Sacraments ordained of Christ be not only badges or tokens of Christian men’s profession, but rather they be certain sure witnesses, and effectual signs of grace, and God’s good will towards us, by the which he doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm our Faith in him. …
Advent I sermon, 40th anniversary
Advent I. November 27, 2022. Saint Stephen’s, Athens. S. Matthew 21, verse 10 - And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Today is the 40th anniversary of the founding of…
The Clergy and Politics (revised and reposted)
The Clergy and Politics Part I Edward Hyde, Lord Clarendon, advisor to Charles I and chancellor under Charles II, fell from power in 1667 and went into exile until his death in 1674. Clarendon’s life thus included two long periods of exile, embracing the Interregnum and then the years after his fall from power. In…
Canadian Church Congress 2011
Address by the Most Reverend Mark Haverland Your Graces, My Lords Bishop, Venerable, Very Reverend, and Reverend Fathers, Ladies and Gentlemen. We are not born Christian. We are made Christian, by baptism. I was made a Christian, the child of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven, in an Episcopal church in Niles,…
Anglicans, Romans, and Specific Differences
Anglicanism has historically been characterized by a theological temper which includes a tendency to emphasize most the most important matters and to worry less about less important matters. One would think that this tendency should be uncontroversial, but in fact there is a contrary theological tendency to emphasize most specific differences, namely the few matters…
Three Sad Agnostics
The late John Harriot once said, ‘To abandon religion may be honest and honourable, but it is not exactly leaping a prison wall, more like jumping into the dustbin; not a grand illumination, more a putting out of lights.’ The truth of this observation is illustrated by one kind of the literature of regret. From…
The Liturgiwacky
’Twas brillig and the Dolly Serves Did gyre and gimble up the Nave: So whimsy was the vesting craze That the moms’ couture hautegave. ‘Beware the Liturgiwack, my son! The rules that cut, the prose that flops! The Wacky fiends, they are not done, Don’t wait until the next shoe drops!’ He put his aspergil…
Trinity XIX
Trinity XIX. S. Stephen's, Athens, GA. 23 October 2022 St. Matthew ix, verse 2 - And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. In the…
Allegory, Analogy, and Icon
Protestants of Reformed and Anabaptist leanings have historically been hostile to religious icons and images, whether two- or three-dimensional. Protestant iconoclasm often extended to depictions of the crucifixion or even to a bare cross. The argument of Protestant iconoclasts, like that of the Byzantine iconoclasts before them, begins with an understanding of the Decalogue. The…
Healing, holy, whole: Unction of the Sick
A clue, if not a key, to understanding some of the initially puzzling features of the sacrament of unction of the sick may lie in English etymology. The English words ‘holy’, ‘whole’, and ‘heal’ have common roots. The following information is taken from the website etymonline.com. First, ‘holy’ comes from ‘Old English halig, “holy, consecrated,…
Anglican Catholic Liturgy and Theology 