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Seminar 9:
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There have been many Anglo-Catholics within the Anglican Church in Australia, but they were never a unified movement or party. They embraced a wide range of viewpoints and emphases, and included many remarkable characters: pastors, prophets, romantics, rebels and eccentrics. Like the Anglican Church generally, Australian Anglo-Catholicism drew inspiration from England, but it was also shaped by its local social and religious environment. This seminar will examine seven distinct strands within Anglo-Catholicism, as illustrated by some of its leading figures, during the twentieth century: Anglo-papalism, social activism, ecumenism, theological reflection, missionary work, the religious life, and the fringe of rebels and dissidents. The focus will be on Australia, but with a sideways glance across the Tasman to New Zealand, where the Anglican Church developed along different lines, and Anglo-Catholics had a smaller presence. In Australia the confidence and influence of Anglo-Catholicism peaked in the early 1960s. The seminar will conclude by surveying its changing shape during the last forty years, and the reasons for its apparent decline. Can it be revived? What is the legacy of Anglo-Catholicism within the Australian church?
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