Anglicanism Refocused

Anglicanism Refocused

- an excerpt from An Unofficial Ordinariate Primer

The Oxford Movement encouraged a recovery of the beauty of (Anglican) worship in the external forms of liturgical ceremonies, vestments, and music. It led to a renewed appreciation for (Anglicanism's) catholic heritage and tradition, the importance of the apostolic ministry and the sacraments, the recovery of Anglican spiritual life, the revival of monastic life in the Anglican Communion, and appreciation for the ancient doctrines, discipline, and devotional practices of the church.

If one peruses the Tracts for The Times, one will find in the Advertisement introduction to the Tracts an almost if not entirely prophetic riff that hints at where Newman knew he himself had to go, even while, during the period of the Tracts that were composed between 1833 to 1841, he was hoping for a full recovery of Anglicanism's Catholic foundation.

There are zealous sons and servants of her (Anglican) English branch, who see with sorrow that she is defrauded of her full usefulness by particular theories and principles of the present age, which interfere with the execution of one portion of her commission; and while they consider that the revival of this portion of truth is especially adapted to break up existing parties in the Church, and to form instead a bond of union among all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, they believe that nothing but these neglected doctrines, faithfully preached, will repress that extension of Popery, for which the ever multiplying divisions of the religious world are too clearly preparing the way.

At the writing of the last tract, Tract 90 in 1841, surely the way forward had become clear. Newman eventually swam home to Rome, acknowledging that "to be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant" (An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845): Introduction, Part 5.)

Newman realized that his position in the Church of England rested on church and public approval of an interpretation of the Anglican formularies in a catholic sense. This was the goal of Tract 90. If it failed, Newman knew that men would leave for Rome. He was proved right, after Tract 90 was denounced. For if the Church of England could not accept its own catholicity, it had little to offer the catholic Christians in its fold. He wrote: “I would not hold office in a Church which would not allow my sense of the Articles." And: "There were no converts to Rome, till after the condemnation of Tract 90." Newman subsequently converted to the Roman Catholic faith where he was later elevated to Cardinal.

With the advent of the Personal Ordinariates established by the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, one can imagine Newman and the other Tractarians weeping for joy at the return to the Catholic fold of "zealous sons and servants of (the) English branch". If Saint John Henry Newman were alive today, perhaps he would also be lamenting the loss of beauty in diocesan Catholic circles. Though, any misery would likely be tempered by the recovery of worshiping "God in the beauty of holiness" that habitually occurs in communities of the Personal Ordinariates.