I Corinthians 15, verse 57 - But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. If memory serves I first met Henry and Elaine about 40 years ago – I think at Charles…
NPR and Abortion
In 1994 for the first time in decades the Republican Party took control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Some will remember that occasion as the ‘Contract with America’ election after which Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House of Representatives. After the election National Public Radio appeared to have a brief…
Christ & Culture
H. Richard Niebuhr was a prominent theologian of the post-World War II flourishing of ‘Main Line’ Protestantism. His brother, Reinhold, was better known still, both as a theologian and as a founder of the anti-Communist liberal political group, Americans for Democratic Action. A sister, Hulda Niebuhr, was an accomplished theologian as well. H. Richard wrote…
Liturgical Authority
I have in other writings suggested that a key dividing line between a traditional and a modernist approach to worship is whether in worship one submits to liturgical and ecclesial authority or follows one’s own impulses in order to express his own personality and preferences. For Anglo-Catholics the matter is complex. For much of the…
On Ecclesiastical Headgear
[My thanks to Canon Robert Bader for his permission to reproduce his notes on ecclesiastical headgear, which I found very helpful.] One often sees Anglican clergy making use of the biretta and zucchetto (skull cap). As far as I know, there is no current Anglican canon or rubric regulating the use of these. But guidance…
Collects; their number, order, introduction, and termination
[This post is an expansion and revision of an earlier post.] Introduction and termination of collects If more than one collect is used the following rules apply: ‘The Lord be with you,’ is said before the first collect only. After the people respond to the salutation, the celebrant says, ‘Let us pray’ before the first…
Easter III sermon
Saint John xvi, verse 16 - A little while and ye shall not see me: and again a little while, and ye shall see me: because I go to the Father. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. In the Church year today we are now…
A Brief Note on the Meaning and Scope of Moral Theology
Moral theology, as the name implies, is a branch of theology or of theological science. Moral theology in traditional outlines of the whole field of theology is part of systematic theology. Systematic theology has two main parts, dogmatic theology and moral theology. These two parts are complementary and related, with dogmatic theology having priority and…
‘The Affirmation of Saint Louis’ and Continuing Anglicanism
Robert M. Andrews has recently published an article called ‘Continuing Anglicanism? The History, Theology, and Contexts of “The Affirmation of Saint Louis” (1977)’.[i] The article might not come to my own readers’ attention, since it appears in an Australian academic journal, albeit a good one with international contributors. Since the article also is very much…
What use is the Bible?
In the early days of the Continuing Church, in the late 1970s and 1980s, one often saw on the backs of church bulletins or of flyers a set of statements about the beliefs of the Continuing Church. The last statement listed went something like this: ‘The Old and New Testaments as the sole guides for…
Anglican Catholic Liturgy and Theology 