“A House of Piety and Learning”
This week is an especially busy one in the life of the Parish.
Fortunately, it did not start literally with a bang, as our remembrance of the Guy Fawkes Gunpowder Plot of the 5th November 1605 was strictly liturgical. That attempt by a group of English Roman Catholics, led by Robert Catesby to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament with King James VI of Scotland and I of England, nonetheless gave rise to prayers of thanksgiving for deliverance from the threat of violence that are sadly not irrelevant even now, given the current state of our world.
More happily, we are hosting the latest of our annual Conferences now with the shared identity of an Advent and Grafton House event (in association still with the Anglican Way, the journal of the Prayer Books Society USA). The theme is that most appropriately Anglo-Catholic topic of sacramental confession.
Our expanding global reach is reflected in the happy fact that we are convening speakers from around the world. These include Sister Maria Theotokos PhD, who is the distinguished daughter of the late Fr Thomas Adams of this parish, Fr Peter Anthony, DPhil of All Saints’ Margaret Street in London, a parish with which we enjoy very cordial relations as we do also with Fr Philip Corbett, Vicar of St Silas Kentish Town, London and former Priest Librarian of Pusey House. Professor Neil Robertson joins us from King’s College Halifax, while our own Fr Ian McCormack is rounding out the proceedings with his presentation on the seal of the confessional.
We have also with us Dr George Westhaver, the Principal of Pusey House Oxford, who will be our preacher this Sunday. His visit will further strengthen our sense of shared vision and partnership.
Pusey House was founded as a “House of Piety and Learning,” in 1884 (forty years after this parish) to honor Edward Bouverie Pusey’s work as Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford and as a leading figure in the Oxford Movement, whose theology made such an important contribution to the Church of England.
The House contains a magnificent chapel and an important library of over 75,000 books which includes not only Pusey’s own collection, but also extensive archives on the Oxford Movement and its related Anglo-Catholic societies. It plays a vital role in sustaining the perspective of the Oxford Movement in promotion of a deeper Catholic character within Anglicanism. In Oxford itself it continues faithfully to embody the goals expressed in its founding documents namely, “to promote theological study and holiness of life, and to provide spiritual counsel and comfort to members of the University.” And as part of its vibrant community life it has a rising number of resident student interns who support its regular liturgical life of the Daily Office and Mass.
The worship life of Pusey House directly reflects Pusey’s sacramental theology and liturgical convictions and services in the Chapel of the Resurrection follow the Anglo-Catholic Prayer Book tradition, with daily Mass, Morning and Evening Prayer according to the Book of Common Prayer.
In the words of Henry Parry Liddon, Pusey’s biographer and a key founder of the institution, Pusey House serves to advance “those great and majestic studies which attend on Christian theology” while examining the “ever-changeful fashion” of contemporary ideas. Thus, does it engage with contemporary trends while remaining firmly rooted in its distinctive Anglican and Anglo-Catholic perspective embodied in “a thoughtful and robust faith nourished by rich worship.” All of which had at its heart Pusey’s strongly incarnational theology, for he called the Incarnation “plainly the closest union of man with God,” teaching that “through the Incarnation God took our nature, took the Manhood into God” as “a gift to the whole race.”
It was in continuity with this that Pusey’s sacramental vision ultimately saw all of creation as revealing God. He adopted a patristic allegorical hermeneutic as a reflection of this conviction that “every part of creation is, in its deepest significance, an image which speaks of God.” This meant that for Pusey, “the concrete image, with its richness of meaning, is the indispensable, sole means of revelation.” This enabled him to understand how people are attracted to Christianity not primarily through abstract arguments but through “the life of the Church, the life of the sacraments.”
As befits the celebrated breadth of Pusey’s learning, the House also offers a robust programme of theological lectures, and sustains a regular Scriptorium study group for students. All of this is undertaken as part of the wider goal “to renew the Church of England’s Catholic life and witness.” It was with this in mind that Charles Gore, the first Principal (appointed in 1884), went on to found the Community of the Resurrection at Pusey House in 1892, a move that further expanded upon Pusey’s vision of quasi-monastic community life dedicated to prayer, study, and social action. This synthesis of contemplation and engagement with society’s needs reflects Pusey’s teaching that sacramental worship must lead to service, particularly to the poor and needy.
In sum, Edward Bouverie Pusey’s ideas fundamentally shaped Pusey House as an institution where incarnational theology, sacramental worship, rigorous scholarship, and holiness of life converge. The House’s daily eucharistic worship, emphasis on the Book of Common Prayer, commitment to theological study, and provision of pastoral care all flow directly from Pusey’s vision of the Christian life as a journey of transformation through Christ’s real presence in the sacraments and in the community of faith.
This is very much our vision too at the Advent. So it is highly appropriate that we partner widely with other congregations and institutions – such Nashotah House, as well as Pusey House, not to mention Anglo-Catholic Provinces in the wider Anglican Communion – as we seek to further and expand the transformational capacity of the Anglo-Catholic movement, in which it has for so long been the particular privilege of this parish to share.