Low church

The term "low church" refers to churches which give relatively little emphasis to ritual, sacraments and the authority of clergy. The term is most often used in a liturgical context.

The term was initially designed to be pejorative. During the series of doctrinal and ecclesiastic challenges to the established church in the 17th century, commentators and others — who favoured the theology, worship, and hierarchical structure of Anglicanism (such as the episcopate) as the true form of Christianity — began referring to that outlook (and the related practices) as "high church". In contrast, by the early 18th century, those theologians and politicians who sought more reform in the English church and a greater liberalisation of church structure, were called "low church".

"Low church", in an Anglican context, denotes the church's simplicity or Protestant emphasis, and "high church" denotes an emphasis on ritual or, later, Anglo-Catholicism.

The term low church was used in the early part of the 18th century as the equivalent of the term Latitudinarian in that it was used to refer to values that provided much latitude in matters of discipline and faith. The term was in contradistinction to the term high church, or high churchmen, which applied to those who valued the exclusive authority of the Established Church, the episcopacy and the sacramental system. Low churchmen wanted to tolerate Puritan opinions within the Church of England, though they might not be in agreement with Puritan liturgical practices. The movement to bring Separatists, and in particular Presbyterians, back into the Church of England ended with the Act of Toleration 1689 for the most part. Though Low church continued to be used for those clergy holding a more liberal view of Dissenters, the term eventually fell into disuse.

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