Liturgy

This great sacrament revere

May 8, 2010

(This post is one of a sporadic series on the Church of England’s Thirty-nine Articles) I take the title of this post (the first of several on this first major article about the Eucharist) from the most common translation in Anglican hymn books of one of St Thomas Aquinas’ great Eucharistic hymns. The presence of [...]

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A mildly irritating Protestant assertion

May 2, 2010

Scot McKnight is usually an eirenic blogger, sensitive to issues where Christians disagree, and thoughtful when he does disagree. I was therefore somewhat surprised to find his rather blunt post today, which simply asserts the wrongness of Catholic doctrine and practice as an unassailable fact. The Eucharist, whether you celebrate and participate daily, weekly, monthly [...]

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But whose babies? The right practice for baptism

April 30, 2010

(This post is one of a sporadic series on the Church of England’s Thirty-nine Articles) One of the biggest problems the Church of England has (in common with other churches that baptize infants) is the very different meanings that people give to baptism. On the one hand, there are those Christians, mainly in other denominations, [...]

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Tongues, translations and non-rational worship

April 21, 2010

(This post is one of a sporadic series on the Church of England’s Thirty-nine Articles) I did wonder whether to simply pass over the twenty-fourth article, not only because it is so brief, but because the principle it enshrines is, at least in the Western Church, more-or-less universally accepted, that worship should be in one’s [...]

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Jesus was a very punctual baby

March 25, 2010
pieta.jpg

Today is the feast day of the Annunciation in those churches that have liturgical calendars, commemorating Gabriel’s visit to Miriam of Nazareth. It is, as you might observe, nine months to the day before Christmas. (In this punctuality Jesus appears to take after his mother – the feast of whose conception is 8 December and [...]

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Eucharist and sacrifice in the New Testament

March 24, 2010

As I said in a previous post on priesthood: In this post I don’t want to engage with the larger theological arguments, or Reformation polemics, but simply ask an exegetical question or two. However, what I want to ask about this time is not priesthood, but the not disconnected topic of Eucharist and sacrifice. It [...]

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Making a bid for the non-latinate Catholic

March 23, 2010

Bosco Peters has a helpful reflection on the progress (or lack of it) towards the introduction of the new Roman Catholic Missal. In my view it is extremely unfortunate for our English speaking RC friends that the US culture wars, where they focussed on gender-neutral or inclusive language, led to an argument around the missal. [...]

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Hold that hallelujah: some odd thoughts on Lent

February 18, 2010

Yesterday it seemed good to me to abstain from posting on the blog. In the catch-up, I noticed first of all this short reflection from Maggi Dawn. Are you giving up anything for Lent?” was a question no-one would ever have asked a few hundred years ago, when everyone gave up the same things, and [...]

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Yes to evolution, but no to “Evolution Sunday”

February 8, 2010

I notice from James McGrath that some US churches are celebrating an “Evolution Sunday” either yesterday or next week. I’m afraid my Anglican soul revolts at these special Sundays for this, that and the other, however worthy the cause or idea. Sundays are a celebration of the Lord’s resurrection, which also take a particular character [...]

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Desiring the kingdom: some observations on a good book

February 5, 2010

I’ve been reading James K A Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom and finding it quite stimulating. The book was awarded Christianity Today’s best theology / ethics book award for 2010, though I didn’t know that when I started reading it. Smith begins by introducing the idea of cultural liturgies with an extended description of visiting a [...]

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