'Doth not behave itself unseemly': an ordination photograph, social media, and angry ideologues

Petertide means photos of ordinations on Anglican X/Twitter. Previous Petertides usually resulted in me sighing in grumpy middle-aged male fashion, as Church of England dioceses published photographs of newly-ordained deacons and priests leaping. I was therefore grateful this year to see a quite lovely photograph of a newly-ordained priest of the Church in Wales, with - I am guessing - her mother and her training incumbent, with a brief message referring to "today's indescribable joy".

And then the vile, obnoxious comments started on X, mostly from self-proclaimed 'trad Catholics' from the United States. You can guess the type: the sort who have Integralist fantasies about executing gay people, forcibly baptising Jewish children, and setting up a Francoist dictatorship in the United States. Quite why they have any interest in an Anglican ordination across the Atlantic has yet to be meaningfully explained. Then again, however, perhaps fetid Integralist fantasies are, somewhat ironically, globalist in nature.

Alongside this bunch of deeply unpleasant loons was the Chair of the Latin Mass Society. His comment began with "I don't want to be rude".  Yes, it was then rather predictable that he would act as an obnoxious prig.

Again, we were not informed what interest the Chair of the Latin Mass Society has in an ordination in the Church in Wales. One might also have assumed that with the Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church presently exercising his immediate, ordinary and universal jurisdiction to limit use of the 1962 Missal, the Chair of the Latin Mass Society might have his hands full. But, no, he took off time from resisting the Pope to pass comment on an ordination in the Church in Wales.

He told us that these ordination photographs were "for Catholics ... the visual equivalent of hearing a metal stylus squealing on a slate". Perhaps, we might therefore suggest, the advice should be 'avert your eyes'. After all, many of us on social media see things every day of which we disapprove. Most of us have the wisdom and prudence to avert our eyes and not comment on matters which do not concern us.

Furthermore, the Chair of the Latin Mass Society is not, we might presume, ignorant of the fact that many Anglican churches have been ordaining women as priests and bishops for some decades. Does he then comment on every photograph of such ordinations on social media? I doubt that. But this particular photograph of a young, clearly very happy woman attracted his attention.  Perhaps it was the obvious joy that repelled him - a not uncommon phenomenon in angry ideologues, whether of Left or Right.

He then proceeded to comment on the chasuble worn by the newly-ordained priest:

Note the terrible, painful inappropriateness of putting these vestments on the female form, for which they are evidently not designed.

It seems something quite odd and strange occurs within the 'trad' imagination when it comes to photographs of the female form: I certainly cannot see anything odd about the chasuble worn by this priest. As for the suggestion that it was "evidently not designed" for this purpose, we could very easily say this about any and all contemporary use of a garment which comes from the late Roman Empire. It was "evidently not designed" for Christian liturgy.

We are then told, using the language of progressive discourse, that such use of the chasuble is "cultural appropriation" i.e. the chasuble belongs to Roman Catholics. Mindful that Western Christian liturgical use of this late Roman garment long precedes the definition of transubstantiation, the imposition of clerical celibacy on the Latin churches, and the exalted claims made for the papacy in the Gregorian Reform, any notion that this vestment 'belongs' to Roman Catholic is, to put it charitably, fanciful. Lutherans have also been using chasubles since the Reformation. If anything, then, Anglicans have borrowed its use from our fellow-Protestants. Whatever the case, the chasuble no more belongs to Roman Catholics than does Latin.

Then there is the happy fact that the views of the Chair of the Latin Mass Society are an irrelevance to the Church in Wales and to every other Anglican church. When Article 37 rightly declares that the "Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction" over Anglican national churches, we can be pretty sure that this also applies to the views of the Chair of the Latin Mass Society. Anglican churches ordaining women as priests, having the practice of wearing the chasuble, possessing the legal ownership of the ancient churches of these islands: the disapproval of the Chair of the Latin Mass Society is, thankfully, entirely irrelevant. He might also thanks us for this, as it frees up his time to concentrate on what he must surely recognise as rather more pressing matters in his own communion.

We must note that while the 'trad' loons, the Integralist fanatics, and the Chair of the Latin Mass Society indulged in such unedifying, obnoxious behaviour over the weekend past, Anglicans should be grateful for those Roman Catholic clergy and laity who rejected and condemned such behaviour, instead demonstrating grace and charity. One such Roman Catholic priest, noting the obvious fact that his tradition does not ordain women, called out those who "actively mock" the newly-ordained Anglican priest, and offered his "congratulations to this woman who is dedicating her life in service to God". To all our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters who made similar comments on social media, thank you. As Anglicans, we know that the obnoxious comments on social media do not at all reflect the goodness, the grace, the gifts, and the charity of the Catholic tradition. This also applies, by the way, to those Anglicans who do not accept the ordination of women as priests and bishops, but who spoke out against the hatred on display, and assured this newly ordained person of their prayers.

Such assurance of prayer and expression of grace and charity towards this particular newly-ordained priest of the Church in Wales is what, in the providence of God, redeems this situation, orienting it away from the vile fascinations and fanaticism of the ecclesiastical culture warriors on social media, towards the unity we already share within the Body of Christ, across traditions, across those who support and those who oppose the ordination of women. The venom spewed by the rude, the ill-tempered, and the loud-mouthed is of no enduring consequence. It is the raging of an abysmal, empty hatred. It stands against that which alone endures, Love Divine.

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things ... And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

(This post does not link to any of the X messages to which reference is made, in order to discourage further unedifying and unseemly exchanges.)