Digging Out the Embedded Church - The Maranatha Community

THE OXFORD TRACTARIAN MOVEMENT
Another movement which also looked back to the Early Church and to the catholic heritage
of the church in general as an inspiration for its renewal and recovery of faith was the
Anglican Tractarian Movement. It had its origins in the University of Oxford in 1833. The
leaders of the movement, John Keble (1792-1866), John Henry Newman (1801-1890) and
Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-1822), saw the Church of England as a divinely appointed
body, a Via Media, a middle way between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, and the
Church for the nation.
They called church members back to the Church‟s Thirty-nine Articles of Religion; the Book
of Common Prayer with all its services and rubrics; submission to the bishops; and Catholic
doctrines. Their worship sought to follow the practice and faith of the Early Church Fathers.
However, Newman abandoned his belief that the Church of England was a Via Media and
was received into the Roman Catholic Church. The teaching of the Oxford scholars revived
the catholic heritage of the Church of England but did nothing to win over many people of a
Low Church or Evangelical persuasion. It also gave rise to hopes among some Anglicans and
Roman Catholics that there could be some kind of reconciliation between the two
communions.
In the 19 th and 20 th Centuries several women in religious orders, Anglican and Catholic,
became devoted to the cause of Christian Unity. In 1857, both the Anglican-sponsored
Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom and the Community of the Holy
Cross at Wapping in the East End of London were launched. The latter was led by Mother
Elizabeth Neale, the sister of John Mason Neale, who did so much to create interest in Early
Christian hymns and Eastern orthodox spirituality. The Community, strongly Anglo-Papist at
first, became wider in its views of Christian Unity in the 20 th Century.
A similar widening of view on Christian Unity came about in the community of sisters at
Grottaferrata near Rome. Here, especially after Vatican II, the sisters followed Pere
Couturier‟s vision of „vertical ecumenism„ – the drawing of Christians together through
prayer – and devoted themselves to praying for the „complete unity‟ commanded by Jesus for
his disciples.
Etheldreda Anna Benett was the Foundress of the Anglican Society of the Sisters of
Bethany, in Clerkenwell, London, in 1866. She included daily prayer for unity in her
community‟s rule from its beginning. Today, at Southsea, Hampshire, the sisters continue
their Foundress‟s early ecumenical commitment by daily prayer for unity.
Their website (September 2008) states that:
„The Sisters seek to share the work of reconciling the divided Churches of Christendom
and the whole world to the glory of God the Father… The intention of the Eucharist
every Thursday is for Unity followed by an Office for Unity… At the heart of each
Sister‟s vocation is the call to prayer, sharing in Christ‟s work of reconciling humanity
to God. Praying in the Spirit which unites us all to Christ and in Christ, for the
wholeness of broken humanity, for the integration of creation, for the peace of the
world and for the Kingdom of God.‟
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