Posted on 05/16/2005 1:47:29 PM PDT by no more apples
SEATTLE -- A group of Roman Catholic and Anglican leaders studying the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, said Monday that after years of talks they have agreed that Catholic teachings on the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary into heaven are consistent with Anglican interpretations of the Bible.
The two sides issued a joint document, "Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ," which will now be examined by the Vatican and the Anglican Communion.
If the terms of the new accord are eventually accepted by top church officials _ by no means a certainty _ it would overcome one of the major doctrinal disagreements dividing the world's 77 million Anglicans and more than 1 billion Roman Catholics.
Historically, the Anglican Communion has opposed the teachings because there is no direct account of them in the Bible.
Immaculate Conception refers to the Catholic dogma, pronounced in 1854, that Mary was born free of "original sin." The Assumption refers to the belief, defined in 1950, that Mary was directly received body and soul into heaven without dying.
But Anglican Archbishop Peter Carnley of Perth, Australia, co-chairman of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, said the Catholic dogmas concerning Mary is "consonant" with biblical teachings about hope and grace.
The only remaining question between the faiths is the authority on which those dogmas are based, he said _ a question to be tackled in future discussions.
"For Anglicans, that old complaint that these dogmas were not provable by scripture will disappear," Carnley said during a news conference with Seattle's Catholic Archbishop, Alexander Brunett.
(Excerpt) Read more at rhodeisland.cox.net ...
The Assumption refers to the belief, defined in 1950, that Mary was directly received body and soul into heaven without dying.
The proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption says nothing of Mary dying or not. In fact, the tradition in Eastern Christianity is that at the end of her life, Mary went through a "dormition," a falling asleep.
it's news.
And yes, the definition of the Assumption specifically did not opine on whether Our Lady had died or not.
one world ecumenism alert!
I wonder how long it will be before the Lutherans reunite with the Catholics.
The more evangelical parishes in Anglicanism probably won't accept this.
"The more evangelical parishes in Anglicanism probably won't accept this."
Everything always comes back to the problem of authority. There is nobody and no body within Anglicanism that has the authority to say exactly what they do or don't believe.
Consequently any ecumenical talks with these people are bound to be a waste of time on the corporate level. The only real value they serve is that they can sometimes make it easier to detach individuals or small groups of believers who can then enter communion with the Church on a piecemeal basis.
Its the age-old principle of divide and conquer which the Vatican still does very well, even if its unintentional.
The authority vaccum in the Anglican church was, as I recall, of their own making.
It's not so difficult to divide and conquer when the Anglican Church was founded on the arrogance, anger, greed and power seeking of ONE king of the realm.
Divorced; beheaded; died; divorced; beheaded; survived. All for a son...at the start, then, for all the abbeys and Chruch lands. Land = power. Too bad Henry didn't know that the MALE determines the gender of a baby.
Might have save some heads.
"The more evangelical parishes in Anglicanism probably won't accept this."
I concur.
I believe the more believable answer in light of the biblical silence on the issue (and Jesus's chatisement of his mother on occassion) is that original sin is passed by the dad, not the mom.
Of course, men (myself included) don't like that.
Well, the Catholic church allows two of the three. (A large number of gay priests, and a smaller number of married Anglican rite, and I believe Eastern Rite priests.)
Don't read much into this.
Getting an agreement that something is consistent with the Anglican interpretation of Scripture is not much of a feat. On the doctrine of the Eucharist, anything from Cramner's outright Zwinglianism through every shade of consubstantiation, virtualism, and Real Presence doctrine to full scholastic Aristotelean substance-and-accidents distinction transustantiation as embraced by some Oxford Movement types is 'consistent with the Anglican interpretation of Scripture.'
Please insert a 'b' in my last post to make that transubstantiation.
Pope JPII would appear to have disagreed with you on that point. See "What's the deal about legally married priests?", http://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/MARPRIE.htm
Any gay priests are definitely flying under radar.
Are you able to say that with a straight face? Most of the numbers I've seen thrown about run in the 30% range, with much higher percentages in some locales and from some seminaries.
Where do you get that impression? It may seem that way in modern English, but remember, language has developed in two thousand years, and it's a translation.
As a cradle Episcopalian, I was not taught anything about any extra "holiness" of Mary. In fact, I was taught that the "veneration" of Mary was one of the primary differnces between our church and the RCC.
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