The Congregation of Saint Athanasius
The Anglican Use: Who are we?
A Roman Catholic, or a Christian believer from
another tradition, may well find himself curious upon first
encountering us. Who are we, the Catholics worshipping according
to the Anglican Use?
The SHORT answer to the question is
easily given. We are Roman Catholics, rejoicing in the fullness
of the Catholic Faith in communion with our Bishop, and through
him with Catholics throughout the world and with our Holy father
the Pope.
Until a couple of years ago many of us were
Episcopalians, members of the American branch of the world-wide
Anglican Communion. When as a group we sought to be received into
the full Communion of the Catholic Church, our Bishop, his
Eminence Bernard Cardinal Law, very graciously made use of
provisions in the law of the Church so that we might be received
together and continue our parish life . The "Anglican
Use" is a liturgy approved by the Church, the rite of the
Book of Common Prayer used by Anglicans, but slightly modified to
bring it into conformity with the tradition of the Roman Church.
So, we worship using substantially the same
liturgy we used as Episcopalians, but as Catholics professing
gladly the full Catholic Faith.
The LONG answer involves a bit of
history. Catholics often do not realize that the Protestant
Reformers of the sixteenth century never intended to found new
churches. Each of them believed that the whole church would
ultimately receive his ideas. In England, the Reformation took a
different shape from the rest of Europe; the Church of England
preserved a three-fold structure to its ministry with bishops,
priests, and deacons, and an officially required liturgy in The
Book of Common Prayer.
After decades of religious wars, the
established Church emerged as a deliberately
"comprehensive" institution embracing both protestant
believers and those who inclined towards more Catholic doctrines.
With the spread of her colonies throughout the world the English
Church spread as well, and ultimately the "Anglican
Communion" came into being throughout the old British
Empire.
A crisis hit the Anglican Communion in the mid-1800's with
the Oxford Movement. A group of theologians pioneered a
theological movement which sought to recover a sense among
Anglicans that the Church was not merely and official department
of the state, but a mystical body united to Christ, and to
emphasize the doctrines taught by the Fathers of the Church. Many
Anglicans embraced this teaching about the Catholic Church
through the ages as a breath of fresh air; to many others it
seemed dangerously like "Romanism", the teaching of the
Roman Catholic Church.
Controversy raged throughout Anglicanism. One of the leading
figures of the Oxford Movement, John Henry Newman, joined the
Roman Church and ultimately became a Cardinal and one of the
Church's leading theologians.
But, the "Catholic Movement" in Anglicanism
continued through the decades. The Liturgy of the Book of Common
Prayers was enriched with customs and traditional ceremonies, the
sacraments were emphasized, feasts, fasts, and seasons observed,
even religious orders sprang up within the Anglican Church.
Anglicans who participated in this Catholic Movement were hopeful
that ultimately the reunion of Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and
the Eastern Orthodox churches would become a reality.
Sadly, this hoped-for fruit of the Oxford Movement was not to
be. With the troubled decades of the 1960's, 1970's and
afterwards, societal turmoil affected the churches as deeply as
any other institution, and in the Episcopal Church and throughout
the Anglican Communion the increasing divergence from the
Magisterial Authority of the Catholic Church soon became evident.
Elected synods and governing bodies debated and voted upon the
overturning of the apostolic and scriptural tradition in areas of
sexual morality and sacramental theology -- it would be difficult
to overstate the change in the Church's life, as literally every
aspect of teaching and discipline came or could come under
dispute and discussion.
Where we had believed that as Anglicans we were somehow part
of the Catholic Church, we now saw the decisions of the Anglican
Church taking us further from Catholic Truth.
In our parish church, The Parish of All Saints, Ashmont, in
Boston, the teaching had been clear for generations: we were
hoping for reunion of all Anglicans with the Holy See. Again,
Roman Catholics often do not realize how deep is the desire for
reunion in the heart of members of other churches who yet remain
in their churches of birth to work. In the chapel altar in All
Saints Church there is a stone taken from the floor of St.
Peter's Basilica in Rome, placed there deliberately to encourage
us all to remember the goal of reunion.
The rest of the story is quite simple. The Second Vatican
Council emphasized the scandal of Christian division. Since then
the Catholic Church has made provision for believers in other
communions seeking to come into full Communion with the Catholic
Church.
The "Pastoral Provision" enables married clergy of
the Anglican Church to be ordained to the Catholic Priesthood and
as married Catholic Priests. In the Eastern Catholic Churches
united with Rome there have always been married Priests, but in
the Roman Rite Priests have been celibate for centuries. The
Pastoral Provision is a gracious exception made in certain cases.
The "Anglican Use" is a further generous provision.
Over the centuries since the Reformation, a rich inheritance of
worship and spirituality developed among Anglicans -- indeed,
when the Roman Mass was put into English after Vatican II,
Anglican hymnals were a resource for the music the Catholic
Church now required. The familiar cadences of the Book of Common
Prayer served as a vehicle for beautiful worship for generations
of English speaking Christians. And since the Fathers of the
Second Vatican Council had explicitly said that "worthy
elements of the patrimony of piety? in the life of other
Christian churches could find a place in the life of the Catholic
Church, our Anglican Use is actually the realization , the
fulfillment of a hope offered at Vatican II.
When we were Episcopalians, we used to say, "If you'd
really like to know us, join us at worship". We can say the
same as Roman Catholics today. Our special vocation, as the
Anglican Use Chaplaincy of the Archdiocese of Boston, is to serve
as a living invitation to Christians everywhere who long for the
fullness of the living Catholic Tradition. We "swam the
Tiber", as we used to say as Anglicans --we swam the Tiber
and the water was fine!! Come for Mass, and learn more about who
we are.
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