Contents
 back to Faith |
 previous story
|
next story 
|
Prayer for the week
Anna Matthews prays for the preservation of the Church
O holy Jesus, king of the saints, and prince of the catholic Church, preserve thy spouse, whom thou hast purchased with thy right hand, and redeemed and cleansed with thy blood; the whole catholic Church from one end of the earth to the other; she is founded upon a rock, but planted in the sea. O preserve her safe from schism, heresy, and sacrilege! Unite all her members with the bands of faith, hope, and charity, and an external communion, when it shall seem good in thine eyes. Let the daily sacrifice of prayer and sacramental thanksgiving never cease, but be for ever presented to thee, and for ever united to the intercession of her dearest Lord, and for ever prevail for the obtaining of every of its members grace and blessing, pardon, and salvation. Amen.
Jeremy Taylor (1613-67) IT IS SAID that Michael Ramsey’s press officer, needing to tell him about a change in travel plans, entered the Archbishop’s bedroom to find him lying on the bed repeating the refrain: “I hate the Church of England! I hate the Church of England!” You don’t have to live in Lambeth Palace to have occasion to echo such feelings, but I suspect it helps. One frustration with the Church, of course, is that it is not yet what it is called to be. It is a company of people on the way — and the vision of the Church as the bride of Christ, united with him in the marriage feast of heaven, can seem a long way away from the wranglings of PCCs or Primates’ Meetings. In contrast, this is a prayer that is resolutely committed to the Church both as it is and as it will be, written by a man who knew the Church’s failings all too well. No stranger to controversy, Jeremy Taylor was chaplain to Charles I and a protégé of Archbishop Laud; so he provided grounds for suspicion once Cromwell came to power. After the Restoration, Taylor’s fortunes improved, and he was elevated to the see of Down & Connor. The via media of the Established Church, however, found few admirers: Taylor was scorned by Presbyterians and Roman Catholics alike. So his plea for unity in faith, hope, and charity comes from the lips of one scarred by attempts to impose unity by law. It is important that the prayer for external communion comes after the unity found through the three theological virtues. Agreed confessions of faith, or even covenants, cannot create unity; rather, they give order to a unity that is given by God and rooted in the love of the Trinity. True unity cannot be imposed by the hierarchy, but is a gift from God, made visible through our participation in his life and growth in the virtues. Our unity as Christians comes first of all through our unity with Christ. So, whatever the issues battering the Church, Taylor knows that the only firm foundation is Christ. When it is built on him, the tides of heresy and schism will not prevail. In times of religious tumult, the temptation to sectarianism is strong. Taylor’s prayer is all the more remarkable for the generosity of his vision. So, when our vision becomes too narrow, or when the gap between the Church of our lofty theological ideals and the Church we encounter day by day seems too wide, Taylor’s answer is prayer and the sacraments. Here, in the daily encounter with Christ, the Church becomes the body it is called to be, and we learn anew that Christ loves every one of its members. Amid the messiness and disunity, God still acts through his Church. To go back to Michael Ramsey when he was thinking better thoughts about the Church of England: “Its credentials are its incompleteness, with the tension and travail of its soul. It is clumsy and untidy, it baffles neatness and logic. For it is sent not to commend itself as ‘the best type of Christianity’ but, by its very brokenness, to point to the universal Church.” We might add (however improbably) that it is sent to point even to the Kingdom of heaven. The Revd Anna Matthews is a Minor Canon of St Albans Abbey. |
| back to Faith |
 back to top |
previous story
|
next story
|
%231%23.gif "Wordl Vision Sponsor a child Nov to Dec campaign © site")
