Stolen Ordination?

Neil Jeffers, who has yet to fully join the blogging revolution, drew my attention to this:

Following the Reformation the classic dress of clergy of the Church of England had been the cassock and surplice, with scarf and hood of their degree, and until the early years of the twentieth century most bishops had required their ordinands to robe in this way for their ordination service. However, in the late 1940s certain bishops of more advanced Anglo-Catholic views, notably Wand of London and Kirk of Oxford, had insisted that their ordinands wear stoles, a custom introduced by those wishing to show the church’s affinity with Rome on this occasion. Several men had felt uneasy about this – they would never otherwise use the stole, and wearing different vesture for different services would be a denial of the unity of the ministry of Word and sacrament to which they were being ordained. In addition the use of the stole had been deemed illegal in a judgement given by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1871 (the so-called ‘Purchas Judgement’), and in spite of its subsequent widespread use there was still a degree of doubt as to its legality. This was one of the issues Fisher hoped to resolve by revising the canons to legalize all forms of vesture…. The result was a joint approach from the principals of the evangelical colleges. In response the archbishop wrote to all diocesan bishops and college principals to the effect that in future no candidate should be refused ordination solely on the grounds of being unwilling to wear the stole.

Heinze, Rudolph and Wheaton, David, Witness to the Word: A History of Oak Hill College 1932-2000 (Carlisle, Paternoster, 2002), p100, citing Lambeth Palace Library records, Fisher 109, 210.

By the way, the Word and sacrament argument above seems a little strange to me. The Church of England does not in any case recognise ordination as a sacrament.

It may also be worth thinking about James Jordan’s arguments that white cassock-alb and blue or green stole are the most biblical dress for the minister. See e.g. the discussion in:

James B, Jordan, The Sociology of the Church: Essays in Reconstructionism (Wipf and Stock / Geneva Ministries, 1986) chapter 12 Triumphalistic Investiture 

And very briefly in James B. Jordan. Theses on Worship: Notes toward the Reformation of Worship (Transfiguration Press / Biblical Horizons, 1994, revised 1998) = Rite Reasons Newsletters 7 p47 cites Rev 4v4