Fr Matt's Blog - reflections on Church, life and books

Our's is a Church born out of the fires of the Reformation, and for most of our history up until the mid-1800s we were also a Protestant one as well. Whilst the Church of England retained various vestiges of the Catholic faith and Church order, such as the threefold order of Bishops, Priests and Deacons, we were theologically a Reformed Church. And whilst the Prayer Book describes our Church as Catholic, this was more a case of our identifying ourselves as being the ancient Church in England, not a new sect that had broken away from Rome. Indeed, if you want a good example of the Protestant nature of the Church prior to the mid-1800s, then one only need look at Archbishop John Whitgift, who died in 1604. The thesis he submitted for the title of Doctor of Divinity bore the title 'That anti-Christ the Pope'! Hardly the sign of a Catholic clergyman. That said, since the mid-1800s and the rise of the Tractarians, the Church of England has come to reassert its Catholic roots. Th...

The image of Santa in his jolly red costume, long white beard flowing, and twinkle in his eye, is a familiar Christmas one. Though the image we have in our mind's eye owes more to advertising geniuses of Coca Cola than it does to history. Sant Claus is of course a shortening of Bishop of Myra Saint Nicolaus whose Feast we celebrate today, and he was far from the jolly fat man of modern iconography. (Just take a moment to straighten out his hat, and it turns into a Bishop's mitre!) St Nicholas is of course rightly remembered today for his generosity, but also for his defence of Orthodoxy at the Council of Nicaea, which met in part to deal with the heresy of Arius. The arch-heretic Arius and his followers viewed Christ as a created being, higher than the angels and humankind, but created and thus not God. The orthodox Christian party on the other-hand argued that Christ is indeed both divine and human, of one substance with God the Father and co-eternal with him. Something we aff...

Advent Carols 2020   Carol: O come, o come Immanuel   O come, O come, Emmanuel! Redeem thy captive Israel That into exile drear is gone, Far from the face of God's dear Son. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel.   O come, thou Wisdom from on high, Who madest all in earth and sky, Creating man from dust and clay, To us reveal salvations’s way. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel.   O come, O come, Adonaï, Who in thy glorious majesty From Sinai’s mountain, clothed with awe, Gavest thy folk the ancient Law. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel.   O come, thou Root of Jesse! draw The quarry from the lion's claw, From those dread caverns of the grave, From nether hell, thy people save. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel.   O Come, thou Lord of David’s Key! The royal door fling wide and free; Safeguard for us the heavenwa...