Anglican Patrimony

Today's post from the New Liturgical Movement reproduces an article from The Anglo Catholic which deals with points I have commented on recently in Anglo-Papalist style and Michael Yelton books, that is the potential of the Ordinariates to realise the dream of Anglo-Papalists and effect reunion, and the amongst the central issues, that of liturgical life. The article, by Br Stephen Treat O.Cist., addresses the question as to what is the Anglican patrimony and how it relates to that of its elder sister, and is very well worth reading. It can be found here. I have inserted the link to The Anglo Catholic as that has more comments than the NLM version does at present.

Michael Yelton books

An additional benefit of staying with my friends in Norfolk was being shown books they had but which I had not so far seen. Notable amongst these were two recent books by Michael Yelton - Anglo-Papalism and his biography of Alfred Hope Patten, the restorer of the Shrine at Walsingham, both published by Canterbury Press.

I had read a complimentary review of Anglo-Papalism, but the reviewer's emphasis on the book was perhaps different from that which I would take. From skimming through both books I think they look both interesting and entertaining - Anglo-Papalism has never lacked colourful characters.

One point made by Yelton struck me as topical - he concentrates on the period down to 1960 in Anglo-Papalism, and his life of Fr Hope Patten closes with his death in 1958, with notes as to the later lives of his collaborators. However he contrasts the unrealised vision c.1920 of the Anglo-Papalists of taking a substantial body of Anglicans into union with Rome with the fact that the result of their endeavours has not been that but, at Walsingham, and through Walsingham, a much wider dissemination of Marian devotion in the Church of England and Anglicanism as a whole.

That point is true, but we may now be on the brink of actually seeing some clergy and parishes actually fulfilling the vision under the terms of Anglicanorum coetibus and through the proposed Ordinariates. The "vision glorious" may yet be realised, more than half a century to a century late, but it may still happen, just as there is a revival of those very things in liturgical matters which marked out the pre-Vatican II Anglo-Catholics, and to which so many of them clung so tenaciously. For many others that vision, presented in word and act, has led them to individual union with Rome. The Anglo-Papalists and the restorers of Walsingham - who thus spurred on an unresponding Catholic hierarchy to do something there and restore the Slipper Chapel - have, in their own, delightfully individual, way yielded a rich harvest. We should remember them with gratitude, and pray that we may all rejoice together upon another shore.

Anglo-Papalist style

Ex Fide, the blog of the self-styled 'Premier Sacristan' of St Magnus the Martyr in London, always has interesting posts and two recent ones caught my eye. The first deals with their commemoration of the Translation of the relics of St Thomas of Canterbury - a feast of interest to me from my days at St Thomas here in Oxford. Clearly a rather splendid occasion - and a topic to which I shall return.

The second post also has an Oxford connection, starting as it does with Colin Stephenson's Merrily on High. Fr Stephenson had been vicar of St Mary Magdalen's in Oxford, a church I used to periodically attend in my early days in the city. More than anyone else it was Stephenson who made 'Mary Mags' the "highest" church in the Church of England before he went to Walsingham. The post and its comments, which are worth looking at, are here.

The post is a series of reflections, as indeed are the interesting comments, to which I will add my halfpennyworth. Anglo-Papalists who abandoned the heritage they had assumed did not do themselves, or the tradition they espoused any favours. Indeed it was where that tradition was preserved that Anglo-Papalism and Anglo-Catholicism had serious pulling power - it was a significant factor which kept me within the Anglican orbit for a long time.

Happily, nay, mercifully, things have moved along on the other bank of the Tiber . Those Anglo-Papalists who value the beauty of holiness expressed in traditional forms will be far safer and ultimately far happier within the proposed Ordinariates, or within the widening traditionalist movement within the Catholic Church. They should value and preserve, or indeed revive, their ceremonial practices, and bring them on board the barque of Peter. Yes, bring your lace and folded chasubles - they really can be the new and living way.

Which brings me back to St Thomas. Whatever the intricacies of the dispute with King Henry II, and indeed not a few of the English hierarchy, and however much issues were lost sight of or changed out of recognition, one thing St Thomas did believe in and stress was his fidelity to the Holy See in the person of Pope Alexander III, but also to the Papacy in principle. St Thomas, whatever else he may have been, came to be seen as a martyr for the independence of the Church under the Pope. No wonder King Henry VIII was so determined to destroy his cult. So yes, it is good to see St Magnus Martyr celebrating St Thomas, but, with great respect and genuine concern, may I suggest that they should perhaps give some thought to what St Thomas might, conceivably, be saying to them,particularly in the present circumstances of Ecclesia Anglicana.

Anglo-Papalist style

Ex Fide, the blog of the self-styled 'Premier Sacristan' of St Magnus the Martyr in London, always has interesting posts and two recent ones caught my eye. The first deals with their commemoration of the Translation of the relics of St Thomas of Canterbury - a feast of interest to me from my days at St Thomas here in Oxford. Clearly a rather splendid occasion - and a topic to which I shall return.

The second post also has an Oxford connection, starting as it does with Colin Stephenson's Merrily on High. Fr Stephenson had been vicar of St Mary Magdalen's in Oxford, a church I used to periodically attend in my early days in the city. More than anyone else it was Stephenson who made 'Mary Mags' the "highest" church in the Cof E before he went to Walsingham.

The post and its comments, which are worth looking at, are here .

Now the post is a series of reflections, to which I will add my halfpennyworth. Anglo-Papalists who abandoned the heritage they had assumed did not do themselves, or the tradition they espoused any favours. Indeed it was where that tradition was preserved that Angl-Papalism and Anglo-Catholicism had serious pulling power - it was afactor which kept me within the Anglican orbit.

Happily, nay, mericfully, things have moved along on the other bank of the Tiber . Those Anglo-Papalists who value the beauty of holiness expressed in traditional forms will be far safer and ultimately far happier within the proposed Ordinariates, or within the widening traditionalist movement within the Catholic Church. They should value and preserve, or indeed revive, their ceremonial practices, and bring them on board the barque of Peter. Yes, bring your lace and folded chasubles - they really can be the new and living way

Which brings me back to St Thomas. Whatever the intricacies of the dispute with King Henry II, and indeed not a few of the English hierarchy, and however much issues were lost sight of or changed out of recognition, one thing St Thomas did believe and stress was his fidelity to the Holy See in the person of Pope Alexander III, but also to the Papacy in principle. St Thomas, whatever else he may have been, came to be seen as a martyr for the independenc eof the Church under the Pope. No wonder King Henry VIII was so determined to destroy his cult. So yes, it is good to see St Magnus Martyr celebrating St Thomas, but, with great respect and genuine concern, may I suggest that they should perhaps give some thought to what St Thomas might, conceivably, be saying to them.