Anglican Church Dispute: Use of Vestments

Anglican Church Dispute: Use of Vestments

Anglican, Anglicanism, Archbishop of Sydney, canon law, Catholic, Catholicism, chasuble, Church hierarchy, Diocese of Sydney, dispute, ecclesiastical authority, ecclesiastical dress, ecclesiastical sanction, John Charles Wright (1861-1933), medieval Catholicism, medieval religion, medieval theology, memorial, Prayer Book, Protestantism, Reformation, religion, religious practice, Sydney, theology, vestments

In this article, a summary is provided of the Archbishop of Sydney’s response to a memorial regarding the controversial debate over the wearing of vestments by Anglican clergy. According to Dr Wright, the article reports, the use of vestments was deliberately discarded by the Anglican Church at the reformation along with other aspects of medieval theology, and the “revival” of vestments equated to “a deliberate reintroduction of medieval usage”. He therefore would not sanction the use of vestments until the canon law was altered to make the practice legal.

John Charles Wright was appointed Archbishop of Sydney in 1909. He was known for his adherence to laws of the Church, and for his insistence that his role was to administer the existing laws, not devise new ones. He was particularly opposed to the use of the chasuble by Anglican clergy, and made clergy within his diocese agree not to wear them. See Stephen E. Judd, “Wright, John Charles (1861-1933)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 12, Melbourne University Press, 1990, pp. 585-586.

Anon.

National Library of Australia

The West Australian

27 July 1910

The West Australian

Newspaper Article

Newspaper Article;
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