"...But is the liturgy approved for use the 1662, the 1928 or the 1962 Books of Common Prayer, or even those books with a prayer for the Holy Father added? Traditional Anglicans would want to know what modifications would be expected or required to the BCP to obtain admittance....Benedict has been friendly to those willing to embrace the fullness of tradition in his own church by allowing for the older mass. But on behalf of those too few Anglicans who continue to embrace the theology and spirituality of Cranmer, Hooker, Ridley, Taylor, Donne and Herbert one can only ask of the Vatican how it is that catechetical, spiritual, and liturgical differences can truly be resolved?"
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I quite like his architectural approach. Anglicans after their Reformation were quite happy with the medieval churches they inherited because their liturgy fit into them with out problems. Rome began tearing apart their medieval and earlier churches - think Constantine's Basilica of St Peter - because their newly introduced rite of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament required a clear sight line. Seeing both the elevation of the host in the Eucharist and in Benediction had replaced actual reception of the sacrament for most Roman Christians. In a like manner Wren's adoption of Palladio's revival of classical Romanism in the churches he built after the great fire of London reflected the success that Puritan elements in the Church of England had achieved in elevating the Sermon above the reception of communion. In far too many places the triple deckker reading desk blocked any view of the altar because so few people (in the Puritan mind) could possibly be worthy recipients. The liturgical revival in the latter half of the nineteenth century which had been sparked by the new understanding of what Anglicanism was about, first in the newly free American colonies and then in England itself, drove the Gothic revival in architecture to give a physical expression to the dogmatic teaching of the Tractarian movement?
Or did it? In the west of England there stands one of the most beautiful and perfect examples of medieval architecture. I could hardly believe that it had not been built in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century because it was so absolutely authentic in every detail. But it had in fact been built just before both the Tractarian movement and the Gothic Revival had begun. It took a little research work but I discovered the story. The locals needed a new church and hired a builder - not an architect. He went around the old churches of that area of England and selected of each the ideas and features he like best andput them together in that church. Without outside influence he had gotten behind Wren and in advance of Butterfield, Scott and the rest.
In like manner it is our duty to study the Bible, the fathers and the documents and history of the earliest Church and return to their faith and practice to the best which we are able in our time, this time. Rome is a distraction and we need to see it as such.
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