Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Monday 10 February 2014

The withering of Anglo-Catholicism


A friend told me the other day of a conversation with a leading member of the congregation of an Anglo-Catholic parish that currently is looking for a new incumbent. When my friend said they assumed the parish was looking for someone in that tradition they got the answer "Oh we wouldn't object to a woman, especially if she was young and had children as that could be good for the village school." 

So much for sustaining the Anglo_Catholic witness of the parish. Was it for this that Fr Tooth and others went to prison?




3 comments:

Frederick Jones said...

Did The Revd.Sidney Faithorn Green go to Lancaster gaol for 20 months so that in the 20th century in the Anglican diocese of Manchester not only his church , but also almost all those with any pretensions to catholicism could be closed. St Gabriel, Hulme, St Benedict, Ardwick, and Our Lady of Mercy and St Thomas of Canterbury , Gorton are all now no longer in use.

Alice C. Linsley said...

Incredible! Sacrifice the Faith to enlarge school enrollment?

The Rad Trad said...

Withering of Anglo-Catholicism also means the wither of much affected eccentricity, one of its contributions to mankind.