Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Sunday, March 25, 2012

7 Feb 2012: History of Cromwellian and 1662 Restoration Periods




We missed this "Service of Reconciliation" on 8 Feb 2012 at Westminster Abbey.  It recalls the divisions of the Cromwellian and Restoration periods in England. What follows below is taken from the service booklet for the occasion.  And here we are--old Westminsterians in theology and old Prayer Book Churchmen, putting both together. 


The significance of this service for both our churches is rooted in history– in the turbulent events of the mid-seventeenth century. Historians still argue over the relative importance of constitutional, religious, and social elements in the English Civil War. What is clear is that the Parliament
summoned in 1640 to provide finance for King Charles I’s policy in Scotland was originally united in rejecting what they regarded as the King’s unconstitutional actions in the eleven years since Parliament had last met. However, when those who thought that the Reformation of 1559 had not gone far enough tried to press their views, that original unity disappeared. With Scottish assistance, the Puritans within the Church of England pressed their demands and a civil war followed.

The Westminster Assembly of Divines (1643–49), appointed by Parliament, produced a new Confession of Faith (never adopted by Parliament) and a Directory of Worship to replace the Prayer Book. The Christian Year disappeared with its feasts and fasts. Episcopacy was abolished and the bishops went abroad or lay low. Cathedral foundations were dissolved. The archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, and later the king, Charles I, fell to the executioner’s axe. Large numbers of traditional Anglican clergy suffered deprivation and hardship, and ministers of Presbyterian and Independent views took their places in the parish churches, cathedrals, and universities. Many ordinary people were
bewildered by what was happening.

Charles II’s promise of liberty to tender consciences in the Declaration of Breda encouraged Parliament to invite him to return, and the monarchy was restored in 1660. But the new Parliament elected in that year was less willing to compromise; and after the failure of churchmen to agree at the Savoy Conference, the Act of Uniformity was approved in 1662. The Prayer Book, and with it episcopal ordination and jurisdiction, was reimposed in its definitive form. Charles I was commemorated liturgically as a martyr.

Those ministers who, on theological grounds, could not accept the requirements of the Act of Uniformity were forced to leave and many hundreds did so. Many suffered hardship in what became known as The Great Ejection. The Church of England suffered too, by the loss of approximately one fifth of its clergy, many of them ministers of the highest calibre, while the ejected ministers (some of whom later conformed)
increasingly threw their lot in with those Baptists and Congregationalists who had not accepted livings during the Cromwellian period.

After a lengthy period of doctrinal flux and social disadvantage, in the early decades of the nineteenth century the Baptists and Congregationalists became organized as denominations of the kind with which we are familiar. In 1839 the Church of Scotland permitted the establishment of a
Synod of English Presbyterians who, in 1849, constituted the ‘Presbyterian Church in England’, comprising Scots and the remnant of English trinitarian Presbyterians of Old Dissent.

In 1863 the English Synod of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland was formed. These two bodies united in 1876 as the ‘Presbyterian Church of England’. This Church and the Congregational Church in England and Wales came together to form the United Reformed Church in 1972.

Thanks to the gradual removal of those civil disabilities to which Dissenters had been subject, and to the work of the ecumenical movement during the past century, feelings have changed. We are now able to acknowledge those events with sadness, without seeking to apportion blame. However, feelings of hurt and bitterness remain lodged in the folk memory of both our churches. There is still a need for reconciliation and the healing of memories so that we can move ahead together in closer visible unity in obedience to our Lord’s will and prayer. We rejoice that in the present climate we are better placed than ever before to address and,
with God’s help, to resolve the theological impediments that continue to divide us.

This year brings the 350th anniversary of the Great Ejection, but it also sees the 40th anniversary of the inauguration of the United Reformed Church, which took place in Westminster Abbey, when Archbishop Michael Ramsey was among the guests of honour.

This service contains some echoes of the liturgy of forty years ago.

Above all else, we will join together in the worship of God. At the beginning of the service some words from Richard Baxter, a moderate and reconciling scholar of this period, whom both our traditions honour, will be spoken. In special litanies we will express penitence for our part in perpetuating Christian disunity and offer prayers for the healing of memories and for grace to work more closely together, in study, prayer, and mission, in the future.

Members of the congregation are kindly requested to refrain from using private cameras, video, or sound recording equipment. Please ensure that mobile phones, pagers, and other electronic devices are switched off.

The Abbey is served by a hearing loop. Users should turn their hearing aid to the setting marked T.

The service is conducted by The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster.

The service is sung by the Choir of Westminster Abbey, conducted by

James O’Donnell, Organist and Master of the Choristers.

The organ is played by Robert Quinney, Sub-Organist.

Music before the service:

Andrej Kouznetsov, Organ Scholar, plays:

Prelude and Fugue in G Op 37 no 2 Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47)

Psalm Prelude Set II no 2 Herbert Howells

‘Yea, the darkness is no darkness with thee.’ (1892–1983)

Chorale Prelude on the Old 104th Hubert Parry (1848–1918)

Chorale Prelude on Melcombe Hubert Parry

Chorale Prelude on St Ann’s Hubert Parry

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