Ritualism in the Episcopal Church
The growth of ritualism in the Episcopal Church, which marks the return to Rome of that branch of the Protestant church in this country, and of the “high-church” party in the Church of England, is a thing which frequently attracts attention by its rapid progress. The following comments on this subject were made recently by the New York Sun, on the occasion of the opening of the new church of St. Ignatius (Episcopal) in New York City, “high mass” being celebrated before a large and “apparently sympathetic” congregation:— The services approached closely the ritual of the Roman Catholic Church. The robes of the priests, the incense, the sanctus bell, and the genuflexions suggested Catholicism, and the preacher, the rector of the extremely ritualistic and exceedingly prosperous Church of St. Mary the Virgin, proclaimed with emphasis that “the church is a part of the Catholic Church, and not a part of the Protestant sect,” “is the church of the worshipers in the catacombs and who through the Middle Ages to to-day,” “is of the church authorized by Christ through St. Peter.” He promulgated the doctrine of the real presence, defended “the right of the priest to grant, through the confessional, absolution according to the warrant of the Gospels,” and contended that this faith and these practices “are growing all over the land” in the Episcopal Church. It cannot be denied by any one familiar with the development of that church in this country that the preacher had reason for this exultation. The most aggressive party in the Episcopal Church is now the High-church party, and it is steadily pressing ahead to further extremes in ritualism, toward medievalism, sacramentarianism, and sacerdotalism. “The priests of the church for the last fifty years,” said the preacher, “have been cleaning out the wells; do not let the wells fill up again with rubbish and prejudice.” And they have done the work very thoroughly. High-churchism, both here and in England, has advanced far beyond the dreams of the most enthusiastic leaders of the Oxford movement at its beginning in 1833. Even a generation ago, Episcopalians would have been horrified by the “Romanism” of the service and the sermon at this opening of an Episcopal church last Sunday, no matter if they had been included in the High-church party as it then was. But now the teaching of the real presence and of confessional absolution in an Episcopal Church produces no alarm, no unusual sensation, though we observe that Bishop Potter was not present at St. Ignatius’s to celebrate “high mass,” but that a ritualist bishop from a Western diocese was called in for the purpose. Meantime, the Roman Catholic rejects the right of the Church of St. Ignatius to call itself a “Catholic” church, refuses to recognize the validity of its clerical orders, looks on its priests as mere laymen, and regards its “high mass” as an idle or impious ceremony. No matter how near Episcopal ritualism gets to Rome in its forms, it is still classed by Rome with Protestantism and heresy, as a body without true churchly authority. What Rome is demanding and waiting for is a full return to corporate union with the papacy, and the complete abandonment of any separate organization or name. To this point, in another step, this ritualistic church party will logically come.