Anglo-Catholic Church Planting
Can It Work?
By John Wallace
Sacristy Press, 171 pages, $24.95
The starter kit for Anglo-Catholics necessarily includes a handful of Vanity Fair prints from the late 19th century. Newman, if you can afford it. Arthur Tooth behind bars is a must. And, of course, Alexander Mackonochie, the first priest of St. Alban’s, Holborn. “He makes religion a tragedy, and the movements of his muscles a solemn ceremony,” reads a caption.
The stories of Fr. Mackonochie of St. Alban’s and Fr. Charles Lowder of St. Peter’s, London Docks, are legendary in Anglo-Catholic circles. By faith, prayer, and old-fashioned eccentric stubbornness, they built churches that are revered as Anglo-Catholic shrines. In their day they were a refuge for deprived areas, bringing color to a world that was dark and gray, and giving hope that the glory and splendor of the love of Jesus Christ was offered equally to them as to the wealthy on the West End. They defied the odds, and often their bishops, in establishing thriving Anglo-Catholic churches in areas unwanted and overlooked. Can it happen today?
That is the question John Wallace asks in Anglo-Catholic Church Planting: Can It Work? Based on his research for a Doctor of Ministry degree, Wallace compares and contrasts church planting in the Victorian age with today. His opening chapter makes more sense in a Church of England context, and American Anglicans might be confused at first about terms and controversies between Fresh Expressions and Parish Church defenders, but the point is easily discerned and relatable in any context: there are disagreements on how to help the church grow.
His chapter summarizing the Anglo-Catholic movement and history is fair, but brevity prevents him from exploring many important nuances, figures, and watershed moments in Anglo-Catholicism.
The most interesting part of the book offers the biographies of two Victorian church planters: The Rev. Richard Temple West and Richard Foster. These two men are interesting choices. Temple West founded St. Mary Magdalene in Paddington at the invitation of the vicar of All Saints’, Margaret Street. While West was not as well-known as Mackonochie or Lowder, his biographer was T.T. Carter, a light in the Anglo-Catholic movement with considerable wattage.
Foster is a new name to me. A wealthy London merchant, he supported and funded several churches, but was not apparently active in the Anglo-Catholic movement or politics. In fact, I’m not sure he would have identified as an Anglo-Catholic. What is shared between these two men is an unwavering commitment to expanding the church, and using all means at their disposal to aid their goal.
Wallace spends the longest portion of his book exploring three modern case studies. This section most reflects his Doctor of Ministry project. Like the Victorian examples, these examples are interesting choices. Two of the three are already established extensions from a parish or benefice, and the third, while an actual church plant, is only loosely Anglo-Catholic and ultimately became a part of an evangelical parish. While they are interesting in their own right, I’m not sure these examples shed light on the original question.
Wallace’s conclusions are what one might expect. An Anglo-Catholic church plant, like any church plant, needs commitment from clergy and community, a clear vision, and — most of all — money. A Victorian comparison is, perhaps, unfair. The great Anglo-Catholic shrines, led by priests who now frown at us from Vanity Prints, were often built by the patronage of one benefactor. Their parishioners came to church out of devout faith and social duty. The priests were often independently wealthy and almost always bachelors. They were also men who sacrificed themselves to such a degree that most died prematurely.
In doing the research and writing the book, Wallace keeps an important question alive: why not plant Anglo-Catholic churches? His examples may not have been the clearest and his definitions may be broad, but the question is still very much sound. We would do well to learn from the Victorian examples (and others). Can it work? If we want it to.
