Whither goeth the Anglo-Catholics
The Young Fogey links to several articles describing recent secret meetings between Church of England prelates and the Vatican. See Several Church of England bishops in secret talks with Vatican.
As commentor JohnT points out, in relation to Damian Thompson’s blog entry on this issue:
Cardinal Hume pointed out to Anglicans who were on the point of converting in the early 1990s that ‘Catholic doctrine is not an a la carte menu’ – and this is still true.
Nor is conversion a matter of ‘accommodation’.
Which is my thought exactly. This type of action requires a wholesale reordering of all that these prelates say, do, and believe (if it is indeed a true conversion rather than a lifeboat option).
What must they give up to come to Rome? What might they gain? Where might they find shelter?
The things they must give up are rather lengthy, but let’s focus on a few:
- Their status as Bishops (and their entire ordained life). Look at the Anglican Use (a terminal proposition) in the United States. Any clergy member coming over has to start over in new orders. There are no direct conversions “in Orders.”
- Their position as insiders. While they are part of the CofE they are on the inside for better or worse. In the R.C. world they will be oddities and outsiders, with their wives and children, their traditional stylings, and everything else that is part and parcel of who they are. The world’s Bishop’s Conferences will treat them like the fairly odd arms-length cousins you hope you only have to see at weddings and funerals.
- The 39 Articles et. al.
- As noted regarding the Anglican Use, their “traditions” such as the BCP and everything else Anglican, are terminal. Once they and their fellow converts die off there will be no more Anglican Use as no married men will be ordained nor will the BCP and Anglican Use be taught to up-and-coming celibate priests (except as a historical anecdote).
Still in all, I imagine that the issue of shelter is the real key. Is Rome the best shelter for these Bishops and their people? What other options might they have?
Certainly they cannot look to the Old Catholics of Europe (Utrecht v. 2.0). They are on the same track as the balance of liberal European/American Anglicanism. No port in the storm there. They could look to Orthodoxy who might accept them economically, conditioned on their acceptance of Orthodox Catholic faith and doctrine. The Russian Church or Antioch would be their best bet with Western Rite offerings. In any event I would imagine that the bishops could only come in as priests in an Orthodox solution. Then there is the PNCC ? Anyone for a read of the Declaration of Scranton and a trip across the Susquehanna?
In large measure, because of the long term relationship between Anglicans and the PNCC (back in the day when 99.9% of the faith was held in common), they would find a true Catholic home in the PNCC, and one where Anglo-Catholics and the PNCC share much more in common than the Bishops, their priests and people would find elsewhere. Why not study our history and our common faith.
Of course the choices are not easy regardless of the path because conversion is a full-on process. You may take a choice because you are fleeing a fire, but eventually you have to own up to the truth of your conversion. Bishops have a higher duty here because of their Order and their knowledge. Do you truly accept and believe the thing you purport to accept and believe in your conversion. I can say this much as a convert to the PNCC, if the conversion is true you gain access to the uninterrupted faith of the Catholic Church and its Traditions. What you give up counts very little if that is the Lord’s calling.
All conjecturing aside, I hope and pray that these Bishops, their priests, and their congregants find a home in the Catholic Faith. Whether Roman, Orthodox, or PNCC, confidence in faith and the commonly held doctrines of the first thousand years is a great joy. As Jesus told us in this weekend’s Gospel: “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:30).
We pray Thee, O God, not that Thou should help us carry out our own plans, but that we may be used in serving Thine: not for man’s victory over man, but for the triumph of Thy righteousness and Thy Kingdom. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. — From A Book of Devotions and Prayers according to the use of the Polish National Catholic Church.
Thanks for the mention and link.
Of course these are Anglo-Catholics so unlike the Anglican group forming after Gafcon, the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, who are Protestants, they don’t believe in the 39 Articles or they use Newman’s spin of them Tract XC to interpret them away.
It’d be fairer to say going to Rome or Orthodoxy would be a theological adjustment not a wholesale conversion like with Protestants.
Also, English Anglo-Catholics unlike American Anglo-Catholics and the Gafconners/Foca people aren’t attached to the BCP. They think it’s Protestant.
Many, many English ACs are Anglo-Papalists, RCs in everything but name and using the modern Roman services but with a few traditionalist flourishes and good Anglican hymns (the New English Hymnal, the specifically AC hymnal in the C of E). So the scope of the Pope is not a problem for them.
(This is unknown in the Episcopal Church. American ACs tend to look Tridentine but are non-papal and Prayer Booky. The difference about the Prayer Book is like TV’s ‘Masterpiece Theatre’: historical dramas made in England but the reverence for them is entirely anglophile American!)
BTW ACs are about 15 per cent of all practising C of E people (few English people go to church any more) so an exodus/conversion would be a blow to a church already sidelined in English society.
As you know we agree with insider (ex-Anglican RC) Mr Thompson that mainstream RC doesn’t want these conservative Catholics coming in.
That and the Irish hate the English and don’t understand tolerant conservatism (don’t ask, don’t tell, God forgives), more an Anglican or simply English ethos that’s wholly compatible with Catholicism – it’s not the ‘confessional’, ‘Reformation’ Anglicanism of the Gafconners.
(Which relates to another issue: many AC priests are gay, not a problem in itself but some may not follow the teachings of the church in their personal lives even though they don’t preach anything against the faith, and may not want to face that, which going over to Rome probably would mean. But considering how gay the Roman priestly brotherhood is it may not really be an issue.)
Which is why so many would-be converts functionally were turned away in the early 1990s.
(The vicar of one church I went to was the first priest to resign after women’s ordination went through. His wife already had become RC when I knew him. He’s now the RC chaplain at a university. Also I heard William Oddie preach one Christmas at an AC church.)
Pope Benedict doesn’t want that to happen again so he may go over the bishops’ heads.
It’s interesting how the 30-year-old Continuing churches started by former Anglicans are a phenomenon nearly entirely American. (Exception: Australian Archbishop John Hepworth and his Traditional Anglican Communion which includes one of the American denominations. He has a small Aussie following including crossover with the official Anglican Diocese of The Murray; priests are licensed in both!) English people have never taken to it which I fear might happen with the PNCC, whose history is nothing to do with theirs. (One theory: English churchgoers love their solid, venerable buildings and the comfort of ‘establishment’. If the church feels like a ramshackle dissenting chapel even if it’s Catholic they won’t have it.)
P.S. Not to be pedantic but in good Middle and Early Modern English it would be ‘Whither goeth the Anglo-Catholics?’ ‘Whither?’ means ‘where to?’ Until 1700 and still in some Northern English dialects, English had a second-person familiar form of verbs like Polish does, which is what ‘goest’ is. (Some in the North of England: ‘Tha thinks?’ = ‘Thou thinkest?’ = ‘[Do you] Think so?’)
P.S. The Continuing churches are almost all Anglo-Catholic.
Fogey,
I deeply appreciate your insight into these issues – and the education you provide in their regard (and for the proper Middle English usage tips – I’ll try to be more careful in the future).
Of course I only understand this from an American perspective and as a relative outsider. My wife grew up in a relatively Anglo-Catholic parish – St. James in Oneonta, NY. Also interestingly she is a distant relative of the late Rev. Dr. Canon H. Boone Porter and his son, the Rev. Nicholas Porter of Trinity Episcopal in Connecticut.
Now that the conventioneering (hate to call it a synod) is over it will be interesting to see where people really stand. I found the commentary by Gerald Warner to be rather strong (see The barque of Peter should not pick up Anglican boat people) but quite in line with what I believe the expectations will be.
Do you think Benedict will find a way around Apostolicae Curae via the Old Catholics? Will everyone have to pull out their credentials and lineages?
The humor of English: Maybe “Whither” will be converted to “wither.”
You’re welcome. The most I can see happening regarding orders is the clergy being conditionally ordained like Mgr Graham Leonard (sometime Bishop of London and once the C of E’s leading Catholic) was thanks to the claim to Old Catholic succession.