ANGLO-CATHOLICISM.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 661, 14 January 1933, Page 7

ANGLO-CATHOLICISM.

Address Given by Dame Sybil Thorndike. CHRISTIAN PURGING URGED. t> rue Catholicism became dead if there was not something that was rebellious—something Protestant—in it, declared Dame Sybil Thorndike., who is vice-president of the Anglo-Catholic Congress, in an address to AngloCatholics of Christchurch, in the Jellicoe Hall yesterday afternoon. The state of the Roman Catholic Church m pre-Reformation days in England, the growth of the Oxford Movement, which will celebrate its centenary this year, and various points of historical interest, were dealt with by Dame Sybil in her address. She declared that the Catholic Church was made up of living individuals and not just a mass of red tape. Aim of Oxford Movement. Dame Sybil mentioned that next July would see the centenary of the Oxford Movement, which had begun with the preaching of a wonderful sermon by John Keble, who sought to bring the Holy Sacrament back as the central point of the Church’s life. Though there had been an Anglican Church before the coming of the Romans to Britain, Englishmen could be more generous in recognising that they owed their beginnings to Rome. Italy had given to the world such treasures as were possessed by no other nation on earth. Greece and Italy had given poetry, grace and a civilised life. Englishmen were true Protestants, for they were rebels from the beginning.

“ When we broke away at the Reformation and purged ourselves,” stated Dame Sybil, “ we went much too far, and in cutting out many of the ills we cut out much that was precious, such as the Blessed Sacrament and the Apostolic Succession. It is a curious thing that when there is a break outwardly from some great tradition, something has been learned by which we can benefit. As AngloCatholics we should not look with disapproval on that black time. The Catholic Church was forgetting the right of personal approach to God without reference to the priests. I do not think that we should say that that period was fruitless and that we are jumping back to where we were before the Reformation. We want to be sure that we will profit by it. “ In this centenary of the re-birth of the Catholic Church in England we want a living expression of something that has been gained.' The world is going through many changes, and we must look to something which has ended very disastrously for Catholics. The Greek Orthodox Church, which is a branch of the Catholic Church, was not &ble to hold the people of Russia by giving something alive, and the Revolution swept over it. Answer to Every Problem.

“The attitude of the Church should be that of individual approach to the Maker, and not just an institution. See to it that there will be a Christian purging in the world. I feel that at this centenary of the Oxford Movement we must hold to our faith and know that in the Church there is some answer to every problem. We must be true rebels and true Catholics at the present time, very like Saint Joan, an ardent member of the Church, but who went direct to the Maker and on her own responsibility. A short address on somewhat similar lines was given by Mr Bruce Winston, a prominent member of Dame Sybil’s company.