Over the weekend, the protestants of the Anglican communion acted like protestants. Good.
This past weekend the General Synod of the Church of England rejected a compromise over women’s ordination aimed at maintaining the unity of the Church of England. The compromise would have allowed for male Bishop’s only for those who reject female ordination and female bishops for the rest. A two-tiered episcopacy intended to maintain some semblance of unity.
The acceptance of women Bishops in the Church of England is now a foregone conclusion. Believe it or not, this is a good thing.
This closes for the good the escape hatch for those in the Church of England who maintain they are orthodox in belief. Without the escape hatch of a dual episcopacy, Anglo-Catholics will finally have to decide. Are you in or are you out.
Is maintaining allegiance and unity with the Church of England more important than maintaining allegiance and unity with the teachings of Christ? The can no longer pretend to have both.
Of course, many of those who professed some sort of Catholic identity will just accept women’s ordination to the episcopacy. In truth, they probably accepted it long ago. But there may be others who had really convinced themselves that the Church of England had maintained orthodoxy. But the lie has now been exposed for all eternity. In order to be Anglo-Catholic you have to be Catholic first, Anglo second. It is the Ordinariate or nothing.
Damian Thompson writes:
This point would not need spelling out but for the myth that has grown up that the Ordinariate creates “Anglicans in communion with the Holy See”. Nonsense. What it creates are former Anglicans who worship together in a new juridical structure which allows them to retain elements of their patrimony (which may be as major as adopting an Anglican-influenced translation of the Roman Rite, or as minor as not singing out of tune)...
But every single member of the Ordinariate, clerical and lay, will be a member of the Latin-rite Church governed by the Supreme Pontiff and therefore – though it is not the Church’s preferred term – a Roman Catholic. And I know I speak for many Catholics when I say that they will be very welcome indeed.
He is exactly right. The only people who can now call themselves Anglo-Catholics must become Roman Catholics of the Anglican Ordinariate.
Unity is a good which cannot be achieved at the expense of truth.
Anglo-Catholics must take the Pope up on his offer or call themselves by their proper name. Protestants.
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“Choose this day whom you will serve” is a call that the Lord repeats to every person in every generation. Unfortunately, our generation has tried to abolish the Law of the Excluded Middle along with the Scriptures and Gospel. We deny not only the Lord but the fact that there is a choice to be made. The US Episcopal “Church” often talks about “living into the tension” - which really means “I’m going to ignore the clear Word of God because I don’t want to admit I’m a sinner in need of a Savior.”
Attempting to abolish the rules of logic and reason lead to an inability to make choices - since you end up believing that there isn’t a choice to be made. The CoE has spent a long time punting through the relativistic swamps of “feelings”, “rights”, and human “justice” and is so tangled up in the weeds that it can’t see the clear choice in front of it.
You are correct in asserting that the choices for “Catholics” in the CoE have narrowed to a point. There is no more room for waffling - only for clear decisions or willful blindness (which is an attempt to deny the Lord while salving the conscience). Similarly, the choices for Evangelicals have narrowed as well. Honest members of both groups will soon leave the CoE. The only ones left will be the intellectually and theologically dishonest who believe that somehow “light can have fellowship with darkness”.
Sir, you underestimate the Anglican skill to muddle. Muddling goes beyond a mere affection all the way to institutional tradition. The Elizabethan compromise has given 400+ years of practice to this singular Anglican “virtue.”
This would have made John Henry Newman’s decision much, much easier.
“Unity is a good which cannot be achieved at the expense of truth.” Because truth is one. It is truth that will unite. Truth however must be spoken in love. (I hope that wasn’t too left field.)
http://www.divine-ripples.blogspot.com/
The “unity” of the Anglican community has ALWAYS BEEN POLITICAL COMPROMISE as a SUPPORT TO THE ENGLISH CROWN (Elizabeth I et successors)AND ALWAYS BEEN PROTESTANT (based on private judmment) with no line of APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY TO COMMAND BELIEF ON DOCTRINE. As a result the unity is a unity not unlike the unity of America, where everyone (is supposed to) respect one’s fellow citizen based on the Constitution. Anglicanism adds the SPECIFIC trait of Britishness in one form or another. IT IS NOT NOW NOR EVER HAS BEEN CATHOLIC. It just LOOKS LIKE THAT AMONG A SIGNIFICANT MINORITY. The practical indication of this is that it HAS NOT BEEN ABLE TO MAINTAIN WITH AUTHORITY THE JUDEO-CHRISTIAN MORALITY. Where it DOES, it is Protestant (even vibrant Protestant viz evangelical).
Between Abbott & Costellos’s “Who’s On First” and the Marx Brothers take on contracts and who’s the first party to the ... well, whatever ... you get the picture what other message could any sensible layman make out of the muck tossed up by the even further splintered and diminished Anglican “Communion” that what Pat Archbold described above? With apologies to Groucho, it’s as if they’re trying to say, “Well, if you don’t like these guys who’ve been bishops for years, we’ve got another set of em, only they’re gals.”
Actually, the ordination of women, which has been permitted for many years, was the true breaking point. How any Anglican could call himself an AngloCatholic while the church was ordaining women, I don’t know.
Arguments aside and phylosophical talks, let’s welcome the anglican to the Catholic Church with open arms. If they are not yet catholics, they will learn how to be catholic.
Let’s applaud those that wish to be in communion with Holy Mother the Church
God bless you all.
stella
I think the Church of England’s “problem” (if you want to call it that)is that Jesus didn’t appoint-for whatever reason-female apostles.
I expect large RCIA classes in the near future. There should be at least 20 converts at the Easter Vigil next year.
Oh, I am a huge MEGA Marx Brothers fan, with Laurel & Hardy a very close second…Abbott & Costello a distant third.
BTW-Obama, Berwick and Keehan are now known as the Three Stooges (with all due respect to Larry Moe & Curly).
“It is the Ordinariate or nothing.”
Not really. Only about 70% will go to Rome, if past statistics hold true. Others will go to Orthodoxy. The Ordinariate is certainly attractive as these clergy want to worship according to the approved Anglican Rite. They will have no such choice in Orthodoxy which uses the ancient liturgies of St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil, and St. James.
“What it creates are former Anglicans who worship together in a new juridical structure which allows them to retain elements of their patrimony (which may be as major as adopting an Anglican-influenced translation of the Roman Rite, or as minor as not singing out of tune)...”
Ouch! LOL!
>This would have made John Henry Newman’s decision much, much easier.
A part of the greatness of the soon-to-be-Blessed is that he realized this was coming way ahead of the curve, with much less obvious evidence.
Again I am bewildered that few seem to realize that this “bishops” business is a political matter. C of E “Bishops” must be approved by the Parliament. C of E “Bishops” may be installed despite what the Synod or anyone else decides.
It is about time. Now is the time for allt is fence sitting to stop. One is either othodox on not. The time fhas come fro the “mask’ to come off. Either walk the walk or talk the talk. There has always been a shortage in the Church of Priests Historically and the very well may be to come. But ordaining womaen is not the answer. It never has been. This is a panic answer. An answer without faith. and an asnswer made by the secularism. Those of us with true faith will weather the storms, that wil come now and in the future. God Bless us All and may He continue to favor us with His graces and smiles as we trudge along in this fight becuase we know where our end is . May god Bless us all.
I would like to ask those of you who commented to do something radical…pray for us in the Anglican Communion. It is easy to be critical of what we are experiencing and tell us to go off to Rome but you are not bearing this cross with us. Constantly being hammered by my brethren across the Tiber is not terribly inviting. How about some comapassion and encouragement for those of us who have given our lives to preach the orthodox and catholic faith in the Anglican Communion.
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