high church (thing)

High Church, one of the three great parties in the English Church. They regard the Episcopal form of government as so essential to a true church that, as a rule, they do not feel free to recognize, as sister churches, those Christian denominations which are under other forms of government. During the 19th century Highchurchism developed first into Tractarianism and then into Ritualism. In the United States the term is applied to Episcopalians who favor forms of worship resembling the Roman Catholic.