The Martyrs of Memphis: Sisters of St. Mary who died ministering in the yellow fever epidemic of 1878.
Anglo-Catholicism confounds some of our progressive brothers and sisters who assume that any people who use incense and say “And with thy spirit” must be guilty of the unforgivable 21st Century offenses of intolerance, elitism, and heartless conservatism. Somehow it has entered the received wisdom that, when the Grinch stole Christmas, he wore a maniple.
I love the looks I get when I tell those laboring under this misconception that 100 years ago there was far more concern that Anglo-Catholics were dangerous socialists agitating among the poor and causing them to have ideas above their station. Most in the States know nothing of the great work done in London’s East End or that, closer to home, Anglo-Catholics created some of the first integrated churches and free hospitals. Even those of us within the movement can too often forget that we gained toleration for our liturgical practices only because of the incontestable good that our predecessors accomplished through years of untiring service to the poorest of the poor.
As a Roman Catholic Monk, one of my selfish interests in the success of the Ordinariates is that they have the potential to offer the wider Church a model of parishes renowned both for the beauty of their worship and for doing a crack job at the Corporal Works of Mercy. Too many progressives find a liturgy full of folksy, earnest clichés to be the sine qua non of worship, sadly revealing their unstated premise that this is the best that those in need could possibly understand. Historically, Anglo-Catholics would have none of this, believing dignified worship also dignified the worshiper who was reminded whose child he was.
Roman Catholic social teaching since the time of Leo XIII has been one of the glories of the Church, but too often in the last 40 years it has been held hostage to this impoverished aesthetic. Anglo-Catholics, on the other hand, have a tradition of sisters who can work in an inner-city hospice and still sing from the Monastic Diurnal and of sacristies with thuribles that were gifts from the Guild of the Iron Cross for Working Men and Boys. We know hymns like Dearmer’s Father Who on Man Dost Shower and most of us probably remember the stirring words of Frank Weston of Zanzibar to the Anglo-Catholic Congress of 1923 linking our devotion to the Blessed Sacrament to our protecting the dignity of our brothers and sisters:
But I say to you, and I say it to you with all the earnestness that I have, that if you are prepared to fight for the right of adoring Jesus in his Blessed Sacrament, then you have got to come out from before your Tabernacle and walk, with Christ mystically present in you, out into the streets of this country, and find the same Jesus in the people of your cities and your villages. You cannot claim to worship Jesus in the Tabernacle, if you do not pity Jesus in the slum.
Now that’s a real theology of liberation.
There were always political differences within the movement, but shared belief bridged the political and allowed those with differences to pray together. In an earlier day, the reader of The Nation and the reader of The National Review could serve Mass together because they were confident that they were inwardly bound together in common faith as they were outwardly bound in common prayer. As we have seen this sort of Christian tolerance and generosity of spirit disappear in the increasingly winner-take-all politics of the provinces of the Anglican Communion, it would be a pity if those who have too often been the victims of this change lose that history ourselves.
I think that this belief that worship transcends political agendas even as it sends us out into the world to practice the love of Christ may well be one of the most important of the “elements of sanctification and of truth” referred to in Anglicanorum Coetibus. Many of those who have doubts about the Ordinariates foresee them precipitating an invasion of grinches. Won't it be wonderful if we can show the skeptics that, in addition to Newman and Pusey, Anglo-Catholics are also the heirs of Fr. Paul of Graymoor, who worked among the homeless; of Sister Constance, who died ministering to the victims of yellow fever; and of countless others whose lives were a witness to their belief that whatever they had done for the least of these, they had done for Him.
Related posts:
"Won't it be wonderful if we can show the skeptics that, in addition to Newman and Pusey, Anglo-Catholics are the heirs of Fr. Paul of Graymoor," …and "Sister Constance"……
Amen to that Brother Stephen! I pray that some of us will take on this kind of ministry within the Ordinariates. It is certainly of interest to me.
Charles+
I certainly hope that prospective members of the Ordinariate will take the time to (re)acquaint themselves with such Anglo-Catholic radicals as Fr. Dolling (http://anglicanhistory.org/bios/rwrdolling.html) as well as converts like Dorothy Day (http://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/ddbiographytext.cfm?Number=72) , co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, whose "love of the least of these" was matched by her love for dignified Mass and Office Catholicism. It would be a wonderful thing if the TAC took the lead in reviving "houses of hospitality" for the poor and marginalized, grounded in traditional Catholic faith and praxis. What better witness could we make than to take in the "insulted and injured," to feed and house them, and perhaps even to say Mattins and Evensong with them, and offer the sacraments?
What a beautiful and inspiring post! Sadly, what I have also found in some progressive religious circles is the idea that government programs are the answer and that social justice is simply a matter of raising the minimum wage or providing universal health care. The Holy Father captured it best in Deus Caritas Est in showing how inseparable the Eucharist is from the mission of the Church. Take away the Eucharist and your works of mercy become mere social work.
Poverty has a totally different dimension now than it did say back even in the 1950s. Now, in the west especially, the poor have material riches that were beyond the imagination of even middle class people in previous generations.
What drives me crazy are news conferences that try to propose a solution to child poverty—always a government solution such as massive institutionalized daycare rather than addressing many of the root causes of child poverty such as the breakdown of the family, the devaluation of fathers and of marriage.
Many hospitals and schools were built by people who had vocations and were willing to take vows of chastity, poverty and obedience in order to minister to people. We may have to rediscover these callings as our health care systems go into free fall and start lining up the elderly and infirm for the euthanasia clinics.
Deborah
Many thanks, Br. Stephen, for bringing up this point. I have been somewhat concerned that the ordinariates could turn out to be quite clubby and inward looking. Whereas, I think one of the great advantages of the Anglican Pastoral practice in many places was the ability to minister respectfully to everybody, regardless of social standing or class, and neither to talk down to them (as one often feels in the current RC climate, at least here in the USA) nor to make them feel in any way unrespected or put down. As my old pastoral theology professor at Nashotah House, Fr. Caldwell, used to put it, we should be equally comfortable sitting on orange crates or on silk sofas, or on whatever else our people offer when we come calling. Indeed I suspect the success of the Ordinariate will depend on ministering to those who might otherwise be ignored or despised.
I do hope that prospective members of the Ordinariate will take the time to (re)acquaint themselves with Anglo-Catholic heros like Fr. Dolling of S. Agatha’s Landport, and converts like Dorothy Day, who co-founded the Catholic Worker movement, and whose "love of the least of these" was matched by her love for dignified Mass and Office Catholicism. Wouldn't it be wonderful if TAC took the lead in reviving the Catholic Worker "houses of hospitality," in which the poor and needy could be housed, fed, and perhaps even offered daily Mattins and Evensong and the Sacraments from modern-day Anglo-Catholic "slum priests."
My last 10 years before entering the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada was spent in my home city's bastion of Anglo-Catholicism. There the Parish had the oversight of a diverse social service system that worked with the poor, psychological demons, and those who suffered substance abuse. It was a very pastoral and successful programme that involved many in the Parish and, as Brother points out, was centred around the Blessed Sacrament. The Rector was a faithful man who toed the line who knew his "clients" as well as his parishioners.
Enter the Provincial Government that allowed the Parish to continue, but under new state guidelines. These guidelines gradually eroded the Parish's role and its ability to teach the faith to those who were be helped and healed through the faith and the love of Christ present in the Sacrament taken to the streets.
It was about this time that the secularization of the Christian mindset also entered our beloved Parish. Ministries of the Lay had to be affirmed, not a bad thing in itself, but lead by the liberal agenda the Parish began to lose its catholic identity and the Lay made their way into the Sanctuary. Sure, there is still a "Solemn High" celebrated each week, but the gospel preached is that of social justice. I recall one last time that I attended out of nostalgia that Jesus was not mentioned once in the sermon.
Much of the demise of this Parish one may attribute to the desire to receive funding from the Government which is quick to give if you don't mention Jesus to those in your programmes.
I hope and pray that the Ordinariates will make a return to such good works, but we will likely have to do it without government funding.
Fr. Charles:
Let's all keep praying.
Brian:
Three cheers for Fr. Dolling and Dorothy Day. I think one of the worst things that's happened in the last 40 years is that we haven't challenged the assumption that they'd be uncritical supporters of every innovation. Day certainly has some good quotes that indicated she'd have been more like Mother Theresa than We Are Church.
Deborah & Michael:
I agree that these things take careful consideration. Any of us who've worked in the nonprofit world know that you're better off if your support comes from individuals who believe in your mission rather than in considerably more fickle foundation officers and government bureaucrats. On the other hand, I think social welfare legislation is important, as the Popes have said. Things tend to break down when those making decisions about programs are too far removed from the communities where they're implemented. Good old Catholic–and very Anglican–subsidiarity can do much to address this problem.
Yes, subsidiarity!
Well said, Br Stephen; and as someone who grew up in Plymouth (England) I rejoice in the history of the Devonport sisters. Reviled when they first began, after their selfless nursing of vitims of Cholera they became hugely loved – and woe betide any Kensitite who tried to attack them or what they stood for.
Bishop,
I'm glad that it brought back happy memories–not that Mother Lydia needed much protecting from what I remember from my reading. I'll have to pull out The Call of the Cloister when I get back to the Abbey next month.
I do hope that Apostolic Constitution means good things for the religious life after all of the years it was smothered by division.
I heard a preacher once say, "If the Church does not feed the poor, someone will. If the Church does not cloth the poor, someone will. If the Church does not spread the Gospel, no one will." Thanks be to God we have the example of so many in order to do all three, and more, by His grace.
Being privileged, as I am to say Mass for the Community of Saint Mary – the order of the "Martyrs of Memphis – I can say that the Community is a tad bit embarrassed by the "Martyrs of Memphis" label – not because it is wrong, but because it was, and still is, normal behavior for religious – particularly Anglican religious. That's what they have always done and what they still do.
A truly blessed vocation.