Happy are those who trust in the Lord
Bishop Crispian’s Pastoral Letter for Lent, 2010
Stories and features about parish life and faith
Bishop Crispian’s Pastoral Letter for Lent, 2010
From the 13th century, the list of liturgical vestments was more or less complete, and what followed was a more detailed regulation of their use.
Boniface, our patron saint, is most famous for the story of the German Christmas tree, but he had a more local connection.
Between the 9th and 13th centuries, the range of vestments became fully developed, the details for their use codified, and symbolic meanings applied to them.
The history of religious vestments in its totality is enormously complicated, but it sheds much light upon the changing understanding of the priesthood through the ages.
The parish features in the February/March edition of the diocesan magazine.
As we come to the end of our historical survey, it is time to do some summing up. The idea of priesthood has gone through many changes in the course of human history, and there are tensions between the different interpretations.
The Second Vatican Council (1962-5), Blessed Pope John XXIII’s “flinging open the windows to let in some fresh air”, sought to redress the balance, especially by looking again at the Scriptures and at the whole history of the Church.
In the 19th Century the Church and the world both pulled apart, and drew together. At the same time, some in the Church were taking stock of their historic roots in order to engage better with the modern world. A leading light among these is John Henry Cardinal Newman.
The 19th century was the great age of the so-called ‘Romantic movement’, re-establishing the link between humanity and nature, which was seen to be broken by the Industrial Revolution.