Thursday, September 18, 2014

Edward Bouverie Pusey



Today the Episcopal Church remembers the life and ministry of a reformer in the 1800s, and a founder of the Oxford Movement, Edward Bouverie Pusey, who was born in 1800 and died in 1882.  He was born in the village of Pusey in Berkshire. His father was Philip Bouverie, a younger son of the First Viscount of Folkestone.  Edward took the name of Pusey on succeeding to the manorial estates at that place. After attending Eton College, Edward went Christ Church in Oxford, and was elected in 1824 to a fellowship at Oriel College.
 
Between 1825 and 1827, he studied Oriental languages and German theology at the University of Göttingen. Pusey was competent in Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic. 
 
In 1828, Pusey was appointed to the Regius professorship of Hebrew at Oxford which he kept until his death.
 
Pusey studied the Early Church Fathers and the Caroline Divines and within his heart was awaked the desire to get back to the traditional worship of the Church. To that end, he joined with Richard Hurrell Froude, John Keble, Pusey, and John Henry Newman, all fellows of Oriel College, Oxford, and they became the leaders of the Oxford Movement, which sought the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy and theology.  The group wrote the Oxford Tracts to put their point of view across.
 
Pusey wrote two of the Oxford Tracts (on Fasting and on Baptism), and preached a sermon on the Eucharist that got him suspended from university preaching for two years. This episode gained publicity for the Oxford Movement, and greatly increased the sales of the Tracts. In 1845 he helped to found a convent in London, the first Anglican convent since the 1500s. His best-known books defend the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and the inerrancy of Scripture (see his Daniel the Prophet, and The Minor Prophets). In the great cholera epidemic of 1866, he did outstanding work in caring for the sick. Two years after his death, his friends and admirers established Pusey House at Oxford, a library and study center. 
 
Today in Oxford, you can go to Pusey House/St. Gile’s Chapel where the worship is firmly rooted in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of the Church of England.

Let us pray: Grant, O God, that in all time of our testing we may know your presence and obey your will; that, following the examples of your servant Edward Bouverie Pusey, we may with integrity and courage accomplish what you give us to do, and endure what you give us to bear; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.
 
CALENDAR REMINDERS
  
This Sunday we will begin a new Adult Christian Education series.  Given all of the recent activities in the Middle East, especially in Iraq, we will examine Islam in order to better understand the situation.
 
Invite Someone to Church Sunday is on the 21st of September 2014.  Please invite someone to Church to experience the joy of the Good News.
 
Church Women United: Human Rights Celebration: “We Are in God’s Hands and We Are God’s Hands”, Friday, 26 September 2014 from 11 AM to 1 PM.  Everyone is invited!
 
St. Vincent’s Feast Day and the 60th Anniversary of St. Vincent’s House will be celebrated the weekend of 27 and 28 September 2014.  We will have the installation of the new director of St. Vincent’s House, the Rev. Freda Marie Brown, on Saturday, 27 September 2014 starting at 10 AM, the Houston’s Hero Award and then on the 28th the Eucharist at St. Augustine’s at 9 AM with Bishop Jeff Fisher and then the dinner starting at 3 PM.  Don’t miss this!
 
The 6th Annual Art Show, “Let There Be Light,” will start on the 4th of October and last for 1 week.
 
Please remember everyone on our Prayer List.
 
Your servant in Christ,
 
Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550

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