OXFORD MOVEMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 14 July 1933, Page 2

OXFORD MOVEMENT

CENTENARY CELEBRATED TO-DAY

ANGLICAN CHURCH REVIVAL.

The Anglican Communio n throughout the world is celebrating thi 8 week the centenary of the great spiritual revival known as the Oxford Movement. A hundred years ago to-day, on duly 14, 1833, John Keble preached at Oxford the famous assize sermon on “National Apostasy,” which, in ultimate effect, transformed the face of the Church of England and, indeed, profoundly influenced the religious life of the whole nation.

The Oxford Movement has been the subject of much controversy, which promises to centre around its descendant, the Anglo-Catholic Movement, for. years to come. 'However, jn the century that has passed, the -Church hn;s come to see the aim s of Keble', Newman,' Pusey and tlie other Tractarians in true historical perspective, and rightly appraises the immen s e value of their work. This year’s commemoration is sponsored by the Archbishops of Canterbury •aud York find by archbishops .and bishops in every corner of the Englishspeaking world. There have been some dissenting voices, such as those of Bishop Barnes and Dean Inge, but. the appeal of the Archbishop 01 Canterbury to all sections of churchpcople has met with a ready response. A CALL TO UNITY. The main object of the commemoration, in the words of the archbishop’s centenary committee, is “to promote the unity of the Church by emphasising the corporate life of the Church and teo far a.s conscientious differences will permit) by exhibiting that corporate life in common action.” The hundred years preceding the Oxford Movement is universally .regarded as the period in which spiritually the Church of England was .at its lowest level. The State had encroached upon the legitimate domain of (the Church and usurped many" of its functions. 'Convocation had been put out,.of action. With a few splendid exceptions, the clergy Were ' complacent, worldly-minded,/ and neglectful of their pastoral duties. A clergyman might hold three or iou, r livings at -once, paying popr curates to perform bis duties for him, or perhaps 'neglecting them Altogether. ; Bishop Watson, of Tdandaff,' held Id livings and only once visited, his diocese; WESLEY A FORERUNNER. Church buildings were neglected and services weTe often - perfunctory. At ‘the • annual communion service in St. (Paul’s Cathedral on Easter Day, l •1800, there wer-eotsix,; communicants. A census in 1813 showed that of 10,800 benefices 6311 were without resident incumbents. \gaanst the spiritual apathy of the times John Wesley, ; himself an ’Oxford man, had launched his Evangelical Movement in 739. Hi 6 appeal, however, was • rather one to individuals than for the restitution of the institutional duties and privileges of the Church. It was & preacher’s, not a. scholar’s, movement. Many of Wesley’s. followers parted from the Church; the rest remained to form the Evangelical Party within its ranks. From this party sprang the later eighteenth century the Church Missionary Society, to which New Zealand owes much. •In the ’thirties of the last- century Church life was still at a low ebb, England was in the throes of the industrial /revolution, with its “dark satani-c mills,” and there was a rising tide of atheism. John Keble, professor of poetry jat Oxford, who bad published ia cycle of poems, “The Christian Year,” in .1827. was roused by the Government’s abolition of ten Irish /bishoprics, to call publicly upon the Church to realise her mission as an apostolical society, and defend her rights against usurpation by the State. THE CHURCH’S CATHOLICITY. John Henry Newman, a fellow of Oriel, was greatly impressed by the appeal. With E. B. Pusey -and other clerical scholars, he joined Keble in issuing the famous “Tracts for the Times,” in which the Qhui’ch of England wa 6 declared to be, not a manmade institution, dating dTom the Reformation, but a true branch of tile one Catholic . and Aposto.'ic Church, having th e Apostolic Succession and the fullness of sacramental grace, and being, fn fact, the only Catholic Church in the realm. These contentions the writers, /supported (by the authority of tho early councils and fathers of the Church, -and by .arguments from the history of the Reformation in England.

The Tractarian Movement, as it came to be known was wrecked by the secession of Newman to the Ron)an Catholic Church in 1841. However, its ;iniluence persisted and grew. Effects were see,n in gi'eate r zeal among the clergy, particularly iin ministering to the poor; in more frequent use of the sacraments; more Teverant conduct of Binvice s , and beautification of churches. The Tiaotarjans had been concerned with doctrine ralther than with ritual, but: many of their followers showed a desire to re-introduce ritual and ceremonial practices of the pre-Reformation Church. Authority for these was claim.ed from the formularies of 'the Reformation period, and cases relating to thorn occupied the Church courts for many years. influence upon selwyn. The zeal ■of the High Churchman deeply iatluemf.rj fitWr parties ja the

Church, and the basic principles of the Gxfo d Movement have been itrior* p wafer An ia non-partisan “centril” (luircbmanship which probably claims more adherent among clergy and laity than any of the defined groups—AngloCatholic,, Evangelical or Modernist. To the Oxford Movement the Church owes the revival of monastic order's for men and women, numbers of theological 'colleges .and Church schools, much new missionary effort and an increasing realisation of corporate life. 'Concurrently with the Oxford Movement and associated with it were the Christian Socialist Movement of F. D. Maurice, Charles Kingsley and Thomas Arnold, and the Vio;o,ria n revival of Gothic architecture. The movement itself bore fruit in the hymns of Keble, Newman (and J. M. Neale, the, last of whom brought to light many treasures of the ancient Church. It was also responsible in after years for the renewed study and use of the finest medieaval and post-Reformation English 'Church music, although .admittedly the Church has still far to go in this respect. The influence of the Oxford Movement was brought to New Zealand in 1842 by Bishop Selwyn, who, although he did not belong to the Tractarians, admired them from afar and was animated to a great extent by the game spirit. His tradition and that of the early Evangelical missionaries the New Zealand Church inherits and unites.