THE ANGLICAN TRADITION
The Church of England is also called the Anglican Church. In the United States after the Revolutionary War it has usually been called “Episcopalian.”
When Henry VIII split with Rome in
the 16th century the Church of England kept its already existing
structure, with bishops, clergy, church buildings, and congregations being
placed under the archbishop of Canterbury. The Church of England retained its
traditional doctrine, liturgy, and organization.
Not until Edward VII, Elizabeth I,
and Oliver Cromwell did greater changes come in. The Church of England turned
from Protestant under Edward to Catholic under Mary. Elizabeth adopted a middle
ground, seeking to blend both Catholic and Protestant elements.
The Protestant character can be seen
in the rejection of the concept of Purgatory, the discontinuation of the use of
indulgences and relics, and the use of English rather than Latin for worship.
Elizabeth retained the traditional episcopal structure even though it was
controversial. Many English Puritans also objected to ordained priests.
Anglican doctrine on the church shifted
from an emphasis on the bishop to the Calvinist emphasis on the congregation.
The Book of Common Prayer affirms that the Church exists where the Word of God
is preached, the sacraments are duly administered, and the faithful are
gathered.
In America the American Revolution
almost destroyed Anglicanism. The Church of England in America was considered
traitorous by many and lost its legal recognition. Many of its priests then
returned to England. The bishops in England at first refused to pass along episcopal
orders. A working relationship was eventually reached between the new
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States and the Church of England.
The Protestant Episcopal Church, the
Reformed Episcopal Church (a nineteenth-century splinter group), and a few
congregations of the Philippine Independent Church were the main Anglican
groups in the United States until the 1960s. At that time, American Anglicanism
was split by issues of sexuality, changes in the Prayer Book, and the
ordination of women. Schisms began in 1964 with the formation of the Anglican
Orthodox Church, but accelerated in 1976 after females had been ordained in
both Canada and the United States. The Anglican Catholic Church and the
Anglican Catholic Church in Canada are the two largest bodies of the ten or
more churches formed among dissenting Anglicans. These churches received orders
from the Philippine Independent Church.
The Western Roman liturgical
tradition suffered other divisions beside that of
the Anglicans. One of these involved the Jansenists in the 1600s.
Jansenists believed that the human
will was not free and that redemption was available only to some. The
Jansenists were condemned by the Roman Catholic Church and eventually an entire
section of Holland that was strongly Jansenist ended up without bishops. Some
sympathetic bishops who were still in union with Rome did finally consecrate
new bishops for that region. Although the Jansenists could claim valid
apostolic succession, the new bishops were not legally recognized by Rome.
Eventually the bishop of Utrecht and his diocese became the central focal point
for those bishops.
Later, in the 1870s, based on rejection of the decree on papal infallibility of the First Vatican Council, the Old Catholic Church formed and traced its origins to the see of Utrecht. In various countries groups of Roman Catholics who rejected infallibility formed new communities and sought formal recognition by the Church of Utrecht.
The Old Catholic Church at first
retained most traditional doctrine. However, in 1874 they dropped compulsory
fasting and auricular confession, and the number of feast days was reduced. By
1880 the vernacular began to replace Latin in celebrations of the Eucharist.
The seven sacraments continued to be recognized, but Baptism and the Eucharist
were viewed as of prime importance. The Roman Catholic Church recognizes the
validity but not the legality of Old Catholic (Utrecht) ordination.
There is a unique character to the
Old Catholic movement in the United States. Here, it developed an
antiauthoritarian character. Most of its bishops have had only small
followings. They have pressed for recognition of orders while keeping
independence of jurisdiction. As an attempt at legitimization, they have sought
recognition or reconsecration by bishops of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Often
this has occurred after refusal by the Archbishop of Utrecht. Over time there
has developed a pattern of independent bishops setting up schismatic dioceses
and churches. That process has led to significant differences between local
churches in both doctrine and rites.
Many bishops claim dioceses that
exist only on paper and report ordination by bishops who may not even exist.
Some churches have focused on the homosexual community. Some have been
fraudulent.
The intermingling of Eastern and
Western orders also led to a mixing of liturgies. The bishops of independent
jurisdictions did not necessarily follow the liturgical traditions appropriate
to their ordination. Some even embraced Theosophy or wrote their own liturgical
forms.
Many American jurisdictions are
quite small, with an unpaid clergy and congregationally owned property. The
various churches are marked by a lack of stability and consistency.
Since the Second Vatican Council a
new set of independent “traditionalist” groups has appeared. They adamantly
insist on the use of Latin and pre-Vatican II liturgical forms and theology.
Some have received Old Catholic orders, but some have received them from other
sources, such as Archbishop Lefebre or the Vietnamese Archbishop Ngo-Dinh-Thuc,
of the schismatic Latin Rite Catholic Church.
~~~~~~~~~~
Comments
received:
.....I was shocked
when I read your text about the Old Catholic Churches, which was part of a
description of various Churches.
I am a member of
the German Old Catholic Church and involved in youth work, being a member of
the German national youth committee and vice-chairman of the International Old
Catholic Youth (IOCY).
At least in Europe,
this picture [of a chaotic pattern of independent bishops] is completely
bizarre and false. The European Churches of the Union of Utrecht comprise
dioceses in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland,
Switzerland and former Yugoslavia, and further parishes in Denmark, France,
Italy, Slovakia and Sweden; worldwide we have about half a million members; in
Germany there are about 50 parishes. The Old Catholic Churches are established
and recognized Churches in Europe.
We have a synodal,
democratic structure and are strongly involved in ecumenical work, being a
founding member of the World Council of Churches and represented at all kinds
of ecumenical bodies. There is also an agreement of full communion between the
Old Catholic and the Anglican Churches since 1931 (the Bonn Agreement). The
Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury is about to visit the Archbishop of Utrecht
again this year, and there is strong cooperation on all levels of Church life.
We are a stable and continuously growing Church.
Our faith is, of
course, Catholic. (After all, our founders did not deliberately form their own
Church, but were expelled from the Roman Catholic Church against their will
because they refused to accept the Pope's new teachings of infallibility etc.,
so that they, then, reluctantly had to organize themselves for the time being.)
However, over time
we have generally developed more liberal ideas towards certain questions of
moral[ity], divorce, homosexuality etc. But there is a wide spectrum of
personal views, and the official opinion may be characterized as emphasizing
the value of every individual before God's eyes and his all-embracing love; we
are not entitled to make conclusive judgments over other people.
The Church
structure is, as I wrote, democratic: the parish members elect the parish
priest, and the synod, consisting of lay representatives and all ordained
people, elects the bishop and is responsible for making the Church law. As in
the Anglican Churches, women are increasingly ordained to the priesthood (a
delicate problem for Rome, which has to accept the validity of these
ordinations). The priests and bishops are usually married. The theological
training takes place at the Old Catholic faculties at the Universities of Bonn,
Bern, Warsaw and at the Universities of Amersfoort (NL) and Prague, and there
is also cooperation with Anglican theological colleges.
Finally, you
mention the ultra-conservative group around Levebre in the same text, giving
the impression that we are somehow connected with him or at least tend to have
similar ideas. This is utterly bizarre. It would be more appropriate to mention
him on a different page or under a different heading.
~~~~~~~~~~
(JM The following
is a continuation of the previous comments)
I have now found
out a bit more about the reasons for the confusion...
... I found out
that there is indeed a strong difference between the European and the U.S. Old
Catholic Church. This is partly because the name "Old Catholic" is
not protected by the state, and in the U.S. there always seem to be some people
who follow their own, individual ways--at least more than I am used to in
Europe. So there are basically two things:
(1) The Polish
National Catholic Church (PNCC), as it is officially called, is a member of the
Union of Utrecht and strongly connected with the European sister Churches. This
Church has about 150,000 members and is historically based on the Polish ethnic
minority. I have, however, the impression that they have much more conservative
ideas than we have. For example, they strongly reject the ordination of women
and immediately terminated the full communion with the German Old Catholic
Church when the first two women were ordained to the priesthood in 1996. This
was a threat to the Union of Utrecht as a whole, but the International Bishops'
Conference (IBC) was able to "rescue" the Union at their crucial
meeting in summer last year. Since then, there has been a further meeting in
Chicago this year, but I have not been able yet to obtain a copy of the
communique.
Unfortunately, I don't
know much about the structure of this Church, so that I can't give you a more
detailed description at the moment. But they certainly have a synodal,
democratic structure, mainly fully paid clergy, "existing" dioceses
and parishes with a considerable number of members, and they are in agreement
with us on all substantial theological questions (apart from woman ordination).
(2) But then there
may well be a large number of "wandering bishops," as we call them,
who have nothing to do with us apart from the similar name and the fact that
they try to represent some kind of Catholicism independent of Rome. They may
well meet your description, and there may be many of these exotic bishops
because, of course, they won't be reluctant to participate in many obscure
consecrations.
The thing I still
find unclear is how the two bishops whose biography was contained in the
article [sent to explain some of my comments] could obtain their ordinations
from respected European bishops. Today, we only consecrate a bishop if the IBC
comes to the conclusion that he has been properly elected in one of the
established member Churches of the Union. (Or if we are invited to the
consecration of an Anglican bishop.) The explanation might be that this was in
the beginning of our movement, in a difficult and unclear situation. But this
is still not very satisfactory.
It was nice to hear
that you asked me to contribute to the text. I would recommend that a clear
distinction be made between the PNCC and the independent bishops, and that they
[be] described separately. As far as the PNCC is concerned, the connection with
the Union of Utrecht and the European Old Catholic Churches could also be
mentioned. But, as I said, I am still going to do some more research on the
PNCC.
(Note... Much of
the above was prepared by a member of the Old Catholic Church, with the
assistance of Thaddeus Schnitker Ph.D. S.T.D., seminary professor of liturgy
and Anglican theology. I am certainly grateful to both for their comments....
JM)
