Tuesday, March 12, 2019

A LETTER FROM EVELYN UNDERHILL TO DOM JOHN CHAPMAN

I came across these words of Underhill in a letter from her to Dom John Chapman dated June 1931 and found myself resonating with them:

9 June, 1931

I have been for years now a practising Anglo-Catholic … and solidly believe in the Catholic status of the Anglican Church., as to orders and sacraments, little as I appreciate many of the things done among us.  It seems to me a respectable suburb of the city of God – but all the same, part of “greater London.”  I appreciate the superior food, etc., to be had nearer the centre of things.  But the whole point to me is in the fact that our Lord has put me here, keeps on giving me more and more jobs to do for souls here, and has never given me orders to move.  In fact, when I had been inclined to think of this, something has always stopped me: and if I did it, it would be purely an act of spiritual self-interest ad self-will.  I know what the push of God is like, and should obey it if it came – at least I trust and believe so.

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