All Things Seen & Unseen

Just recently, I've again come across the writings of Dr J. I. Packer, now in his 80s, who has been a pastor and academic.  He was once a great hero of mine when I was an orthodox Calvinist d e cades ago. He was an Anglican but recently left the Canadian church because of its well-publicised slide into li beralism . Interestingly, although he classed himself as an evangelical he had a great l ove for The Book of Common Prayer ( BCP: 1662). (B eing an evangelical Anglican and having a love for the BCP seems rare to day. ) Packer was brought up on the BCP and I can understand his strong affection for its r h ythms and its implicit piety. (I was not nurture d in it but first e ncountered Anglicanism through An Australian Prayer Book (AAPA: 1978) .) Packer has made a study of the 1662 BCP and found that a sin-grace-faith pattern exists throughout its services.  To check this out f urther, I would like to go back to the second Prayer Book (1552) of Edward VI's reign ...

The sending out of God's people into the world to work and witness for him is the last movement of the drama involving the people of God hearing the Word and receiving the s acrament which are at the heart Anglican Sunday worship. Fi ve short subsections comprise this main movement which are numbered §21 to §25. . . . . . . . . . . . . . §21    Priest: Gracious God, thank you for fee d ing us, with the spiritual food of the body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Thank you for assuring us of your goodness and love, and that we are living members of Christ's body. [ How do we k now that we are 'living members of Christ's body' (Rom 12.5; 1Cor 6.15; 1Cor 12.12; Eph 5.30 & etc.) ? An important question because some Anglicans at least seem to waver on whether they are destined for God's presence or not. Yet, the apostle John in his 1st letter said that he had written in order that his he arers might know that they had eternal life (1Jn 5.13 ). The whole...

On another blog I have been dealing with the Lord's Supper and its meaning within the Anglican Church. I'm fully aware that not all Anglicans understand the Supper alike but I fully embrace Article XXVIII of the Articles of Religion (1562) Of The Lord's Supper which rules out transubstantiation, 'reserving' of the sacrament, lifting it up, carrying it about, or worshipping it. The Article says clearly among other things that: 'The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean [sic] whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith.' This last sentence is one of the planks of John Calvin's view of the Supper (as opposed to Rome and to Luther) for it is affirming that the bread and wine do not act upon us because of their inherent sacredness (or divinity as in Catholicism). They convey grace only in the presence of faith in Christ. This point about fait...

One of the great themes running through Anglican worship is the theme of MERCY. Someone has said that whereas John Calvin focussed on the Sovereignty of God which is an important theme of the Scriptures, Martin Luther could never forget the mercy of God particularly as shown in the Incarnation and in Christ's Redemption. For Luther, God's coming to the creation in the Person of His Son and our Lord's dying on the cross was the greatest act of mercy that the universe has ever beheld. (Cranmer was heavily influenced by Martin Luther as is evident in the former's liturgy and preaching. He even married his first wife while in holy orders even though on arriving back in England he was forced to give up holy orders because of this decision!) In a letter to Philipp Melanchthon his closest friend, Martin Luther with characteristic vigour said: If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear th...

Introduction The Roman Catholic Church finds its unity in the Pope; the Eastern Orthodox Churches find their unity in the decisions of the seven Ecumenical Councils of the unified Church before it split into East and Western Church in AD1054 (although the division between East and West had begun well before that date). Anglicanism is made up of 38 member Churches (provinces*) which makes up the Anglican Communion. Each of these member churches or provinces is in communion with the Canterbury diocese in England as the first diocese of the Church of England. But the question arises, where does that communion find its unity? (We need to bear in mind that the question of unity is different from the question of authority which will be dealt with in the next post.) First, it doesn't have a supreme Bishop or Pope like the Roman Church. Second, nor does it look to historical councils as such for its unity as does Orthodoxy. Yet, Anglicanism does have a basis for its unity. Th...

I am an evangelical looking for an Anglican congregation which still values the Prayer Book (PB). Australian Anglicans have three major prayer books dated: 1662 ( Book of Common Prayer ), 1978 and 1995 but it's hard to find evangelical congregations which use the PB. Some will use tiny bits out of the PB but it's hard to describe their liturgy as dependent on the Anglican Tradition; what is presented could equally be found in any non-conformist denomination. Usually members of such churches will boast about this absence of Anglican liturgy as if this is a good thing. (I suppose it can be if the formal liturgy has become lifeless and routinised but this process can happen within non-conformity too.) Last Sunday I finally found an evangelical Anglican church where good expository preaching was given and the PB liturgy was used. My, it was good! I had almost given up hope. The church is the Church of St Edward the Confessor in Blackburn South, Melbourne, Australia. I...