Apart from dressing churches for Harvest Festivals, I am not quite sure what this "patrimony" is. Most "High" Anglicans I know tend to use the modern Roman Missal, nowadays the rubricised Book of Common Prayer Eucharist has virtually disappeared, English Missal parishes are pretty scarce too. If a church is not using our Missal it tends to use the more Catholic options in Common Worship.
The "patrimony" could be seem as a of Anglican plurality, which if catholicised isn't necessarily antipathetic to Pope's Benedict's own understanding of plurality. It could be seen as a certain Oxbridge erudition, yet that seems to be on the wain, some Anglicans can after all be ordained after a two year home study course on inclusively.
It is right those of us who welcome the Ordinariate should emphasise the reason why Anglicans are becoming Catholics is not primarily about women bishops but a realisation that Anglicanism is no longer at one with the Church of the First Millennium. It is perhaps the desire for this that marks out the "Patrimony", together with a desire for union with the Tradition and a certain romanitas mingled with a sense of being natively English.
Any more ideas?
17 comments:
When I first saw that expression, I presumed it meant what the 'Anglican-use' parishes in the United States have: e.g. their own liturgical books which are in accordance with Catholic doctrine and practice. Or am I being too obvious?
FiF-UK uses many different liturgical rites. Many chose to use the modern Roman rite as a sign of obedience to Holy See. However, some use the English Missal, and even the TLM (Fr. Hunwicke uses it on a daily basis, for example). I recommend Bishop Andrew Burnham’s new book on the liturgy, Heaven and Earth in Little Space, published by Canterbury Press with a Foreword by Fr Aidan Nichols OP and an introduction by Fr Jonathan Baker SSC, Principal of Pusey House, Oxford. You can find it here:
http://www.theanglocatholic.com/2010/03/two-new-books/
The subtitle of the book is “The re-Enchantment of Liturgy”. I found it quite insightful and I suspect of great interest to “traditionally minded” Anglo-Catholics. He speaks about the TLM, and the Anglican Patrimony. Once the Ordinariate is set up, and people safely residing within it, something important will change: Up till now, the Anglicans within the CofE (and elsewhere) have taken pains to prove they are Catholic. That will no longer be an issue. I predict we will quickly work on shoring up the “Anglican Patrimony” cred - it is our raison d'etre after all, and that the Novus Ordo constituency will introduce the new approved liturgy (whatever it is – perhaps we will find out in a decade or two), which will eventually take over as the main liturgical form – together with the EF.
Anglican Patrimony
I suppose I would hope this would encompass the visions of Laud, and the Oxford Movement, among others. The forms of worship (and music) that developed separately in England since the 16th Century that are not dissonant from Catholic Teaching, and which are beautiful and moving to the soul.
Proper music at the parish level. The Office as an integral part of parish liturgy. Englishness(as opposed to false Irishness).
Better than that, though, the witness of converts, particularly the clerical converts who will have to give up everything to follow Jesus. The public adhesion of a large number of people to Peter. The acceptance of Peter's authority to change anything in their praxis he might want to change, along with the confidence that he will only change where necessary.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who is not sure what this patrimony is. As I see it, the Angligan tradition is really modified Catholicism. I don't understand why they simply don't go for the real thing and embrace the extraodinary form of the Mass and other aspects of our tradition.
Perhaps a rekindling of the Sarum rite could be in order through the Ordinariate.
Not sure if it is commanded, but the Catholic masses I have attended seem pretty terse in their ending... long before Ite, Missa Est, they have gone like rabbits into their holes. And the priest is nowhere to be seen. So maybe a bit of the patrimony is in the priest being available at the door?
Not sure if you are right, either, Father, about the total demise of BCP variants for Mass. At least three of the churches where I have ministered have used it - not in central London or in Brighton, maybe, but definitely down here in the straw-chewing rural bits.
As one who loves both the language of the Book of Common Prayer and its version of the Divine Office (though not the eucharistic theology of its author) and the Latin of the Mass of Pius V, it seems to me that the Anglican patrimony is precisely an amended Book of Common Prayer (already accepted by the Catholic Church in the USA), a type of unemotional devotion (like that of Bishop Challoner in the 18th century), a tradition of scholarship (to which Pope Benedict pays tribute by his footnotes in his books), a care in matters of rubric and ceremonial evident in most Anglican Churches, and a tradition of church music and hymns (which was drawn upon in Pope Benedict's recent visit). What the patrimony is not is a pale shadow of the Modern Roman rite even if better performed than in the original model.
Fr Nicholls foresaw it all in his book "The Panther and the Hind" published almost 20 years ago. He indeed preached at a High Mass , using Cranmerian English, of the Traditional Anglican Communion at Portsmouth. It was that group which petitioned the Holy See and were answered by Anglicanorum Coetibus. They have a claim to be considered the custodians and exemplars of the Anglican patrimony.
Fr - You may it useful to read the text of Bishop Burnham's recent talk at Pusey House, 'An Exploration of Anglican Patrimony: The Liturgical Heritage' - http://www.ebbsfleet.org.uk/phlit2010.htm.
I agree with your question. Mine too. If the Anglican Patrimnony is what i understand it to be then it really has no place in the Catholic Liturgy or Faith.
I am not convinced of those recent "johnny come latelies" who are now "embracing" Catholicism but I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt...until they prove me Right (or wrong?) by returninbg to protestanism after a sojourn in our True faith.
erudition on the 'wain' or 'wane'?
Pastor emeritus should perhaps read the parable of the prodigal son and that of the labourers in the vineyard. The Lord was very kind to"Johnny come latelies"(who presumably in EP's view would include Newman, Manning, Faber, Hopkins, Benson, Chesterton, Knox. Wheeler, Leonard). "I will give unto this last even as unto thee".
It would seem from Anglicanorum Coetibus that Pope Benedict agrees with the Lord.
"Anglican Patrimony - what is it?"
Father, perhaps a perusal of Fr. Hunwicke's blog might be instructive...
Anglican patrimony - isn't it that whole scholarly tradition? CS Lewis, Eric Mascall, T S Eliot and the like, who have so enriched the Anglican tradition generally, and contain little which is alien to Catholicism. There's also the Scripture scholarship, thinking more of Westcott & Co in the late 19th century than the desperate liberal demythologisers of the 20th.
In many ways we Catholics have already absorbed much of this patrimony - many Anglican hymns which were actually superb translations of Patristic hymns, for instance. Welcoming laity and clergy who were formed in this whole rich tradition, plus the influence of Pusey, Keble and co. in the Oxford movement, should enrich our own Catholicism.
High Church Anglicans also have a good strong tradition of venerating the early English saints - something which seems to have diminished in certain Catholic quarters in the last forty years. Well, they were in possession of their churches and shrines, so they should have! Unfortunately they probably won't be able to bring those saintly church buildings with them.
The Anglican patrimony is the Sarum rite, surely? With the readings in English. Surely we could all live with that?
The Sarum Rite? Surely that is the patrimony of those priests who refused to accept the Elizabethan Settlement? The Church of England people used the Book of Common Prayer. Sarum was only discontinued when the Marian priests died out and were replaced by those trained overseas for the English Mission.
In any case it is rather replete with medieval accretions and begins the offertory during the gradual.
Having married a then Anglican (now seen the light), I agree with Ttony about "proper music at the parish level" [although from my Catholic standpoint, if it ain't Gregorian Chant it ain't proper] and "the Office as an integral part of parish liturgy."
Both seem to be very common, rooted in their tradition, and regarded by them as very important - which I would say makes them part of their Patrimony.
I would also suggest their attachment to the liturgical cycle, including the minor remembrances and more social/national elements. Other than Christmas and Easter many Catholic churches in this country seem to have forgotten that there is a calendar, but for these Anglicans it still seems to be an important, living part of the practice of their faith.
Flippantly I would also add big processions.
But yes, Physiocrat, I would love to see the Sarum Use as the Ordinariate's version of the Extraordinary Form.
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