THE P
RTAL
Catholic Social Teaching
March 2018 Page 9
Claiming our Anglican Patrimony
By setting the scene for the coming series of articles , Fr Ashley Beck , draws on a famous speech and our Patrimony
Last month I wrote about how I intend in these articles to explain and explore aspects of Catholic
Social teaching , the part of the Church ’ s moral teaching which relates specifically to how society should be ordered . This is a rich and constantly developing tradition . I also want to pinpoint links between this teaching and the focus on social justice in Anglo-Catholicism , part of what members of the Ordinariate , and other former Anglicans who are now Catholics , can bring into the Catholic Church .
Back in 1973 , I was an enthusiastic altar server and a member of various Anglo-Catholic societies in my home town of Southampton . That summer we organised a special celebration to mark the fiftieth anniversary of an important event in the life of the Anglo-Catholic movement in the early part of the 20 th century , the 1923 Anglo-Catholic Congress in the Royal Albert Hall , and one event at it in particular . We had a Pontifical High Mass at the Faldstool from The English Missal , celebrated by a prelate whom we still then called a ‘ colonial bishop ’.
The event was a famous speech made at the congress by the man who presided at most of the sessions , Frank Weston , Bishop of Zanzibar , entitled Our Present Duty . The closing part of that speech became famous :
‘ I am not talking economics ; I do not understand them . I am not talking politics ; I do not understand them . I am talking the Gospel , and I say to you this : If you are Christians then your Jesus is one and the same : Jesus on the Throne of his glory , Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament , Jesus received into your hearts in Communion , Jesus with you mystically as you pray , and Jesus enthroned in the hearts and bodies of his brothers and sisters up and down this country . It is folly , it is madness to suppose that you can worship Jesus in the Sacraments and Jesus on the Throne of glory , when you are sweating him in the souls and bodies of his children . It cannot be done .
There then , as I conceive it , is your present duty ; and I beg you , brethren , as you love the Lord Jesus , consider that it is at least possible that this is the new
light that the Congress was to bring to us . You have got your Mass , you have got your Altar , you have begun to get your Tabernacle . Now go out into the highways and hedges where not even the Bishops will try to hinder you . Go out and look for Jesus in the ragged , in the naked , in the oppressed and sweated , in those who have lost hope , in those who are struggling to make good . Look for Jesus . And when you see him , gird yourselves with his towel and try to wash their feet .’
These words became inspirational for many people in our tradition . One should bear in mind that Bishop Weston wasn ’ t simply talking about charitable giving : in Africa he had been a powerful witness against racism , and when he was a student at Oxford he joined the Christian Social Union and the more militant Guild of St Matthew . He remained a committed socialist all his life . For him , and for others at the same time , this commitment to social justice was rooted above all in the doctrine of the Incarnation , as you can see from his words above .
What the Catholic Church teaches about society is not a ‘ side-show ’ or a hobby for some committed activists in our communities or in Christian charities . Because it is part of the Church ’ s moral teaching it is binding on all of us . Bishop Weston ’ s teachings show that following this teaching , which we will examine in these articles , is the duty of every Christian . The witness of Bishop Weston and others like him is the reason why former Anglicans in particular within the Catholic community should know about this teaching and be able to share its riches with others .