These are really difficult times for Anglicans who believe that we are but a small part of the whole Catholic Church, and therefore unable on our own to change fundamental aspects of Church life, such as the Sacraments. Often the impression others have of us is that we are basically negative. That’s because they only come across us in synods and other forums where we are part of the battle to maintain the Faith which the Church of England claims to share with the great Churches of East and West. After all, we MUST say “no” to the creation of yet more obstacles in the way of the unity for which Jesus prayed, and for which our Church has worked and prayed for so long.
But there’s another story, a basically untold story. And that is the life of our parishes “on the ground.” Although worn down and even ruthlessly exterminated by liberal hierarchies in other parts of the Anglican Communion, the life of real Anglo-Catholic parishes goes on in the Church of England, not just in the well-known “shrine churches”, but all over the country in villages, towns and cities. Our PEVs (“flying bishops”) and the networking strength of well established Anglo-Catholic organisations (of which there are many) means that even isloated parishes feel part of a movement, a vital stream within the Church. The youthfulness of many of our ordinands, the commitment to orthodoxy, to sacramental certainty, and to imaginative ways of evangelism, as well as the determination to survive, flourish and GROW . . . are all noticeable characteristics of our part of the Church of England.
So, it is significant that a new newspaper “TOGETHER” has been launched by the “Catholic Societies” of the Church of England colaborating with Forward in Faith and the Society of St Wilfrid and St Hilda. It is available online
HERE.
Congratulations to those who have worked so hard to launch the paper, especially its editor, Father Christopher Smith SSC, Vicar of St Alban’s Holborn.
