An
Anglo-Catholic, Halifax became influenced by the
Oxford Movement and, at the request of
Edward Bouverie Pusey, became president of the
English Church Union, a society dedicated to the promotion of
Catholic principles and
practices within the
Church of England, in 1868. Along with the French priest, he played a prominent role in the attempt to bring about dialogue between the
Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England on the subject of
Anglican orders, including the
Malines Conversations. Due to disagreement from Canterbury and Westminster, no constructive dialogue ever came about, however, and the unhoped result of Halifax's actions was the condemnation of Anglican orders as "absolutely null and utterly void" in the
papal encyclical Apostolicae curae. The
Archbishop of Canterbury,
Edward White Benson, and the
Archbishop of Westminster,
Cardinal Herbert Vaughan, can be accused of letting this early attempt at
rapprochement fall away due to the narrow-minded vision of each other's place in the English church during that era. It might also be argued that Pope Leo XIII was led astray by Vaughan and like-minded Roman Catholic scholars who viewed the Church of England as a state church with no real theological authority. Benson, like most
Anglican clergy in the power structure viewed any Roman Catholic involvement in England as the "
Italian Mission", with not even a toehold worth acknowledging in English Society. Halifax served as president of the English Church Union until 1919, and again from 1927 until his death. One of his last achievements was the union of the English Church Union with the
Anglo-Catholic Congress in 1933. ==Personal life==