Anglo-Catholicism

Anglo-Catholicism speaks to a tradition of emphasizing the continuity between Anglicanism and the teaching and practice of Christianity throughout the ages. It is rooted in Holy Scripture and the teachings of the early Church. It is sacramental, emphasizing the importance of the fruit of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and in the authority of apostolic succession enshrined in the threefold orders of ministry: bishops, priests and deacons.

While this basic premise holds true for all Anglo-Catholics, it is not a single uniform appellation and has many variations in its modern context. By examining its historical origins, it is easier to see the continuity between the various modern branches of Anglo-Catholicism.

Anglo-Catholicism traces its roots to the Tractarians, a group of Anglican theological scholars from Oxford University. The group originated from Oriel College, Oxford University and was grouped under the nominal leadership of John Keble who had inspired the group to action. From 1833 to 1838 they published a number of pamphlets titled Tracts for the Times, leading to their appellation of Tractarians, however they are perhaps more famously known today as the Oxford Movement. Their pamphlets spoke to what they saw as shortcomings of the contemporary Church of England.

The primary goal of the Oxford Movement, aside from the protest against the Parliamentary political interference in the church that originally prompted their publications was to answer a debate concerning the nature of the Church of England. A number of doctrinal questions concerning the Church were asked, ranging from what Church doctrines actually were to what authority it maintained to enforce these doctrines in preaching and practice.

More broadly speaking, however, it spoke to the understanding of the nature of the Church itself. In the early 19th century, it was widely held that Church of England was one of two things. First, the idea of 'the nation at prayer' or rather it was a civic expression of faith that could not be divorced from the nation itself. This view might today be associated with the more broad church expression of Anglicanism. The second view was of the Church as the invisible society of all believers in Christ. Individual believers might join earthly institutions called churches, but these earthly institutions also include members who have not yet come to Christ and thus who are not truly members of the Church. This view would today be most closely associated with evangelical Anglicans. The Oxford Movement presented an alternative vision of the church, wherein the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church is the visible divine society ordained by Christ, and, as William Palmer (1803-1885) articulated in his 1838 work Treatise on the Church of Christ, the Church of England (and now the whole of the Anglican Communion) is one branch of that Church.

This debate set off a broader revival in the Church. Prior to the 1830s, worship in an Anglican Church was quite different than what we would be familiar with today, and not just because of the advent of modern alternative service books! The emphasis of worship was on the homily, which was typically about an hour long. Morning Prayer rather than the Holy Eucharist was the service most commonly performed. Communion would generally only be offered every quarter. In modern terms, it looked and felt much more like a protestant church than what we would associate with even Low Church Anglicanism.

A logical extension of the Oxford Movement's definition of a visible church was similarly renewed emphasis on the authority given by Christ to the Apostles and to their successors, and ultimately his commandment to us concerning the Sacraments. Baptism and the Eucharist took on greater meaning, with Baptism the sacrament by which we came into the Church, and the Eucharist as the method of feeding our faith. Emphasis within worship thus shifted from the homily back to the Eucharist itself, just as it had been central to the Early Church, as well as in other branches of the Church, primarily the Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox.

At the same time, the Ritualist Movement became associated with the burgeoning Anglo-Catholic movement. Students of the original Oxford Movement leaders sought to find expression to the sacramental theology espoused by the Oxford Movement, and found it in several pre-Reformation practices which had been discarded by the Church of England. These early Anglo-Catholic priests were commonly called Ritualists because they argued in favour of the importance of symbol and decoration, and sought to restore elements of ritual to worship. The altar was adorned with candles and crosses, priests themselves wore chasubles and the Eucharist was celebrated at least weekly, rather than quarterly. In the late 1840s, Fr George Rundle Prynne implemented the first daily Eucharist at St Peter's, Plymouth since the Reformation. Services began with the cross being processed along with vested choirs and torches. Incense and bells were again restored to use. Church architecture was again viewed as speaking to theology with the Oxford Movement promoting the building of Gothic-style churches in line with the thinking of popular Roman Catholic architect Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. While there was an anti-Ritualist reaction, the movement gained significant popularity, particularly among the industrialised urban poor, and came into more popular acceptance throughout the 19th century.

In addition to the controversy over rituals, the movement suffered setbacks from political interference on the part of Parliament. This, along with other backlashes had convinced several prominent members of the movement--none more prominent than John Henry Newman--to leave the Church of England and convert to Roman Catholicism. The Gorham Judgement in 1850 was a leading cause for a number of members to leave the Church. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, then the highest standard court of appeal in the United Kingdom, overturned the decision of a bishop of Exeter, Henry Phillpots not to appoint the Rev. George Gorham vicar of a local parish on the basis of Gorham's rejection, in Phillpots' view, of Article XXVII and his statement that Baptism was not sacramentally efficacious. The civil government's role in overturning a religious decision was viewed as dangerous interference on the part of the government in religious affairs, and led directly to Henry Manning and James Hope-Scott leaving the Church for the Roman Catholic Church in order to avoid the supremacy of the British Government. These defections contributed to the view of Anglo-Catholics as little more than Catholics in Anglican clothes, in a time when there remained deep suspicion of Catholics throughout the United Kingdom.

Today, Anglo-Catholics are sometimes either confused with High Churchman or the terms are otherwise used synonymously. It should be noted from this history, though, that the genesis of Anglo-Catholicism was through theological revision, not liturgical revision. Put another way, the High Churchmanship associated with Anglo-Catholicism was a necessary means by which Anglo-Catholic theology could find expression in 19th century Britain.

In modern times, Anglo-Catholicism finds expression in many different ways. Generally speaking, Anglo-Catholics could broadly be grouped among the headings of traditionalists, moderates and liberals. Traditionalists hold to a view of doctrine that seeks to maintain conformity with other branches of the Church, thus they are strongly influenced by Eastern Orthodox and Catholic theologies, particularly on shibboleths like the ordination of women and sexuality. Liberals, by contrast, subscribe to liberal theology which would, to the opposition of traditionalists, support the ordination of women, marriage of homosexuals, the use of new inclusive language in the liturgy and is often associated with progressive political movements. Between the two extremes lay the moderates who sometimes fail to adhere to traditionalist views on key issues such as the ordination of women, but whose positions are not grounded in liberal Christian theologies and interpretations. This movement is sometimes associated with the Catholic "Nouvelle Théologie" of which Pope Benedict XVI was a proponent.

While there are disagreements (for instance, some Liberal Anglo-Catholics have been criticized for taking a more broad church theology combined with semi-Roman High Churchmanship solely for the pageantry appeal, rather than using ritual as a reflection of theology), Anglo-Catholicism could generally be summarized as those who subscribe to the following nine views, defined by the Rev. John D. Alexander:

 1. A High View of God. Anglo-Catholic worship at its best cultivates a sense of reverence, awe, and mystery in the presence of the Holy One before whom even the angels in heaven veil their faces.

2. A High View of Creation. At the same time, we delight in the beauty of God’s creation. The Anglo-Catholic view of the world is highly sacramental, seeing signs of God’s presence and goodness everywhere in the things that he has made. In worship, we gather up the best of creation—as reflected in art, craftsmanship, music, song, flowers, incense, etc.—and offer it all back up to God.

3. A High View of the Incarnation. Our salvation began when Christ took flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary. God became man in order to transform human existence through participation in his divine life. The Collect for the Second Sunday after Christmas expresses the Anglo-Catholic vision perfectly:

"O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ..."

4. A High View of the Atonement. An authentic Anglo-Catholicism looks not only to Christ’s Incarnation but also to his Sacrifice. The image of Jesus on the cross reminds us of the depth and horror of human sin, and of the price that God has paid for our redemption. Anglo-Catholic spirituality entails a lifelong process of turning from sin and towards God. Many Anglo-Catholics find the Sacrament of Penance an indispensable aid in this process.

5. A High View of the Church. We come to share in the divine life of the risen and ascended Christ by being incorporated through Baptism into his Body, the Church. Thus, we regard the universal Church neither as an institution of merely human origin, nor as a voluntary association of individual believers, but as a wonderful mystery, a divine society, a supernatural organism, whose life flows to its members from its head, Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

6. A High View of the Communion of Saints. The Church, moreover, consists not only of all Christians now alive on earth (the Church Militant), but also of the Faithful Departed, who continue to grow in the knowledge and love of God (the Church Expectant), and of the Saints in Heaven, who have reached their journey’s end (the Church Triumphant). We have fellowship with all who live in Christ. Anglo-Catholicism thus affirms the legitimacy of praying for the dead, and of asking the Saints in Heaven for their prayers.

7. A High View of the Sacraments. We believe that Jesus Christ really and truly communicates his life, presence, and grace to us in the Seven Sacraments, thus enabling us to give our lives to God and our neighbour in faith, hope, and love. Holy Baptism establishes our identity once for all as children of God and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven (although we can by our own free choice repudiate this inheritance). And in the Holy Eucharist, Christ becomes objectively present in the Blessed Sacrament of His Body and Blood. Eucharistic adoration is thus an integral component of Anglo-Catholic spirituality and devotion.

8. A High View of Holy Orders. Since the days of the Oxford Movement, Anglo-Catholicism has borne witness that the threefold ministry of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons in Apostolic Succession is God-given. The validity of our sacraments, and the fullness of our participation in the life of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, depend upon our faithful stewardship of this divine gift. For this reason, innovations threatening the authenticity of our apostolic orders must be resisted at all costs.

9. A High View of Anglicanism. We affirm that the Anglican Churches are truly part of Christ’s Holy Catholic Church. The prophetic vocation of Anglo-Catholicism has been to bear witness to the catholicity of Anglicanism. Yet it can be an uncomfortable vocation that requires us to take unpopular stands against developments that threaten this catholicity. Since the days of the Oxford Movement, our standard has been the faith and practice of the ancient, undivided Church. Our vocation as Anglo-Catholics remains one of holding ourselves, and our Anglican institutions, accountable to the higher authority of the universal Church.