My job is to support Christians in sharing their faith with others. Itās to keep evangelism on the table as a core thing that we do. Itās to help people to take every opportunity to appropriately, comfortably and lovingly give a reason for their faith in the different situations they find themselves; at the pub, online, at Nandos, in church.
And if Iām to be at all useful to the churches I serve, I need to properly understand if different church traditions approach this business of faith sharing differently. Logic would suggest they probably do, since they do most other things differently.
So, let me introduce to you Mother Gemma Sampson, Curate of St Aidanās and St Columbaās in Hartlepool whom Iām visiting to grill her on this subject of Anglo-Catholic evangelism, just like I did Father Kyle McNeil in my lastĀ article. I wanted to interview them both, recognising that Traditional Catholics and Liberal Catholics may well have different approaches to this.
Weāve just got back from evening Mass at St Aidanās, and to my delight, Gemma has provided a Chinese takeaway which makes me think Anglo-Catholics must be pretty magnificent people. Hanging out with them always seems to involve food.
As I munch on prawn crackers (Gemma would like me to stress that she wasnāt because sheās a vegan!) I start with some pretty basic questions, like this one, to set the scene: how would I know if I was in an Anglo-Catholic church?
āIn Anglo-Catholic churches youāll always find a dedication to Our Lady. The worship will be sacramental [thereāll always be one of the sacraments like Mass or a Baptism within the service. It wouldnāt ever be just preaching and singing for example]. Itāll also be liturgical [centred around a particular printed set of words]. Itās where youāll find the bells and smells style worship. And youāll often find Anglo-Catholic churches in places where poverty is higher.ā
Our Lady (AKA Mary, Jesusā mum) gets lots of attention in this tradition and Gemma absolutely loves her. She gets really animated at this point.
āMary has aĀ massiveĀ prominence in our worship. Asking Mary to pray for us is definitely one of the features of Anglo-Catholic worship. In a lot of churches thereāll be a Lady Chapel [a whole chapel dedicated to Mary], and in Anglo-Catholic churches Mary will feature in the Eucharistic prayer and intercessions. Plus the festivals of Mary will be observed, like the Annunciation, and Maryās month of May [special devotions and services held in the month of May, sometimes outdoors].ā
Iāve experienced this myself. Iāve preached in Gemmaās churches a few times and worshipped at St Aidanās at Easter. Itās where I first learned to recite my Hail Mary. Maryās everywhere.
āWhat else is distinctive about Anglo-Catholic worship?ā I ask.
āWell,ā she leans in over the noodles and does her best serious face āthe other thing about Anglo-Catholic worship is itās all aboutĀ reverenceĀ andĀ awe. Thereās no talk about Jesus being my personal Lord and saviour. Itās about the whole church. Community. Itās more God almighty than God all matey.ā
I snigger. I love this line. And I know what she means. In Anglo-Catholic churches I always feel very wowed by the experience. It feels formal but in a good way. Awe-inspiring. I love that feeling. Itās brought me to tears so many times and feels incredibly special. I donāt get the same feeling (or at least havenāt yet) in evangelical churches. Yet, I canāt help but also lean comfortably towards the idea that Jesus is my best buddy. Anyway, moving onā¦
āSo bearing all of this distinctiveness in mind, and as Iām here to explore evangelism, tell me Gemma, how do you share your faith?ā She thinks for a moment then begins,
āHistorically, in the Anglo-Catholic tradition there werenāt things like Alpha courses or Home Groups or that sort of thing. What youāll find more of is the practical meeting of human need. So, like feeding the hungry.ā
Feeding the hungry? Even though Iāve already heard what Fr Kyle had to say on this subject, this kind of answer still stumps me. When I think of sharingĀ myĀ faith, I picture me talking to a person or group of people about how, where and why I became a Christian. I think about story-telling and conversations. Testimony. Words.Ā TheĀ Word. So the answer āfeeding the hungryā is confusing. It seems to not actually answer the question I asked.
But I trust Gemma so I think maybe Iām asking the wrong question. Or maybe my whole understanding of sharing faith is just completely different from hers. So I press on because I honestly think Iāve misunderstood,
āOK, feeding the hungry⦠but what about deliberately and obviously talking about or telling people about Jesus? Would you do that?Ā DoĀ you do that?ā
āYes.ā She tells me, very matter of fact. Iām confused. I still think we have our wires crossed. āCould you describe that?ā I ask.
āWell when weāre feeding the hungry [she means literally, at theĀ kitchenĀ theyāve set up in her church which feeds hundreds and hundreds of local poor people] I bang on about how Jesus thought this was really important and how itās a Gospel imperative. I tell people about how much he did it.ā

Hallelujah. WeĀ areĀ on the same wave length. This wonderful, intelligent and deeply committed priestĀ doesĀ know what Iām asking, and does, literally, tell people about Jesus. She simply tells the hungry people who turn up at her churchās kitchen why sheās caring for them in the first place.
Mother Gemma elaborates,
āSo what I wouldnāt say is, āOh youāre hungry, what you really need is to know Jesus and then you wonāt be hungry anymore.ā I think the Pope says something like āYou feed the hungry andĀ thenĀ you pray for them and that is how prayer works. You donāt just pray that God will end poverty. You meet the need then you pray.ā I think thatās a very authentic expression of the Christian faith. People want to help those in need. I just connect the dots by saying āWell I feed hungry people because I love Jesus and Jesus massively cares for the poor. And Jesus is food and weāre fed in the Mass so we can feed other people.āā
And then her eyes properly light up and she puts down her fork. Sheās just mentioned Mass, and as an Anglo-Catholic, she definitely has more to say on this topic.
āI havenāt mentioned theĀ real presenceĀ yet! I have to tell you about that. Itāll blow your mind.ā I put my fork down too. Itās about to get serious.
(hereās part 2 but warning⦠it gets pretty weepy at the end!)