The Virginian-Pilot
©
CHESAPEAKE
St. Bride's Church might seem just the kind of Episcopal congregation that would grab the Vatican's new invitation for Anglicans to join Catholicism.
High Mass, the Angelus, weekly confessions and rosary recitals as well as prayers for the pope already impart a Catholic style to the church in the Indian River section.
"We'd agree theologically with much, if not all, of the Roman Catholic faith," the Rev. R. Stephen Powers, St. Bride's priest, added.
He called his church the only Anglo-Catholic parish among the 115 churches in the Diocese of Southern Virginia, which includes Hampton Roads.
Pope Benedict XVI last week unveiled a permanent mechanism that would let Anglicans - often known as Episcopalians in the United States - practice Catholicism while keeping much of their Anglican-style prayers and rituals.
"It is a very, very generous offer on the part of the Vatican," Powers said.
Yet for now, St. Bride's is taking a wait-and-see stance toward the pope's new welcome mat, Powers said. St. Bride has about 150 congregants. Many Episcopalians are upset with the denomination's endorsement in 2003 of the ordination of a gay man as a bishop.
Powers said the dismay among Anglo-Catholics like him reaches further back to the denomination's ordination of women as priests starting in the 1970s.
He said the Episcopal Church also has an increasingly less-traditional interpretation of Scripture and had distanced itself from the Catholic and Orthodox Christian movements.
A few unhappy local parishes, such as Church of the Messiah, have quit the Episcopal Church and joined new, like-minded Anglican groups such as the Convocation of Anglicans in North America.
But Powers said St. Bride's shies from schism.
Instead, the parish is discussing shifting within the Episcopal Church to a different bishop who would share its viewpoint. The denomination allows such moves in certain cases.
"Let me be clear: We have no plans to leave the Episcopal Church," he said.
Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com
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Print vs Online Editions
Greetings,
As the subject of this interview, permit me to address some of the comments offered.
First of all, there is a difference between the print and online versions. The basic text is the same, but the headlines are different. The print headline omits the word Catholic, and inserts a sub-headline which reads something to the effect that Anglo-Catholic Parish Weighs its Options.
Anglo-Catholicism is an historic part of the Anglican Communion, tracing her roots recently to the Oxford Movement in England back in the 1830s and forward. It has always emphasised the Catholic roots of the Church of England, and has worked to recall the rest of the Church to these ancient roots, when the Church of England was still part of the Catholic Church.
Though S. Bride's is the only Anglo-Catholic parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia, in many other parts of the country and the world, huge portions of the Diocese would be very similar to S. Bride's.
There is a joint Catholic-Episcopal Church, Church of the Holy Apostles, with two separate Altars, but this is not what is meant by Anglo-Catholic.
I hope this clarifies some of the questions this interview raised.
"Anglo-Catholic parish",,, "Anglo-Catholicism"
"Anglo-Catholic parish",,, "Anglo-Catholicism"
Are you a Catholic church or an Episcopal church? Or an Anglican church?
Hyphenated people such as Italian-Americans are Americans with Italian roots.
We are an Episcopal Church
We are an Episcopal Church within the world wide Anglican Communion.
We are an Anglo-Catholic parish because we subscribe to the Catholic Revival in the Church of England of the 1830s.
Fr Powers+
thanks
That is not really clear but it will have to do.
""We'd agree theologically with much, if not all, of the Roman Catholic faith,""
Which is it; much or all?
Much or All
Keith,
It depends upon who you ask, doesn't it? Few parishes or organisations are completely monochromatic, and neither is S. Bride's.
For the most part, however, the vast majority of the parish would believe things like the centrality of the Mass, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Mother of God, the necessity of the male priesthood, the invocation of the Saints, evangelism and outreach to the poor and so on.
It's almost easier to list what parts the parish might have difficulty with than to list what they don't have difficulty with, and those would be the usual suspects.
I'm not certain you will find this a satisfactory answer, but I hope so.
much or all
"It depends upon who you ask, doesn't it?"
I'm only asking one person; you, the priest who made the statement.
Which is it?
Thanks Father Stephen...
You explain it well. I, unfortunately seldom read the print version (though I do subscribe) so I wouldn't have seen that. I'm glad you pointed out the differences.
I hope the print version was more faithful--that is it explained more exactly what they meant by "Catholic" and "Anglo-Catholic". The audience in this region...which is dominated by Baptists and other forms of Protestentism might not be aware of some of the finer distinctions that your explanation makes plain. Even some relatively well-informed Catholics and Episcopalians who are more familiar with the example of Holy Apostles (myself included) might be well served by accurate information about what the parishioners at St. Bede and similar congregations might be thinking and why.
Road Runner: Yes, I'm afraid
Road Runner:
Yes, I'm afraid that in this Bible Belt section of the country, Anglo-Catholic equates to the only Episcopal-Catholic parish in the world.
These are wonderful folk, but they have nothing to do with Catholic Anglicanism. What they are about, and I hope I'm not treading on toes of people I care about, is liberal Catholics and liberal Episcopalians doing their stuff on Sunday mornings. They share a common Liturgy of the Word, and then move to separate Altars for the Liturgy of the Sacrifice.
Anglo-Catholics are far different. We simply embrace the Catholic Faith which is our patrimony. We glory in the Catholic dimension of our Faith. One will find a High Mass, both Gregorian and Anglican Chant, the Asperges, the Introit, the Angelus and wonderful preaching. Sometimes we use the historic Liturgies, and sometimes we use the more contemporary Liturgies.
The Mass is the same.
The Catholic Faith of the parish is the same.
I hope this helps you and others understand more of what it means to be an Anglo-Catholic.
Fr P+
Who Checks These News Items?
This headline is totally in error and does not reflect what's in the article. Accuracy counts, but The Pilot doesn't seem to get it. This kind of thing continually happens.
Only one....?
"He called his church the only Anglo-Catholic parish among the 115 churches in the Diocese of Southern Virginia, which includes Hampton Roads."
Not exactly sure what was intended by use of the term "Anglo-Catholic", but actually the only joint Episcopal and Catholic parish in Virginia (and all of the US, for that matter) is Holy Apostles located in Virginia Beach. (See http://www.ha-arc.com.) The parish is part of BOTH the Roman Catholic Church's Diocese of Richmond AND the Episcopal Church's
Diocese of Southern Virginia. It has two co-pastors, who co-celebrate a joint Mass each Sunday morning at 10:00 AM. At the time of its founding 25+ years ago, the Vatican gave a special approval to the then Catholic bishop (Walter Sullivan) for this unique parish and ecumenical undertaking, which to this day remains the only such joint parish in the United States.