New Wine, Anglo-Catholic Renewal and the Curse of the Congresses

In the short-hand meta-narrative of the Catholic Movement in the Church of England, the dawn arrived in the 1830s, with Tracts for the Times, the noonday sun with the great Anglo-Catholic Congresses of the 1930s and we have been living in the light of the setting sun ever since. Like all myths it is both true and untrue, but it is important for how it forms the world view of those who pass it on.

I was at a meeting of Anglo-Catholic priests and bishops recently. The only concrete suggestion to emerge from the meeting was a large festival Mass in one of our cathedrals. It was my first such meeting and I didn’t speak against this proposal, I regret that. We already have Catholic jamborees at St Alban’s, Walsingham and with Anglican Catholic Future. I really don’t think we need any more. Nor are they likely to achieve anything other than to divert leadership energy and capacity. Perhaps it is the folk memory, the myth, of the great Congresses that makes a jamboree sound like a good idea?

For that meeting I had suggested two items for discussion, both requests that we are increasingly receiving in the Sodality: some way for lay Catholics to deepen their discipleship, and some means of assisting parishes in growth, such as a Mission Team initiative. Neither of these items was discussed at the meeting, when I brought them up they were passed over quickly.

The other shocking thing that I heard at that meeting was the statement (made twice, at different times), that ‘It’s all finished outside of London’. I found this extraordinary. The recent publication by the Centre for Theology and Community (which I wrote about here) showed that far from abundant life in London there are very few Catholic congregations that are growing – although there are some very good examples. It also showed that no Catholic congregation has achieved the resourcing role that leading evangelical congregations have. But I know that there are many excellent examples of Catholic clergy working sacrificially for the gospel all around the country, I see this in the Sodality and beyond it, including in the parishes of The Society (and Bishop Philip North has given ample testimony to this). There is no lack of will, energy or commitment. I do believe that greater organisation and good management is required.

In short I am glad that the Sodality (the community of priests which I belong to) is neither London-centred nor determined to lead great jamborees. Our worship when we are together demonstrates that ‘noble simplicity’ that characterises the Prayer Book and the Latin rite of which it is a part.

Next week I shall be at the New Wine Leadership Conference in Harrogate. Several people have asked me why I am going. There are several reasons:

– I am fed and sustained in my life and ministry by Spirit-filled, God-centred, Jesus-obsessed worship. Although I have my own favoured styles I am happy to worship, and be fed by any worship, that meets those criteria, and I am often renewed and challenged by the unfamiliar;

– I am fed and sustained in my life by fellowship with other Christians, and Christian leaders who are God-centred, Spirit-filled, and

Jesus-obsessed. I know that I will be with those people, many from Liverpool, in Harrogate, and I want to deepen my fellowship with them. I like them and want to spend time with them;

– in the diocese of Liverpool, which I have come to love deeply, we are committed to “bigger church, bigger difference”, therefore we want our schools to be places where children and their families, and other adults have the opportunity to become disciples of Jesus and deepen their discipleship; the New Wine network in the north-west includes many people who will be key in making that happen and I want to learn, with them, how best to do this in our schools;

– I want to see what Anglo-Catholicism can learn from New Wine, and even how we might attend and be fed and renewed by this work of the Spirit, for our own lives and ministries.

I will (of course!) post about my experiences this week, but, in advance there are some things that are emerging for me in these encounters, which are essential for Catholic renewal, it must be:

– God-centred, Spirit-filled and Jesus-obsessed;

– lead to the growth of local congregations;

– truly national and local, not London-centred;

– nurture lay leadership;

– based on good organisation and management.

I am travelling to Harrogate with my friend Dave Hill. Dave is a lay-man, from a non-Anglican Christian background, who is doing amazing work in our schools through his HeartSmart programme. It is this kind of leadership that we need to identify and nurture in our Catholic congregations, at the local level, if we are to be renewed and receive the new heart that God promises.