laudable Practice

In January and February 1548, by order of the Privy Council, at the urging of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the ceremonies of Candlemas candles, ashing on the first day of Lent, palms on the Sunday before Easter, and creeping to the cross on Good Friday were abolished in the realm of England. Eamon Duffy writes of this, "the entire edifice of Catholic culture and liturgy was being dismantled in England". Many contemporary Anglicans, and not only Anglo-Catholics, agree with Duffy: the abolition of such ceremonies is to be deeply regretted, removing drama and imagery from the observance of the Christian year. Generations of Anglicans over centuries, however, would consider such a view to be distinctly odd and a rejection of the goodly order of the Book of Common Prayer. The purpose of this post is not to criticize those Anglicans who use and value such ceremonies. It is, rather, to encourage those of us for whom these ceremonies are not part of our liturgical observance and to be...

From Bullinger's Decades (and we might recall MacCulloch's statement that "The Ecclesiastical Polity was much more in the spirit of the Decades than has often been realized"), an extract on the ministry of the holy angels that could act as a commentary on the Prayer Book collect for Michaelmas and is a reminder of the rich angelic theology known to Reformed Catholicks: But that the angels are most free and swift, and without impediment, burden, and let, the scripture in many places declareth ... These angels, that is to say, these heavenly ambassadors, being of their own nature most swift and speedy spirits, are now conversant in heaven, the power of God so willing and working: but so soon as it shall please the Lord of all, by and by they are present with men in earth, unto whom they are sent of God from heaven ... Angels therefore are swift and passing speedy, being kept down with no weight, neither hindered nor stayed from performing those things for which they...