Topics

From the NOR Dossiers

Anglican Communion

The Halifax School & the Fallacy at the Heart of Anglicanism

A BRIEF HISTORY

Richard Upsher Smith Jr.

November 2023

This is a tale of a well-organized and lofty effort by theologians, parish clergy, and laymen to recover the essence of Anglicanism in Canada.

VIEW ARTICLE
Preaching Christ Customized

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

January-February 2023

To the list of things Jesus could have been but wasn’t, there is now one more to add: A new movement would recast Our Lord as a transgender woman.

VIEW ARTICLE
The St. Louis Congress: Forty-Five Years Later

A HISTORY OF SPLITSVILLE

William J. Tighe

December 2022

One strain of Anglicanism, the Anglo-Catholic, was privileged over the others and contained ambiguities that were to cause disagreement and strife.

VIEW ARTICLE
Why a Self-Indulgent Age Needs a Rough Religion

VITAL WORKS RECONSIDERED, #53 & #54

Kenneth Colston

March 2022

Penance is man’s pitiful part in cooperation with grace, an extreme method necessary to combat the difficulties posed by the passion and the pride of man.

VIEW ARTICLE
Walker Percy, the Episcopal Church & Kierkegaard’s “Apostle”

ON SPEAKING WITH AUTHORITY

Thomas H. Hubert

July-August 2021

Kierkegaard’s concept of “the Apostle” influenced Percy’s presentation of character and theological insight in his fiction.

VIEW ARTICLE
Love on Trial

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

December 2020

The Episcopal Church contorts its theology to conform to the broader culture, but the culture has no real use for a Christianity remade in its image.

VIEW ARTICLE
An Introduction to North American High Toryism

Charles A. Coulombe

January-February 2018

A review of The North American High Tory Tradition

VIEW ARTICLE
A Letter from a Concerned Episcopalian

TO "THE ANSWER PRIEST"

Edward B. Connolly

October 2017

VIEW ARTICLE
Our Fortieth Anniversary

EDITORIAL

January-February 2017

VIEW ARTICLE
The Anglican Conundrum
March 2016

Same-sex marriage is causing deep and possibly irreparable division in the Anglican Communion, the third-largest Christian communion in the world.

VIEW ARTICLE
What Does the Anglican Patrimony Have to Offer the Church?

RE-APPROPRIATING THE SUBJECTIVE WITH THE OBJECTIVE

Richard Upsher Smith Jr.

April 2015

The Prayer Book tradition might well assist the Church in welcoming home those who wander in exile.

VIEW ARTICLE
Blueprint for a Catholic Future?

RALPH ADAMS CRAM & THE ANGLO-PAPALISTS

Charles A. Coulombe

September 2014

Ralph Adams Cram saw that our faith must be placed first in any consideration of what we are to do in a practical manner.

VIEW ARTICLE
A Slow-Motion Implosion
May 2014

The recent history of the Anglican Communion shows that shedding virtually all of its distinctively Christian moral teachings in order to achieve "relevance" has disastrous results.

VIEW ARTICLE
Dances With Wolves, Vatican Edition
September 2013

The days of trusting what's going on deep behind the scenes in chanceries and in the Roman curia are over. Transparency is what's needed, not blind trust in some broken bureaucracy.

VIEW ARTICLE
What Is the Anglican Patrimony?

UNDERSTANDING A GOODLY HERITAGE

Martha C. Eischen

May 2012

When one walks into an Anglican church, especially one in which traditional worship is practiced, one gets a distinct feeling of the presence of the Lord.

VIEW ARTICLE
Incredible Shrinking Churches
December 2011

Some mainline Protestant denominations are in rapid decline because they have no message that is discernibly different from the secular culture.

VIEW ARTICLE
Sheldon Vanauken Remembered

FROM OUT OF C.S. LEWIS'S LONG SHADOW

Chene Richard Heady

October 2011

The full depth of his literary case for faith cannot be gathered from 'A Severe Mercy' alone, which deliberately narrates only the first half of his life.

VIEW ARTICLE
Mary Tudor & the Dawn of the Counter-Reformation

Anne Barbeau Gardiner

December 2010

The convictions of many "ardent young intellectuals" who fled to Louvain or Douai would merge seamlessly into wider movements for reforms.

VIEW ARTICLE
City of Confusion - Part II
July-August 2010

Just when we were beginning to think that things couldn't get any more schizoid in the Anglican Communion, things are getting, well, more schizoid.

VIEW ARTICLE
Two Dubious Anniversaries

C.S. LEWIS & T.S. ELIOT ON CONTRACEPTION

Gregory K. Laughlin

July-August 2010

Neither Lewis nor Eliot was willing to condemn all uses of artificial contraception, yet both had obvious concerns about the moral implications of its use.

VIEW ARTICLE
If Only the Anglicans Had Listened

PIKE OR PIUS?

Andrew M. Seddon

June 2010

It behooves all of us, both clergy and laity, to recognize Modernism's subtle and not so subtle influence and counter it with prayer and adherence to sound doctrine.

VIEW ARTICLE
Which Side Are You On?
January-February 2010

The practical effect of the Pope's Anglicanorum Coetibus has been to crystallize the significant differences between modern Anglicanism and Holy Mother Church.

VIEW ARTICLE
Lifeboats on the Tiber
December 2009

Anglican prelates are already dropping hints that they are seriously considering taking up Pope Benedict's offer to help them across the Tiber.

VIEW ARTICLE
Two Tracks to 'Communion'
October 2009

What might the Archbishop of Canterbury's "two-track" model for the Anglican Communion look like at the local level?

VIEW ARTICLE
City of Confusion
October 2009

Some say the demise of Anglicanism truly began in the 1530s when King Henry VIII "nationalized" the Catholic Church in England.

VIEW ARTICLE
Clandestine 'Communion'
December 2007

Why does the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury feel it necessary to hold a "secret" Communion service with gay clergy?

VIEW ARTICLE
Integrity or a Lie?
October 2007

The Anglican Church of England would no doubt be close to shutting down if it weren't for "gay" and lesbian clergy.

VIEW ARTICLE
The Anglican Use in the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church

GUEST COLUMN

James S. Blankenship

July-August 2007

Many Anglo-Catholics who convert to the Roman Catholic Church are disappointed with what they find in the average Roman Catholic parish.

VIEW ARTICLE
Absolutely Null & Utterly Void
May 2007

According to Pope Leo XIII, Anglican Orders are "absolutely null and utterly void." That makes the Anglo-Catholic "Eucharist" invalid, too.

VIEW ARTICLE
Bishop Vicky & Bishop Gumby
April 2005

It's luv, luv, luv that makes the world go round, and who cares what comes after.

VIEW ARTICLE
Must We Now Be Leery of Anglican Converts?
September 2004

Might the Golden Age of Anglican converts be coming to an end?

VIEW ARTICLE
"Do You Have to Say 'And God Bless You'?"
April 2004

A revealing vignette about the priorities of the Episcopal Church...

VIEW ARTICLE
Bible-Burners

GUEST COLUMN

Dwight Longenecker

February 2004

The Protestant Reformers' revolution was extremist, not unlike that of the Taliban, as exemplified by their zeal for destruction.

VIEW ARTICLE
Special Breeds & Lesser Breeds
January 2004

It would appear that homosexuals are a special breed entitled to special privileges in the Episcopal Church.

VIEW ARTICLE
God the Father, the Elephantine God — Whatever
January 2004

There are still Catholic bishops who believe that a Third Vatican Council could authorize priestesses and bishopettes.

VIEW ARTICLE
The Non Serviam of the Episcopal Church: Unsex Me!

GUEST COLUMN

Larry A. Carstens

December 2003

The Catholic Church will never capitulate to the times, and those among her members who do generally do not remain within her for long.

VIEW ARTICLE
A Letter From a Concerned Episcopalian

TOLERANCE FOR VAMPIRES

Edward B. Connolly

October 2003

The Vicar reminded us that the Anglican Communion embraces a wide variety of lifestyles and said the time had come for him to come out of the closet.

VIEW ARTICLE
Simony in the Church of England
September 2003

The Anglicans has fallen on hard times, both in terms of membership and finances.

VIEW ARTICLE
Newman, an “Apostate”?

Stanley L. Jaki

May 2003

Arthur Schlesinger said the most "tenacious tradition of paranoic agitation in American history has been anti-Catholicism." This book is a product of it.

VIEW ARTICLE
An Anglo-Catholic Tale

MAY WE LEARN, SOONER RATHER THAN LATER

Charles A. Coulombe

February 2003

For many a Protestant who would never have been able to make the jump to Rome immediately, Anglo-Catholicism has served as a halfway house.

VIEW ARTICLE
Anglicanism, Catholicism & The Significance of the "Anglican Use" in The Catholic Church

THE DIASPORA OF TRADITIONAL ANGLICANS

William J. Tighe

January 2003

To Anglicans, healthy Anglican Use parishes offer an appropriation of all that is best in the Catholic patrimony of Anglicanism.

VIEW ARTICLE
The Malines Conversations & What Was Malign There

A CHAPTER IN THE ILLUSION OF REUNITING CANTERBURY WITH ROME

Stanley L. Jaki

July/August 2002

Keep in mind St. Paul’s dire warning that heresies would of necessity come so that the genuine faith of the elect may come to light all the more strongly.

VIEW ARTICLE
The Death of Catholic England

William J. Tighe

May 2002

The Reformation was received by the great mass of Englishmen with reluctance, resentment, and resistance. Catholic England did not “pass away”; it was murdered.

VIEW ARTICLE
The Astronomical Cost of Priestesses In the Church of England

FEMINISM RULES — AND RUINS

Tom Watkins

May 2002

Any full-time Church of England clergyman who worked for at least five years prior to 1992 was entitled to compensation if he resigned over women's ordination.

VIEW ARTICLE
On the Road to Oblivion.
February 2002

When fewer and fewer men enter a profession, does it become marginalized?

VIEW ARTICLE
'Mere Christianity' as Merely Protestant

A RESPONSE TO THOMAS STORCK

S.M. Hutchens

January 2002

The idea attempts to describe the signs of the Church in its wounded state, a state with difficulties that could be far better dealt with if no schisms had occurred.

VIEW ARTICLE
Newman: Myths & Facts

WAS HE 'ECUMENICAL' OR NOT ?

Stanley L. Jaki

November 2001

The view that one can find encouragement in the writings of the Catholic Newman for the reunion of Churches is a mighty myth.

VIEW ARTICLE
'Anglican Use' Catholic Parishes

A PLACE HAS BEEN PREPARED

Charles M. Wilson

November 2001

We may see increasing numbers of Anglicans coming to recognize that what they are seeking can be found only in full communion with the Successor of Peter.

VIEW ARTICLE
Is There Such a Thing as "Mere Christianity"?

BY WHAT AUTHORITY DOES C.S. LEWIS PONTIFICATE?

Thomas Storck

July/August 2001

Implicit in the 'mere Christianity' notion is a denial of the supreme importance of the Catholic faith as the complete revelation of God.

VIEW ARTICLE
The Church of England, The Defiled “Panther”

William J. Tighe

May 2001

Anne Barbeau Gardiner shows "that Dryden’s poem has a grand and unified design that has hitherto gone unnoticed.”

VIEW ARTICLE
The Great Realignment of 2004-2012: The Catholic Church Splits, The Episcopal Church Triumphs

LOOKING BACKWARD FROM YEAR 2015

Lee Penn

December 2000

VIEW ARTICLE
My Episcopal Church Has Surrendered

GUEST COLUMN

James Cavanagh

October 2000

VIEW ARTICLE
The Wolf in Our Midst

EDITORIAL

Dale Vree

October 2000

VIEW ARTICLE
It's Not the Episcopal Church Anymore

NEO-PAGANISM: OUT OF THE BROOM CLOSET

Lee Penn

October 2000

The Catechism — like the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ injunctions against lust — reduces ECUSA’s sexuality resolution to cinders.

VIEW ARTICLE
Some Are More Diverse Than Others
June 2000

Too many seminarians these days are too outspokenly traditional.

VIEW ARTICLE
You Can't Have It Both Ways
April 2000

Let Rome be Rome, and let the ecumenical chips fall where they may.

VIEW ARTICLE
Newman, the Real Presence & The Tabernacle

Richard Geraghty

April 2000

When Newman speaks of his happy surprise at how objective and real he found the Catholic religion to be, he often refers to the Real Presence.

VIEW ARTICLE
Excuses, Excuses
January 2000

Why are Anglicans more tired on Sunday mornings nowadays than they were 30 years ago?

VIEW ARTICLE
Bishop Fred?
January 2000

If Episcopalians want to call their bishop by his (or her) first name, that's their business.

VIEW ARTICLE
Sweet Lullaby?
December 1999

Anglo-Catholicism was a victim of its own success

VIEW ARTICLE
The Lady & the Fox
September 1999

"Remember that Episcopal lady priest you met at the ecumenical conference?"

VIEW ARTICLE
When Invoking "the Holy Spirit" Will Justify Just About Anything

William J. Tighe

May 1999

The wealthy Anglican Churches promote a radical transformation of Christianity to make it over in a way agreeable to elite society.

VIEW ARTICLE
From Evangelical Anglican to Catholic

William J. Tighe

January 1999

Since all that was valid about the “Reformation protest” has been accepted by the Church, it is time for Protestants to “come home.”

VIEW ARTICLE
God’s Good Servant, but the King’s First?

William J. Tighe

December 1998

Thomas Cranmer was one of the overseers of what Diarmaid MacCulloch calls “a religious revolution of ruthless thoroughness.”

VIEW ARTICLE
The Invention of Anglicanism

William J. Tighe

November 1998

Review of Catholic and Reformed: The Roman and Protestant Churches in English Protestant Thought, 1600-1640

VIEW ARTICLE
Where Catholics Fear Converts

EVANGELIZATION? NOT IN BRITAIN

Alberto Carosa

June 1998

Hopes for the full evangelization of Anglicans were dashed by a statement issued by, of all people, the Catholic bishops of England.

VIEW ARTICLE
The Museum Piece Called "Anglo-Papalism”

William J. Tighe

December 1997

Review of A Tactful God. Gregory Dix: Priest, Monk and Scholar

VIEW ARTICLE
Is the Washington Cathedral Really "Our Nation's Cathedral"?

GUEST COLUMN

Lawrence Petrus

October 1997

VIEW ARTICLE
Anglican "Fundamentalist"?

James G. Hanink

January/February 1997

Among “the enlightened” Dr. Johnson was seen as rather a fundamentalist (ever confused with orthodox) and showing a bit of “enthusiasm,” that is, fanaticism.

VIEW ARTICLE
Sheldon Vanauken, R.I.P.

EDITORIAL

Dale Vree

December 1996

VIEW ARTICLE
St. Vincent Pallotti & the Oxford Movement

EDITORIAL

Barry Bossa

October 1995

VIEW ARTICLE
The Phenomenon of Robert Hugh Benson

ESCHEWING TRENDY SPECULATION

Janet Grayson

July/August 1995

While he lived, from first novel to last, he enjoyed an immense audience, an international audience drawn from all classes, including the royal family.

VIEW ARTICLE
Newman’s Advice to Anglo-Catholics

Dale Vree

October 1994

A review of Anglican Difficulties

VIEW ARTICLE
The Crisis of Anglo-Catholicism in England

TO FIND & RESCUE THE ONE LOST SHEEP

William K. Klimon

June 1994

VIEW ARTICLE
Anglicans Affirming Catholicism?

David Hartman

January/February 1994

Review of Living Tradition

VIEW ARTICLE
How Not to Be Ecumenical

Brian Barbour

October 1993

Within Anglicanism there grew up the notion that disparate elements of Christianity, no matter how con­tradictory, could be brought to­gether.

VIEW ARTICLE
The New Archbishop of Canterbury

Letter from England

John Warwick Montgomery

December 1992

VIEW ARTICLE
A Baptist Among the Episcopalians

HUNGRY FOR LITURGY

Michelle Bobier

July-August 1992

VIEW ARTICLE
Dissecting Newman

J.M. Cameron

December 1990

Review of The Achievement of John Henry Newman

VIEW ARTICLE
Discovering Catholicism

GUEST COLUMN

James Prothero

March 1990

Being an Anglican was like living with a woman out of wedlock: It had the advantages of marriage with none of the commitment and discipline.

VIEW ARTICLE
On Ecumenism & the Amazing Unity of Catholics

GUEST COLUMN

Paul van K. Thomson

November 1988

The Church uses theological disputes to teach her doctrine, as controversy raises fundamental issues.

VIEW ARTICLE
In the Footsteps of John Henry Newman

Dale Vree

May 1987

Authentic authority, universality, and a firm theological grounding for social action -- these are the overarching factors that lead to Rome.

VIEW ARTICLE
A Bold Venture in Liturgy

GUEST COLUMN

Mary Alma Parker

July-August 1985

Now in our time an edition of the BCP has appeared under the auspices of the Roman Catho­lic Church, which does what none of its predeces­sors did or could do.

VIEW ARTICLE
The Shaping of Anglican Spiritual Expression

Isabel Anders

September 1984

Moor­man covers development of the Book of Common Prayer, the place of the English Bible in the Church, hymnody and its influence on worship, and more.

VIEW ARTICLE
Dorothy L. Sayers’s The Whimsical Christian

CHRISTIAN CLASSICS REVISITED

James J. Thompson Jr.

October 1983

From first to last, The Whimsical Chris­tian provides the unadulterated pleasure of watch­ing the workings of a powerful Christian mind.

VIEW ARTICLE
Detection & Orthodoxy

ON DOROTHY L. SAYERS

Rosamond Kent Sprague

October 1983

The work of Dorothy Sayers is very much all of a piece; she was a thinking and believ­ing Anglican throughout her literary career.

VIEW ARTICLE