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
No comments:
Post a Comment