Where should traditionalist Anglicans go?
VirtueOnline, a traditional Anglican website, has an intersting article posted entitled “What Choices Do Traditionalists in the C of E [Church of England] Have?” The author, Roland J. Morant, discusses the various options for the traditionalist member of the Church of England now that their Church is slowly committing modernist suicide. Using the analogy of a ship, he gives the following options:
- STAY ON BOARD AND DO NOTHING (don’t leave the C of E and just endure the problems)
- TRANSFER DIRECTLY TO ANOTHER SHIP (join the Catholic or Orthodox Churches or even a Protestant denomination)
- CLIMB INTO A LIFEBOAT AND HOPEFULLY BE PICKED UP BY A FRIENDLY SHIP (join a more traditional Anglican communion)
- ABANDON SHIP BY JUMPING OVERBOARD (stop going to church)
What I found most interesting about this article was the importance Morant gives to practical concerns, such as one’s attachment to their parish (and parish building) and a person’s proximity to other churches (after all, what is the point of becoming Orthodox if the nearest Orthodox parish is 200 miles away). I think the importance of such concerns can be minimized when discussing the conversion of Christians from one tradition to another. But it should not be. The pull of one’s personal parish (“I was baptized in that church,” “Our parish has a wonderful, loving community”) can often trump doctrinal concerns. So too can personal connections: if all your friends go to a specific parish, it can be very difficult to transplant your whole family to another church over concerns that may not seem to directly impact your life – especially if the other parish appears cold and uninviting to you.
As Catholics, we should not simply dismiss such concerns out of hand. It is true that our Lord told us we would have to give up father and mother, sister and brother in order to follow him, but that doesn’t make it easy. We should make our own parishes as welcoming as possible so that if a Christian of another tradition decides to join, he or she will not need to feel like a complete alien.
Well done.
I have some friends in this bind as they, a married couple, each Episcopalian for about 30 years, face the last straw of gay marriage etc. They’re quintessential Anglicans, mannerly with good taste in liturgics etc. but not Catholic about the Eucharist or infallibility but not Protestant enough to give up a claim to apostolic succession and join theological neighbour the Missouri Synod Lutherans let along give up more or less traditional liturgy and go PCA Presbyterian or American evangelical.
Their best bet for now is the new conservative ex-Episcopal church forming and hoping to be admitted to the Anglican Communion.
The issues you bring up are among those why I don’t proselytise. Also, don’t spit from the fountain from which you’ve drunk. Everything Thomas Day has written about RCs in English-speaking countries is true. And the local liberal silliness in RC churches, no different really in belief from what conservative Anglicans are running from.
My old Anglo-Catholic movement has no Anglican future.
In England where most ACs are would-be RCs anyway the future as a culture obviously is as RC national parishes (like the Anglican Use in America but actually less Anglican, less Prayer Book). More troops on the front of Pope Benedict’s Catholic revival.
Correction: ‘let alone give up more or less…’
Style/grammar cop: ‘nor Protestant enough…’
I feel a deep sympathy for friends like yours. We all know that liberal silliness can be quite extreme in many Catholic parishes (especially in England), making them quite doubly unattractive to Anglo-Catholics: they would get the liturgical and pedagogical blandness of much of modern Catholicism along with the difficult doctrines such as papal infallibility.
That is why I never understand the desire to become more “relevant” in our worship or teaching. It attracts no one and repels the best sort of people.
In England 20 years ago it was easier than in the States to find high churchmanship at RC churches if you were looking for it. 20 years before Pope Benedict there was the Brompton Oratory.
i would advocate Western Rite Orthodoxy as the place for Church of England people to go. If there isn’t a parish near you – then contact me and we’ll find a way of building a mission. Go to our website for existing services and email address/phone. Don’t worry about what others say about England in the past. Take action for yourself now.
Western Rite Orthodoxy – which is very friendly to former Anglicans is also available in Canada, Australia, the USA and New Zealand.