What is a High Anglican?

Question

I heard that the High Anglicans may soon reconcile with the Roman Catholic Church? Is this true? And what is a High Anglican? How is that different from other Anglicans?

Answer 1

"High Church" relates to ecclesiology and liturgy in Christian theology and practice. Although now used with regard to many Christian denominations, it has traditionally been associated with the Anglican tradition in particular.

It is often employed in describing those Anglican parishes or congregations that employ many ritual practices associated in the popular mind with the Roman Catholic Mass. Supporters of the "High Church" position emphasise that these practices have to do with holiness, sanctity, and respect for God, Jesus, and the Church itself as the Body of Christ. As such they espouse a position that the Church as an organisation and the congregation at worship is "catholic" primarily in the sense that it is joined through its ritual to the Church "universal", and so they employ the terms "High Church" and "Anglo-Catholic" not as a reflection of any desire to ally the Anglican Church with Rome, nor in an attempt to reject the reformed Catholic position asserted by Anglicanism.

Due to its history, the term "High Church" can also be used to refer to aspects of Anglicanism quite distinct from the Oxford Movement or Anglo-Catholicism. There remain parishes which are "High Church" and yet adhere closely to the quintessentially Anglican usages and liturgical practices of the Book of Common Prayer. These congregations are what is termed "Prayer Book" in liturgy, but "High Church" in churchmanship and ecclesiastical outlook.

Within Lutheranism there is also a historic "High Church" and "Low Church" distinction that is very comparable to that of Anglicanism (see Neo-Lutheranism and Pietism).

Elastic in meaning, the term "High Church" has spread to those Protestant denominations which have undergone ritualistic revivals or realignments in their liturgical practices, for example, "High Church" Presbyterianism.

Answer 2

It won't happen - it was a story blown out of proportion in teh Times.

"High Anglican" is the same as "Anglo-Catholic". It is the wing of the Anglican Church (Episcopalians in the US) who practice a more Catholic style of worship, often revere the Virgin Mary and the saints, have a more Catholic Eucharistic theology, etc. The main difference between High Anglicans and Roman Catholics is that High Anglicans do not recognise papal supremacy in matters of doctrine. So basically they're Catholics without the Pope.

However, many Anglo-Catholics are much more liberal doctrinally than the Roman Catholic Church. There are a wide range of views, but many Anglo Catholics support the ordination of women to the priesthood, and there is (stereotypically) supposed to be a very high tolerance for homosexuality among Anglo-Catholics!

Answer 3

There are "high church" Anglicans, and "broad church" (or "low church") Anglicans. If you're a really high church Anglican, you might even belong to one of the Anglo-Catholic groups. The "high" often refers to more elaborate liturgy and rituals. High church Anglicans are sometimes more theologically and ritually conservative, as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo_catholic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_church

Answer 4

Catholic Lite

Answer 5

High Anglicans like the "smells and bells".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_church

Answer 6

Father K is the natural expert here and I'll defer to him.

I do wonder about the Apostolic Succession and how that will play out.