All Things Seen & Unseen

The story of Henry VIII's obsession to secure a male heir so that the possibility of another Civil War (as had happened between the Lancasters and the Yorks in the brutal 'War of the Roses') could be avoided is well-known. Catherine of Aragon of Spain, had formerly been married to his older brother Arthur who died six months after their marriage.   Although Henry VII was not keen for his youngest son to marry Catherine, she did have a large dowry and when King Henry VII died, his son Henry VIII married Catherine.  But her child-bearing years with Henry were accompanied by frustration with the only success being her giving birth to a female heir (Mary, later Mary I). Therefore, Henry determined to gain an annulment from his marriage to Catherine from the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) but was refused for political reasons. So, Henry decided to break with Rome by getting his own clergy to annul the marriage and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was happy to oblige his king. 1   Thomas ...

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...