Towards a Contemporary Catholicism

I am unashamedly Anglican Catholic, and in that there will be no surprises for you, dear readers. It isn't that I was raised in a particularly Anglo-Catholic environment either, because I wasn't. My church life, before ordination, ranged from membership of a modern church in an 'urban priority' area, through what could be construed or labelled as middle-of-the-road, all the way to Roman Anglo-Catholic (as distinct from the English Anglo-Catholicism of Percy Dearmer). Only the latter of these was my personal adult choice, the others being as a result of where we lived as a family in my formative years. 

I know what I like, and what enlivens and nourishes my encounter with God. By choice I seek it out when I am not the 'one at the front', but I have also experienced a quantum shift in what I believe the wider world wants. What I want and what the world wants are, I am fast learning, very distinct - even if there are some overlaps. 

Part of the 'problem' of Anglo-Catholic worship (which I will reiterate - I love with my whole heart) is that is it stuck in about 1845 if they are of the 'Romanising' style, or c1900 if they are of the Dearmerite 'English' style. In a digital on-demand age, such liturgical expressions are become much loved, revered and but sacred museum pieces. In my heart I crave a way in which the Sacraments can meet the world in which they are given by God, and at the point in time where we meet God in this age. 

You can cast your eyes around church websites or articles and find labels such as 'modern-catholic' or 'liberal catholic', 'traditional Anglo-Catholic', or a mix of them all and then you will quickly see the tell-tale markers of where that community is rooted in the context of the debate concerning women in ministry. They will display Resolutions or not, and the priest will be be suffixed 'SSC' or not. In short, the labels are contextual and in a fairly limiting way. My issue with 'modern' is that the rest of world will claim a 'post-modern' existence, with 'traditional' that it is regarded as the anti-women camp, and with 'liberal' that it is a little bit and pink and wishy-washy. None of these is the case, but they bring their problems as all labels do, including the one I am about to speak about (and may possibly be of my own invention, who knows): Contemporary Catholic. 

This is fast becoming the label that I apply to myself. The failing of present Anglo-Catholicism is that it is often received as the celebration of a former glory, as old, as out of date, arcane, fussy, strange, 'not for beginners' - and in many ways this is all true to a certain degree. I seek an Anglo-Catholicism that speaks of the moment, of now. This is not to suggest that I am proposing a poor mish-mash of incense and Matt Redman, because that would lack integrity in the hands of most of us. Our experience of God is found in the sensory, in beautiful  music, visual feasts, the counterpoint of silence and and exuberance, and in the adoration of God through the Sacraments. In that, it is the best of things, in my opinion - a position lost in political hang-ups and historical battle-lines. There must be a way that we can return to our Sacramental roots and still be children of digital 2011. The two are not, and cannot, be mutually exclusive. If they are, we are dead already.

I am not positing any answers or a new church order. I just express a developing and deepening sense in me that Anglo-Catholics need to find a new relevancy of the order achieved by Newman and Pusey in their day. It might even be a 'back to the drawing board' thing, I don't know - but something needs to happen. I know that I am not any breed of evangelical because I wasn't made that way or called to be. I am what I am, and so are many others, which is to say that a modern catholicism shouldn't be a slightly spiced-up evangelicalism. The world needs both to be done well in partnership. 

As I move towards incumbency and a whole world of fresh opportunity and potential, I place these thoughts here as I grow in new directions. If you saw me in action, you would already sense that I am unlike any Anglo-Catholic you have ever seen, liturgically - but change and development doesn't and shouldn't mean that the quality and integrity of the encounter with God be lost. 

* If you were wondering what the practical out-workings of the distinctive Anglo-Catholicisms were, be they Roman or English, it is to do with simplicity in the case of the English. English Anglo-Catholics, in being guided in some part by the Parson's Handbook will not favour the Roman taste cottas, myriad buttons on cassocks, umpteen candles on altars etc and will cherish a hymnody that is closely allied to that of Methodism, in the favouring of Vaughn Williams's versions of Wesley's hymns, for example. English catholics regard Romanisers as fussy and as a breed of lace-wearers!!

On Being 'Loved to Death'

During my recent sojourn in Jersualem (had I mentioned that I had been to Jerusalem? No! Sorry - thought I had) we sat and listened to a very senior Rabbi, British born, who has the ear of the Pope and Tony Blair (to some of you, both these names would indicate a poor man who needs help, but I encourage you not to be churlish). In short, he is a Rabbi who knows his stuff and is a very influential player in the Jewish-Christian dialogue.

His words, not mine: "We [the Chief Rabbinate of Jersualem] don't really want to deal with Evangelicals; they just want to love us to death. It is hard to sit in a room with people who are only interested in converting us". 

In many quarters this is how all Christians are regarded, as a scythe-blade of supercessionists who are only happy when converting the world. I wanted to deny this assessment but then I thought back to just two experiences of my own:

1. When I was 19, and well beyond the point in my life when I felt a sense of calling, had put in 16 good committed years to church life, and had started to read Theology, I ambled into a church with a friend. It was a charismatic church, a superbeast of a place, but despite appearances I am a very open-minded chap, and my friend wanted to try the place out! Within an hour I had been identified, separated, and moved to a small room with three or four others - where I was invited to accept Jesus as Lord - they refused to accept my confession that I really was already spliced with Mother Church. Perhaps it is because I didn't put my hand up during the singing [I didn't need the toilet] that caused me to be identified. Needless to say I left - upset, vowing never to return to the place.

2. I was chatting to a homeless geezer who I used to help out with some electricity and provisions when he was selling Big Issue outside my emporium. He had told me of another Godshop that had invited him and a load of his mates in for a lovely hot dinner one hard winter. He gladly accepted, but while they ate, they were invited to accept Jesus as Lord, or [and I speak the truth] they would all end up in Hell. He had stood up himself to tell the swanky-suited sir that being homeless is as close to Hell as it gets, so it didn't matter if he accepted the invitation or not, really - but thanks for the chow!

It seems that most [yes, these days it seems to be 'most'] Christians are hell-bent on converting the world. Sixteen gazillion lovely people have been exposed to the Alpha Course (though I note that church numbers are still slipping, so where did they go? - a post for later), and mission after mission pop off like firecrackers 

- but what are we converting these people to?

Our church is becoming polarised. If you aren't an Evanglical, you are more than likely going to be an Anglo-Catholic (until half their clergy bugger off - thanks boys, nice one ... not) - but very few are in the middle. The middle used to be a large swathe of church life where it seemed to me the real growing was taking part. It was the middle where the heat of charismatic worship and the correctness of catholic liturgy were set aside and nurturing took place. The middle is where families took their kids, where they did the prayers once in a while. The middle is where the sense seems to be spoken - the liberal view.

So what are we feverishly converting people to?

Christians have, I think become embarrassed about church life. We are so keen to specialise it that we have stopped some of the things that people know and love. Jumble Sales and Tombolas, Harvest Festivals and Cake Stalls have given way to Introduction Offers for the Newly Recruited - a course, some Tongues for some, a homegroup where you can properly intitiated and loved to death. 

Then what .... ?

What then .... ?

Anwers on a postcard.