Ecumenical Saints

Canonization of saints is a Roman Catholic practice that for Protestants was swept away with the Reformation. But in the centuries since, Protestants themselves have produced many eminent men of God, and there are few ways of honoring them. One way, in the Church of England, is inclusion on the church calendar for commemoration in daily services. This week in Britain an Anglican liturgical conference will consider new additions to the list, including four dissenters and even some Counter-Reformation Roman Catholics.

The dissenters are John and Charles Wesley (March 3), the 18th century founders of Methodism, George Fox (Jan. 13), the 17th century founder of the Society of Friends, and John Bunyan (Aug. 31), the Puritan author of The Pilgrim's Progress. All of them had their problems with the Church of England. John Wesley, himself an ordained Anglican priest, broke with the church when it refused to recognize his movement, and ordained his own ministers. Quaker Fox and his flock were hounded by church authorities for much of their lives. Bunyan spent twelve years in prison for preaching without a license.

Some of the recommended new dates on the calendar are reserved for more recent, less radical figures: John Keble, one of the brightest lights of the 19th century Anglican resurgence known as the Oxford Movement, and David Livingstone, 19th century medical missionary who incidentally helped to open up the continent of Africa. Perhaps most surprising in the ecumenical list is the inclusion of two prominent figures from the Catholic Counter-Reformation: St. Francis Xavier, the great Jesuit missionary to India and Japan, and St. Francis de Sales--who on the proposed list is generously allowed to share a commemoration day with King Charles I.

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