High church

"High church" is a term used in Protestant Christianity in general, and churches associated with the Anglican tradition in particular, in relation to those congregations that continue, with modifications, much of the ritual and pomp associated with the Roman Catholic Mass. Supporters of the "high church" stance emphasize that it has to do with holiness, sanctity, and respect for God, His Son, and the Church itself, and that it is "catholic" primarily in its attempt to be "universal", not that it is solely an attempt to ally with Rome and reject Protestantism.

The 19th Century Oxford Movement within the Church of England began as a high church movement; however, over time, many of its leading lights converted to Roman Catholicism, including John Henry Cardial Newman. Today, the primary source of separation between high church Anglo-Catholicism and the Roman Catholic Church itself if the liberal attitude taken by many in the Anglican communion regarding issues which to the Catholic Church are still anathema, such as the ordination of women, and, increasingly, the calls for the acceptance and ordination of homosexuals. It is the disagreement over these issues more than over worship styles that keeps Anglo-Catholicism and Roman Catholicism separate.