2 July 2009

Post scriptum

(1) "Was Bishop Andrew's Jubilee an ecumenical event?"
Definitely. There was a very nice gentleman there called Bishop Colin representing the Church of England.
(2) "Anglican Catholics have no sense of humour".
Untrue and unfair. Inside the cover of last evening's service book is a sentence "Common Worship ... material from which is included in this service, is copyright C The Archbishops' Council".

3 comments:

Pastor in Monte said...

How strange; I have often thought that the most endearing thing about the Anglo-Catholic movement has been its sense of humour. After his reception into the Catholic Church, Ronald Knox was accused of having been doing nothing but messing around in the CofE. He was indignant; he asserted that he and his colleagues had always been in deadly earnest 'but no-one could say that it wasn't fun doing it'. My friend the late [Canon] Brian Brindley said to me a little while before his reception into our communion 'nothing is going to be fun any more'. I am happy to say that he withdrew that comment; his time as a [roman] Catholic was, surprisingly, a happy time for him.
But Fr Hunwicke is right; I have every confidence and joy in Anglo-Catholic humour. A bit camp at times, perhaps, but always refreshing. I cannot endure liberal protestant earnestness!

Pastor in Monte said...

Meaning that Anglo-Catholicism doesn't take itself too seriously. A good sign, in my opinion. God's grace does the work, not our worthiness.

Unknown said...

I agree with Pastor in Valle (I wish our priests could sing and preach as well as he did at Fr Ray's Jubilee). Religion should be fun and I am probably right in saying that some of our best and most pastorally effective Anglo Catholic priests also have a great sense of humour and sense of the ridiculous. One hugely pastorally successful, very hard working and highly respected Anglo Catholic priest whom I have known he was a teenager is what one might call a "one off" and he has the admirable ability publically to poke gentle fun at himself. Probably one of the things that has attracted people - especially teenage boys - to Anglo Catholicism over the years is that it can be seen by some as being slightly "naughty" by ignoring some of the conventions and rules of the C-of-E. At least we know what we believe and we stick to it. On Corpus Christi Sunday, as well as going to Bourne Street in the evening I went to High Mass and the afternoon service in a delightful chuch sandwiched between the V&A and HTB. That was jsut as camp as anything you would see in the C-of-E.