THE P RTAL
July 2018 Page 10
Thoughts on Newman
Carapaces
Beverley Minster , Blessed John Henry Newman , and the faith of Peter : The Revd Dr Stephen Morgan puts them all together
Living in the New Forest at this time of the year involves an almost constant encounter with the dead forms , the shed vessels of the rich and varied insect life which , we are told , makes up over 90 % of the animal biomass of the forest . These carapaces are often striking and always a reminder of the living organism which was formerly housed in them . To refer to some human edifice or organisation as a carapace is bound to bring to mind these dead , hollow shells and might reasonably be thought to be gratuitously offensive .
One piece of advice I always give to converts to Catholicism is never publicly to comment on the internal affairs of their former religious homes until they have lived within the Catholic Church for a decade . Such a delay serves two purposes : it allows the pain of separation and injury to dull and the desire to criticise a previous ecclesial community to lessen ; and it ensures that any illusions harboured concerning life on the Barque of Peter will be well and truly shattered . Newman was either not given that advice or chose to ignore it , when , less than five years after making his submission to the Catholic Church , he delivered a series of “ Twelve Lectures on Difficulties Felt by Anglicans in Submitting to the Catholic Church ”.
He had been aware that it was a sensitive enterprise , and confessed to a concern that “ either some of them will be most impressively dull , or they will be too much on the other track ” – by which , presumably , he meant that they might cause a few sparks to fly . In the event , it was the second eventuality that these lectures brought and having described his former communion as a “ carapace ’ cannot but have contributed to the febrile response .
Whilst we might think the term needlessly offensive , Newman rarely used language without some decided precision : his description of the Church of England in such terms cannot have been merely careless , heedless of the hurt it would cause . What can he have meant by it ?
Since Newman was for ever grateful for the indwelling of the Holy Ghost that followed upon his Baptism according to the rites and at the hands of a minister of the Church by Law Established , we can safely conclude that he cannot have meant that , as a vessel of grace , that communion was a dead thing . Even in the first-flush of convertitis , he recognised the
blessings that had come his way as a recipient of what we might want to recognise as “ the liturgical , spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion … a precious gift nourishing the faith … and … a treasure to be shared ”. It cannot , therefore , be that that he had in mind .
Wandering around Beverley Minster , on a beautifully sunny day just before midsummer , I was struck by what a remarkable building it was . Quite apart from its size – larger than over one third of Anglican Cathedrals – its architecture has about it a nobility and unity that makes it arrestingly beautiful . But like the other “ Greater Churches ”, like Tewkesbury and Romsey , St Nicholas , Great Yarmouth and Christchurch Priory , like Selby and Sherborne Abbeys – all of which I know much better – there was still something missing : something that gave me a hint of what Newman had meant .
Somewhere under the nave , so the guide told me , possibly near the commemorative plaque , lie the bones of the Saint in whose honour the building was built : the eighth century apostle of the North , and contemporary of the Venerable Bede , St John of Beverley . Here was a man who proclaimed to the pagans north of the Humber the faith of the Roman Church , the faith for which Peter died , for which Augustine set out from the Caelian monastery to Canterbury , the faith for which that other St John of Beverley , John Fisher , would eight centuries after his namesake give his life on Tower Hill .
The community life of Beverley Minster is , by all accounts , thriving . Much of the civic and cultural life of this charming town revolves around this gothic jewel – but it has not these five hundred years been what it was built for : a vessel for the faith of Peter and Augustine , of Bede and the two Johns and that is a cause for the deepest sadness .