10 x 12 & 5/8 inches
12 pages with hole punch for hanging
This year's Ordo Kalendar features the poetry of the Reverend John Keble, one of the founders of what came to be known as the Oxford Movement. The Tractarians, as they sometimes called, sought to return England to the faith and practice of the “catholic and apostolic” Church. The High Church ideals of men like Keble, Edward Bouverie Pusey, and John Henry Newman laid the foundation for the ascendancy of Anglo-Catholicism later in the century, and their influence can be seen in Continuing Anglicanism even today.
But before Keble contributed to this reawakening of English catholicity, he was a poet of some renown. In 1827 he had published a collection of poems known as The Christian Year. Taking the Sundays and Feast Days of the Prayer Book as his inspiration, Keble’s reflections on the faith were both thoughtful and inspired. Though The Christian Year was published anonymously first, by 1831 Keble’s identity as its author had been revealed. His reputation thus established, he was appointed Professor of Poetry at Oxford, a post he held for ten years. By the time its copyright expired in 1873, The Christian Year had become one of the most popular volumes of poetry in all of the 19th century. The illustrated version featured in this calendar was published by Cassell, Petter, & Galpin of London and New York in 1874.
In his original preface, Keble wrote, “the purpose of the present publication will be attained if any person find assistance from it in bringing his own thoughts and feelings into more entire unison with those recommended and exemplified in the Prayer Book.” It is hoped that this recasting of The Christian Year in the form of an Ordo Kalendar will do that for the 21st century churchman as well.