Traditions and Decline.

Reading the Spring Edition of "Northern Lights" (News from the Scottish Episcopal Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney) I saw an intriguing picture of the Bishop of the Diocese with a monk on the island of Orkney. It appears that there is a religious order on Orkney known as the Transalpine Redemptorists. In Northern Lights, they were described as adhering to "extreme theology", ha ha ha, indeed they do, because as I have discovered they are affiliated to the Society of St Pius X. 

Everyone knows that the SSPX are very lax when it comes to liturgy. 

Originally based at the Monastery of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary in the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, they moved to the Mother of Perpetual Succour Monastery in Joinville, France in 1994 until they bought the island of Papa Stronsay on 31 May 1999.[in the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, they moved to the Mother of Perpetual Succour Monastery in Joinville, France in 1994 until they bought the island of Papa Stronsay on 31 May 1999.

Looking at their blog it does not look like a rather nice place for a retreat, I would not use the term "extreme" theology, I was use the term "harsh", the whole discipline is reminiscent of something from the middle ages, and one wonders how they maintain this way of life. I don't think that I shall criticise them, yet, I wonder, how is possible to maintain that way of life and yet still allow oneself access to the inter web, as they appear to have a blog and a dreaded Facebook account, this does not strike me as adhering to the strict rule of the order?

I note that within the whole of the SSPX there appears to be a conflict regarding the internet and it's usage. I recall a sermon in which Bishop Richard Williamson expounds the dangers and great evils of the internet and how it is part of the modern corruption of our times. Within ten mins the Lord Bishop changed his mind and said that the internet was good in bringing like minded people together. It must be rather difficult to stand one way or the other on this issue. However, you would think that being an anti-modernist  the internet would not even get a look in. Well you would be wrong.

Bishop Richard Williamson, positively medieval except when it comes to the internet.

I must admit that I do have a soft spot for the SSPX, their Bishops, Priests, and Religious. When one want's to examine what the pre Reformation, Pre Vatican II Church, one simply looks to them and I must confess that they do a very good Mass, albeit in a dead language that no one understands, not even that but the Latin itself is of very poor quality. Now the Pope has brought them back to the fold, well very good. I say "the" Pope, because he is not my Pope, thankfully I am an Anglican, mind you in saying that we have some odd balls in our Church, and in fact if I were a Roman Catholic I would be inclined towards the SSPX, at least they preserve the traditional liturgy. In that Provence of the Anglican Communion that holds my heart, Ireland, I am concerned at the lack of respect for the liturgy.

There are clergy who do not wear proper attire, do not use the prayer book, do not even bow at the name of Christ, and woe betides the day when they should administer the body of our Lord as a wafer. Such people have no respect for tradition, or indeed heritage. They think that church is a gimmick factory for their mad cap ideas. There is at least one Temple of the Lord in East Belfast that I am familiar with. It calls itself "Anglican", yet what I saw there was very far from Anglican, it was positively Presbyterian/Baptist/Pentecostal, with a complete lack of Catholicity, reason, and tradition. No Prayer Book. 

St Brendan's Church, Sydenham, East Belfast, Diocese of Down and Dromore. What's wrong with this picture?  The answer is that this is an Anglican building, although you may be forgiven for thinking that it was a "Gospel Hall", with the graffiti on the front. This is part of the problem for the Church in Northern Ireland, it is loosing it's identity and succumbing to trends rather than adhering to tradition. Tradition which has been handed down to us from the Apostles, and from the Celtic Church. That was ever so slightly tainted in the middle ages but was recovered in the Reformation and was thus preserved throughout the centuries. Some clergy would do well to remember that the reason why tradition is important is because it is a Spirit that has been tested, and has not been found wanting. I am dubious of gimmicks that have not been tested.

On the other side of the river Lagan is a church that claims or rather declares itself "Anglo-Catholic", this is rather funny because it is not Anglo-Catholic, it is let's pretend to be Anglo-Catholic in our liturgy. Yes of course the clergy dress up, but the celebration of the Eucharist is not presented in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, and of course they use the Book of Common Prayer, not the English Missal. How funny, look's Catholic, doesn't smell Catholic (no incense, forbidden by Canon Law), sounds Anglican. That is what we in liturgical circles call "A joke". The one thing they have mastered in that particular church is the snobbishness, arrogance, and inflated ego of say Westminster Abbey or St George's Chapel Windsor. A window cleaner would not be welcome, which is rather amusing given that in the good old days Anglo-Catholics were the slum missionaries.... how times have changed.

So you see we Anglicans could do with a Bishop Richard Williamson and an organisation in the style of SSPX, an organisation to meet the trendy "Vicars", with good old fashioned Catholic tradition.