Anglo-Catholicism in England

During my second Anglican pilgrimage to England in Aug 2019 (see my other post), I had the opportunity to experience Anglo-Catholicism worship at two Anglo-Catholic churches, the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford, and the Church of All Saints, Margaret Street, London.

The University Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford, was the church where John Henry Newman was vicar and considered the birthplace of the Oxford Movement and Anglo-Catholicism. I attended a Book of Common Worship (BCW) Said Communion on Friday.  For it being the birthplace of the Anglo-Catholic movement, it wasn’t very high church (at least what I was expecting), the liturgy and rituals were very similar to what I experienced at a said Eurcharist at St. Paul’s Cathedral. The priest was people facing rather than altar facing and there actually was not altar cross (since the priest had to stand behind the altar).

Back in London, I attended a BCW Low Mass on Saturday at the Church of All Saints, Margaret Street. It was a beautiful church, the interior was richly decorated, no flat surface was left undecorated. Though it was a BCW liturgy, those in attendance performed very Roman Catholic rituals and actions during the service.

I spoke with the priest of All Saints after the service and how I found Anglo-Catholicism in England very different than Anglo-Catholicism in Canada. He told me that Anglo-Catholics in England despise the Book of Common Prayer, and either use the English missal or BCW. He said that Anglo-Catholic movement in England was to be more Catholic (in line with the Church of Rome and its practices) and almost undo the actions of Cranmer (and hence despising the Book of Common Prayer). This is a rather different philosophy than in Canada where “high church” usually means the use of the Book of Common Prayer (vice the Book of Alternative Services) and the use of traditional catholic liturgical practices (i.e. vestments, incense, bells, and altar facing rather than people facing).

It was an eye-opening experience to see how Anglo-Catholicism worked in the Church of England because clearly Canada and England has a different philosophy on what it means to be Anglo-Catholic.

While not specific to Anglo-Catholicism in England, I found that all the Church of England churches I attended used white wine rather than red wine for the Eucharist.

December 2019 update: In December 2019, I was once again in London and attended a Saturday noon-hour low mass at St. Stephen’s, Gloucester Road. This was the most Latin style worship I had ever attended in an Anglican Church. The liturgy was basically the current Roman missal, and the priest wore a fiddleback chasuble (the first time I had actually seen a fiddleback chasuble used), and the wine was rose coloured. It was also interesting for me because this was a Forward in Faith (FiF) parish (a traditionalist Anglo-Catholic movement that takes a traditionalist position on doctrine and opposes ordination of women), so it had a “flying bishop” (formally known as alternative episcopal oversight) to provide episcopal oversight.

The use of flying bishops does not happen in the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) and is a very interesting approach to prevent schism and breakaways in the Church of England. When the ACC approved of the origination of women in the 1970s, the hardcore traditionalist parishes that opposed and had no chance of reconciliation broke away from the ACC and joined breakaway Anglican groups such as the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada. The ACC would also undergo another breakaway schism in the mid 2000s with the authorization of blessings of same-sex marriages and the ordination of non-celebrate LGBT clergy, with people leaving for the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).