On Saturday we held a Quiet Day that enabled those present to discover the influence and example of Lancelot Andrewes, whose family lived in Rawreth and who helped define Anglican doctrine, translate the Bible, and shape the liturgy. The day was co-led by Revd Steve Lissenden and held at St Nicholas Rawreth.
Lancelot Andrewes (1555 – 25 September 1626) was an English bishop and scholar, who held high positions in the Church of England during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. During the latter's reign, Andrewes served successively as Bishop of Chichester, Ely and Winchester and oversaw the translation of the Authorized Version (or King James Version) of the Bible. In the Church of England he is commemorated on 25 September with a Lesser Festival.
Andrewes' family lived at Chichester Hall, now in the Parish of Rawreth. Once a year Andrewes would spend a month with his parents, and during this vacation, he would find a master from whom he would learn a language of which he had no previous knowledge. In this way, after a few years, he acquired most of the modern languages of Europe.
Andrewes was a towering figure in the formative years of the Church of England. Averse to the puritanical spirit of the age, he helped to create a distinctive Anglican theology, moderate in outlook and catholic in tone. He believed that theology should be built on sound learning, he held a high doctrine of the Eucharist and he emphasised dignity and order in worship. His influence defines Anglicanism to this day.
His best-known work is the Manual of Private Devotions, edited by Alexander Whyte (1900), which has widespread appeal. Andrewes's other works occupy eight volumes in the Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology (1841–1854). Ninety-six of his sermons were published in 1631 by command of King Charles I. The Incarnation was to him an essential dogma and he preached many significant sermons on the Nativity, the best known of which was used by T.S. Eliot for his poem 'The Journey of the Magi'.
We reflected on his prayers through Practising Prayer with Lancelot Andrewes, a seven-day devotional by Nicola Eggertsen, and his writings through sermon extracts on the theme of the incarnation. The current owners of Chichester Hall loaned a copy of the book of Andrewes' sermons that King Charles I had published after Andrewes' death.
During the day, I compiled the following poem, based on his Ninth Sermon of the Nativity, preached upon Christmas Day, before King James, at Whitehall, on Sunday, the Twenty-fifth of December, A. D. MDCXIV’ (1614):
Incarnation
The virgin shall conceive and bear a son
and she shall call his name Immanuel.
If the child be 'Immanuel, God with us',
then, without this child, we be without God.
If it be not Immanuel, then it will be Immanu-Hell.
Without him this we are and this our share will be.
Yet, if we know him, and God by him, we need no
more. He is Immanu-all, he is with us and
we from him never can be parted. All that we desire
is to be with him, with God and he with us.
With him all is well, for he is all in all.
For more on the King James Bible, see the film I helped script for James Payne's Great Books Explained series.
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Thomas Tallis - If Ye Love Me.
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