The Anglican Papalist: A personal portrait of Henry
Joy Fynes-Clinton
A. T. John Salter
Anglo-Catholic History Society £20*
(978-0-9560565-2-8)
Church Times Bookshop £18 (Use code CT485)
THE flavour of ecclesiastical battles long ago is conjured up by
this personal memoir of one of the ant-agonists involved. The
priest, Henry Fynes-Clinton (1875-1959), was a leader of the
so-called Anglican-Papalist movement in the Church of England
between the wars. He saw his mission as to fight for the defence of
Catholicism in the C of E, which he saw as being undermined in all
sorts of ways.
After education at the King's School, Canterbury, and training
for the ministry at Ely Theological College, he was made deacon in
1901, but served as a curate in various parishes for 20 years
before his appointment in 1921 to the prestigious City living of St
Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge. From the start of his incumbency,
he used his church for lunchtime services - one of the first London
priests to introduce what is now common practice.
He loved playing at church politics, for which his particular
interest of Anglican Papalism gave him full scope. He found himself
very much in tune with the Orthodox, and knew many foreign royals.
He also made friends with Alfred Hope Patten of Walsingham; and, as
John Salter shows in his book, the two clerics spent many happy
hours together planning the furnishings and ornaments of the
restored Shrine Church. "Their ever-fertile imaginations ran riot
in romantic projects which could be put into practice unhampered by
faculties."
The author devotes a chapter to what he calls "the great
Fynes-Clinton row". This concerns a clash between two rival
Anglo-Catholic factions: one headed by Fynes-Clinton and the other
by Canon J. A. Douglas and Athelstan Riley. The Church
Times - which receives frequent mention in the book - was on
the side of the Douglas-Riley angels; but then it was never overtly
sympathetic to the Anglican Papalist movement, and refused at first
to advertise its activities.
Fynes-Clinton was a larger-than-life character who did much good
in his City parish but also frittered away much of his time in
extra-parochial activities. This memoir about him is likely to
appeal more to Anglican Papalist enthusiasts than to the general
reader. There are too many pages of long verbal quotes about, e.g.,
the manifesto issued in 1933 to mark the centenary of the Oxford
Movement. Even Fynes-Clinton's last will and testament is quoted in
full. But there are some fascinating glimpses into what now seems a
vanished age, in which well-known figures of the past such as the
Abbé Couturier and Dom Gregory Dix are suddenly introduced. Even Dr
Beeching makes a guest appearance - for closing Walsingham railway
station and thereby enabling a Russian Orthodox chapel to be set up
on its platform.
At least Fynes-Clinton was accorded a graceful obituary column
in the Church Times.
Dr Palmer is a former editor of the Church
Times.
*This title can be obtained from the Anglo-Catholic History
Society, 24 Cloudesley Square, London N1 0HN.
www.achs.org.uk