ACHS May Newsletter

This is the first attempt to create a web presence for the Anglo-Catholic History Society, which I hope will eventually develop into a website. Here is the latest newsletter which gives a flavour of spme of the events planned for the coming months.

Dear All,

Michael Farrer, as you all know, has now had a prolonged period of ill health and has decided that he cannot continue as Secretary of the Society beyond the AGM. We all owe him a great debt of thanks for his original foresight and for his hard work since the Society has been running. On a brighter note, Michael was well enough to attend a Committee meeting recently and we were of course delighted by that. In the meantime George Skelly and I between us are fulfilling his duties.

The February lecture given by Father Robert Beaken on Archbishop Lang has now been printed and you will find a copy enclosed. Further copies are available at £3.00 post free from George Skelly at 24 Cloudesley Square, London N1 0HN.

The next meeting of the Society is on Monday 2nd June 2008 at St. Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge. The AGM will be at 7 pm, and will be followed at 7.30 pm by a talk by Dr. Peter Webster, the editorial controller of British History Online, entitled Anglo-Catholicism and the Arts 1918-70. This promises to be an interesting and novel subject and hopefully there will be a good turn out for it and for the AGM before.
With regard to the AGM, a copy of the Agenda is enclosed together with the Treasurer’s Report for 2007.

The autumn lecture will be on Monday 20th October 2008 when Hilary Williams will talk on Anglo-Catholic hymnody.

The annual coach trip will be on Saturday 19th July 2008. I am still finalising details of this but we are certainly visiting the Society of the Precious Blood at Burnham, All Saints, Ascot and All Saints, Boyne Hill, Maidenhead. I have just got permission to visit the graveyard of the Benedictines at Nashdom, which is now of course residential accommodation. Further places are under negotiation.

Two new initiatives were discussed at the Committee meeting. John Hawes, who joined the Committee last year, is working on a website which will enable information to be exchanged and details to be posted. I hope that those who are researching will be able to use it, or this newsletter, to request details as I did last time: thank you for those who replied.

The question of a church crawl in London was also raised: this would be one Saturday in the autumn, and would be walking rather than by coach. Again, further details will be given when I have worked some details out, but it should be another interesting event.

The Society does have funds available to assist students who are working on aspects of Anglo-Catholic history and are in need of financial assistance and if anyone knows someone in that category please get in touch with us.

Two information sheets are enclosed. Father John Salter has published two small books and the order form herewith gives full details. Father Robert Beaken has asked us to publicise the proposed Hour of Prayer on July 14th in remembrance of the 175th Anniversary of Keble’s Assize sermon which is regarded as marking the beginning of the Tractarian revival in the 19th Century.

Having complained in the past that there were no manuscripts for publication, a number of developments have taken place. The republication of Father Trevor Jones’ moving and informative biography of Father Wilson of Haggerston is now available and an order sheet is enclosed. Once again, we offer this at a reduced price to members. A manuscript on Ritualism in Liverpool is in preparation as is one on the architect Ernest Shearman. We are also looking at other work.

Finally, here is a really obscure query. In the early years of the last century it was the fashion to take an additional name on ordination: Ronald Knox took the name Hilary, and Maurice Child (typically) took 4 extra names (Charles Francis Hugh Dominic). Canon Freddie Hood in his obituary of Child says one priest took the names Marie Immaculée. Does anyone know who that was?

With best wishes to all

Michael Yelton