What exactly is “Anglo-Catholic”?
A lecture by Dominique Peridans
What exactly is Anglo-Catholic?
Is it the same thing as “high church”?
Is essentially about elaborate worship style?
Smells and bells and genuflections and signs of the cross
—things which some Protestants mock in Catholics.
Is it an eccentric sub-culture in the broader Anglican communion
comprised of aesthetes who never know when to stop?
Is it really Roman Catholic in disguise, unable to make the final leap?
Or is it a particularly full expression/experience of Anglicanism?
And, if so, can we say, with all due respect, that it is the Church safeguarding and celebrating all the gifts that Christ bestows upon it?
Now, let me state from the outset:
I will be speaking simply (hopefully!), from a very specific angle,
based on what I understand.
Some may disagree with what I say.
Such is the beauty and strength and the weakness of the Episcopal Church.
I have been pondering and researching and I realized
that offering you a brief history of Anglo-Catholicism
is not what I would like to do because history is not at all my forte.
I am very interested in history
but, for some reason, my memory retention of it is very limited.
Moreover, such a task would be enormous.
It would be all the more enormous because I would argue,
based on what I understand,
that Anglo-Catholicism essentially, in its spiritual heart,
dates back to the early Church.
If we look at the spiritual heart of Anglo-Catholicism
—which is what I intend to do—then we really simply see the Church.
Anglo-Catholicism is Catholicism lived in the Anglican Communion.
Catholicism, spiritually speaking, I would argue, is simply the Church.
You will understand what I mean as we briefly explore.
I cannot but explore what exactly Anglo-Catholic is
informed by my theological training in all things Catholic.
I would actually like to think that I am in a particularly good position
to understand Catholicism as it is live in the Anglican Communion
because of this training in all things Catholic.
I would argue that there is not much difference
between Anglo Catholicism and Roman Catholicism.
The only “significant” difference for me
is the understanding (and therefore practice)
of how authority is exercised and translates canonically,
how the shepherds of the community are to shepherd.
Allow me an excerpt from ARCIC (Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission) document “The Gift of Authority” (1998)
Tradition expresses the apostolicity of the Church. What the apostles received and proclaimed is now found in the Tradition of the Church where the Word of God is preached and the sacraments of Christ celebrated in the power of the Holy Spirit. The churches today are committed to receiving the one living apostolic Tradition, to ordering their life according to it, and to transmitting it in such a way that the Christ who comes in glory will find the people of God confessing and living the faith once for all entrusted to the saints.
This is an expression of what both “churches” believe regarding authority.
The establishment of the Church in England
was not born of intention to start a new church.
Although some of the historical circumstances
are complicated and less than noble,
the Church of England seized an opportunity
to recapture an understanding of authority
as shared by the shepherds of the Church.
There, of course, remains a question of a universal primate
—which we do have in the Archbishop of Canterbury,
although his primacy differs from that of the Pope in the Roman church.
A body always has a head.
The visible body of the Church has a head.
And, even though Anglican Communion has a head
in the Archbishop of Canterbury,
there does remain a question of the role of the Bishop of Rome
—who did have a special role in the early Church.
The Anglican theologian John Maquarrie—raised Presbyterian—underscores this.
But, there is more in common regarding authority
between the Anglican Communion and the Roman church
than actually differs, even though visibly, much seems to be different.
Both have a very Catholic understanding of Church.
Anglo-Catholicism is Catholicism lived in the Anglican Communion.
And, really, I would argue that the Anglican Communion is Catholic.
One sometimes hear the Episcopal Church
described as a cocktail of Catholicism and Protestantism.
We are the church of the “middle way”.
I think that this description is more sociological in nature than theological.
I would respectfully submit Episcopal Church is Catholic,
dating back to the establishment of the Church in the British Isles in 597
by St. Augustine Canterbury, and likely even before.
There is supposedly evidence of the Primitive Church as early as 180.
For me, Anglo-Catholicism seeks simply to express more fully
the sometimes more implicit, quiet, hidden parts
of the Anglican Communion,
which seeks to express the heart of the Christian Church and experience.
As a springboard, allow me to quote what is stated on a parish website— Church of the Advent, Baltimore.
This articulates how the parish understands its Anglo-Catholic identity.
I have changed the order.
I think this does a fairly good job of articulating what Anglo-Catholic is.
But, as I have suggested, to understand Anglo-Catholic
we can simply look at what Catholic is—in it spiritual heart,
aware, of course, of the differences regarding authority.
And to look at what Catholic is, is to look at the heart of the Church.
Although there is a divergence in the exercise of authority,
which is in the hands of the Bishops,
both Churches seek to safeguard and to promote the gifts
that Jesus bestows upon his Church,
which can be understood to be His Body and His Bride.
Both churches understand that the ministerial priesthood
is at the service of the royal priesthood.
Protestants do not typically understand the church to be the Bride of Christ. Such theological description makes them squirm!
Why do they not have this perspective?
Because, they are Scripture-only.
To speak of the Church as the Bride of Christ
presupposes an understanding of Tradition and, consequently,
of the community of believers as instruments of grace.
Resituate Tradition.
In my preparation, I came across a certain Thomas Ken, English Bishop, who died in 1711.
In 1679, Bishop Ken was appointed by Charles II,
King of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1630-85),
to be chaplain to Princess Mary.
The appointment did not last very long
as he insisted that Prince William be a faithful spouse.
He then quickly became one of the king’s chaplains.
In 1685, he published “The Practice of Divine Love”.
In it, he speaks of the spiritual heart of the Church.
Bear in mind that Bishop Ken was supposedly not fond of Rome.
This is interesting to bear in mind because what I am about to read
sounds like it very well could have come from the pen of a Roman Bishop.
When the love of God is produced in my heart, and is set on work, my last concern is to preserve and ensure and quicken it; It is preserved by Prayer, the pattern of which is the Lord’s Prayer; It is ensured to us by the Sacraments, which are the Pledges of love; and more particularly it is quickened by the Holy Eucharist, which is the feast of Love.
Share story of Beth, raised Presbyterian.
I asked, “What captured you, what touched you in the Episcopal church?”
“It is hard to describe, but, unlike previous church experiences,
I missed worship”
We continued the conversation and honed in on
the centrality of the Eucharist.
And she spoke quite interestingly:
word = head up
Eucharist = neck down
I remember a powerful statement in seminary.
It speaks to Catholicism—be it Roman or Anglo or Orthodox.
It speaks to the Church.
The reason for the Church is the Eucharist.
Although it sounds simplistic,
To be Anglo-Catholic is to be Eucharistic.
It is interesting to observe in the Episcopal Church,
most notably in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer,
increasing focus on the Eucharist.
There are many gifts that Christ bestows upon us, His church.
In the midst of these many gifts,
there are special gifts, which are deeply personal and also communal.
“The love of God insured to us by the sacraments.” Bishop Ken
It is interesting to note is that we can read the Scriptures at home.
The word of God is a gift.
We cannot celebrate the sacraments at home.
The sacraments are of the church.
We must celebrate them in community
—even if the visible gathering is small!
We must do so with one of the church’s ministers
ordained for the purpose of the sacraments.
The sacraments, attested to in Scripture either explicitly or implicitly, emerged in the church, i.e., Tradition, alongside the Scriptures,
and alongside other gifts bestowed upon the church.
There is a rich and pervasive understanding of instrumentality in the Church which is Catholic in nature.
God makes use of instruments to communicate His grace, His gifts,
and these instruments, strictly speaking, are not necessary.
God can communicate the grace he communicates
in and through the Eucharist, without priests and without the Eucharist.
But he likes to make use of instruments: ministers…and intercessors.
The same understanding of instrumentality
that the ministerial priesthood presupposes
helps us to understand this other feature of Anglo-Catholicism,
another aspect of the life of the Church.
To re-quote the Church of the Advent website
in the life of believers in Anglo-Catholicism.
“I believe in the communion of saints”.
Communion implies presence.
We believe that Mary and all the officially recognized Saints,
and all the still-to-be recognized saints (my grandmother!)
are present and we communicate with them.
I can recall correspondence within evangelical gentlemen from Texas.
We e-mailed for about a year.
I never actually met him.
He was horrified that I could claim
to be in communion with deceased loved ones.
For him, the communion comes after death.
The Apostles Creed, for him, apparently, flew out the window.
This communion brings us to another point,
another aspect of the life of the church,
which is more delicate and is, therefore, a theological question.
From the same Church of the Advent website:
Oooooooh!
The Articles of Religion from 1801
established by the bishops, the clergy come and the laity
of the Episcopal Church in United States, states
“The Romish doctrine concerning purgatory is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the word of God.”
The Catechism written for the 1979 BCP, however, poses the question:
“Why do we pray for the dead?”
Oh, oops.
Is this not purgatory?
The response is interesting and actually helps us to understand purgatory:
“We pray for them, because we still hold of them in our love,
and because we trust that in God’s presence
those who have chosen to serve him will grow in his love,
until they see him as he is”
To grow in his love after death is Purgatory.
Purgatory is not a mini-hell.
Purgatory, according to classic Catholic theology,
is the process of purging, of purification by divine love,
so that the deceased be able, and all that he or she is, to see God as he is.
Anglo-Catholics, Episcopalians pray for the dead.
A lecture by Dominique Peridans
What exactly is Anglo-Catholic?
Is it the same thing as “high church”?
Is essentially about elaborate worship style?
Smells and bells and genuflections and signs of the cross
—things which some Protestants mock in Catholics.
Is it an eccentric sub-culture in the broader Anglican communion
comprised of aesthetes who never know when to stop?
Is it really Roman Catholic in disguise, unable to make the final leap?
Or is it a particularly full expression/experience of Anglicanism?
And, if so, can we say, with all due respect, that it is the Church safeguarding and celebrating all the gifts that Christ bestows upon it?
Now, let me state from the outset:
I will be speaking simply (hopefully!), from a very specific angle,
based on what I understand.
Some may disagree with what I say.
Such is the beauty and strength and the weakness of the Episcopal Church.
I have been pondering and researching and I realized
that offering you a brief history of Anglo-Catholicism
is not what I would like to do because history is not at all my forte.
I am very interested in history
but, for some reason, my memory retention of it is very limited.
Moreover, such a task would be enormous.
It would be all the more enormous because I would argue,
based on what I understand,
that Anglo-Catholicism essentially, in its spiritual heart,
dates back to the early Church.
If we look at the spiritual heart of Anglo-Catholicism
—which is what I intend to do—then we really simply see the Church.
Anglo-Catholicism is Catholicism lived in the Anglican Communion.
Catholicism, spiritually speaking, I would argue, is simply the Church.
You will understand what I mean as we briefly explore.
I cannot but explore what exactly Anglo-Catholic is
informed by my theological training in all things Catholic.
I would actually like to think that I am in a particularly good position
to understand Catholicism as it is live in the Anglican Communion
because of this training in all things Catholic.
I would argue that there is not much difference
between Anglo Catholicism and Roman Catholicism.
The only “significant” difference for me
is the understanding (and therefore practice)
of how authority is exercised and translates canonically,
how the shepherds of the community are to shepherd.
Allow me an excerpt from ARCIC (Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission) document “The Gift of Authority” (1998)
Tradition expresses the apostolicity of the Church. What the apostles received and proclaimed is now found in the Tradition of the Church where the Word of God is preached and the sacraments of Christ celebrated in the power of the Holy Spirit. The churches today are committed to receiving the one living apostolic Tradition, to ordering their life according to it, and to transmitting it in such a way that the Christ who comes in glory will find the people of God confessing and living the faith once for all entrusted to the saints.
This is an expression of what both “churches” believe regarding authority.
The establishment of the Church in England
was not born of intention to start a new church.
Although some of the historical circumstances
are complicated and less than noble,
the Church of England seized an opportunity
to recapture an understanding of authority
as shared by the shepherds of the Church.
There, of course, remains a question of a universal primate
—which we do have in the Archbishop of Canterbury,
although his primacy differs from that of the Pope in the Roman church.
A body always has a head.
The visible body of the Church has a head.
And, even though Anglican Communion has a head
in the Archbishop of Canterbury,
there does remain a question of the role of the Bishop of Rome
—who did have a special role in the early Church.
The Anglican theologian John Maquarrie—raised Presbyterian—underscores this.
But, there is more in common regarding authority
between the Anglican Communion and the Roman church
than actually differs, even though visibly, much seems to be different.
Both have a very Catholic understanding of Church.
Anglo-Catholicism is Catholicism lived in the Anglican Communion.
And, really, I would argue that the Anglican Communion is Catholic.
One sometimes hear the Episcopal Church
described as a cocktail of Catholicism and Protestantism.
We are the church of the “middle way”.
I think that this description is more sociological in nature than theological.
I would respectfully submit Episcopal Church is Catholic,
dating back to the establishment of the Church in the British Isles in 597
by St. Augustine Canterbury, and likely even before.
There is supposedly evidence of the Primitive Church as early as 180.
For me, Anglo-Catholicism seeks simply to express more fully
the sometimes more implicit, quiet, hidden parts
of the Anglican Communion,
which seeks to express the heart of the Christian Church and experience.
As a springboard, allow me to quote what is stated on a parish website— Church of the Advent, Baltimore.
This articulates how the parish understands its Anglo-Catholic identity.
I have changed the order.
- We believe that our apostolic faith is described in the Bible, the historic creeds (including Nicea and Chalcedon), and Tradition of the Church.
- We believe that our Bishop and the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church stand in Apostolic succession with all other bishops of the holy catholic and apostolic church.
- Our worship is centered on the Mass where Christ’s sacrifice is remembered. But as Anglo-Catholics we also believe Christ is truly present in the Eucharist, and we partake of his body and blood when we receive the consecrated elements of bread and wine. We welcome all baptized Christians to join us at the altar to receive Christ’s body and blood.
- We believe that we are in communion with all of the saints who have gone before us, and we ask them to pray for us. Many of us have an especial devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary whom we ask to intercede on our behalf.
- We believe it is right and good to pray for the souls of those who have died because we do not presume to know their fates. We believe God’s loving mercy is available to even those who have died but may still be separated from him.
I think this does a fairly good job of articulating what Anglo-Catholic is.
But, as I have suggested, to understand Anglo-Catholic
we can simply look at what Catholic is—in it spiritual heart,
aware, of course, of the differences regarding authority.
And to look at what Catholic is, is to look at the heart of the Church.
Although there is a divergence in the exercise of authority,
which is in the hands of the Bishops,
both Churches seek to safeguard and to promote the gifts
that Jesus bestows upon his Church,
which can be understood to be His Body and His Bride.
Both churches understand that the ministerial priesthood
is at the service of the royal priesthood.
Protestants do not typically understand the church to be the Bride of Christ. Such theological description makes them squirm!
Why do they not have this perspective?
Because, they are Scripture-only.
To speak of the Church as the Bride of Christ
presupposes an understanding of Tradition and, consequently,
of the community of believers as instruments of grace.
Resituate Tradition.
In my preparation, I came across a certain Thomas Ken, English Bishop, who died in 1711.
In 1679, Bishop Ken was appointed by Charles II,
King of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1630-85),
to be chaplain to Princess Mary.
The appointment did not last very long
as he insisted that Prince William be a faithful spouse.
He then quickly became one of the king’s chaplains.
In 1685, he published “The Practice of Divine Love”.
In it, he speaks of the spiritual heart of the Church.
Bear in mind that Bishop Ken was supposedly not fond of Rome.
This is interesting to bear in mind because what I am about to read
sounds like it very well could have come from the pen of a Roman Bishop.
When the love of God is produced in my heart, and is set on work, my last concern is to preserve and ensure and quicken it; It is preserved by Prayer, the pattern of which is the Lord’s Prayer; It is ensured to us by the Sacraments, which are the Pledges of love; and more particularly it is quickened by the Holy Eucharist, which is the feast of Love.
Share story of Beth, raised Presbyterian.
I asked, “What captured you, what touched you in the Episcopal church?”
“It is hard to describe, but, unlike previous church experiences,
I missed worship”
We continued the conversation and honed in on
the centrality of the Eucharist.
And she spoke quite interestingly:
word = head up
Eucharist = neck down
I remember a powerful statement in seminary.
It speaks to Catholicism—be it Roman or Anglo or Orthodox.
It speaks to the Church.
The reason for the Church is the Eucharist.
Although it sounds simplistic,
To be Anglo-Catholic is to be Eucharistic.
It is interesting to observe in the Episcopal Church,
most notably in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer,
increasing focus on the Eucharist.
There are many gifts that Christ bestows upon us, His church.
In the midst of these many gifts,
there are special gifts, which are deeply personal and also communal.
“The love of God insured to us by the sacraments.” Bishop Ken
It is interesting to note is that we can read the Scriptures at home.
The word of God is a gift.
We cannot celebrate the sacraments at home.
The sacraments are of the church.
We must celebrate them in community
—even if the visible gathering is small!
We must do so with one of the church’s ministers
ordained for the purpose of the sacraments.
The sacraments, attested to in Scripture either explicitly or implicitly, emerged in the church, i.e., Tradition, alongside the Scriptures,
and alongside other gifts bestowed upon the church.
There is a rich and pervasive understanding of instrumentality in the Church which is Catholic in nature.
God makes use of instruments to communicate His grace, His gifts,
and these instruments, strictly speaking, are not necessary.
God can communicate the grace he communicates
in and through the Eucharist, without priests and without the Eucharist.
But he likes to make use of instruments: ministers…and intercessors.
The same understanding of instrumentality
that the ministerial priesthood presupposes
helps us to understand this other feature of Anglo-Catholicism,
another aspect of the life of the Church.
To re-quote the Church of the Advent website
- We believe that we are in communion with all of the saints who have gone before us, and we ask them to pray for us. Many of us have an especial devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary whom we ask to intercede on our behalf.
in the life of believers in Anglo-Catholicism.
“I believe in the communion of saints”.
Communion implies presence.
We believe that Mary and all the officially recognized Saints,
and all the still-to-be recognized saints (my grandmother!)
are present and we communicate with them.
I can recall correspondence within evangelical gentlemen from Texas.
We e-mailed for about a year.
I never actually met him.
He was horrified that I could claim
to be in communion with deceased loved ones.
For him, the communion comes after death.
The Apostles Creed, for him, apparently, flew out the window.
This communion brings us to another point,
another aspect of the life of the church,
which is more delicate and is, therefore, a theological question.
From the same Church of the Advent website:
- We believe it is right and good to pray for the souls of those who have died because we do not presume to know their fates. We believe God’s loving mercy is available to even those who have died but may still be separated from him.
Oooooooh!
The Articles of Religion from 1801
established by the bishops, the clergy come and the laity
of the Episcopal Church in United States, states
“The Romish doctrine concerning purgatory is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the word of God.”
The Catechism written for the 1979 BCP, however, poses the question:
“Why do we pray for the dead?”
Oh, oops.
Is this not purgatory?
The response is interesting and actually helps us to understand purgatory:
“We pray for them, because we still hold of them in our love,
and because we trust that in God’s presence
those who have chosen to serve him will grow in his love,
until they see him as he is”
To grow in his love after death is Purgatory.
Purgatory is not a mini-hell.
Purgatory, according to classic Catholic theology,
is the process of purging, of purification by divine love,
so that the deceased be able, and all that he or she is, to see God as he is.
Anglo-Catholics, Episcopalians pray for the dead.