Affirming Laudianism - Welcome HomeThe link from the Diocese of Wenchoster to Affriming Laudianism is found on the Pharisaios Journal page. Scroll down past the photo of the picture of the diocesan competitor in the Tour De France, and you will find the link to Affirming Laudianism. The Diocese of Wenchoster offers such a rich variety of valuable information and links that, being somewhat technologically challenged, at times I get lost there. The site is complicated and calls for a certain level of intelligence just to get around. You could spend a day exploring.
You have found the website of Affirming Laudianism.
Affirming Laudianism, much like another organisation in the Anglican Church, does not expect its members to have any firm beliefs or doctrinal commitments but is solely concerned with:
1. The externals of religion and
2. Including the ambitious.
Moving on to Fresh! at the Laudianism site:
Affirming Laudiansim has been encouraged by some recent publications (Mission Shaped Church, Liquid Church, Suicidal Church &c) to affirm its own ‘fresh’ expressions of Church, or as we prefer ‘ancient re-expressions of the Ecclesia Anglicana. ‘Sharing’ as it is said ‘best practice’ we print below some recent re-expressions by clergymen (some names have been changed).Disabled Access - Fresh Expression of the HostThe definition of the word "squint" in brackets is provided by me, to prevent confusion as to its meaning as used here.
Lancelot (not his real name) arrived as a new vicar in a Herefordshire parish to discover a new wheel chair ramp outside the south porch of his medieval parish church. Here is his story: 'We had informed the local authority of our compliance with recent legislation and I even sent them a photograph of an elderly lady on the ramp in her buggy going to the family service (my first and last)! I then had the ramp removed and the rather high step reinstated, taking the opportunity of waxing the rather fine encaustic tiles. It was fortunate that built into the north wall is an ancient squint [an angled slit in a wall allowing a view of the high altar from outside the sanctuary], so there remains disabled access, albeit soley visual and of course which gives a lovely view of the elevation. We very kindly provide rugs in the winter and umbrellas when the weather is inclement.'
On to the Hymnal:
Affirming Laudianism Hymns Ancient and OldNext is The Parson's Handbook written by St. Percy:
Singing hymns in Church today is often an irritating experience, especially if you find yourself singing from a Mayhew hymnal. Words altered: never a mention of ‘men‘. One writer tells us of a service in Oxford singing ‘Onward Christian Pilgrims, driving in a car’.
Enough of this! Pulp such nonsense!
....
Something for the family service?
Little children must be quiet,
When to Holy Church they go,
They must sit with serious faces,
Must not play or whisper low.
For the Church is God’s own temple
Where men go for praise and prayer,
And the Great God will not love them
Who forget His presence there.
Here is Pithy Percy on the vestments:
Pithy PercyThe site shows a picture of St. Percy, but when I tried to copy the picture, only a portion of it appears. I believe that the owners want you to visit the site to see the entire picture, which I recommend that you do.
On the cope
A general vestment of splendour… this vestment survived the slovenly days of the 18th century
The Rochet
In the 18th century the sleeves developed into monstrous balloon-like appendages fastened round the waist with ribbons, and decorated with stiff ham-frills.
The surplice
The surplice remained unaltered to the present day, except that it was made to open in front in the age of the full-bottomed wig.
The Chasuble
In the decadence of the ‘Rococo’ period it went to extreme lengths, and the Chasuble, once so graceful and stately, became at last an ugly little apron shaped like a fiddle.
The stole
The ancients had to carry or wear their napkins and handkerchiefs because they had no pockets. The stole was originally nothing but a napkin
The Maniple
The Mappula was a smaller napkin, too short to be borne on the shoulder, and thus naturally carried on the left arm, just as we see waiters doing at the present day. This is our Maniple.
I know I'm borrowing copiously, perhaps beyond "fair use", but my prayer is that if the bishop (or whoever is in charge at Affirming Laudianism) objects, I will be so informed to cease and desist, before anyone initiates legal action against me. I do strongly suggest that you click the links, because, despite the lengthiness of my quotes, there is much, much more to see at the sites.
Don't be being beastly about the Blessed PB. It was he who made the observation that I quoted recently on another site, concerning the fondness of the fair sex for gussying-up surplices and albs with lace:
ReplyDelete"The parson will therefore use a gentle authority against the good ladies who unconsciously try to approximate church vestments to the feminine attire with which they are familiar. For ecclesiastical vestments are for men, and it will be a bad day for us when we forget this fact."
Telling it like it is, if ever I saw it.
I believe that Dearmer suffered v. noticably from strabismus and was normally photographed from angles that minimized this. A full version of your photograph is at this URL:
http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Images/image357.gif
At Oxford he was a very close friend of Lord Elmsley, later Earl Beauchamp, the original of Lord Marchmain in Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited". Elmsley's exile, unlike Marchmain's, was the consequence of a fondness for men. It was he of whom George V, when the "problem" was brought to his attention, made the celebrated utterance: "But I thought that men like that shot themselves!"
Dearmer's son Geoffrey, who died in 1996, was the last surviving British Great War poet.
Sufficient disparate information for one afternoon, I think. Time for a lead-laced cup of tea.
ps Talking of Waugh, which we were not, an article in the online "Daily Telegraph" recounts an anecdote, which I believed originated with Waugh, that the regulations of the pre-WWII Rumanian Royal Army specified that no commissioned officer below the rank of captain might wear make-up while in uniform. One of those anecdotes one dearly hopes is true.
ReplyDeleteMo' Waugh. Sadly the story appears to be a Waugh fabrication. I have found two on-line quotations of the following:
ReplyDelete'Despite his undisputed personal bravery, Waugh's anarchic personality made him an impossible military officer. At one intelligence briefing during his early days in the Royal Marines, Waugh inquired whether it was true that "in the Romanian army no one beneath the rank of Major is permitted to use lipstick." '
The quote appears to be from Martin Stannard's biography of Waugh. I cannot verify this as my copy of the relevant volume was stolen at the local Episcopal cathedral (Upper S. Carolina)- the only time in 35 years that a book has been stolen from me. This is True!
Lapin, I guess I should turn the blog over to you.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to the full picture of St. Percy, but I sort of like it the way it is. It fits with the territory. Some of the postings at the Diocese of Wenchoster nearly make this old lady wet her panties laughing. If I knew as much as you about the real-life folks, I'm sure they'd be even funnier.
So. the model for Lord Marchmain was gay.
I can't see Waugh at ease with military discipline, although the Brits (should I say "you Brits"?) have had their share of the eccentrics in the military.
You've made me nostalgic. Maybe I'll pull out my videos of Brideshead Revisited and watch them again. I reread the novel not too long ago. It's one of my favorites. I also read and enjoyed the Stannard biography.
please tell me... it's funny, right? i think it's funny, and I'll be embarrassed if I am wrong.
ReplyDeleteDiane, yes. It's all satirical. Isn't it wonderful? It's so good that it makes you wonder.
ReplyDeleteThere's a new Brideshead movie in production, details on the internet, I'm sure. Hugh Lygon, Lord Beauchamp's younger son, an Oxford contemporary of Waugh's, was the original of Sebastian Flyte. There are many parallels between the two. Fewer with Lord Marchmain, but the circumstances of an absent, exiled, aristocratic father are common to both circumstances.
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of sad to have exploded the Rumanian officer/lipstick business.
[It has taken me almost an hour to write this with two addicts, one sober & clean, one not, dancing in and out, screaming at one another and at me - and this in my own house! There are times, I tell you ......!
No sympathy solicited - we dig out own graves, but the shovels are out tonight.]
Lapin, so sorry about the addicts. I had enough of that to last two lifetimes with my alcoholic father, sometimes drunk, sometimes a dry drunk, but always mean. My heart and prayers are with you.
ReplyDeleteI doubt that anyone could do better than the BBC's version of BR, but you never know.
Your heart and prayers may well have worked; many, many thanks.
ReplyDeleteNew Brideshead: Michael Gambon - Lord Marchmain; "Our Emm" (Miss Thompson) - Lady Marchmain (sounds odd, but she's good, so we'll see), and Ben Whishaw, who plays the lead in the recently released on DVD "Perfume" (have you seen it?) as Sebastian. He's a powerful actor and should be very interesting.
Thanks again (five minutes to write this one). Love, Roger
Well, the site is amusing in places, but what exactly is its point? Frankly Unfriendly Catholics represented a lampoon of the conservative Anglo-Catholic movement. This strikes me as an attempt to lampoon Affirming Catholicism.
ReplyDeleteAs such, it does seem off in many respects. Laud was far from inclusive and tolerant, and he was definitely doctrinal. His ceremonialism would seem awfully Low Church of us today. He would not have approved of Percy Dearmer's Sarum Use smells and bells. Laud's kind of High Churchmanship pretty much died away with the nonjurors, though I suppose you can see people like Keble reflect a bit of it even into the nineteenth century.
Liberal Catholics tend to see people like William Temple as their model, and they hardly care for the bizarre cult of King Charles, a really right-wing Anglo-Catholic fringe bit. So the site seems to mix up two quite different aspects of the Catholic movement in the C of E.
I suspect that the author of this bit may be a conservative Evangelical. I hope so: it would be the first effort at humor I've seen come out of that group.
John
John Bassett, the point of the site is humor. Perhaps I don't know enough to recognize the irregularities you mention. They seem to spread their satire around pretty freely. I don't see a particular bend toward the progressive side, either, but I still think they're funny.
ReplyDeleteI don't quite understand your unease with the site, but perhaps it's due to my lack of knowledge. They make me laugh, and I like a good hearty laugh from time to time.
I believe that more than one person writes for the site. That may account for the differing points of view.
I agree, Mimi, that no one particular Anglican 'party' or faction or point of view is being lampooned in 'The Diocese of Wenchoster'. It is pure play, a fictional world unto itself, meant to help us all laugh at ourselves as well as at a wide range of Anglican (and British) foibles. What makes it so hilarious is (as with so much British humor) the rich use of detail. It is so specific, and delivered with such deadpan earnestness, that it takes awhile for a novice reader to be sure it is a sendup and not a real diocesan website!
ReplyDeleteJohn Bassett, insofar as Frankly Unfriendly Catholics (acronym, by the way) has a specific target it is the conservative, Forward-in-Faith wing of Anglo-Catholicism, not the far more liberal Affirming Catholicism.
ReplyDeleteThe ecclesiastical use of incense survived the reformation. There is documentation that both Lancelot Andrewes, bishop of Winchester, and Laud used censers and incense. The practice resumed after the Restoration and is sporadically recorded through the 17th century.
I thank God for the gift of laughter, and I believe that's what the folks at Wenchoster are about - giving us a laugh.
ReplyDeleteThe attention to detail, as you say, Mary Clara, and the deadpan presentation are a delight.
When I post about them I find that irony will intrude into my writing whether I want it there or not.
ps Some of the post-reformation burning of incense in English churches may well have been a response to the continuing practice of burying bodies none-too-deeply within church buildings. One gathers that the results of this were occasionally quite unpleasant.
ReplyDeleteThey knew where the bodies were buried. They knew by the smell.
ReplyDeleteIncense covers a multitude of odors.
Well, my natural tendency towards being pedantic seems to have really gone overboard, I guess. I hope I didn't offend anybody. I did find the site amusing, but I am always curious about who writes things and why they write them. I guess I was sort of wondering about these issues, and I beg everybody's pardon for being so ponderous.
ReplyDeleteJohn, I don't believe that you offended anyone, certainly not me.
ReplyDeleteHeavens, no offence at all - just grateful for the opportunity to show off. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteWhat a riot. Thanks for the link.
ReplyDeletePastor David, I'm always pleased when I can share a laugh with someone else.
ReplyDelete