Discussions of Anglo-Catholicism

Posted on Tuesday, 23 February, 2016 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

There are presently quite a few discussions about Anglo-Catholicism. By far, the most interesting articles are from Archbishop Peter Robinson. He has been writing about the north-end position, a subject upon which I touched a few years ago in North End Celebration. I have only known that in the evangelical parish in Kendal, St Thomas’ church, where I was christened back in October 1959. They still had north-end celebration in the mid 1970’s – that is, on the altar table up against the east wall, so truly at the end. Since then, they have removed the old carved wood altar and put a simple modern communion table in the middle of the chancel, the choir stalls and the organ also removed. In  evangelical Anglicanism, it makes more sense to celebrate the Eucharist facing the people like in the Roman Catholic Church.

It is significant that most things seem to hinge upon this question, symbolic of the theological emphasis of the Eucharist as a shared meal like the Seder or the Christian version of Temple worship of a transcendent God involving a sacrificial act, albeit the bloodless sacrifice of Melchisedech realised in the New Testament by Christ. This question was one of the most debated at the Council of Trent in the thick of the Reformation polemics. I am thankful for the influx of ressourcement and Eastern Orthodox theology over the past century or so.

Some polemicists of our days still try to push high-church clergy and lay folk of the established Churches and the continuing Churches into a dilemma according to which one must be Protestant or high-church as the term was understood in the late seventeenth century, or become a Roman Catholic. The most stabbing argument is asking the question of how a believer can claim to be Catholic and be in communion with bishops who ordain women and approve of homosexual practices. What happens if we side step the issues and are elsewhere? That really gets the bullies where it most hurts!

I have written a number of articles, which can be found easily through this link. I don’t have all the answers. My own experience over the past ten years has been limited to say the least, being isolated except on occasions of meetings and synods and living in an area where precious few are interested in parish Catholicism, let alone upstart “sects”. I continue as a priest on the reassurance of my Bishop that I fulfil my priestly ministry through the Mass, the Office and trying to “teach” through use of the internet. Priests have always done all kinds of different things according to how their bishops used their talents and disabilities.

Many of our problems are caused by worrying about how we can make other people conform to our beliefs in order to confirm our own conviction – if it is not our lust for power, money and sexual gratification. Most people operate according to the demands of social conformity and fashion, and political correctness. A few persons in this world eschew this dehumanisation and set out on the lonely and painful path of self-discovery and individuation, which bring liberating knowledge.

I am thankful that we have some measure of diversity in our continuing Churches, between the “old high church” position based on a moderate bending back from the extremes of Calvinism and the violent language against “Popery” but without rolling back to the pre-Reformation norms or referring to post-Tridentine Roman Catholicism – and the revival of Sarum or adoption of Tridentine doctrine and praxis. The ACC is based more on the Orthodox-leaning formularies of the Affirmation of St Louis rather than the strict Prayer Book, Homilies and the Articles. That is something for which I am thankful. My Bishop tends to be much more “Tridentine” though he usually uses the Eucharistic Prayer from the 1549 Cranmerian rite. I tend to be more “pre-Reformation” with some influence from the old French Church, and celebrate according to Sarum, sometimes in Latin, sometimes in English. I imagine that someone unversed in liturgical minutiae would find it difficult to find differences between the way my Bishop celebrates Mass and the way I do. The two are visibly similar. That is for the liturgy. In the ACC, our theological studies tend to centre more on the Fathers and Orthodox theologians rather than Scholasticism, though many of our priests are very fond of St Thomas Aquinas (as we all are to some extent).

Historically, one thing that made English Anglo-Catholicism stand out in the nineteenth century was its socialism. Continuing Anglicanism tends to follow American conservatism, and English conservatism by extension. It is true that modern socialism is more a question of “other people’s money” rather than humanitarianism, popular religion and care for the less fortunate. It is more difficult to justify oneself through philanthropy because the Welfare State has just about monopolised hospitals, schools and poverty, leaving but few niches open to Christians.

The advent of the Ordinariate has situated things differently. Its origins were mired in obfuscation and deceit from just about every side. England appears to be going well, and America has replaced its first Ordinary with a newly consecrated bishop. Australia is never talked about. I have now said all I will say about the Avignon Patrimony which will certainly be still-born.

It appears that I am a crank for my pains. The word comes from the German word Krank, meaning ill or sick. There is also the idea of eccentricity, which in mechanical engineering is associated with crankshafts. My own Bishop affectionately chides me for my eccentricity. I wrote several articles on my own suspicion that I might be somewhere on the autistic spectrum at the Asperger’s Syndrome level. Though I have not been for a psychiatric diagnosis (at least not yet), it would answer many questions about my life known only to myself and in my secret garden. It is both a gift and a cross to bear in my discipleship of Christ. So perhaps I am a crank, and will join the many little people who cried out in the way, “Jesus, Son of God, have pity on me”. Perhaps that is the best way to be a priest and not a clerical tin-god. One thing that strikes me about the whole “scene” is how few are interested. Very few bothered commenting on my posts on Archbishop Hepworth, which hardly surprises me, even though I know the numbers of readers who consulted the articles. I blog for other people. I don’t need to attract attention to myself. What would I feel I have to sell? Not a lot? On this subject, enough said.

Does Anglo-Catholicism have a future? Compared with the Evangelical churches and mega-churches in America, it has no future at all. Numbers are certainly not on our side in England in the ACC. Our existence is due to the devotion and professionalism of Bishop Damien Mead, together with his heroic perseverance in spite of being dogged with poor health. Beautiful churches are becoming redundant in England by the day, and nobody cares. Our time can be compared to the eighteenth century in that respect. Even with cause for discouragement, what would be gained by giving up? Nothing. So we continue, even if we say The Lord be with you to empty churches and chapels. We either believe in it or we don’t.

Perhaps in a few years, we will get sent to an Orwellian torture camp or get our throats slit for being Christians. For the time being, we are free, socially unacceptable but free. We have to value this freedom and respect it in others, to continue in the same way or change churches or religions. Many polemicists and apologists hate other people’s freedom. I don’t, and believe in freedom very firmly. This freedom includes sin and abuse, and it also includes what is most beautiful and noble in humanity. This is the gift of little Churches made up of people who value this freedom from the tyranny of conformity and fashion.

There is no future of Catholic Christianity among the hylic masses, but there is with persons and little groups of friends and intimate communities. There is a different way of looking at things. I hate crowds, and large numbers of people frighten me. Many of us need a life that is neither socialist or capitalistic, but human. So we continue with our archaic and irrelevant rites of worship, uninterested as we are in what else there is on offer.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 13 Comments

New Lazarette

Posted on Tuesday, 23 February, 2016 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

I have just constructed a lazarette on my boat. Now that sounds like Lazarus who was resurrected from the dead by Christ. Usually and in the present case, the lazarette is an aft locker just inside the transom.

In the old sailing ships, it was located in the bow of the vessel and was used for storing the bodies of people who died at sea (unless they were buried at sea), hence the name Lazarus – his tomb. The bow is the one place on a ship that cannot be upwind from the rest of the vessel, from the point of view of the stench of the decomposing bodies. Now, it is no longer used as a mortuary and it is located at the stern. The macabre name has stuck!

It is typically used for equipment that needs to be accessible more easily than the fo’c’sle (the bow compartment). I will be using it for navigation equipment and my VHF radio, safety / first aid equipment, spares for the boat, a reduced toolbox (ship’s workshop) and one or two other personal items that fit in. I put camping gear, bedding and clothes in dry bags in the fo’c’sle together with my “bosun’s locker” which is a waterproof box containing everything needed for minor repairs to the hull and sails. The galley is a plastic box kept in the port well forward of the thwart containing food, a camping gas burner and a pan. In the starboard well opposite, I have another plastic box containing personal items including books and an FM radio. My two anchors and the fenders go into these two wells for easy access.

lazarette01The top of the lazarette is in two hinged parts, the aft part being fixed. A bulkhead is fixed to the sides of the buoyancy tanks and has a hole cut in it. The purpose of this hole is access to the contents of the lazarette without lifting the top when the tiller would be in the way.

lazarette02Here, the top is closed. There is a small stainless steel plate to reduce friction of the mainsheet as it runs from the stern block to a ratchet pulley attached to the centreboard case. The top and bulkhead are made of laminated pine, and are varnished. The lazarette is not designed to be waterproof so that water can run out and be bailed from the cockpit. Therefore I only put in waterproof plastic boxes containing objects, or objects that can get wet without any problem.

lazarette03The planks on the gunwales are my bed (when placed touching each other at the centre of the boat), on which I put a self-inflating mattress and my sleeping bag. It is less uncomfortable than it looks. When the boat is under way, the two boards are separated and used as gunwale seats. I need to devise something to stop them moving when Sarum is under way. I can also sit more towards the centre of the boat in extremely calm conditions.

lazarette04This is the same thing from the other end of the boat.

The increased size of my lazarette also gives a longer bed, even though I can pack up the port well with a dry bag over the galley box, which gives more length for my feet when my head is just within the transom (the helm is lashed hard over to starboard to leave me free from the tiller when I’m in bed for the night).

Watch this space for more improvements as we sailors get ready for the new season.

The wind was rising easterly, the morning sky was blue,
The Straits before us opened wide and free;
We looked towards the Admiral, where high the Peter flew,
And all our hearts were dancing like the sea.
‘The French are gone to Martinique with four and twenty sail!
The Old Superb is old and foul and slow,
But the French are gone to Martinique, and Nelson’s on the trail.
And where he goes the Old Superb must go!’

So Westward ho! for Trinidad, and Eastward ho! for Spain,
And ‘Ship ahoy!’ a hundred times a day;
Round the world if need be, and round the world again,
With a lame duck lagging all the way.

The Old Superb was barnacled and green as grass below,
Her sticks were only fit for stirring grog;
The pride of all her midshipmen was silent long ago,
And long ago they ceased to heave the log.
Four year out from home she was, and ne’er a week in port,
And nothing save the guns aboard her bright;
But Captain Keats he knew the game, and swore to share the sport,
For he never yet came in too late to fight.

So Westward ho! for Trinidad, and Eastward ho! for Spain,
And ‘Ship ahoy!’ a hundred times a day;
Round the world if need be, and round the world again,
With a lame duck lagging all the way.

‘Now up, my lads,’ the Captain cried, ‘for sure the case were hard
If longest out were first to fall behind;
Aloft, aloft with studding sails, and lash them on the yard,
For night and day the Trades are driving blind!’
So all day long and all day long behind the fleet we crept,
And how we fretted none but Nelson guessed;
But every night the Old Superb she sailed when others slept,
Till we ran the French to earth with all the rest.

Oh, ’twas Westward ho! for Trinidad, and Eastward ho! for Spain,
And ‘Ship ahoy!’ a hundred times a day;
Round the world if need be, and round the world again,
With a lame duck lagging all the way.

The Old Superb – Poem by Sir Henry Newbolt

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Avignon Patrimony

Posted on Friday, 19 February, 2016 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

Another article has appeared More On The Patrimony Of The Primate and it really is quite poignant. I lived through those expectations and illusions of 2011 and the following year. I have found two of my writings that reflected my thoughts in 2012: An unpublished “Plan B” paper and material from my old blog which I republished in my TAC Archive of October 2012. The relevant part comes under Bishop Botterill on the TAC Tribunal.

It isn’t something I would write now, or after the time when I resigned from the TAC in England where Archbishop Prakash put me around this time, having been accepted into the ACC by its diocesan bishop in England and then having heard some extremely disturbing and equally convincing things about Archbishop Hepworth from sources way outside the TAC.

In 2012, Archbishop Hepworth still hoped to keep some of the Ordinariate-bound clergy, but who were not yet in an Ordinariate, in a kind of temporary structure. This was the Patrimony of the Primate, but not for long. The big problem is that canonically irregular (former Roman Catholics or divorced and remarried) clergy were just not going to be amnestied. The only reason for the Archbishop persevering with something is if there were this hope. Had he been willing to give up and pursue life as a lay Roman Catholic, he would have done so. He evidently did not. He believed he could negotiate, and when this was not working, he tried blackmail by accusing several clergy of the RC Archdiocese of having sexually assaulted him as an adult seminarian. The law in Australia did not find any cause to believe the allegations against Monsignor Dempsey (who is now reinstated).

In late 2012, I was almost at the end of my agony, and my own experience had prevented me from making any personal application to any Roman Catholic authority. I would at that time have been prepared to follow Archbishop Hepworth as part of a group, but not as a “convert-apostate- revert”.

This whole thing was caused by three factors: Rome playing a double game, where they could have told Archbishop Hepworth to his face much earlier that he was toast. The second was Archbishop Hepworth playing a manipulating game to try to get his own RC priesthood back by offering the fictitious number of four hundred thousand faithful. The third factor was the heavy-handed approach of the TAC bishops in 2012, instead of dealing with the problem much earlier, perhaps at the Bishops’ College meeting of October 2007 in Portsmouth.

I tried giving ideas to the Archbishop (whom I still trusted) in my unpublished “Plan B” paper written in August 2010 which I fictitiously set in July 2011. The idea was transformed into a Fellowship of Saint Benedict. It would seem that the Patrimony was scrapped, because there was no longer a TAC as far as the Archbishop was concerned. At this point, I can say that there is no historical continuity between any current attempt to revive the Patrimony and the old one – hence something new. In his e-mail of 25th May 2012, he expressed his willingness not to be the leader, but rather have the Roman Catholic priest Fr John Fleming (who is actually the origin of the entire Romeward movement in the TAC).  Many of the addressees of this e-mail joined the Ordinariate as soon as they could. Though my name was on this list, I did not pursue the idea. Archbishop Hepworth expressed not wanting to found a Church, but rather a temporary and entirely autonomous structure.

“We resist the temptation to form yet another church among the myriad and scandalous world of Continuing Anglicanism“.

Another thing to consider is that the project was “outed” by Fr Stephen Smuts and seen as a hypocritical attempt to found a crypto continuing church. Perhaps that was a good thing.

It was not until twelve months ago that I became convinced that +Hepworth told each person what he thought they wanted to hear. His relations with Roman clergy in high places was complete spin. From this meeting, I became convinced that my former Archbishop was someone without conscience, a charmer and a manipulator, and perhaps someone who would do jail time if there was justice in this world. I was one of the charmed, and fortunately I was already far away, having turned the page and found a good and Christian spiritual father in Bishop Damien Mead of the ACC. I was filled with shame, almost like a sexually abused child telling his story to the police! The difference was that I was hearing a parallel story from another.

It’s not easy for me to write this posting, but I feel the duty faced with this rumour that its was all awakening. Of course, it won’t affect me because I am a priest in a different Church and I have nothing to hide. I don’t personally mind if some kind of shenanigan is revived and claimed to be something half-recognised by Rome. There are others, and all but a few know they are complete bullshit.

John Bruce is speculating about what can be salvaged from something that is deader than dinosaur dung! Most of those who were in the Patrimony in 2011-12 have joined the Ordinariate. Some returned to the ACA and others went to other continuing Anglican bodies or converted to Orthodoxy. Bishop Moyer has given up and is now a Roman Catholic layman, as did Bishop Campese. I would not be surprised if St Mary’s in Hollywood and Fr Kelly would be the only odd one left – now that Fr Kelly has won his legal case (unless there is an appeal and the whole thing starts up again to the delight of American lawyers). Was this thing Archbishop-Emeritus Hepworth’s idea or Fr Kelly’s or John Bruce’s? If the latter, such skulduggery would be unbecoming of a devout Roman Catholic.

Would anyone else want to trust Archbishop Hepworth knowing his record? Given what I have read and heard over the past five years, I see no evidence that any “Patrimony of the Primate” would be anything other than a scurrilous fiction and no more truthful than so-called Cardinal David Atkinson-Wake alias Bell in England who seems to have gone quiet as of late. The important thing is not only did the bishops of the TAC repudiate the Patrimony from the very beginning of 2012, it was abandoned by Archbishop Hepworth himself, the evidence being that he wanted to found a “Fellowship of Saint Benedict”. How can anyone claim that “the affiliation is legally and canonically valid“? The idea is ludicrous!

I named this article the Avignon Patrimony in reference to that fascinating article by Dr Jean-François Mayer on antipopes. In it he explained how some believed (perhaps still believe) in a secret succession of “true” Popes from Pedro de Luna (1329-1423) who took the name of Benedict XIII in 1394 and reigned from Avignon. According to legend, a succession of secret popes exists to this day. This whole story seems to remind me of that quirk of history. Psychologically, we all love mysteries and conspiracies, the stuff from which a successful Dan Brown novel is made!

I am sure this little sensation will blow over very quickly and that it will have been proven to be a matter of smoke, mirrors and the eternal wishful thinking. I beg the forgiveness of my readers for going on at length on something that might have done better to be ignored. It touched a nerve in me, hardly surprising, and I tend to like writing things down for the record.

As a reminder, I have recorded as much as I could on the last years of the TAC under the Primacy of Archbishop Hepworth in The TAC Archive. Most of the for and against the Patrimony of the Primate (as used for the “shelter” of Ordinariate-bound clergy) is found. Just use the search function of your internet browser. I wasn’t able to record the whole truth, but quite a lot of it.

I don’t think many will be deceived by any new version of the “Avignon” Patrimony any more than by the little antipopes running around (assuming they are still alive).

* * *

Update: This cannot go without an answer: This All May Be My Doing!

Not quite a reaction to the parish restoration, but Mr Chadwick now suspects the reemergence of Abp Hepworth is something I may have cooked up myself, which would be disgraceful, since I claim to be a devout Catholic. Mr Chadwick, let me put you in touch with Fr Davis. You, he, Mrs Bush, and Ms Akan can commiserate.

Down in the comments, there seems to be general agreement that Fr Z is a sociopath, and they’ve already excommunicated him. Or something.

For the first paragraph, the idea occurred to me, as Mr Bruce is the only one trying to get this into sites and blogs that just “aren’t biting”. I have no desire to be put in touch with any of the persons mentioned. It isn’t my problem.

As for Fr Zuhlsdorf, the question of his being “excommunicated” is the spontaneous opinion of one of my commenters, Patrick Sheridan who lives in sourthern England. I have attempted to bring a moderating influence on this opinion which I consider as exaggerated and extreme. He alone takes responsibility for his expressed opinion. There is no “general agreement”. As for the said American priest being a “sociopath”, nowhere is this idea expressed as of 21st February 2016 at 0.54 am GMT.

* * *

Either we have gone back in time to the early months of 2012 or time has stood still. Mr Bruce has published an e-mail from Deborah Gyapong on Abp Hepworth. She is entitled to her opinion, and she has remained faithful to her position that everyone in the TAC was morally bound to become Roman Catholics on pain of being in bad faith and lacking in credibility. In October 2012 appeared Hepworth Redux in Fr Stephen Smuts’ blog, which outlines some very serious accusations. I conclude that no progress is possible from this perpetual loop. I am neither in the Ordinariate and I am no longer in the TAC. I respect the fact that the bishops of my Church are in dialogue with the ACA bishops in America. That matter is “above my pay grade”.

Now, it is really over as far as I am concerned. Perhaps joining the “true church” trumps anything else and the end justifies all means. I used to believe the Gyapong “hermeneutic” and suffered for it from the trolls who confused Pope Benedict XVI with Pius IX among the other agendas they might have promoted. Perhaps she is right, but I will have nothing to do with such a world. I wish the “Avignon” Patrimony the best of luck and hope that all involved will find their happiness. Let them get on with it and may the best man win!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 17 Comments

La Bazarette sur la Canabière

Posted on Friday, 19 February, 2016 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

marseilleMany years ago, I lived in Marseille to help with a traditionalist chapel near the Gare Saint-Charles. It’s an amazing town with its clearly Latin culture, crushingly hot summers and its own folklore. The accent is very particular, and I have known people able to speak the old Provençal language. One character made a lot of this culture, the actor Fernandel who played in the Don Camillo series and films like La Vache et le Prisonnier et La Cuisine au Buerre. Marseille has its extremely unpleasant aspects too like its content of delinquents and criminals. However, I have walked round the Arabic districts in my cassock and never had any problem with the Tunisians and Algerians living and working in the streets. Perhaps I would be a little more careful nowadays!

The air is thick with the smell of car exhaust and lavendar. It is Provence, where the Pastis flows and tongues are loosened. The fish stalls at the end of La Canabière facing the Vieux Port are full of the species of fish from the Mediterranean Sea, ideal for making the famous and delicious Bouillabaisse, which is a fish soup with pieces of fish in it. As the tongues start wagging, this is the famous gossip of the fish market, the bazarettes or talk of persons called bazarettes. I have heard much of the old days in the parish churches in Marseille, La Bonne Mère and the many others in town, always the curé jupitérien aware at all times of his clerical authority and the many bazarettes in the pews, just like at the fish market.

Why do I mention this great French city? Where ici on parle, on discute, on raconte beaucoup…? I return once again to our bazarette in California who now informs us in no uncertain terms that Archbishop Hepworth is back in business with the “Patrimony of the Primate”.

Let’s look at this. The former priest who was in the Patrimony of the Primate has won his parish back through the American courts from the ACA. He has put up a sign to say that he belongs to the Patrimony of the Primate and that he is under Archbishop John Hepworth. Obviously this is no secret. I imagine we will be reading a pronouncement of some kind from the Archbishop-Primate of the Patrimony of the Primate – unless of course there is an alternative TAC none of us knows about. Perhaps a new TAC is in the pipeline to rake up the debris and re-negotiate the Ordinariate with the friends in high places in Rome who can be contacted by telephone at any time… Hmm…

I’m sure a lot of the fish ladies at their stalls in the Canabière would have much to say! What did you say was the price of loup de mer and rascasse?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Stiff Upper Lip!

Posted on Thursday, 18 February, 2016 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

We’ve all heard the old caricature of the Englishman bracing up for any misfortune or adversity that might come his way. Best foot forward, stiff upper lip, and think of England! It’s probably what a lot of those poor wretches in the trenches of 1916 heard from their commanding officers before they found out what machine gun bullets could do to their frail human bodies!

In spite of all the hypocrisy produced to defend wars (though who today would disapprove of the annihilation of all those terrorist head-chopping groups in Syria and elsewhere?) there is a lot to be said for being ready to face adversity through a little voluntary frugality. Stoicism was a philosophy of life in the ancient Roman world, and one of its protagonists was Lucius Annaeus Seneca in the first century. This is a part of our Lent: eating more simply, living with less heating and more frugally. I have been heating my chapel only for when anyone came to Mass, and I am quite content to say Mass in only 4 to 7°C as we are getting in this year’s mild winter.

Camping on the boat is a pleasure, but a pleasure that comes from frugality and the satisfaction of not needing comfort as a minimum. A certain amount of stoicism is good for building our character, especially if assumed voluntarily, and we are better prepared for when the chips are down. Perhaps something can be frugal and a pleasure…

I like this quote from Albert Camus (L’Eté, written in 1940):

Nous n’avons pas surmonté notre condition, et cependant nous la connaissons mieux. Nous savons que nous sommes dans la contradiction, mais que nous devons refuser la contradiction et faire ce qu’il faut pour la réduire. Notre tâche d’homme est de trouver les quelques formules qui apaiseront l’angoisse infinie des âmes libres. Nous avons à recoudre ce qui est déchiré, à rendre la justice imaginable dans un monde si évidemment injuste, le bonheur significatif pour des peuples empoisonnés par le malheur du siècle. Naturellement c’est une tâche surhumaine. Mais on appelle surhumaines les tâches que les hommes mettent longtemps à accomplir, voilà tout.

Sachons donc ce que nous voulons, restons fermes sur l’esprit, même si la force prend pour nous séduire le visage d’une idée ou du confort. La première chose est de ne pas désespérer. N’écoutons pas trop ceux qui crient à la fin du monde. Les civilisations ne meurent pas si aisément et même si ce monde devait crouler, ce serait après d’autres. Il est bien vrai que nous sommes dans une époque tragique. Mais trop de gens confondent le tragique et le désespoir.

Translation (not mine):

We have not overcome our condition, and yet we know it better. We know that we live in contradiction, but we also know that we must refuse this contradiction and do what is needed to reduce it. Our task as [humans] is to find the few principles that will calm the infinite anguish of free souls. We must mend what has been torn apart, make justice imaginable again in a world so obviously unjust, give happiness a meaning once more to peoples poisoned by the misery of the century. Naturally, it is a superhuman task. But superhuman is the term for tasks [we] take a long time to accomplish, that’s all.

Let us know our aims then, holding fast to the mind, even if force puts on a thoughtful or a comfortable face in order to seduce us. The first thing is not to despair. Let us not listen too much to those who proclaim that the world is at an end. Civilizations do not die so easily, and even if our world were to collapse, it would not have been the first. It is indeed true that we live in tragic times. But too many people confuse tragedy with despair.

This is perhaps a very healthy view of asceticism, as training for adversity, learning to gather resources to prevail over an enemy and fight for victory. I love the way Camus brushes aside the apocalyptic view which is such a temptation in our days. I am not the most optimistic person around, but I am not ready to “lie down and die” and possibly to curse God for my existence. There are ominous signs of World War III and the possibility that we might die by millions without fighting – but on the other hand we may face a conventional war in which each of us would have our chance however hard that might prove. Saudi Arabia and Turkey seem to be poised to invade Syria, now that Putin and Assad have nearly defeated Daesh. I live in hope, especially when I think of how we were spared from nuclear Armageddon in 1962, at the time of the Cuban missiles crisis. We have to live with some hope. I am rather hopeful that this is the end of Saudi Arabia as a barbaric kingdom, Turkey in the dock for crimes against humanity and the end of American hegemony in a continent that has never been theirs to pillage. The future might not be rosy, but we might be able to hope we will get by.

Lent can be the perfect occasion for this training of our spirit and soul, grinding our way through life, work, less than perfect relationships, health problems, a cold winter, being ready to make do with little rather than expect the most as a minimum. I am intensely irritated by people with high expectations, especially when they can’t afford the best. It is better to expect little in life, and then we are not disappointed by high expectations going unsatisfied. That notion was a part of my upbringing by parents who had lived through the war and made do with whatever they had. Be content with what you’ve got… my father told me as a child.

“Dans la profondeur de l’hiver, j’ai finalement appris qu’il y avait en moi un soleil invincible“, Camus wrote in L’Etranger. I translate that as “In the depths of winter, I finally learned that there was an invincible sun within me”. That seems to remind me of the great letter by Oscar Wilde De Profundis as he languished in his Victorian prison, which I recommend should be read entirely. It might seem to be an expression of self pity, but I don’t think it is, for the simple reason that he was self-critical about that very temptation. I find that very same sentiment as Camus expressed so much later.

I have often been criticised for my pessimism when faced with the woes of the modern world and the threat of war (and the fact of war for the millions of Syrian refugees). I tend to give more credence to “alternative” news sources, because when I read the “mainstream” news, I am informed about things I knew months ago from “alternative” sources. I still live in comfort and almost complete safety for as long as I keep out of big cities. That might not last for long. How long would I survive as one of hordes of English and French refugees bound for Argentina and Chile – or Russia?

Whatever happens, perhaps we can make of Lent a time of lower expectations and greater humility. We have a lot of work to do on our sense of entitlement. These are surely the fundamental conditions of any life according to Christian ideals and a way that can lead us to true happiness.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Antipopes

Posted on Thursday, 18 February, 2016 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

I learned today of the death of Bishop Maurice Archieri a few days ago at the age of 93 years. Who was he? He was an automobile mechanic (highly skilled and honourable trade) who claimed the Papacy under the name of Peter II. He was one of several men claiming the Papacy in the place of the current incumbent in Rome. The basis of this claim is a phenomenon called Sedevacantism, something that has parallels with the schism of the Old Believers from the Russian Orthodox Church in the seventeenth century.

These claims very often collude with episcopi vagantes or Independent Sacramental Delinquency as I have had to name some of the more shady elements in France and elsewhere. The simple reason is the availability of supposedly valid (in ontological but not legal terms) orders. One of the finest studies of this phenomenon is by Dr Jean-François Mayer of Fribourg University who is specialised in the study of religious and sectarian movements: Quand le pape n’est plus à Rome: antipapes et sédévacantistes. The article is in French.

pope-michaelDr Mayer gives the examples of David Bawden (Michael I) in the USA, Clement XV in France and several others. The study is calm and irenic, historical and clearly written. I first met Dr Mayer in the 1980’s when I was a student at the University, and appreciated his erudition and sound judgement. The subject matter is a quagmire of human beings searching for something they will not find in this world, and whose practical judgement had ceded its place to illusions and myths. It is often the psychology involved in cults, including fundamentalist Islam and terrorist groups.

Antipopes (men claiming to be the Pope in opposition to the generally accepted Pope in Rome) have been made possible by the mythology that accompanies the reaction against the perceived infiltration of liberalism and modernism into the Roman Catholic Church. They see it as their duty to build a Platonic universal idea of the true church and defend it. Historically, the term antipope designated rival claimants to the Papacy in the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. Then, each pretender had a large following of western Christendom. Now, most are simply episcopi vagantes with traditionalist Roman Catholic ideas, extremely marginal and with very few followers. Only the Palmar de Troya cult in Spain had any significant “success” through its ability to amass large amounts of money, enough to buy significant amounts of real estate in Seville and a site on the outskirts of the village of Palmar de Troya where they built a cathedral in baroque style. Clement XV and his successor Jean-Gregory XVII built up a significant community in France and French-speaking Canada.

A few modern antipopes had a small following in such wise as they could be elected by some kind of reduced “conclave”. This was the case of Pius XIII and Michael I in the USA and Linus II in Italy (a South African who lives in England and is apparently inactive). Most modern antipopes claimed some kind of mystical experience in which God himself made them Pope or simply constructed some kind of cynical farce to cheat people out of money.

Dr Mayer’s article is worth reading in French, since machine translation would not do it justice! I note that he does not pass these men off as insane, but guided by an alternative reality that seems logical enough to them. The approach is empirical and gives a good synthesis of the thought of these men and those who follow them as their pope.

Apart from the academic interest, we should not exaggerate the influence of these men in the de-christianised society in which we live. The media discusses the issue of cults much less than it did twenty or thirty years ago. The issue is just not news. The real threat now is Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism and the real influence they have to the extent of being able to be a challenge to superpowers and their armed forces. There are parallel apocalyptic strands of belief, something that makes a cult strike a chord in our less rational instincts.

I am left with a thought for that old man in Perreux, some way to the east of Paris. He was a retired mechanic who had worked hard all his life, and followed the sedevacantist logic, obtaining the priesthood and episcopate from apocryphal sources, setting up his chapel, internet site (no longer existing) and his little ministry. He seemed to be well liked by a number of Facebook users who are curious about such matters. I would hope that his eternity will correspond more with his alternative reality than this world, and I don’t express this wish flippantly.

Where are the limits? I am hardly mainstream either, belonging to a continuing Anglican Church which does not have to compromise with secular agendas. What is sane and what is insane? It is too easy to call the other Raca or Fool. These religious groups are largely as futile as those who warn their own from frequenting their places of worship. Perhaps something I have learned from the Russians is that being futile doesn’t matter if we are forgiven much because we loved much. Who knows, Don Camillo?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Roger’s Homely Dinghy

Posted on Thursday, 18 February, 2016 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

Roger Barnes has just produced a new video on the Homely Dinghy.

There are many things I couldn’t do in my boat because of the smaller size. I have improved my stern locker, which I will photograph when it is finished. It won’t be waterproof, but I will be putting waterproof boxes into it. I debated between waterproofing or letting water flow in and out of it – I still have an open mind, but I tend towards the latter. It will essentially be the Captain’s Cabin, so will contain safety and navigation equipment, a toolbox and a spares box (pulleys, shackles, spare shroud) – and a box of personal things. The rest will go into the fo’c’sle or the galley.

A small boat is a challenge, and many baulk at the idea of spending a short holiday camping on a tiny boat. It is a challenge – making do in the spirit of the Boy Scouts when other people depend on comfortable hotels and things that cost a lot of money. For me, as doubtlessly for Roger, it isn’t just money. It is also a test of our resourcefulness, a little bit like the “prepper” movement, except that they are waiting for a catastrophe. We boaters don’t need a catastrophe to have a little holiday on our own terms.

Perhaps I’ll do an equivalent set of videos, but on my boat which is designed very differently. My boat is essentially a “school” boat from the 1970’s, but has undergone a good few modifications to make more than a daysail possible. The essential in this is to make things serve for several purposes, have a sense of routine and tidiness and be patient with one’s own limitations. I’l be testing it all again in June when I go to the Rade de Brest.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Human achievements and God

Posted on Wednesday, 17 February, 2016 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

I have seen a few posts about, especially my friend Patrick who has been writing on the limits of human technology and engineering, especially the flying machine and the aeroplane. He reflected many of my own thoughts from my Amiens visit. Patrick has certainly seen my posting on those wonderful inventions and ideas from Jules Verne.

The thing I most hate about flying is not so much the actual flying (what happens if the aircraft crashes), but entering a system of total control from check-in to getting your baggage at the destination airport. It is so machine-like, giving the passengers the idea of being “processed” from checking the bookings and tickets, the handling of baggage, guiding people to the right boarding gate – and above all the extremely invasive security procedures to make sure no one has a gun or a bomb.

I last flew for my mother’s funeral. I have been to the USA four times, a couple of times in Tennessee, once in Florida and once in Maryland (when I appreciated my forays into rural Pennsylvania). Quite honestly, for my travels between France, I prefer going by sea. I have sometimes used the Tunnel. Their procedures are also very mechanical and sometimes inefficient, and being shut-in is not very pleasant. Travel is a necessary evil, I would agree. It does broaden the mind when we are off the beaten tracks (like my forays with my boat) and it is necessary for church business and family visits.

Not all flying is such a “process”. It can be done in the same way as sailing a dinghy, albeit with a little less autonomy. I enjoyed a gliding course with a school friend when I was 16. Off we went over the edge of Sutton Bank, launched by an old Leeds bus converted into a launching winch. Once over the edge we went! We were gliding and could use the up-draft of the wind hitting the precipice to gain height and stay up as long as we wanted. Not being a qualified pilot, I was in the glider with an instructor, a Pole and a former World War II flying ace. I  remember the pre-flight check sequence, abbreviated as CBSIFTCB (Controls, Ballast, Straps, Instruments, Flaps, Trim, Canopy, Brakes). It is quite a sensation, but I am more a man of the sea than the air.

Logically, one could say the same thing about boats and ships, especially from the era of the great ocean liners like the Great Eastern and the Titanic. I noted in my posting on Amiens and Jules Verne that human inventive pride could become blasphemous like when the builders of the Titanic challenged God to sink her – she did on her maiden voyage! Where is the limit? I both admire and abhor the prevailing attitude of the late 19th century, and we find the best efforts of engineers and scientists going for the making of weapons of war.

The one thing that is frightening in all this is arrogance, the speed at which science and technology threatens the human condition. The medical and bio-engineering world is particularly frightening. Of course, we have to remember that such technology will only benefit the very rich. Most of us will be able to go to the doctor for curable problems – and then one day, we will die. That is something we have to face with or without technology. The technology we have today was inconceivable yesterday – if I consider the span of time from my great-grandfather (1859-1939), my grandfather (1901-1980), my father (born in 1928) and myself born exactly a hundred years after my great-grandfather, I go from the technology known to Jules Verne, essentially based on the steam engine, to our nuclear fission, electronics and use of fossil energy. As I have read in Berdyaev, this modern era is based on the Renaissance, which in its turn was a revival of the more human aspects of the classical Greek, Roman and Egyptian civilisations. The idea of the helicopter goes back to the ancient Egyptians, but the first one that flew was built in the 1930’s.

The opposite extreme from our technical civilisation is exactly the force that threatens us from the Middle East, the bestial fundamentalist worshipper of the Moloch-Demiurge who destroys monuments of any kind of humanism, technology or worship according to any other kind of religious tradition. These are people who stop at nothing in their inhumanity and hatred and the caricature is Daesh and all the other rag-heads running around killing, torturing, raping and pillaging. Nazism was a political ideology from which Europe could recover when it was defeated in 1945. So was Communism, which imploded under its own weight. Fundamentalist Islam destroys everything, including man’s soul – his art, science and technology, reducing him to a living death. Any country subjected to that kind of anti-humanism only recovers after centuries – if ever. It is like the difference between TNT bombs that destroy buildings and people by their shock waves – and the nuclear bomb that renders a place uninhabitable for centuries.

In its history, some forms of Christianity were no different. Christianity under Constantine or Theodosius must have been quite unpleasant. The most notorious was the Inquisition and the persecution of the Cathars. After that, we have the Reformation and the Counter Reformation, Cromwell and the Puritans. I am quite taken back when reading things written by former Protestants, Anglicans and Roman Catholics who converted to Orthodoxy – and also by converts to Roman Catholicism. But, modern conservatism is nothing compared to what existed and exists out there in the world. I am brought to think of that capital utterance of Pope Benedict XVI at Regensburg about the relationship between faith and reason.

There has to be a balance between the enormous potential of humanity to express himself in art, science and technology and the discovery within himself of the divine image. Essentially, the two are the same and nourish each other when sin and perversity do not get in the way, because faith gives way to knowledge. This knowledge far transcends simple book learning, but is a whole universal idea.

The balance is hard to find, but find it we must.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Amiens

Posted on Monday, 15 February, 2016 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

My wife and I have returned from a weekend in Amiens, where there is one of the most glorious cathedrals in France. I had meant to go there by boat from the Somme coast by going up the canal, but it was not practical from Abbeville. See Up and Down the Canal. Here is a representation of High Mass in the Bishop’s presence in the early nineteenth century:

Photos of this cathedral can be found on the internet, but here are two I took, one of the altar – unchanged except with a Novus Ordo “chopping block” in front, and the hanging pyx.

amiens-altaramiens-pyxI am not as keen on this insane baroque as I might have been at one time, but it is fascinating. It is quite significant that the hanging pyx was retained, since in most cathedrals, the Blessed Sacrament is reserved in its own chapel.

We also visited the house of Jules Verne, my boyhood hero who aroused my fascination for France. The reflection of my wife as we left Amiens: the nineteenth century was a different era for France and England. England was very stable politically, but the Victorian moralising environment was quite stifling for art and culture. France was politically unstable during that era, but there was a great growth of culture and art, literature and invention.

I was “bitten by the bug”, as it were, in the 1960’s through seeing the 1954 Walt Disney version of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. A few years ago, I put up Jules Verne and the Sea on this blog. The incredible thing is that Jules Verne did travel, but most of his work is the result of his Romantic imagination and the influence of Leonardo da Vinci and just about every visionary since then. He spent most of his time in a small study in his lovely house in Amiens.

Jules Verne died in 1905, and the house changed hands quite a few times, requisitioned by the Germans under the Occupation, bought by a large oil company, then acquired by the city authorities to make a Jules Verne museum. A lot of work went into restoring some of the rooms as best as possible as they would have been in the late nineteenth century.

jules-verne01This is the main part of the house from the street with a gate into the yard. The tower is original, but the astronomical representation is modern.

jules-verne02So French, like a posh hotel! The winter garden is rather splendid, full of plants and a large model submarine.

jules-verne03They went to town on their curtains in the nineteenth century with the immensely high ceilings and windows. The tie-back curtain does have the disadvantage of blocking out a lot of light. The style of the room is baroque, but entirely from the second half of the nineteenth century.

jules-verne04This is a model of the Great Eastern, the most insanely huge vessel that ever floated! Spread over six masts, the sail plan is amazing.

ville-flottanteVerne was a passenger on this ship in 1867.

jules-verne05And now for some of the inventions, clearly in the spirit of Leonardo da Vinci. This appears to be a ship with a mechanism from the wind turbines to power a stern screw. I’m not an engineer, but I imagine that this kind of system would involve colossal losses of energy efficiency.

jules-verne06The museum gave no explanation of this one. Perhaps it might be a spacecraft, which seem phenomenal, since Verne had the idea of shooting a moon-bound craft out of a huge cannon. Naturally, no living organism would have survived the acceleration forces, and the rocket turned out to be the only way of conceiving space travel. This model truly is very odd.

jules-verne07Here is another ship, similar in concept to the one above. I have no idea whether such a propulsion system has ever been built and tried. Though it is obviously a ship for sailing on the sea, it has a big air propeller in the bow. Perhaps this ship was intended to fly by being lifted by the very numerous rotors.

jules-verne08No mistake here. It is a nineteenth-century version of the Zeppelin, filled with hydrogen and propelled by an engine.

jules-verne09Finally, this is a rather beautiful aeroplane with flapping wings. Many such machines were tried in the very late years of the nineteenth century. None ever flew. As most of us know, the first aeroplane that flew was that of the Wright Brothers in 1903. Here is an amusing film of man’s early attempts to fly.

What an imagination! Verne was more of a visionary than an inventor or an engineer. Submarines existed before Captain Nemo’s Nautilus, but Verne’s dream was a development from the crude machines of the American Civil War. It was always a vision of the future, an upwards aspiration. It was an era of great optimism and hope in human progress, sometimes to an almost blasphemous extent – and lasted until 1914. The Somme, where Jules Verne lived, was also the place where humanity died in the trenches and when darkness descended over the world.

Will there ever again be a Renaissance? Perhaps, but long after the dark night and the “New Middle Ages”. I was happy to have a glimpse into the life of this amazing man of science and letters.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Intentional Communities

Posted on Friday, 12 February, 2016 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

Further to my article The Old Dream, Perceptio has written Corporate Association and Intentional Communities. It is remarkably astute, and the notion of “intentional community” harks back to the attention I gave to Christian and non-Christian communities. Many are models of ecology and environmentalism – with which I sympathise. Some live in old mansions, modern eco-friendly buildings, and others in forests or some other natural site in improvised wooden constructions and yurts. Public planning authorities have been known to be hostile to these unconventional initiatives, but there are signs that things are changing for the better if initiatives are carefully planned and shown to be sound.

Here are some of my older postings:

I am a little more sceptical, especially as I bring back my old memories of Wennington School. Someone has to be a leader whilst the others in the community have to take their own responsibilities. Fallen human nature enters the picture, as does concupiscence for power, money and sex (as a means of conquest and dominance over others). All of a sudden, the community collapses and someone is left with the duty of picking up the pieces.

If Christianity has any credible future in the West, it is not in a cultural or sociological model. It is more along the lines of intentional communities (perhaps a new monasticism) that deliberately blur the tired distinctions between Orthodox, Catholic, or Protestant. Ultimately, the principles binding the three together are more persuasive than the at times exaggerated distinctions between them.

The problem with such an idea of a community is that it would fail to be accepted by any institutional Church, and that’s when people get cold feet – and we are back to square one. Monasteries are quite unpleasant places. Of course there is the physical discomfort of being cold and starved of sleep (and food to an extent). There is above all the fact that a monastery only works because it is run like a totalitarian cult. A Benedictine abbot put it to me exactly in those terms! Someone enters the system in full knowledge of what he’s doing, via the novitiate and temporary vows, so that gets the system off the hook. Any human community runs on the reptilian instincts of dominance, self-defence and sex. Monasteries are no exception even if sexuality is sublimated in some way. Six months at Triors convinced me that a monastic vocation was out of the question. I never even considered it.

The ecological and non-religious intentional communities (see Diggers and Dreamers) seem for the most part to have been successful in implementing a democratic structure like traditional tribes, so that dominant individuals can’t seize power and corrupt the whole. This needs to be studied. I would have greater trust in a community that is not Christian but secular, and in which all spiritual and religious expressions are tolerated and allowed to flourish as private initiatives. Secularism does take away the political power which is not appropriate for communities gathered for spiritual purposes – and that has shown proven success as long as atheism is not the “default” and “official” “religion” of the group. That is the problem with French laïcisme. Impartiality is difficult to gain except perhaps through a genuinely democratic structure. Therefore, the intentional community would be built on other principles, such as a new way for man to share life with nature, a humanist philosophy and a protest against the modern “mega” system of nations, empires, the European Union, etc.

Any attempt to make Christianity into a human community contains the seeds of its degradation into political ideology and intolerance. It is just a matter of degree. I believe that Christianity as a political ideology (the word used in its purest and etymological meaning) has no future. It cannot be totalitarian enough! Islam would do the job better in the way it happens in Saudi Arabia, Iran, territories occupied by Daesh and other terrorist organisations, and other places where life is like it was in the seventeenth century in western Europe and before the Enlightenment. That is why western liberalism seems to be supporting such a transition (as well as curbing the threat of the Extreme-Right). Christianity as a political ideology has failed, because it has been used for purposes for which it was never designed. That is why Islam has always fought to take its place.

Humanism has its limits, and seems to be something that is passing away into history. Unfortunately, it was only of passing value. We have to return to darkness – as I read in Berdyaev’s theory about the “New Middle Age”. This sounds incredibly pessimistic, perhaps even pathological, but it isn’t. I am being realistic about the general situation. On the other hand, it is an opportunity for each of us in the last few years we have in this world to find and discover the divine image within us, and thus enter into a new and wonderful world.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment