This is for Richard Hooker, whose feast it is today.

The greatest Anglican theologian, whom I quote and paraphrase regularly—in fact, reading excerpts of his Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity convinced me thirty years ago that I should become an Episcopalian.

Read about him at

http://satucket.com/lectionary/RHooker.htm

and at

http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/hookbib.htm

and still more at

http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/64.html

Here is a link to the complete Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, online at Project Canterbury (thanks for the reminder, Sibyl!).

Then please join me in the Collect for Richard Hooker, which seems strangely relevant to our own day, especially the need for “sound reasoning and great charity”— both in extremely short supply—for maintaining a “comprehension for the sake of truth”:

O God of truth and peace, who raised up your servant Richard Hooker in a day of bitter controversy to defend with sound reasoning and great charity the catholic and reformed religion: Grant that we may maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.