THE P RTAL
September 2017 Page 10
The CofE , John Henry Newman and the Catholic Church
Some thoughts on experience from The Revd Dr Stephen Morgan
am moving parishes this month . After ten years of serving in the parishes of the New Forest , I shall
I be starting pastoral work in the parish of the Holy Family , Millbrook in Southampton . There I will be assisting a priest of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham , Fr James Bradley , who is both the Priest in Charge of the Parish and the Catholic Chaplain to the University of Southampton . It will be an interesting time and one that I am looking forward to with eager anticipation . In future articles I hope to reflect upon the experience of working alongside one committed to the gifts that Anglican Patrimony can bring to the life of the wider Catholic Church and on what Blessed John Henry Newman might have to say that is of relevance to that . For this article , however , I want to reflect a little on what Newman has brought to my ministry in Lymington and Brockenhurst , Milford-on-Sea and New Milton .
Periodically I have lunch with an Anglican Archdeacon friend . He is an inspiring man , with an energy and a commitment to Christ that often leaves me feeling hopelessly inadequate . After a recent meal in a pub in the New Forest Village of Bransgore , I went for a walk across the heathland to the north east of the village . As much as anything else , I went to reflect on what he had said about the growing realisation within the Church of England that , for now at least , Christendom is over and that , for the sake of the Gospel , if it were not for sheer legislative complexity , the Church of England might be better pushing for disestablishment .
As I walked towards Burley , I turned and could just see the tower of the Church of St Mary the Virgin , Bransgore , where Henry Wilberforce had once been Vicar . Henry was the son of the great slavery abolitionist , William Wilberforce . Like most of his family – though not his brother ‘ Soapy ’ Sam , who was later Bishop of Oxford and Winchester – Henry eventually became a Catholic . As I looked down to the church , which had a spire in Henry ’ s time , I remembered that it was here , on precisely this bit of the New Forest , in October 1839 , Newman had one of those mystical experiences that marked his path to Rome .
Newman had taught Henry Wilberforce at Oriel and remained close to him . Staying with him shortly before the end of the University ’ s Long Vacation in 1839 , Newman walked back across the forest from Burley to Bransgore . As he approached Bransgore , he observed to Wilberforce that the effect of his study of the early Church had brought him to a point where “ a vista has
been opened up before me , to the end of which I do not see ”. He had seen that it was precisely the claims and requirements of establishment that meant the Church of England would ever be fatally compromised , never fully in communion with the Church of the Fathers and hamstrung in its prophetic witness to the truth of Christ . As Newman put it later in the Apologia , “ The heavens had opened and closed again . The thought for the moment had been , ‘ The Church of Rome will be found right after all ’.”
Newman ’ s confidence in the Church of England returned , for a while , but he was eventually to see to the end of the vista . As I trudged back to the car , I mused on my Venerable friend ’ s predicament and prayed that he too would come to share Newman ’ s view .
On that walk in 1839 , Newman had come to see that the scandal of particularity demands of the Church , of the Christian , a singular and exclusive loyalty to Christ , who came in the flesh at a particular time , in a particular place , within a particular religious , cultural and political context . None of those things was an accident , nor can we set them lightly aside in favour of the demands of the state or of wider society . Establishment makes this a particular risk for the Church of England but as I have sought to show and teach , counsel and preach to the wonderful people in the Catholic parishes of the New Forest , we too are increasingly prey to the same temptation . Whether my words and acts have been effective in communicating that , God alone knows but I know that Blessed John Henry Newman has been my constant companion and guide as I have tried so to do .