A Highland parish in summer

More than a Via Media has previously reflected on personal experience of TEC, urging Anglicans not to be too hasty in condemning an entire national church as 'revisionist' on the basis of statements or actions by some bishops or dioceses. The Scottish Episcopal Church is widely regarded as belonging to the same 'revisionist arc' of North Atlantic churches as TEC. Richard Holloway probably has much to do with this reputation – not least his increasingly Spong-like statements towards to the end of his time as Primus.

This week has been my first experience of the SEC since early teenage years. St. Kentigern's is a Highland rural parish in the village of Ballater, approximately 40 miles from Aberdeen. The Sunday eucharist had an attendance of around 50. The liturgy bore the hallmarks of a relaxed, natural catholic Anglicanism – not unlike my experience of parishes in Cape Cod and Maine. The contrast with the often artificial anglo-papalist ethos ('more Roman than the Romans') of many English anglo-catholic parishes is worth examining. SEC's 'patristic catholicism'(more of which on this blog anon) probably originated in the 1637 Prayer Book devised by Laud – the same liturgical tradition that helped to shape the ethos of TEC in the northern States post-1776. This can broadly be identified with the pre-Tractatarian high church tradition outlined by Nockles. Some 19th century developments – not least the widespread use of eucharistic vestments – could appear much more organic and less divisive in this context.

This patristic catholicism is, then, a tradition indigenous to Anglicanism, perhaps given sharper focus when Anglicanism was a minority amongst Scottish Presbyterians or New England Congregationalists.

A patristic catholicism, of course, is not merely a matter of a 'catholic' eucharistic prayer or the use of the chasuble. Pre-eminently it is concerned with proclamation. Which brings me to Sunday's sermon in St. Kentigern's. It was a serious engagement with Scripture – in this case, the healing of the woman with the issue of blood and the raising of Jairius' daughter. There was no attempt to explain away 'miracle'. For at least 20 minutes (i.e. not short by North Atlantic Anglican standards), we were challenged to think through what these miracles said about Jesus Christ, the Kingdom and ourselves.

A serious engagement with Scripture. Then the Nicene Creed – rehearsed by 50 people in a Highland parish, declaring the mighty acts of the God of Israel, the God and Father of Jesus Christ. And then we shared in the eucharist, with a eucharistic prayer that proclaimed the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ, centred around His own words of institution.

All of which leads me to wonder to what extent the terms we attach to other Anglicans – revisionist, conservative, catholic, evangelical – are essentially political acts: and as with all political acts, they miss the realities and nuances of lived experience. Anytime I hear others speak of the SEC, my mind will return to St. Kentigern's – and the patristic catholicism evident in the faith proclaimed in Word and Sacrament in that parish on a Sunday in July 2009.