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The Society of the Holy Cross (SSC; Latin : Societas Sanctae Crucis) is an international Anglo-Catholic society of male priests with members in the Anglican Communion and the Continuing Anglican movement, who live under a common rule of life that informs their priestly ministry and charism.
The society was founded on 28 February 1855 at the chapel of the House of Charity, Soho, London, by six priests: Charles Fuge Lowder, Charles Maurice Davies, David Nicols, Alfred Poole, Joseph Newton Smith and Henry Augustus Rawes. [1] The society they formed was initially intended as a spiritual association for their personal edification, but it soon came to be among the driving forces behind the Anglo-Catholic movement, particularly after the first phase of the Oxford Movement had played its course and John Henry Newman had been received into the Roman Catholic Church.
Lowder was the founder of the society and served as its first master. While visiting France in 1854, he conceived of the idea of an order of Anglican priests based on the Lazarists, a Roman Catholic order founded by St Vincent de Paul. The society provided its members with a rule of life and a vision of a disciplined priestly life. Mutual support has always been a key element and the life of the society is experienced primarily through the local chapter. Attendance at chapter is of obligation unless prevented by genuine pastoral duties.
The society expanded almost immediately. These early priests of the society ministered in some of the poorest slum areas of London and other cities. These included the parishes of St Barnabas' Pimlico and St Peter's, London Docks. Many of these areas were so dangerous that bishops refused to visit them, although their refusal was also motivated by a distaste for the ritualism of the Anglo-Catholic clergy.
Anglo-Catholic ritualism is very close to practices in the Roman Catholic Church and included devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, frequent celebration of the Mass with intentions, the practice of confession, the wearing of eucharistic vestments, the use of incense, liturgical hand bells and wafer bread. Whilst these practices had not been completely unknown in the Church of England since its break with the Roman Catholic Church, most of them had not been in general use for hundreds of years as the Church of England had become increasingly influenced by Protestantism in its liturgical practice during and after the reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth I. SSC priests considered these practices an outward, necessary, and physical expression of belief and doctrine and not merely as aesthetic adornments to worship.[ citation needed ] The society was primarily concerned with improving the spiritual life of priests and people. For example, the now common practice of retreats was introduced to the Church of England in those given by SSC priests, beginning in 1856.
Many Low Church and Latitudinarian Anglicans viewed ritualism and the accompanying teaching with horror. It was not unusual for Mass and the Divine Office in SSC parishes to be disrupted by Protestant protesters, some hired for the occasion, shouting during the readings and sermon or hurling furniture and books. Lawsuits were filed against priests for Catholic practices. Some of these prosecutions were successful and priests were suspended from their ministries. In other actions, some Catholic practices were permitted by the courts while others were ruled illegal. Still other practices were sometimes ruled by the civil courts not to be illegal per se but that their continued use would require direct authorisation by the diocesan bishop.
The legal inconsistencies led to the passing of the Public Worship Regulation Act by the Disraeli government in 1874 with the stated aim of "putting down the Ritualists". The act was introduced in the House of Lords as a Private Member's Bill by Archibald Tait, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had previously served as the Bishop of London. After the act came into force, on 1 July 1875, the Church Association, which had been responsible for some the pre-act lawsuits, began vigorously prosecuting those who persisted in Anglo-Catholic practice and teaching. Seventeen priests were prosecuted under the act. In some cases these priests served time in prison for either not acknowledging the right of the courts to judge them on matters of worship or after being convicted. Occasionally some bishops (including Archbishop Tait) would intervene to stop prosecutions, particularly as public outrage grew at the blatant interference in religious matters by secular courts.[ citation needed ]
The prosecution of SSC priests Arthur Tooth, Alexander Heriot Mackonochie and Richard William Enraght are among the most notable episodes in the early history of the society.[ citation needed ]
The prosecutions, however, were battles won in a losing war. In 1906, a royal commission effectively nullified the act by admitting that more pluralism in public worship was needed. The selfless example of SSC priests in ministering to the lowest orders of society and their strong stands on social justice had also endeared them to the general public, not least the example of Father Lowder, founder of the society, staying in Wapping to provide care to his people during the cholera outbreak of 1866.[ citation needed ]
Alexander Penrose Forbes, Bishop of Brechin in the Scottish Episcopal Church from 1847 till his death in 1874, was probably the first of many SSC bishops around the world, including the saintly Frank Weston, Bishop of Zanzibar.
As a Catholic society, SSC has taken a conservative line in the church controversies of the late 20th century, particularly over the interpretation of scripture and the ordination of women. [2]
As of October 2017 there are over 1,000 members of the society organised into provinces for England and Scotland, the Americas, Wales, and Australasia, each under a provincial master reporting to an international master general. There are also some members in the Lutheran Church of Sweden. The current master general of the society is Nicolas Spicer. He resides in Worksop, England. The brethren keep a common rule of life, which bears much in common with the original rule from the founders of the society. [3]
In April 2005, the society celebrated its 150th anniversary with a week-long festival, "Stand Up For Jesus". The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, addressed the gathering and the Royal Albert Hall was filled to capacity for the closing Mass.
The brethren of the society meet in regular chapter meetings and in annual regional, or national synods. Priests of the society can be recognised by the small gold lapel cross that they sometimes wear. On it is inscribed the motto of the society, In Hoc Signo Vinces ("In this sign conquer").
There is also a section of the society, the Pusey Guild, for ordinands and approved candidates for training for the priesthood. [4]
A number of sitting bishops are associated with the society, although the roll of the society is a private document, never published.[ citation needed ]
The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Formally founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The traditional origins of Anglican doctrine are summarised in the Thirty-nine Articles (1571) and The Books of Homilies. The archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, recognised as primus inter pares, but does not exercise authority in Anglican provinces outside of the Church of England. Most, but not all, member churches of the communion are the historic national or regional Anglican churches.
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the largest branches of Christianity, with around 110 million adherents worldwide as of 2001.
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop was Augustine of Canterbury, the "Apostle to the English", who was sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great and arrived in 597. The position is currently vacant following the resignation of Justin Welby, the 105th archbishop, effective 7 January 2025. During the vacancy the official functions of the office have been delegated primarily to the archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, with some also undertaken by the bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, and the bishop of Dover, Rose Hudson-Wilkin.
The Church of England is the established Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the origin of the Anglican tradition, with foundational doctrines being contained in the Thirty-nine Articles and The Books of Homilies. Its adherents are called Anglicans.
Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholic heritage and identity of the Church of England and various churches within Anglicanism. Anglo-Catholicism claims to restore liturgical and devotional expressions of church life that reflect the ancient practices of the early and medieval Church.
The Church of England traces its history back to 597. That year, a group of missionaries sent by the pope and led by Augustine of Canterbury began the Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxons. Augustine became the first archbishop of Canterbury. Throughout the Middle Ages, the English Church was a part of the Catholic Church led by the pope in Rome. Over the years, the church won many legal privileges and amassed vast wealth and property. This was often a point of contention between Kings of England and the church.
The Church in Wales is an Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses.
Ritualism, in the history of Christianity, refers to an emphasis on the rituals and liturgical ceremonies of the Church, specifically the Christian practice of Holy Communion.
The Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom, introduced as a Private Member's Bill by Archbishop of Canterbury Archibald Campbell Tait, to limit what he perceived as the growing ritualism of Anglo-Catholicism and the Oxford Movement within the Church of England. The Bill was strongly endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, and vigorously opposed by Liberal Party leader William Ewart Gladstone. Queen Victoria strongly supported it. The law was seldom enforced, but at least five clergymen were imprisoned by judges for contempt of court, which greatly embarrassed the Church of England archbishops who had vigorously promoted it.
The General Synod is the tricameral deliberative and legislative organ of the Church of England. The synod was instituted in 1970, replacing the Church Assembly, and is the culmination of a process of rediscovering self-government for the Church of England that had started in the 1850s.
Edward King was a British Anglican bishop and academic. From 1885 to 1910, he served as Bishop of Lincoln in the Church of England. Before his consecration to the episcopate, he was Principal of Cuddesdon College (1863–1873), an Anglo-Catholic theological college, and then Regius Professor of Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford (1873–1885).
Arthur Tooth was a ritualist priest in the Church of England and a member of the Society of the Holy Cross. Tooth is best known for being prosecuted in 1876 under the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 for using proscribed liturgical practices. He was also briefly imprisoned as a result of the prosecution in 1877.
The Anglican ministry is both the leadership and agency of Christian service in the Anglican Communion. Ministry commonly refers to the office of ordained clergy: the threefold order of bishops, priests and deacons. More accurately, Anglican ministry includes many laypeople who devote themselves to the ministry of the church, either individually or in lower/assisting offices such as lector, acolyte, sub-deacon, Eucharistic minister, cantor, musicians, parish secretary or assistant, warden, vestry member, etc. Ultimately, all baptized members of the church are considered to partake in the ministry of the Body of Christ.
Charles Fuge Lowder was a priest of the Church of England. He was the founder of the Society of the Holy Cross, a society for Anglo-Catholic priests.
John Medley,, was a Church of England clergyman who became the first bishop of Fredericton in 1845. In 1879 he succeeded Ashton Oxenden as Metropolitan of Canada.
Alexander Heriot Mackonochie was a Church of England mission priest known as "the martyr of St Alban's" on account of his prosecution and forced resignation for ritualist practices.
Richard William Enraght was an Irish-born Church of England priest of the late nineteenth century. He was influenced by the Oxford Movement and was included amongst the priests commonly called "Second Generation" Anglo-Catholics.
The Church of the Province of Myanmar in Asia is a member church of the Anglican Communion. The province comprises the entire country of Myanmar. The current archbishop of Myanmar and bishop of Yangon is Stephen Than Myint Oo.
The 1928 Book of Common Prayer, sometimes known as the Deposited Book, is a liturgical book which was proposed as a revised version of the Church of England's 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Opposing what they saw as an Anglo-Catholic revision that would align the Church of England with the Catholic Church—particularly through expanding the practice of the reserved sacrament—Protestant evangelicals and nonconformists in Parliament put up significant resistance, driving what became known as the Prayer Book Crisis.
A personal ordinariate for former Anglicans, shortened as personal ordinariate or Anglican ordinariate, is a canonical structure within the Catholic Church established in order to enable "groups of Anglicans" and Methodists to join the Catholic Church while preserving elements of their liturgical and spiritual patrimony.
