Fr Alex Swain

Beloved in Christ,

This evening at 7:00pm, we will observe All Soul’s Day, or The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, with a Requiem Mass. All Soul’s is the third day of All Hallowtide Triduum—following All Hallow’s Eve (October 31), All Saint’s Day (November 1), and All Soul’s Day (November 2).

Because of the way dates fall this year, All Soul’s is transferred to today, as All Saint’s takes precedence on a Sunday as one of the Major Feasts of the Christian Year (see the BCP, p. 15, for more rules about the ordering of feast days).

And! Today (November 3) is the Feast day of Richard Hooker (1554-1600), a prominent Anglican theologian. He is noted as one of the “Anglican Divines” (also known as Caroline Divines)—who were prominent Anglican theologians in the 1600s who helped craft the via media, the middle way, of Anglicanism.

Episcopalians are the recognized and official Anglicans within the United States, and we owe Richard Hooker a profound debt to our religious tradition.

Hooker wrote during a turbulent political and religious time in English history.

England was in the whiplash of returning to Roman Catholicism on one hand; converting to a “pure” form of Genevan Protestantism (hence the rise of the Puritans) and thus doing away with priests and bishops, monarchy, and more; or maintaining the distinctive Anglican tradition which was in development.

Hooker felt that the Roman Catholics emphasized tradition too much to supplement their doctrine, while also being immensely uncomfortable with the Protestants demand that the Bible ought to be the sole and “easily interpreted” (ha!) means of authority to govern church and state.

Hooker developed the idea of Anglican theology being a via media, a middle way, between these two traditions through the threefold authority of Bible, Church, and reason.

This is very much still a component of our tradition to this day.

We deeply seek the resources of Holy Scripture to inform our faith and doctrine.

We look to the 2,000 years of Christian history to contemplate how different peoples over the millennia have wrestled with the faith in light of their lives.

And we maintain that God gives us reason and asks us to use it honorably and for greater discernment.

Hooker is truly a cornerstone in the Anglican tradition, and it is meet and right to celebrate him on this day!

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Alex