Patrimony

We deny to claim "any Superiority to ourself
to defyne, decyde, or determyn any Article or Poynt
of the Christian Fayth and Relligion,
or to chang any Ancient Ceremony of the Church
from the Forme before received and observed
by the Catholick and Apostolick Church."

Norman Simplicity

Norman Simplicity
Click image for original | © Vitrearum (Allan Barton)

Thursday, July 17, 2014

"I Confess"

Since people (apparently) want to know (if it is not already obvious), I am a 'Catholic-minded Anglican'. But what can that possibly mean in the twenty-first century?

Like a lot of people in the nineteenth and twentieth century, I used to confuse that with aping Rome. In the 'Biretta Belt', one simply couldn't be too 'spikey', too Tridentine, too Ultramontane. Of course, the logical outcome of this tact, ultimately, was to abandon Anglicanism altogether and to move one's congregation to a versus populum, Novus Ordo parish. The practical outcome in most places, however, is what we see today: outwardly ritualist parishes completely devoid of order, faith, and morals. Dead end.

My earliest experiences were with what was once known as 'Prayer Book Catholicism' and to that, as well as a more intellectually 'High Church' attitude, I have returned. But only as a more advanced form of 'inner exile'. There is no institutional arrangement available to me any longer. I had some hopes for the Ordinariate (and may yet still). But, mostly, hope for some kind of organized solution is non-existent. I won't say why Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, or the fractured Continuum do not appeal -- as that will issue in nothing but hate and froth -- but, for me, they simply do not.

Nothing here is a condemnation of what others decide works for them. This blog concerns itself with the provisional, not the eternal, and the theoretical, not the practical. The goal? "Restoring the Anglican Mind": "a retrieval of riches" from within our "own household." (I think that there is a lot that is there, undiscovered and unmined.) Nothing more but, also, nothing less. The proof will be in the proverbial pudding. So little for anyone else to do or see here. Move along. You're free to go.

"Have I broken any laws?"
"Then I'm free to go?"

2 comments:

  1. Hello Mr. Sullivan,

    A friend of mine pointed out this post, presumably in response to my advertisement of your blog on the St. Alban site. I wanted to pass along a friendly comment that I was not trying to pry about your background, but rather my comment simply reflected my ignorance about you. What you write could equally as well have been written by a member of the Ordinariate. It is none of my business - the post was simply intended to bring your blog to our readership's attention as interesting and worthy of their attention. Indeed, I love the site you've constructed and hope the Ordinariate can embody this culture. Carry on!

    I hope you can find a solution to your institutional difficulties - believe me, I sympathize.

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  2. Starting out standard 1928 BCP in an unpretentious Midwestern parish that still had "Solemn High Morning Prayer," and having discovered Tridentine Anglo-Catholicism as a teenager, at a place since closed, I'm happy to have returned to Rome over two years ago after a long lapse - the biretta-belt high churchmanship can be found here if one is looking for it. I'm not in the Ordinariate; sorry that's let you down. Good luck.

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