A Note from the Rector: Every Friday, our faithful Morning Prayer lay officiants livestream a reflection on whatever is happening in the world or the church calendar that day. This reflection is by Geoff Loftus, an officiant of Morning Prayer, parishioner, and writer in his own right. You can find the recorded video reflection on our Youtube channel. Hope you enjoy!
Tomorrow, July 11th, is the 493rd anniversary of the excommunication of Henry VIII from the Roman Catholic Church. About a year later, in 1534, Henry declared himself to be the head of the Church of England and the Anglican communion officially began.
Our church’s founding is not exactly covered in glory. Our royal founder had mistresses while he was married to Catherine of Aragon and had at least one child with one of them. And then, when the Pope wouldn’t give the king an annulment from Catherine, Henry secretly married Anne Boleyn. Like Catherine, she gave him a daughter, who would later be Elizabeth I. And … Anne was smart and independent, which led Henry to get rid of her. She was tried on trumped up charges and executed.
Anne was not the only one who was killed. Many monks and others resisted Henry’s takeover of the church and were executed. The most famous being Thomas More.
Henry married Jane Seymour 10 days after Anne Boleyn was executed. Yes, I said 10 days. Jane gave birth to Edward in October 1537 but she died almost two weeks later due to complications at birth.
Henry married Anne of Cleaves in 1540, never consummated the marriage according to both Henry AND Anne, and had it annulled two months later. Henry, now 49, married the 17-year-old Catherine Howard within days of the ending of his marriage to Anne of Cleaves. Catherine was an amorous adventurer herself – and when this was discovered, well, things went very badly. Catherine was beheaded in February 1542.
Never one to dally, Henry married Catherine Parr in July of 1543. They were still married at the time of his death almost four years later.
So, as you can see, our church’s origin was a stew of politics, anger, death, and desire.
Maybe it’s just me, but I believe that God can bring good out of bad. He can bring light and discipline and joy out of a dark, angry mess. And I believe that’s what He did with our church.
Through the years, we have struggled with many issues. Just like our brothers and sisters in the Roman church. But we have also forged ahead in many areas that Catholics are still struggling with.
Thanks to our beautiful Book of Common Prayer, we began praying in our own language 400 years earlier than Catholics. And, if you’ve followed the news you’ll know that Pope Leo just excommunicated 17,000 priests and bishops of the Society of Pius X, who cling to the Latin Mass and the way the Catholic Church did things in the days before Vatican II in the 1960s. The Society of Pius X believes that other religions are the work of the devil and that non-catholics should not be allowed to worship.
Catholics will barely discuss the idea of women being ordained as deacons or of married clergy. But our church has female ordination as deacons, priests, and bishops. A woman is the Archbishop of Canterbury! And, we have married clergy, of course. I can’t claim that everything has gone smoothly in the Anglican Communion – after all many Anglicans are upset about the archbishop being female, but ... progress is being made. And much faster than other Christian denominations.
We’re more accepting of homosexuals and people who’ve divorced and remarried. We welcome everyone to the Eucharist.
Let me repeat that: We welcome ... everyone to the Eucharist.
Let’s face it: The beginning of the Anglican church was pretty awful. But what has evolved over the years … is wonderful. Not without its challenges, but wonderful.
Continuing with our history lesson, today in 1965, the Rolling Stones had their first hit single with “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
I can’t get no satisfaction. That could have been Henry VIII’s personal theme song. A few years later in 1969, Jagger and Richards would write another song that probably would have resonated with Henry – “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometime you'll find
You get what you need
My guess is that Henry strove to overturn the idea of the first line – he went to extraordinary lengths to get what he wanted. But I don’t think he ever got there.
Most of us can probably identify with the idea of not always getting what we want. But … if we cling to our faith … if we’re loving in accord with God’s will for us, we’ll find that we get what we need.
Henry’s Church of England didn’t give him what he wanted. But it gave me – and hopefully all of you – what we needed.
AMEN