Senior Anglican Bishop Reveals He Is Ready To Convert To Roman Catholicism

Telegraph(UK) ^ | October 24th 2009

[Slyfox]

I did my thesis on the English Catholic kinship network between 1535 and 1820 and the subsequent move of a portion of that network to America and the founding of the English-speaking Church in America. The Catholic Church would have died in England had it not been for this very courageous group of families.

The "Anglican" Church was forced on a very unwilling faithful. Elizabeth I could only pull the people so far, and that is why the Anglican Church appears so Catholic. Much to the chagrin of the Calvinists.

It is nice to finally see a reconciliation in the works.

[NYer]

Hundreds of traditionalist clergy could join the exodus, though most are waiting for the exact details of the new apostolic constitution to be published Photo: CHRISTOPHER PLEDGER

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[xsmommy]

My feelings exactly! as a Roman Catholic, i have been wishing the bridge extended by the Pope was a 2 way route, and that the leftists in the RC church could find their way over to the side with the same ideals they want to impose on the RC church.

[AnAmericanMother]

You probably won't see much of a response from the African Anglicans.

That branch of the Anglicans is 'low church' and Evangelical. They are just too far removed in liturgy and theology to be able to cross the Tiber right now.

Maybe later, after the 'high church' crowd have made the river ford.

[DGHoodini]

Well, when your Archbishop sells his soul to Lucifer, and embraces paganism and heresy in all its forms...

The Anglican Church has become a House of the Damned.

[Gene Eric]

I wonder what becomes of those left behind.

[trad_anglican]

Yes- that would be nice. Indeed, return the Cathedrals and Basilicas confiscated under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I

Isnt much of the point of this to stop fighting 500 year old battles?

[r9etb]

IMHO the wwAC as we once knew it is over. The roots of its blowup are different from those that sparked the Reformation, but no less divisive, and will no doubt split the Anglican church along its age-old catholic and protestant divisions.

You're prolly right ... but here's the interesting thing:

The failure of the Anglican Communion stems in very large part from a lack of central authority: we have no Pope or similar authority who can enforce orthodoxy if required. In short, we're in trouble because we lack what the Reformation fought against.

(And, it must be said, that same lack will help to explain the impending failure of many mainstream, Reformation-derived denominations, who are fighting over the very same issues.)

[r9etb]

Pope Benedict has made the right offer at the right time. The remnant worth saving of Anglicanism will be saved, and the rest will disintegrate even faster without the traditionalists to slow them down. Very soon it will be the Anglican Catholics, and the wiccans. How long the wiccans last is determined by how much church property they will keep to live off of.

I hate to say this, Vince, because you and I are undoubtedly in strong agreement on most of this stuff .... but the fact is that in a lot of ways, "the traditonalists" are the villains in this story, and it's time we figured that out.

First off, "the traditionalists" are the ones who gave the store away in the first place, in a lot of different ways. "The traditionalists" are also the ones who don't even understand the battle we're in, much less how to fight it -- and that's why things seem to get worse, the harder we try to fight the battle.

And I have to tell you: "the traditionalists" are the ones whose approach to those with whom they disagree, is generally far uglier than anything the liberals are saying or doing (the credulous and often dishonest David Virtue being a sterling example). This is especially obvious when you hear about our battles from people on the outside looking in. If you read or hear what "the traditionalists" are saying ... it's often angry and unpleasant. What sort of seeker (other than one who is already angry) would want to go someplace like that?

It's easy to blame "the wiccans." But really, as Jesus noted, we've got a big log in our own eyes that needs to be addressed first.

I haven't seen any reaction of this offer from African Anglicans, who are far more traditional than the British.

Weelllll.... I think you need to be careful about that word, "traditional." It's an easy word to toss around, but I think you'll find that a lot of what you think of as "traditional," the Africans don't do at all. And what they do ... you might be hard-pressed to call traditonal in the Anglican sense. For example, I don't believe that casting out demons is among the Anglican traditions to which you are accustomed. The point I'm trying to make is that a lot of what the Africans are doing, is necessarily geared toward African cultures, just as a lot of what we do is (necessarily) Americanized.

[r9etb]

Well, he may have had hopes that it wouldn't disintegrate, but I saw very little action by the CoE to accomodate the concerns of conservatives in their ranks.

Primarily because the CoE and the Communion in general have no pope to enforce anything on those components of the church that diverge from orthodoxy; and very little in the way of other structure to take the place of a pope.