Almighty God, who gavest thy servant Lancelot Andrewes the gift of thy holy Spirit and made him a man of prayer and a faithful pastor of thy people: Perfect in us what is lacking of thy gifts, of faith, to increase it, of hope, to establish it, of love, to kindle it, that we may live in the life of thy grace and glory; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
These festal day threads seldom attract many readers, but the feast of the great Lancelot Andrewes deserves notice and is worthy of celebration. One of my all-time favorite Anglican thinkers and leaders, Andrewes epitomized much of the best that the so-called “Caroline Divines” brought to Anglicanism, not least by rediscovering and regaining some of the catholic aspects of the Christian tradition that had been thrown out, along with the dirty bath water, by the Reformation era leaders of the CoE. Yet the deep piety of Bp. Andrewes, evidenced by his famous book of [b]Private Prayers[/b], that was enriched by his love of the Fathers and the classic liturgical tradition, was also firmly scriptural. Anderewes was, after all, one of the lead translators of the KJV/AV of 1611.
Personally, I’m very fond of the famous 1-2-3-4-5 saying of +Andrewes regarding the sources of authority in Anglicanism. In pointed contrast to the Purtian obsession with the Sola Scriptura principle, Andrewes controversially affirmed that we Anglicans, unlike the continental Reformed Christians, looked to the following sources for authoaritative guidance in disputed matters:
One Bible in
Two Testmanets, as summarized doctrinally in
Three Creeds (Apostles’, Nicene, and “Athanasian”) and
Four Councils (Nicea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon), and all of these being interpreted in light of the first
Five Centuries of consensual patristic teaching and practice.
Marvelous. Thank God for the faithful life and witness of +Lancelot Andrewes!
David Handy+