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The Society of the Holy Cross is an international which is an Association of Opus Dei priests. It should neither be confused with the Korean Society Of The Holy Cross (abbreviated as '''SHC'''), which is an order of women religious (see Nun ) within the Anglican Church Of Korea . The society's name is abbreviated as SSC from the initials of the society's Latin name, ''Societas Sanctae Crucis''. These days the society includes priests who are within the worldwide Anglican Communion as well as some priests who are in the so-called Continuing Anglican jurisdictions. The current Master General of the society is Father David Houlding SSC who resides in England. FOUNDING AND EARLY HISTORY The society was founded on , Charles Maurice Davies, David Nicols, Alfred Poole, Joseph Newton Smith and Henry Augustus Rawes. These six priests were some of the earliest adherents to the ideals and philosophies of Anglo-Catholicism within the Church Of England . The society they formed was initially intended as a secret association for their own personal advancement and edification, but it soon came to be the driving force behind the Anglo-Catholic movement within Anglicanism, particularly after the first phase of the Oxford Movement had played its course and John Henry Newman had converted to Roman Catholicism . Like Newman three of the founding members of the SSC eventually converted to Roman Catholicism: Davies, Nichols and Rawes. Father Lowder was undoubtedly the true founder of the society and he served as its first Master. While visiting France in 1854 he had first conceived of the idea of an order of Anglo-Catholic priests based on the Lazarists , a Roman Catholic priestly order founded by St Vincent De Paul . The society expanded almost immediately as other Anglo-Catholic priests in London joined the original six. The priests of the society ministered in parishes characterised by poverty and working class membership in some of the poorest slum areas of London. These included the parishes of: St Barnabas' Pimlico and St Peter's London Docks (formerly St George's in the East). Many of these areas were so dangerous that successive Bishops of London refused to visit the parishes and missions served by SSC priests, although their refusal was also often motivated by a distaste for the practices of the Anglo-Catholic clergy. The Ritual practices of the priests of the society were to lead to persecution, lawsuits, rioting and even imprisonment of some of the members. The society was committed to practices which were very close, and in some cases indistinguishable, from practices in the Roman Catholic Church . These included devotion to the Blessed Sacrament , commitment to the celebration of the Mass , the practice of Auricular Confession , the wearing of eucharistic Vestments , the use of Incense , the use of liturgical hand bells, the use of wafer breads at the celebration of the Mass and other traditional Catholic practices. Whilst these practices had not been completely unknown in the Church Of England since its break with the Papacy most of them had not been in general use for hundreds of years as the Church of England had become increasingly Protestant in its liturgical practice in most places after the reign of Elizabeth I . It is important to note that the priests of the SSC considered these practices an outward, necessary and physical expression of belief and doctrine and not as simply aesthetic adornments to worship. Many . THE PUBLIC WORSHIP REGULATION ACT ''See: Public Worship Regulation Act '' In 1867 a government commission was established to "inquire into the rubrics, orders and directions for regulating the course and conduct of public worship" which was presented to ', use of eucharistic vestments, use of wafer bread, commixture, altar lights/candles, the singing of the Agnus Dei , processions, the installation and devotion of Stations Of The Cross and the erection of a Crucifix on the Rood Screen . The prosecutions brought against these priests had mixed results. In many cases, prosecuted priests negotiated with their bishop and compromised and abandoned some practices, while others served time in prison for either not acknowledging the right of the courts to judge them on matters of worship or were convicted for violations of the Act. Occasionally bishops (including Archbishop Tait) would intervene to stop prosecutions in order to avoid continuing embarrassment resulting from the proceedings, particularly as outrage grew at the blatant interference in spiritual matters by secular courts. PERSECUTION AND IMPRISONMENT There were two famous cases involving the prosecution of SSC priests under the provisions of Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 arising out of the Ritualist controversy in which the priests in question were jailed or otherwise persecuted. These are the cases of Father Arthur Tooth and Father Alexander Mackonochie and are undoubtedly the most famous episodes in the history of the SSC. Father Arthur Tooth Father Alexander Mackonochie SEE ALSO
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