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!!

When hate hates hate

The Bucks Herald, our local paper, headlined with the possbility that the English Defence League were planning a visit to Aylesbury www.bucksherald.co.uk/news/Protests-could-be-coming-to.6123689.jp

I have trawled the intergalactic information super-highway for the image that was pasted across that edition of the paper, because it was an alarming picture of some very large gentlemen, stood in a rather menacing arrangement, fists clenched, wearing black balaclavas. They were donning their badges, a kind of replica of the flag of St George - and I could not escape the parallel that the image drew to one that I had seen of the Ku Klux Klan once before. Whether they had intended that parallel or not, I can only speculate, but the similarities rang out to my eyes. Sadly, I could not find that picture - you would surely know what I mean! Other imagery does little to break away that similarity, and it seems that a shaven head and an angry teeth-born sneer is the look of choice for this organistion. 

Now, I am one who will defend free speech. However, with any right there is a responsibility, and I am also aware that the spoken word makes up a mere fraction of all our communication. The image that I have offered here does not show a man who is interested in speaking freely. He is concealed and hidden - an irony given that the burka is a bete noir for these gentlemen (sorry, if there are any women, your feminity is lost in the pictures that I saw, often because of the concealment or the snarling). This man doesn't want to speak to anyone, he wants to finger-point and jeer. He wants to intimidate and frighten. This is odd to me, given that they seek to end such behaviour from other extremists. 

Extremism lacks any kind of generosity, as far as I can tell. We have an Islamic extremism that has a heritage now for murder and blindness of argument. But, lest we feel unrepresented as English people (is claiming to be English almost becoming a sign of xenophobia these days, or is it just me), we have our Defenders, the EDL, racing to our aid. And what are they using to counter hatred? More hatred. Inspired. So, let me get this straight - in a world where hatred is killing the innocent, we inject just a little more hatred into an already fragile and injured world. Is it me .......

As a Christian, I preach and live by the scruples of love. If someone means me harm, I don't race them to land the first blow. I might talk to them, or I might draw away from them. Either way, I can only respect one who has a view but who has the courage to be open with it. How easy it must be to hide in a mask and preach hatred. It is cowardice. For all I know, just writing this could mean I wake to a burning cross in my front garden (or worse), but at least you know who I am. 

And for the record EDL - what you do is not in my name or in the name of my children. You are not solving a problem, you are adding to it - and with you there are some who are just along for the destructive ride. The world is more dangerous with you than without.