Anglo-Catholic parishes in Canada attract diverse newcomers with unique worship traditions

Diverse newcomers drawn to unique worship traditions

Worship at St. Thomas’s Anglican Church, a historic Anglo-Catholic parish in downtown Toronto, invariably provokes one of a few strong reactions from newcomers, rector Fr. Nathan Humphrey says. Some people, he says, ask him, “Wow, where has this been all my life?” Others who come from Protestant or evangelical backgrounds can have a strong knee-jerk reaction against worship that seems to them “too Catholic,” even “weird” or “idolatrous.”

“I don’t think anybody ever comes to the service at St. Thomas’s and has the attitude of ‘meh,’” Humphrey says. “A good Anglo-Catholic parish worth its salt won’t ever result in a ‘meh’ reaction from somebody who comes through the doors, because there’s always a particular identity that it’s conveying.”

Anglo-Catholic parishes—Anglican parishes that embrace many beliefs and practices associated with the Roman Catholic Church—represent a distinct tradition in the Anglican Church of Canada. While priests say this tradition remains a minority in the wider church, they also report thriving Anglo-Catholic congregations are attracting diverse newcomers drawn to its unique worship style.

Churches such as St. Thomas’s trace their roots back to the Oxford movement, a 19th-century trend in the Church of England that favoured the return of many older Christian practices into Anglican theology and liturgy. The movement eventually developed into the Anglo-Catholic tradition.

Practices of Anglo-Catholic parishes in Canada vary, but can include daily Mass, use of incense and altar candles, wearing of certain Eucharistic vestments and a greater focus on celebration of the saints. Choirs often sing polyphonic or Latin chants.

Humphrey says the aesthetic dimension of Anglo-Catholic worship reflects an interest in “the beauty of holiness.” At the same time, he warns against “the spiritual danger of worshipping the worship” and says all worship must centre on Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour to accomplish its chief task of proclaiming the gospel.

“Anglo-Catholicism as a movement is centred first and foremost in pointing to Jesus Christ through music and liturgy and the beauty of holiness, as it’s rooted in the historic understanding of the church and the councils of the creeds,” Humphrey says.

Originally from a non-Anglican evangelical background, Humphrey came to Anglo-Catholicism after meeting the late Frank Griswold, 25th presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church. Humphrey describes his first experience of Anglo-Catholic worship as feeling like “a foretaste of heaven.”

“There’s an immediate notion that something transcendent is happening; that something other than the normal”

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