Posted on 01/25/2007 8:41:29 PM PST by Huber
THE assistant general secretary of the Catholic bishop’s conference of England & Wales has praised the contribution that Anglican clergymen have made to Christian Unity through their conversion to Catholicism. Mgr Andrew Faley said there had been a positive impact since that Anglican priests first started making approaches to convert to Rome around 15 years ago. He said: “It's had a very good impact on the Catholic Church in that most of the candidates who have been received, formed and ordained, who were former Anglican clergymen, have brought a huge wealth of pastoral sensitivity, experience and wisdom into the Catholic Church. He added: “The bishops were always aware that it wasn’t a good enough reason for a man who was a former Anglican, became Catholic and wished to be considered for the Catholic priesthood, to do so because he didn’t approve of women as priests. That’s not the issue. “The issue is clearly to do with what it means to belong to the universal church and the decisions made within a particular church, in this case, the Anglican Church, to ordain women to the priesthood. “That decision is much more deeply engrained as a reason for the deeper reflection that it stirred in Catholics, Anglicans and other Christians as to what it means to belong to a Church that believes itself to be universal, in communion through the bishops with the Holy Father as the first among equals.”
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. I think this article is an understatement. Most converts to Catholicism bring a great deal, but I think Anglican Clergy bring a little something extra.
I think it comes from the love of Liturgy and a proper understanding of the necessary beauty and reverence it requires.
And the singin's nice too.
I'm just bummed out that so many of the orthodox Anglicans are seeking alternative Episcopal oversight rather than swimming the river.
C'mon in the water's fine!!!
Ping
Ping
I think that has a lot to do with where they fall within the spectrum of Anglicanism (and Huber can correct me if I am misstating this). Anglo-Catholics are the ones looking to swim the Tiber, but evangelical Anglicans simply don't consider it a reasonable possibility because of theological differences.
The Anglican church was organized by Queen Elizabeth as a compromise attempt to end years of vicious religious warfare between Protestants and Catholics. It was deliberately designed as a wide spectrum so that it could contain almost-radical Protestants on one end and almost-Catholics on the other, while excluding Those Most Likely To Make Trouble on both ends.
This worked o.k. (other than the English Civil War, but that wasn't entirely a religious conflict) until the American church threw a monkey wrench in the works. "High" or Anglo-Catholic parishes coexisted alongside "low" or essentially Protestant parishes, and other than passing a few half-joking remarks about "smells and bells" and "Virginia clericals" (a business suit with a dog-collar), we all got along.
Now, of course, people have to decide where to go, and all the theological issues come bubbling to the surface. Unfortunately, the folks who are most likely to leave ECUSA for the same reason -- abandonment of Scripture and Tradition -- are on the opposite ends of the spectrum.
The "organized resistance" is overwhelmingly Evangelical and "low church" in orientation. There's really no place there for "high church" people. Most of the nosebleed crowd have already headed over to Rome, or in a few cases to Constantinople. The muddled middle -- many mushy liberals, others who go to an Episcopal church for social reasons, others who have just stayed because it was their grandparents' church -- aren't likely to be going anywhere. They'll go down with the ship.
Perhaps one would not describe it as swimming the Tiber as much as believing that Christ calls us to bridge it, along with the Bosphorus. As far as Anglican evangelicals and Calvinist protestants, there are many for whom, as you suggest, even waiving across the Tiber would be theologically difficult. There are also many in all camps who simply have incomplete information on the other camps.
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