to the laity seeking some sort of deeper to a dedicated life are no longer always models for potential ordinands.
commitment within the Church. regarded as such even within the CofE, Outside of our own parishes, whole
The religious life needs to be accepted let alone elsewhere: the lifetime com- areas of ministry will no longer be open
(at least in our constituency) as a natural, mitment; the 24/7 availability; the being, to clergy or religious of our persuasion.
vital and esteemed part of the Church, as rather than merely doing; the call to serve NHS chaplaincies in particular, but also
it is among Roman Catholics and Ortho- rather than to a job or career. HM Forces, prisons and, perhaps most
dox. In thinking of the future, we need In all this, we face the lack of support, or importantly of all, university chaplain-
to be sure that DDOs and selection com- even of a shared understanding, from the cies, will inevitably be reserved for clergy
mittees naturally look out for vocations rest of the church or wider society, which of the majority, liberal CofE.
to the religious life, just as much as to the has become increasingly short-term, un- These traditional role models will no
priesthood, and should present such a committing and functional in its under- longer work for us in fostering voca-
vocation as a positive option for lay men standing of life and work. Vocation will tions, especially to young people and
and women. be to an increasingly counter-cultural especially to the priesthood. There is
way of life, conforming more closely to little we can do about something that is
Counter-cultural the apostolic example. We really cannot beyond our control, but we need to rec-
Traditional Christian vocation will envisage vocation in the new province ognize the serious challenge this poses.
increasingly become at odds with the being confused with a career. [This point was made more fully by one
culture and thought patterns of the This is a subtle and challenging point of our number in New Directions May
wider Church of England of which we (and one that caused considerable dis- 2007.]
shall be part. cussion in our group), for all our minis-
The search for and fostering of voca- ters will also have to be collaborative in Vocations, at least to the priesthood
tions is in all cases a call to increased holi- their style and loyal to their bishop and among young men, are surprisingly
ness, whether it is to be in the ordained colleagues. As slaves of Christ, they will strong in our constituency despite the
ministry, lay ministry, the religious life be rebels to the world. current uncertainties. It is well worth
or more particular callings. In each case, doing serious work on this subject. We
we must acknowledge just how counter- Clerical role models are already in a stronger position than we
cultural such a calling will be. Elements Apart from parish priests, we must often suppose: such work would, by the
traditionally regarded as fundamental recognize that we will have few role grace of God, be well rewarded. ND
faith of our fathers
leading light in this, and with others
preserved the traditional balance of
a theological method in which the
beginnings of a specific orientation can
Arthur Middleton on Henry Hammond (1605-60)
be seen.
Bull, Pearson, Dodwell and Beveridge
‘L
audian’ describes those who and continuity of the Church, both took it a stage further. When the Church
shared the theological viewpoint confirmed by antiquity and illuminated of England was suffering persecution
of Laud, the churchmen who were in by the freedom of reason and liberality in the time of Cromwell, it was to Dr
wholehearted agreement in their method of viewpoint that constitutes the shared Hammond, more than to any other single
of defending the church’s interests before attitude of the seventeenth century. man, that she owed the continuance
and after the Restoration; though they It was difficult to base both faith and of her existence. It was by his holiness,
were not unswerving followers of the practice upon the same foundations as charity and devoted labours that a tone
Archbishop.

They did not consider the Church of Rome and raise something was given to the clergy of that period
themselves ‘a party’, believing they quite separate. Yet seventeenth-century which bore good fruit afterwards.
represented the true Church of England, Anglicanism claimed to be rooted in He is the embodiment of Anglicanism
and it would be wrong to describe them Catholic tradition and historically in the seventeenth century in the
as such. Groups and individuals were descended therefrom, while maintaining tradition of Hooker and Andrewes,
connected by an interchange of ideas and a vigorous growth through the translated expressing himself in the same kind of
a measure of agreement cutting across services and the Book of Common way and through his writings illustrating
differences of outlook. Prayer. Hence the Romanists and the the impact of the ecclesiastical polity on
These differences were contained Puritans continually attacked her the thought of the day. It is not surprising
and admitted by a theological method official formulae, but this dual offensive to find that a balanced relationship
with a firm but adaptable centre, that produced from the Laudian loyalists between Scripture, antiquity and reason
was capable of contact with a variety a spate of explanatory and defensive form the core of his theological method.
of subjects and situations and able to literature. The added pressure of laws There is a resemblance to Andrewes not
readjust emphases in order to cope with against her required the stressing of the in the style of his general approach but in
new ideas. This was the basis for that continuity and visibility of the church, his interests; they had a common concern
general agreement that existed between and the Laudians set out to illustrate for antiquity and history, biblical texts
individuals and groups including such this, emphasizing the appeal to antiquity and language, liturgical and devotional
people as Hooker, Andrewes, Jeremy in relation to the form of church matters. Grotius, a Dutch scholar, shared
Taylor, William Chillingworth, Henry government. It was a time of defensive the basic conviction of Hammond’s
Hammond and Gilbert Sheldon. This was and offensive theology in the face of a ecclesiology, that the Church of England
the spirit of Anglicanism, centred in the concerted attack. was ‘the most careful observer, and
Incarnation, Scripture and the visibility Henry Hammond (1605–60) was the transcriber of primitive antiquity’.
16
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newdirections
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April 2008
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