lesson appointed for today comes to us from the Sermon on the Mount. And like all the lections of Trinity tide, it helps us to understand our sanctification or our habituation to virtue. Today’s lesson is hard to confront or face because it involves our relationship with two necessities of life, food and clothing. And our anxiety and worry over these essentials are not made any easier by Our Lord’s abrupt dismissal of … [Read more...]
William Law Continued…
[Addr-9] But now, if all that is Divine, great, glorious, and happy, in the Spirits, Tempers, Operations, and Enjoyments of the Creature, is only so much of the Greatness, Glory, Majesty, and Blessedness of God, dwelling in it, and giving forth various Births of his own triune Life, Light, and Love, in and through the manifold Forms and capacities of the Creature to receive them, then we may infallibly see the true Ground and Nature of all true Religion, and when and how we may be said … [Read more...]
Trinity X
And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes. (St. Luke 19. 41, 42) In reading the lines which I have just rehearsed, most Biblical commentators have interpreted them to be Jesus’ literal prediction and foreknowledge of a future event. So they conclude that Jesus is weeping over an immanent and ominous destruction of Jerusalem, which … [Read more...]
Trinity V Epistle: Thomas Aquinas with Commentary
Let him eschew evil and do good; let him seek peace and ensue it. (1 Peter iii. 11.) THERE are two parts of righteousness to which the blessed Peter invites us in these words. The first is the avoiding of evil, Let him eschew evil. The second is, the delighting in good, and do good. It is to be noted that evil is chiefly to be avoided for three things. (1) On account of the great bitterness which it induces. (2) On account of the loss which it entails. (3) On account of the punishment to … [Read more...]
Trinity II Epistle: Thomas Aquinas with Commentary
ALMSGIVING A THREEFOLD BLESSING: SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. (FROM THE EPISTLE) But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his compassion from him; how dwelleth the love of God in him? 1 (St. John iii. 17.) St. John the Apostle in these words exhorts us to the practice of' almsgiving for three reasons, for he who does almsgiving obtains three good gifts (1) temporal good; (2) spiritual good; (3) eternal good. About the first good. It is noted that man … [Read more...]
Clergyman Wanted
Assistant clergyman wanted. Willing to work weekday and Sunday services, home visitations. Some office clerical work involved in position. For further details, call Fr. Neil Edlin 714-532-2420 St. Mary Magdalene Anglican Church Located in Historic Old Town Orange, Ca. … [Read more...]
C.S. Lewis, 20 years on
This article was originally penned by Professor Beckwith in 1986. Permission to print in Anglican Way Magazine was given by Latimer Trust. C.S.LEWIS, 20 YEARS ON C.S. Lewis died in 1963, but he continues to attract admirers, both in Britain and America, and indeed all over the English-speaking world. A big new biography by an American, William Griffin, has just appeared from Harper and Row of San Francisco. It is a discursive book, based on Lewis's own sayings and letters, but … [Read more...]
Bridging the Divide: Gordon Anderson
Bridging the Divide Between Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical Gordon Anderson It was with great interest that I read “C. S. Lewis, 20 Years On” by Roger Beckwith, and the related articles by Drs. Bayer and Harp, that were published in the last issue of Anglican Way. Beckwith writes that Lewis desired Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics lay aside their rivalries in order to face a common enemy, and then laments that the rivalry has continued up to the writing of his article (1986). He offers … [Read more...]
Quinquagesima’s Love
St. Paul uses a word for love rarely employed among his contemporaries. It seems as if he carefully avoided any of those terms, and they were many, which make it easy to associate the supreme virtue with desires which spend themselves in their own satisfactions, and through instinctive in human nature, are often degraded by man's perversity. English people have never found a word entirely equivalent to St. Paul's term. Our word love stands for a wide range of feeling. It may represent merely … [Read more...]
Women Bishops: the Church of England in the Life of the Nation
Writing for Aleteia, the Rev. Canon Alistair MacDonald-Radcliffe, Member of the Prayer Book Society's Board, explains "Why Anglicans Made Women Bishops" in the recent General Synod vote after opposing the change in the recent 2012 vote. He writes: So with such deeply entrenched but opposing positions what changed? The fact that it was not felt possible to leave this matter to the usual slow procedural processes and that it was also seen as especially urgent by the new Archbishop of Canterbury … [Read more...]
Nationalism, Reform, and the Articles of Religion
By the Rev. Gavin Dunbar The following is the second of a two-part series from the Parish Paper of St. John’s Church in Savannah, GA. The Articles established by the Episcopal Church in 1801 were a conservative adaptation of the Church of England's Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion within the new political circumstances of the church in the United States of America. These Articles, originally forty-two in number when drafted in 1553 by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, were revised under Queen … [Read more...]
Becoming Little Christs
THESE DAYS, being a faithful Christian is no easy task. By reason of our society’s obsessions with strange ideas and new mores, we are often persecuted and thwarted in our efforts to embrace traditional Christianity. It seems so natural to become filled with despair. What we hate ends up defining us too much. The opposition becomes a bette-noire, and we might rightly be accused of idolatry. Far from radiating and mirroring the truth that is under assault, we manifest depression and despair -- … [Read more...]