{"id":13769,"date":"2022-05-16T13:02:34","date_gmt":"2022-05-16T11:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=13769"},"modified":"2022-05-16T13:02:34","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T11:02:34","slug":"a-congregation-of-voices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/2022\/05\/16\/a-congregation-of-voices\/","title":{"rendered":"A congregation of voices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CHRISTIANITY<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

A congregation of voices<\/h1>\n\n

SARAH FOOT<\/span> <\/strong>enjoys a new history of the Church of England, a book that finds space for the reflections of ordinary parishioners as well charting the deeds of the great and the good<\/h5>\n\n
\"\"
In the service of God<\/span><\/strong> Elizabeth Catherine Ferard (1825\u201383), who was inspired by visiting a deaconess community in D\u00fcsseldorf, and revitalised the deaconess order in England <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

A People\u2019s Church: A History of the Church of England <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

by Jeremy Morris <\/p>\n\n

Profile Books, 480 pages, \u00a330 <\/h5>\n\n

The formal history of the Church of England begins with the Act of Supremacy of 1534, which declared King Henry VIII to be \u201cthe only Supreme Head in earth of the Church of England called Anglicana Ecclesia\u201d. <\/em>Yet, as Jeremy Morris demonstrates in this accessible and engaging book, the roots of Henry\u2019s church lay firmly in the early Middle Ages. So much so that his Church of England could be understood \u201cas the Church in England as it had been from time immemorial\u201d.<\/p>\n\n

Morris deftly guides the reader through the complex narrative of the church\u2019s shifting fortunes, moving from the turmoil of the Reformation years, through evangelical and high church revivals, constitutional reform and the church\u2019s responses to world wars, to the religious \u201ccrisis\u201d of the 1960s and beyond. After a brief prelude looking at the medieval (\u201cCatholic\u201d) centuries, the book is divided into three sections: the \u201cAge of the Monarch\u201d, the \u201cAge of the Oligarchy\u201d and the \u201cAge of the People\u201d. In a postscript Morris uses a horticultural metaphor to contrast the church at its best \u2013 \u201clike a well-rooted tree in a storm, bending to survive, but with roots which go down deep into Christian revelation, history and tradition\u201d \u2013 with its less successful incarnations as \u201ca tangle or knot of incommensurate claims and counter-claims, like an overrun garden gone to ruin\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\u201c<\/span>Sunday observance coloured the childhood of author Molly Hughes, who remembered afternoons when \u201cit seemed always to be three o\u2019clock\u201d \u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Monarchs, bishops and senior clergy necessarily dominate the narrative, but Morris illustrates the book throughout with vignettes about individual clergy and, where possible, lay people. Larry Banville, a 19th-century Norfolk gamekeeper, admired but doubted the sincerity of a sermon his parson preached about charity, not believing that \u201che would give a penny to a poor man if it would save his life\u201d. William Taylor, a London footman who kept a diary in 1837, found his local Anglican church so full one Sunday that he could not get in, and thus ended up at a Methodist \u201cChapple\u201d, where he stayed \u201cbut a very short time\u201d. Sunday observance coloured the childhood of Molly Hughes, author of the London <\/em>Girl <\/em>autobiographies, who remembered afternoons that \u201chung heavy\u201d when \u201cit seemed always to be three o\u2019clock\u201d.<\/p>\n\n

Morris handles sensitively the fact that women are markedly less visible until near the end of his narrative, and devotes a good deal of attention to the origins of female ministry (in the 19th-century order of deaconesses) and to influential Anglican women, including Florence Nightingale, Josephine Butler, <\/span>Octavia Hill and Maude Royden.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Social and cultural contexts are explored throughout in parallel with the overarching political and religious narrative. Morris is particularly effective in portraying a sense of the spaces in which Anglicans worshipped, devoting much attention to changes to the place where the eucharist was celebrated. Occasional chapters break the narrative flow to discuss the \u201cGreat Churches\u201d (former monastic foundations, Oxbridge college chapels and other churches set apart through history and function), the life experience of the clergy, or the importance of music in the Anglican tradition.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

This is a rich and vividly illustrated book, which not only traces the history of the Anglican church, but demonstrates why it continues to matter.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

Sarah Foot <\/strong>is regius professor of ecclesiastical history at the University of Oxford<\/p>\n\n

All products were chosen independently by our editorial team. Below is an affiliate link, and we may receive a commission for purchases made. Please read our affiliates FAQ section<\/a> to find out more.<\/p>\n\n

Buy now from Waterstones<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

PICTURE CREDIT: GETTY MUSEUM COLLECTION<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHRISTIANITY A congregation of voices SARAH FOOT enjoys a new history of the Church of England, a book that finds space for the reflections of ordinary parishioners as well charting the deeds of the great and the good A People\u2019s Church: A History of the Church of England by Jeremy Morris Profile Books, 480 pages, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":14296,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"80","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"80","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_80-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_80-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"June-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"June-2022","purple_external_id":"June-2022-80-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"June-2022-80-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000085632||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000085632||","purple_android_product":"com.im.historymag.282","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.historymag.282","purple_ios_product":"com.im.historymag.282","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.historymag.282","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"de2d4977-6998-4200-99aa-454f8dbebdf9","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-05-16T11:02:41Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"c38979b2-fc84-44ba-b7af-887c0b186a42","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-05-16T11:02:41Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Aw4l5svyERLq3r4h8CxhqQg","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[20],"tags":[46],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/A-Peoples-Church-2-scaled.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/A-Peoples-Church-2-scaled.jpg",2560,1718,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/A-Peoples-Church-2-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/A-Peoples-Church-2-300x201.jpg",300,201,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/A-Peoples-Church-2-768x515.jpg",768,515,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/A-Peoples-Church-2-1024x687.jpg",800,537,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/A-Peoples-Church-2-1536x1031.jpg",1536,1031,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/A-Peoples-Church-2-2048x1374.jpg",2048,1374,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"CHRISTIANITY A congregation of voices SARAH FOOT enjoys a new history of the Church of England, a book that finds space for the reflections of ordinary parishioners as well charting the deeds of the great and the good A People\u2019s Church: A History of the Church of England by Jeremy Morris Profile Books, 480 pages,…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13769"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13769"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14282,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13769\/revisions\/14282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}