June 26, 2005
Anglo-Catholicism

Every now and then we have people who become part of
this parish or just visit this parish from large and
relatively well off Episcopal churches and they notice
we’re a bit different here. Usually I get a positive
review of our worship style by people noticing we’re a
bit more Catholic here and is that because we’re a
Latino congregation? The answer is no. It’s because we
follow the tradition in Anglicanism known as
Anglo-Catholicism and about that I think I would like to say a
little today. So sit back and let’s take a historical
trip across the ages.

Christianity arrived early in Britain. We have written
proof of a well organized church by 304 A.D. so we can
imagine rather early on in the second century the
faith came to Roman Britain. In 444, however, the pagan
Anglo-Saxons invaded and this British Church was cut off
from the rest of European Christianity. As a result
the British and Irish Church developed in isolation and
independence from the church in Rome. This independent
Celtic Catholic Church lasted until 597 when the Pope
sent missionaries to Britain only to discover there
were already Christians there. So it was that the Celtic
Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic Church grew
side by side until 664 A.D. when they were at least
officially united. However, an independent Catholic Church
with roots in Celtic spirituality never totally died
out and is even today a kind of cherished Anglican
dream. We have a long history of being Catholics outside
the purview of the pope.
Nevertheless in the centuries following the union
of 664 A.D., which was called the Synod of Whitby, the
British Church became more influenced by papal
politics, especially after the Norman Conquest. So much,
indeed, that King John gave England to the Pope and
received it back as a fiefdom. This caused a rebellion by
the English Church and nobles resulting in a little
document called the Magna Carta that insisted, among other
things, that the English Church should be free.
But in the Middle Ages the English Church was very
much influenced by Rome even though some English
churchman harkened back to Celtic and Anglo-Saxon times
when their church was more their own. There were
movements like Wycliff’s that tried to put Bibles in the hands
of the laity, which movements were put down. Finally
as the Renaissance started there were movements in
Europe that wanted real reform in the church. Luther and
Calvin were the two main types of reform. In England
there was a desire for reform as well, but what finally
got the reform started was a purely secular thing.
Henry VIII wanted a divorce and in order to get it simply
nationalized the English Church like the labor party
nationalized the steel mills 500 years later. No
reforms or changes happened during Henry’s time, but it did
open up the possibility of reform when Henry died and
his young son came to the throne. Edward VI only lived
till he was 16 but during that time Archbishop of
Canterbury Thomas Cranmer put the mass in English and
issued two Prayer Books. A reformed Catholic Church was
being born.

But then at Edward’s death Queen Mary(Bloody Mary)
came to the throne, undid everything and put the church
back under the Pope. When Mary undid the English
reforms many of the bishops fled to Geneva where they picked
up a virulent, black form of Protestantism known as
Calvinism. Calvinism was better organized than the
milder Lutheranism and it appealed. It was Calvin who
taught that the Bible was its own interpreter, which is why
when you try to have a discussion with a
fundamentalist over a Bible verse the fundamentalist does not use
reason but simply quotes you another Bible verse.

These Bishops and clergy, exiled during Queen Mary’s
time, came back when Mary died wanting to “purify” the
Church of English of its Catholicism, hence the term
“puritan”. Queen Elizabeth I succeeded Mary and wanted
a free English Catholic Church without the pope, but
what she got was two warring factions: one for an
independent English Catholicism and another for a
“purified” Church of England, plainly protestant with all the
“frills of popery”, i.e. all vestige of English
Catholicism thrown out. Obviously, modern Anglo-Catholics
are the spiritual descendents of free English
Catholicism. Elizabeth tried to make the English church
inclusive enough for both Protestants and Catholics, but
neither were really very pleased with the compromise.

After Elizabeth under the Stuart Kings the Protestants
got more powerful in the middle class and finally
executed King Charles and Archbishop Laud, and the Church
of England ceased to exist under Oliver Cromwell. The
slender thread of Anglo-Catholicism now went into
hiding and remained in hiding either on the continent or
as teachers of religion to children of county houses
until the Commonwealth was overthrown and the Church
restored in 1660. That part of the church which followed
Archbishop Laud was unquestionably Anglo-Catholic, but
the Puritan influence was hard to overcome in the
growing Middle Class. So while there was a moment when it
looked like Anglo-Catholicism might have a chance at
winning the day, the truth is that the fall of the
Stuart line of kings and the beginning of the age of
reason nearly dried out all of the church of England.

The 18th century was the century that the Church of
England became a bore, by and large. The poor were
alienated from the church, the state set the church’s
agenda, the bishops were rationalists and the thread of
Anglo-Catholicism grew thin indeed. Actually, the chief
representative of the Catholic strain of Anglicanism
was John Wesley, a priest who is the purported founder
of the Methodists, but who instituted weekly Holy
Communion, started disciplined prayer lives for his
followers and reached out to the poor and dispossessed. Three
hallmarks of Anglo-Catholicism.

And so we limped into the 19th century and there we
exploded in creativity. In the early 19th century the
Oxford Movement sought to call the church of England
back to its Catholic roots. Coupled with this theological
movement came the ritual movement which replaced a lot
of beauty that had been lost under the puritan low
churchmen. This caused a disgust among the powers to be
and the Anglo-Catholics became an oppressed minority
in the church. This turned out to be a very good thing,
because Anglo-Catholics were cast out of all that was
fashionable, upper crust, and well off. That meant
that if one were to embrace Anglo-Catholicism one went to
the slums of Great Britain. The Anglo-Catholics
embraced the state of the poor. And not only that,
Anglo-Catholics embraced a politics that would aid the poor.
Anglo-Catholics became some of Europe’s first
Christian Socialists. And the more they were persecuted the
stronger the Anglo-Catholics became.

But God had more change in store. By the 1920’s
Biblical fundamentalism was being challenged. Interpretation
of scripture via historical criticism and reason was
being put forward by liberal German thinkers. At first,
being traditional orthodox Christians Anglo-Catholics
frowned on this, but then Anglo-Catholic leaders such
as Bishop Charles Gore explained it and
Anglo-Catholics embraced a way of interpreting scripture to a
modern world. And so another hallmark of Anglo-Catholicism
came forth: interpretation of Scripture using all the
tools God gave us, a non literal, non fundamentalist
approach. By the 1960’s Anglo-Catholics had won in the
American Episcopal Church as far as the externals were
concerned. The Episcopal Church was thoroughly
ritualistic, vestments were everywhere, flowers were behind
altars and crosses and crucifixes above them.

Yet another final challenge lay in waiting for the
Anglo-Catholic tradition, the ordination of women
priests. This was a great challenge. The undivided Catholic
Church had never ordained women. The Roman and
Orthodox branches still do not. There was division. Some
Anglo-Catholics left for Rome or orthodoxy, some dug in
their heels and became conservatives. Most, like this
parish, just thought about it, prayed about it and
said, “it is time Catholic religion dealt equally with the
other half of Christendom. And so it happened. And
from there and certainly from the 19th century an
Anglo-Catholic is an Anglican who is conservative in his
orthodoxy and liberal in his political and social outlook.
The Anglo-Catholicism values the Catholic tradition of
the Church but believes the Bible should be
interpreted. Anglo-Catholicism recognizes that the Bible is the
Word of God, though not necessarily the “words of
God”. It celebrates all the 7 sacraments but realizes that
other Christian actions may be sacramental as well,
such as feeding the hungry and tending the sick. The
Anglo-Catholic has always taught and handed on the
tradition that Sunday worship is the Eucharist, the Mass,
the Holy Communion. The Anglo-Catholic values the
traditional Catholic ceremony and uses the devotion to Our
Lady, holy water, incense, the sign of the cross and
traditional devotions. The Anglo-Catholic believes the
church must reach out to the poor and dispossessed, to
them that struggle and have no helper. So it is even
today in this country, Anglo-Catholics are often poor
or ethnic parishes. The Anglo-Catholic believes human
beings are responsible for one another’s well being,
the Anglo-Catholic treasures the Christian idea of the
Common Good as opposed to the individual’s success.

So it is that Anglo-Catholics still tend to be social
and political progressives. We believe that the Church
gave rise to the New Testament, not the New Testament
giving rise to the church and so we accept a three
fold basis of doctrine: Scripture, Tradition and Reason.
Believing this we are inclusive Catholicism
interpreting scripture in its wholeness not its part-ness so
that women, gay people, the poor, the different and the
oppressed are graciously welcomed. We do not believe we
make up this faith as we go along, we believe we have
inherited it and we proclaim it; but we proclaim in
humility, using Scripture, tradition and the reason God
gave us, to be a welcoming, inclusive, thinking, ever
evolving Faith, yet one delivered to the saints
against which the gates of hell will not prevail.