by Manda Carr

Created on: August 20, 2008

There have been three broad traditions in the Church of England since the 18th centrury: the Evangelical, the Catholic and the Liberal.

"I believe in the Holy Spirit,
One holy catholic church,
the communion of saint..." Those are words I am used to speaking aloud as part of the Creed, every Sunday, in my Anglican book of common prayer. I am catholic. Anglican Catholic, to be exact. Our church follows the strong tradition of Catholicism advocated since John Kebble's assizes and heralding the beginnings of the Oxford Movement.

For many years I have worshiped with my church family in a beautiful church, which is just about to celebrate its 240th anniversary. We use the Catholic liturgy, with great attention to feast days; we rely on the intercession of saints to help our petitions to God; we celebrate a Mass and not a service; we sing the Angelus and Regina Coeli, genuflect, confess, and celebrate the mystery of faith within the sacrament, and yet we are not 'proper' Catholics.

The Church of England has always maintained a niche for our worship. One which we celebrated only last month in the 150th anniversary of the start of the Oxford Movement. General Synod, and more recently, the Lambeth Conference, has made it clear that our Catholic heritage is not a priority to a church moving to the beat of a different drum, even though we wish to move 'Forward in Faith'.

But where to next? Many have already left the Church of England to join the Roman Catholic church, many more, like me, are left to question fundamental questions of faith. 'What would Jesus do?' Well, he certainly didn't throw away his Jewish heritage. Christ was clear on the use of the Old Testament and how the laws should still be obeyed. It seems to me that you could pick any side of an argument and use the bible as a reference tool to back up your own personal belief. Maybe it is because I am a historian, that I feel drawn to the original separation from Rome. I want, like Keeble did, to reassess what the reformist split from Rome meant to the emerging Church of England. History is one of the best tools I can find in making this personal, spiritual journey. I cannot easily throw away the church I was born into and worshiped with, as easily as it looks like it can throw away me.

To gauge any future decision, I have to look at as many resources as possible. So, before I can examine the question of, 'What does being Catholic means to me?' I have to answer a more immediate question, 'What does being a Christian

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