Christ Church

On the Holy Spirit

The Second Book of Homilies (1563) contains a number of homilies which are attributed to Bishop John Jewel (1522-1571). Among those is “An Homily concerning the coming down of the Holy Ghost; for Whitsunday”. It establishes a number of the basic themes which would be taken up and enlarged upon by others after him, such as Lancelot Andrewes’ remarkable series of fifteen sermons on the sending down of the Holy Spirit prepared and preached before King James I in the first three decades of the 17th century. As with Cranmer, Jewel’s homily complements the Articles of Religion, in this case, Article V, “Of the Holy Ghost”.

Jewel first locates the Scriptural sources for the liturgical Feast of Pentecost or Whitsuntide in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament; in each case highlighting their divine authorship. It belongs to the Exodus story of deliverance and to the giving of the Law, on the one hand, and to the descent of the Holy Ghost on the disciples in Jerusalem, on the other hand, both observed on the same day, the fiftieth day after Easter and the Jewish Passover. Jewel then considers “what the Holy Ghost is” and what the Holy Ghost does, namely, “his miraculous works towards mankind”.

This establishes the classical Anglican teaching about the Holy Spirit, emphasizing first, the essential divinity of the Holy Spirit, as attested by Scripture and Creed understood in tandem, and, secondly, the western understanding of the double procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son (filioque). This, too, is the burden of Article V.

The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory, with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God.

Thus Jewel states that “The Holy Ghost is a spiritual and divine substance, the Third Person in the Deity, distinct from the Father and the Son, and yet proceeding from them both,” as witnessed by “the creed of Athanasius,” and by the witness of Christ’s baptism in Jordan and by the dominical injunction “to baptize all nations, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” Jewel notes that “his proper nature and substance … is altogether one with God the Father, and God the Son; that is to say, spiritual, eternal, uncreated, incomprehensible, almighty; to be short, he is even God and Lord everlasting … the Spirit of the Father” who “is said to proceed from the Father and the Son.” From this consideration of Deus in se, he moves on to the works of the Holy Ghost, Deus pro nobis, “which plainly declare unto the world his mighty and divine power”.

The first of those works concerns the illumination and inspiration of the Patriarchs and Prophets by the Holy Spirit. Prophecy comes “not by the will of man;” but “as they were moved inwardly by the Holy Ghost.” Secondly, there is the work of the Holy Ghost “in the conception and nativity of Christ our Saviour.” Thirdly, there is the work of the Holy Ghost “by the inward regeneration and sanctification of mankind.” The works of the Holy Ghost are understood in connection and communion with the Father and the Son. “For, as there are three several and sundry persons in the Deity; so have they three several and sundry offices proper unto each of them: the Father to create, the Son to redeem, the Holy Ghost to sanctify and regenerate.” This echoes the instructions in the classical Prayer Book Catechisms about the Apostles’ Creed.

Read the rest of this entry »

Due to uncertainties regarding the weather, tonight’s Lenten Programme on the Book of Homilies has been cancelled.

The meditation on the homily pertaining to the Holy Spirit will posted on the website shortly.

Five barley loaves and two small fishes

“But what are they among so many?” The story of the feeding of the multitude in the wilderness along with the story of the Canaanite woman who seeks the healing of her daughter “grievously vexed with a devil” are important teachings for us. For we, too, are in the wilderness. The question is about what is learned in the wilderness. These stories in the Christian scriptures recall the Exodus in the Hebrew scriptures.

Wisdom, Thomas Aquinas observes, is spiritual refreshment. Wisdom takes three forms. There is the wisdom that belongs to teachings of the ancient philosophers. There is the wisdom that belongs to the Law of Moses. But both those forms of wisdom are limited and incomplete, partial truths, we might say. Why? Because of sin and evil. Thus creation, though good, is not perfect and the Law, though good, is not perfect. Indeed, the Law, as Paul observes, is sin in the sense that it convicts us of what we would like to be but are not. Something more is needed, namely, grace. In the Christian understanding, Christ is “the power and the wisdom of God.” Both these stories show us that power and wisdom and in intriguing ways. Both are about what is learned in the wilderness, itself a powerful metaphor for the human condition.

How do we deal with the realities of suffering and evil? Wilderness is imagined in a number of different ways: as a kind of pristine paradise of nature but sometimes without the presence of humans, as a refuge and a retreat from the “madding crowd” of the city, as the urban jungle of contemporary life, or as a “wasteland,” to use T.S. Eliot’s famous image for his poem, The Waste Land. He saw our modern world as a desolating wilderness of destruction and emptiness following the devastations of the First World War. Dante, in the early 14th century, says that he awoke to find himself in a selva obscura, a selva selvaggia, a dark and savage wood. And yet he says that there he discovered “a great good”. There are things to be learned in the wilderness. That is the point of the Exodus for Israel that provides the larger context that informs the stories read in Chapel this week. It is really about what can be learned in the wilderness journey of our lives. Wisdom is spiritual refreshment.

Read the rest of this entry »

The collect for today, the commemoration of John Keble (1792-1866), Priest, Tractarian, Poet (source):

Father of the eternal Word,
in whose encompassing love
all things in peace and order move:
grant that, as thy servant John Keble
adored thee in all creation,
so we may have a humble heart of love
for the mysteries of thy Church
and know thy love to be new every morning,
in Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: Romans 12:9-21
The Gospel: St Matthew 5:1-12

John Keble’s Assize Sermon entitled “National Apostasy“, delivered at Oxford on 14 July 1833, is regarded as the beginning of the renewal movement known as the Oxford Movement or Tractarian Movement. In that sermon, preached at the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Rev. Keble condemned the growth of liberalism in the Church of England and took the nation to task for turning away from God and ignoring the prophetic calling of the church. The sermon caused a sensation across Britain.

Between 1833 and 1841, Rev. Keble, John Henry Newman, Edward Bouverie Pusey, and others issued a series of 90 pamphlets called Tracts For The Times (hence Tractarian Movement), in which they presented their views on ecclesiology and theology. Tractarianism emphasised the importance of the ministry and the sacraments as God-given ordinances and ultimately developed into Anglo-Catholicism, which has been highly influential in the Anglican Communion as well as other Christian traditions.

Keble College, Oxford, was founded in his memory in 1870. The College was designed by William Butterfield, a leading exponent of Victorian Gothic who had been raised in a Nonconformist family but later became a convinced High-Church Anglican. He and other architects influenced by the Oxford Movement looked to medieval cathedrals for inspiration and designed churches full of colour as a celebration of God’s creation. The walls of Keble College Chapel are lined with brilliant mosaics showing scenes from the Old Testament and the life of Christ, and patristic and medieval saints. Some see Keble College and Chapel as the high point of Butterfield’s architectural achievements.

John Keble’s page at Hymnary.org lists dozens of hymns. Some of Rev. Keble’s writings, including “National Apostasy” and seven Tracts For The Times, are posted here. All of the tracts are posted here.

Click here to listen to an audio recording of the 8:00am service of Holy Communion at Christ Church on Passion Sunday.

“The Son of man came … to give his life a ransom for many”

The Lenten Sunday Gospels may be seen to anticipate and to prepare us for the intensity of the Passion in Holy Week. For then we read through all four of the Gospel accounts of the Passion, a remarkable feature of the eucharistic lectionary in the classical Books of Common Prayer. It begins on Palm Sunday with Matthew’s account of the Passion.

The Temptations of Christ on the First Sunday prepare us for the reading of the Passion from Mark’s Gospel, beginning on Monday in Holy Week, which is framed by the breaking of the alabaster box of ointment by which Christ is anointed and by the tears of Peter at his betrayal of Christ. It includes Christ’s further temptation in Gethsemane and the betrayal of both Judas and Peter who succumb to the forms of human weakness and temptation, we might say. On the Second Sunday in Lent, the Gospel story of the Canaanite Woman, a testing of the disciples and a testing of her faith in perseverance, anticipates in some sense the continuation of the Passion from Mark in Christ’s cry of dereliction in the depth of the Passion, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me,” but which nonetheless leads to the faith profession of the Centurion that “truly this man was the Son of God.” As the woman said, “Truth, Lord, yet the little dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”

The Gospel for the Third Sunday of Christ’s casting out a devil only to be accused of being demonic himself anticipates the beginning of the Passion according to St. Luke on Holy Wednesday with all of its intensity not only in the picture of Christ’s agony in Gethsemane but also in his remark to Peter about the temptations of Satan in Peter’s betrayal and, even more, his look of compassion that brings Peter to the tears in repentance in recalling Christ’s words to him. A powerful story powerfully told. The story of the miraculous feeding in the wilderness last Sunday, set in the context of the Passover, anticipates the beginning of the Triduum Sacrum on Maundy Thursday which explicitly connects the last supper to the Passion of Christ. The continuation of Luke’s Passion presents us with three of the seven last words of Christ from the Cross, especially the last word: “Father into thy hands, I commend my spirit.” He who carries himself in his own hands in the institution of the eucharist commends himself and our humanity into the hands of the Father.

Today’s readings on Passion Sunday anticipate Good Friday with its emphasis on the theology of the atonement. Throughout Holy Week in the Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer we read the Passion according to St. John in all of its fullness. The Sunday evening Office readings in Lent immerse us in the Passion according to St. Mark and St. Luke (Year I and Year II respectively). In every way, Lent and Holy Week concentrate our attention on the Passion of Christ and the nature and meaning of our participation in that Passion. It is about human redemption understood in terms of the theology of the atonement, our being made at one with God. But that doesn’t mean that God becomes less or other than God or that we become less or other than human.

Read the rest of this entry »

Thursday, March 30th
7:00pm Holy Communion & Lenten Programme III

Holy Week at Christ Church – 2023

Return to ‘Big’ Church

Sunday, April 2nd, Palm Sunday
8:00am Holy Communion & Palms
10:30am Holy Communion & Palms

Monday, April 3rd, Monday in Holy Week
7:00pm Vespers & Holy Communion

Tuesday, April 4h, Tuesday in Holy Week
7:00pm Vespers & Holy Communion

Wednesday, April 5th, Wednesday in Holy Week
4:00pm Tenebrae

Thursday, April 6th, Maundy Thursday
7:00pm Solemn Liturgy

Friday, April 7th, Good Friday
7:00pm Solemn Liturgy of Good Friday

Saturday, April 8th, Holy Saturday / Easter Eve
10:00am Matins & Ante-Communion
7:00pm Easter Eve

Sunday, April 9th, Easter Day
8:00am Easter Communion
10:30am Easter Communion

The collect for today, the Fifth Sunday in Lent, commonly called Passion Sunday, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

WE beseech thee, Almighty God, mercifully to look upon thy people; that by thy great goodness they may be governed and preserved evermore, both in body and soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Hebrews 9:11-15
The Gospel: St. Matthew 20:20-28

Artwork: Vera Pagava, The Instruments of the Passion, 1952. Oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

The collect for today, The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canada, 1962):

WE beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that, as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, so by his cross and passion we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Isaiah 7:10-15
The Gospel: St. Luke 1:26-38

Artwork: Paolo Veronese, Annunciation, 1560. Oil on canvas, Fundación Colección Thyssen Bornemisza, on deposit at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona.

The Homily of Justification

The First Book of Homilies published in 1547 predates the Book of Common Prayer. Along with the Litany of 1545, it anticipates and establishes the essential features of English reformed catholicism. The Homilies are connected to the Articles of Religion as in Article XXXV which mentions both Books of homilies and names the titles of those in the second Book and in Article XI which names the Homily of Justification.

From the outset, the Homilies were intended to provide a programme of teaching on matters of doctrine and on matters of morality and practical concerns. The first five homilies of the First Book address matters of doctrine; Homilies 1, 3, 4, & 5 are from the pen of Cranmer. But the First Book of Homilies ends with a direction by Cranmer that other homilies were to follow dealing with such things as “Fasting, Prayer, Alms-Deeds; of the Nativity, Passion, Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour Christ; of the due Receiving of his blessed Body and Blood, under the Form of Bread and Wine; against Idleness, against Gluttony and Drunkenness, against Covetousness, against Envy, Ire, and Malice; and with many other matters as fruitful as necessary to the edifying of Christian people, and the increase of godly living.” Some of these topics are taken up in the Second Book of Homilies along with other concerns, particularly against the Peril of Idolatry and against Rebellion.

The Books of Homilies undertake to position the English Reformed tradition as distinct from Popery, on the one hand, and Puritanism, on the other hand; the first is more a concern of the First Book and the second of the Second Book published during Elizabeth’s reign. Both concerns speak to the polemics of politics at the time but also serve to highlight certain defining features of the English Church.

Article X1 of the Thirty-nine Articles is “Of the Justification of Man” and goes to the heart of the reformation itself. That Article explicitly names the Homily of Justification. What is that? The third, fourth and fifth homilies probably authored by Cranmer all deal with the question of justifying righteousness. They are entitled as follows: “Of the Salvation of all Mankind”, “Of the true and lively Faith”, and “Of good Works.” It is probably the third homily, “Of the Salvation of all Mankind” that is referred to in the Article. In a way its content is summed up in Article XI.

We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our own works or deservings: Wherefore, that we are justified by Faith only is a most wholesome Doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification.

Justification by faith alone was one of the rallying points for the reformation in general and in general opposed any kind of thinking that suggests a human power or work on our part that is essential to salvation independent of grace. At issue is the idea of “works righteousness” as distinct from “faith works.” At the heart of it all is a profound sense of the sovereignty of God that cannot be reduced to any kind of man-made morality. Instead, the idea is that our hearts and minds and actions need to be radically grounded in God. The restoration of our humanity cannot be accomplished by ourselves. It has to be the grace of God at work for us and in us through Christ.

Read the rest of this entry »