As a distinct sub-group or branch of Anglicanism it came to prominence in the Church of England during the Victorian era and enjoyed widespread influence. The Oxford Movement, as it became known, was aimed at restoring High Church principles. Over the years many Anglo-Catholics gravitated to Rome following Newman, but most have lived uneasily if not painfully within the Anglican fold.

Their exact numbers are unknown but they are strong in England, parts of Africa, especially Central Africa, and the Caribbean. Pockets of Anglo-Catholics can be found among larger Evangelical constituencies and broad-church Anglicans throughout the Anglican Communion. They are often referred to as traditionalists and practice their faith with great solemnity and concern for catholic form.

They are, for the most part, intellectuals, high churchman who occasionally get taunted by Protestant Evangelical Anglicans for their "'smells and bells"' approach to the faith. They harbor an inordinate number of homosexuals some of whom live celibately, but many do not. Those that do live out the lifestyle do not flaunt their homoerotic behavior in the manner of such extrovert homosexuals as revisionist New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson. They deplore public displays of sexual expression and, for the most part, live quietly. While they pose no threat to the order and discipline of the church, their lack of evangelistic zeal which they often deride as "happy clappy" has not endeared their exercise of faith to a wider public. They oppose the ordination of women at all levels of the church and oppose (in principle) sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman.

While some do use the Catholic Missal many also use the Anglican Missal produced by the Oxford Movement. They are devout, godly, and are fiercely determined to maintain the traditions of the church against what they perceive as a prevailing culture of low (Protestant) churchmanship.

Anglo-Catholicism should not be confused with Affirming Catholicism, a movement led by the present Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams and its American patron, Frank T. Griswold. This movement is inclusive of women to all levels of the church including the episcopacy as well as affirming of homosexuality if practiced within the realm of commitment. They regard themselves as reforming Catholics.

Today Anglo-Catholics around the world, but especially in the U.S. face isolation and demonization. Their ranks are rapidly diminishing. Within The Episcopal Church, they are a persecuted minority. Their views on women are deemed misogynistic and their views on the Book of Common Prayer (1662 or 1929) seen as out of touch with present realities.

In a number of dioceses their priests are not welcome. In at least one diocese, Long Island, there has been an all out bitter campaign by its bishop, Orris Walker, to harass and throw Anglo-Catholics out of the diocese. (This reporter sat with one such priest who recounted horror stories of the ways he and his fellow Anglo-Catholics suffered at the hands of this bishop. He subsequently fled to Rome.)

The truth is they are aging. Many of their churches are not drawing a new generation into the church. They are fighting an uphill battle with western culture that has accepted pluralism and diversity as the hallmark of the age. Anglo-Catholics have united under the banner of Forward in Faith International and number some of the finest theological minds in the world today.

Now, more than 160 years later, Anglo-Catholics find themselves in danger of extinction. Within The Episcopal Church there are three remaining Anglo-Catholic dioceses - Ft. Worth, Quincy and San Joaquin. Other dioceses like Springfield, Pittsburgh and the Rio Grande are very sympathetic towards them, but as they support the ordination of women they cannot strictly be called Anglo-Catholic.

One diocese - San Joaquin - is weighing its future in The Episcopal Church. Come December they will vote to stay or leave. The outcome of this vote may see the diocese leave the Episcopal Church in its entirety except for those individual parishes wishing to remain or leave for another jurisdiction. If the diocese leaves as a body it will be of historic import. The Bishop, John-David Schofield, has already been threatened by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori should he try to cede the diocese from TEC.

Should any of the other Anglo-Catholic bishops and their dioceses decide to follow his example, there is little doubt that major civil action will result. It will be a huge public relations disaster, but it could also be the end of the Anglo-Catholic movement in The Episcopal Church. While Anglo-Catholic pockets of resistance can still be found in liberal and conservative dioceses, most are either leaving for greener ecclesiastical and spiritual pastures, or will leave after the Sept. 30 deadline set for the Episcopal Church to conform to the Windsor Report.

One bishop, Clarence C. Pope, Jr., (former Bishop of Ft. Worth) who has made three pilgrimages in and out of the Episcopal Church to Rome, and who recently announced he was crossing the Tiber again, told a news magazine that the Catholic movement in The Episcopal Church has degenerated from a theological imperative into haberdashery.

"The [Anglo] Catholic movement, which has been part of Anglicanism from the time of the Elizabethan Settlement, has gradually dissipated until we are left with lots of 'catholic' vestments worn in areas of The Episcopal Church where 'low church' used to be the order of the day," he said. The culprit, in what he believes to be the death of Anglo-Catholicism, is the usurpation of powers and prerogatives by General Convention. Bishop Pope argued that over the past generation, the "vote" in General Convention had led to the triumph of "political correctness" over sound doctrine.

He also said that the vision of corporate reunion "put forth by Pope Paul VI and Archbishop [of Canterbury Michael] Ramsey can now never be realized." The [Anglo] Catholic movement he said is at an end.

"General Conventions are not General Councils but they have come to behave as such," he said. "Doctrinal changes concerning holy matrimony, holy orders, and matters of sexual morality have put The Episcopal Church outside the limits of the Vincentia Canon, and marginalize everyone within it from the Catholic world."

He characterized his move to Rome not as a rejection of Anglicanism but as a culmination of a spiritual journey. The same might be said for the Rt. Rev. Daniel Herzog, the former Bishop of Albany, who announced after his retirement that he was returning to the Roman Catholic Church.

Any way you look at it, the move to Rome is a sweeping rejection by Anglo-Catholics of low-church Anglicanism particularly in the US. There are also some Evangelicals moving to Rome who have discovered "Low" Roman Catholicism.

A number of Episcopal priests and at least two other Episcopal bishops are thinking of crossing the Tiber after Sept. 30, VirtueOnline has learned.

Despite this, some of the most significant growth in Anglo-Catholicism in recent years can be seen internationally with the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) and its American link, the Anglican Church in America (ACA), a branch that is growing, and absorbing smaller Anglo-Catholic churches that proliferate on the fringes of the Episcopal Church. The TAC is the largest body of Anglo-Catholics outside of the Anglican Communion and the Church of England. A feisty Australian the Most Rev. John Hepworth leads it. According to public records, the TAC is an international entity consisting of about half a million members with fewer than 33 bishops in 44 countries speaking seven languages. English is the least prevalent of these.

What has deeply and profoundly hurt and crippled Anglo-Catholics is the recent pronouncement by Pope Benedict XVI that the Roman Catholic Church is [still] the one, true church with all others being in some form defective and their orders "invalid".

In one fell swoop The Roman Catholic Church rejected Anglican orders for failing, in their view, to sustain proper apostolic succession. While The Pope did not declare that all churches other than the Roman Catholic Church had invalid orders, the Eastern Orthodox churches for example, Protestants were his primary target. Evangelicals were not particularly concerned by the pope's stand as they have always had "issues" with Rome over such things as papal infallibility, the nature of the Eucharist, Petrine authority etc. Liberals have always held out hope that John 17 would bring about the fabled unity they were seeking, but organic unity and uniformity should not be confused.

Any hope of an olive branch of reconciliation for Anglo-Catholics now appears for the moment dashed.

For years Anglo-Catholics had pinned their hopes on an Anglican Use Rite approved by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a proposed process for approving convert clergy. A number of priests were ordained under its canons in 1983. 80 have been ordained since then, with more on the way. An Anglican Use liturgy was finally approved in 1987.

While the Pastoral Provision is only available in the U.S., its availability is only for those priests and bishops who will take the necessary steps to cross the Tiber at which point the Rite is open to them. It is not available to Episcopalians or Anglicans who remain in TEC. For those seeking full communion with Rome, the Pastoral Provision is provided for them under the jurisdiction of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith whose Delegate directs the working of the Provision. Under the Provision, the ordination of married Episcopal priests was made possible. It also authorized the establishment of personal parishes in dioceses of the United States in response to the request of former faithful of the Episcopal Church in which they may retain certain liturgical elements proper to the Anglican tradition.

With the pope's recent pronouncement, any hopes that Anglo-Catholics may have entertained that they would be accepted as Anglicans with their Prayer Book and traditions into the bosom of Rome are gone, at least with this pope.

But one informed source told VOL, that he thinks the Pope's remarks are aimed more at the Anglican Communion rather than at Anglo Catholics. He is said to be sympathetic to the idea of receiving Anglo Catholics into communion along the model that Archbishop Hepworth has proposed -- but not under Hepworth's leadership. This, apparently, has been made clear to Hepworth.

For the moment, however, Anglo-Catholics are adrift and isolated.

Said one Anglo-Catholic priest, "I feel like a small beached whale. People are throwing buckets of water over me to try and save me. My real fear is being dragged back into the ocean where I am all alone."

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