Anglo-Catholic Movement, Anglo-Catholicism

The Anglo-catholic movement was mainly inspired by the nineteenth-century Tractarian emphasis on the identity of Anglicanism with the catholic tradition of the church prior to the Reformation. It has placed considerable emphasis upon the sacramental life of the church, especially the central importance of the Holy Eucharist, and the Apostolic succession of the episcopate. Anglo-catholics were concerned not only with doctrine but with restoring the liturgical and devotional expression of doctrine in the life of the Anglican Church. Some of these expressions, such as the use of eucharistic vestments, altar candles, and incense, led to the controversy over ritual in the later part of the nineteenth century in the Episcopal Church. From the 1860s onward, the movement advanced steadily in America, especially in urban areas and in the Midwest. Anglo-catholic leaders included James DeKoven, Ferdinand Ewer, Charles Grafton, and John Henry Hopkins, Jr. In the earlier part of the twentieth century, Anglo-catholicism was especially strong in Britain and the United States, and in some Anglican churches in Africa.