Posted on 02/18/2007 5:09:43 PM PST by kalee
Radical proposals to reunite Anglicans with the Roman Catholic Church under the leadership of the Pope are to be published this year, The Times has learnt.
The proposals have been agreed by senior bishops of both churches.
In a 42-page statement prepared by an international commission of both churches, Anglicans and Roman Catholics are urged to explore how they might reunite under the Pope.
The statement, leaked to The Times, is being considered by the Vatican, where Catholic bishops are preparing a formal response.
It comes as the archbishops who lead the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion meet in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in an attempt to avoid schism over gay ordination and other liberal doctrines that have taken hold in parts of the Western Church.
The 36 primates at the gathering will be aware that the Pope, while still a cardinal, sent a message of support to the orthodox wing of the Episcopal Church of the US as it struggled to cope with the fallout after the ordination of the gay bishop Gene Robinson.
Were this week’s discussions to lead to a split between liberals and conservatives, many of the former objections in Rome to a reunion with Anglican conservatives would disappear. Many of those Anglicans who object most strongly to gay ordination also oppose the ordination of women priests.
Rome has already shown itself willing to be flexible on the subject of celibacywhen it received dozens of married priests from the Church of England into the Catholic priesthood after they left over the issue of women’s ordination.
There are about 78 million Anglicans, compared with a billion Roman Catholics, worldwide. In England and Wales, the Catholic Church is set to overtake Anglicanism as the predominant Christian denomination for the first time since the Reformation, thanks to immigration from Catholic countries.
As the Anglicans’ squabbles over the fundamentals of Christian doctrine continue — with seven of the conservative primates twice refusing to share Communion with the other Anglican leaders at their meeting in Tanzania — the Church’s credibility is being increasingly undermined in a world that is looking for strong witness from its international religious leaders.
The Anglicans will attempt to re-solve their differences today by publishing a new Anglican Covenant, an attempt to provide a doctrinal statement under which they can unite.
But many fear that the divisions have gone too far to be bridged and that, if they cannot even share Communion with each other, there is little hope that they will agree on a statement of common doctrine.
The latest Anglican-Catholic report could hardly come at a more sensitive time. It has been drawn up by the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission, which is chaired by the Right Rev David Beetge, an Anglican bishop from South Africa, and the Most Rev John Bathersby, the Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, Australia.
The commission was set up in 2000 by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, and Cardinal Edward Cassidy, the president of the Vatican’s Council for Christian Unity. Its aim was to find a way of moving towards unity through “common life and mission”.
The document leaked to The Times is the commission’s first statement, Growing Together in Unity and Mission. The report acknowledges the “imperfect communion” between the two churches but says that there is enough common ground to make its “call for action” about the Pope and other issues.
In one significant passage the report notes: “The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the ministry of the Bishop of Rome [the Pope] as universal primate is in accordance with Christ’s will for the Church and an essential element of maintaining it in unity and truth.” Anglicans rejected the Bishop of Rome as universal primate in the 16th century. Today, however, some Anglicans are beginning to see the potential value of a ministry of universal primacy, which would be exercised by the Bishop of Rome, as a sign and focus of unity within a reunited Church.
In another paragraph the report goes even further: “We urge Anglicans and Roman Catholics to explore together how the ministry of the Bishop of Rome might be offered and received in order to assist our Communions to grow towards full, ecclesial communion.”
Other recommendations include inviting lay and ordained members of both denominations to attend each other’s synodical and collegial gatherings and conferences.
Anglican bishops could be invited to accompany Catholic ones on their regular visits to Rome.
The report adds that special “protocols” should also be drawn up to handle the movement of clergy from one Church to the other. Other proposals include common teaching resources for children in Sunday schoolsand attendance at each other’s services, pilgrimages and processions.
Anglicans are also urged to begin praying for the Pope during the intercessionary prayers in church services, and Catholics are asked also to pray publicly for the Archbishop of Canterbury.
In today’s Anglican Church, it is unlikely that a majority of parishioners would wish to heal the centuries-old rift and return to Rome.
However, the stance of the present Archbishop of Canterbury over the present dispute dividing his Church gives an indication of how priorities could be changing in light of the gospel imperative towards church unity.
Dr Rowan Williams, who as Primate of the Church of England is its “focus for unity”, has in the past supported a liberal interpretation of Scripture on the gay issue. But he has made it clear that church unity must come before provincial autonomy. A logical extension of that, once this crisis is overcome either by agreement or schism, would be to seek reunion with the Church of England's own mother Church.
The divide
The English Church broke from Rome in 1534 as part of the Reformation
The trigger in England was Henry VIII’s wish to remarry. The Pope had said that his marriage to Anne Boleyn was illegal
Henry had been a devout Catholic. But when he turned on the Catholic Church he seized its land and cash and destroyed its religious heritage in Britain
Centuries of suppression continued until Catholic emancipation and the restoration of the hierarchy in the 19th century
I'm sure that would be 100% confidential, unless disclosed by a family member.
You're quite right: the Marriage Tribunal would never disclose that. But I heard the former Mrs. Kennedy wrote a book about it. A book I don't intend to get or read -- but does anybody know what she said the grounds were?
Yeah, right.
Enough said.
Peach -
If you go here to the website for Our Lady of the Atonement:
http://atonementonline.com/index.php
you can order a DVD of an Anglican Use Mass at Our Lady of the Atonement. It is very beautiful and moving. The music is gloriously Anglican (excellent choir and pipe organ) and lots of incense and bells. The Mass is Rite I from the 79 BCP, (which I loved at my old Episcopal church). The words of consecration are also Old English, evidently a translation of the Latin which was made about the same time as Cranmer's BCP. It is the best of everything - glorious Anglican Music and reverent, holy Liturgy, while being Roman Catholic. (Very hard to find today.)
nan c
I just finished reading An Outline of An Anglican Life because as a former RC and Episcopal, a lot of this is new to me. But I have to tell you, of all the churches I've ever gone to, this is my favorite in every respect. And I don't want it to change!
Thanks for the heads up, nan.
You're quite welcome, Peach. As I said, freepmail me if you have questions.
nan
Wow, it's neat seeing posts referencing my own parish. I grew up military and therefore in a wide variety of Catholic parishes and I simply love it here at Atonement. It's a truly reverent Mass and you can feel the connection with all those who have gone before us in the Faith.
As to divorced and remarried Anglican laity, the Roman Catholic Church uses annulment in many cases where it perceives that no genuine marriage ever occurred. Children of such annulled marriages are regarded as legitimate so long as the marriages appeared publicly to be valid which most marriages appear. Annulments are given far too generously within strictly Catholic circles and there is no reason to believe that it would be otherwise as to converts.
Individuals may well disagree with the annulment path. No one says that they have to convert. No one says that they MUST seek annulment although receipt of the Eucharist would generally be an ethical and moral problem if they did not.
Personally, I wish Anglicans well whatever they may decide, welcoming the converts and praying in solidarity for those many good Anglicans who suffer as we Catholics have often suffered from deficient leadership. Both Faiths are carrying His Cross as He promised that we would and to the extent that we are loyal to Him, the world will still hate us for it. Life is brief and eternity is not brief.
A continually declining Church?
Thanks for the fantastic example of the ignorance of the Catholic-bashing crowd. I really appreciate it. What drives your hatred? A flame-throwing "pastor?" Or should I phrase that "flaming pastor" (Haggard)?
"Continuing church?"
Sounds like code for the "donations" continuing to fund the "pastor" and his mansion...
It's nice, save the married "priest" and his opposition to small children at their Sunday services...
I know that the church has done that in the past with Anglican priests, but I thought that the Church did not accept the validity of Anglican Sacrament of Orders. Do you know if an Anglican Priest converting to Catholicism must be re-ordained by a Catholic bishop in order to function as a priest?
It does not.
"Do you know if an Anglican Priest converting to Catholicism must be re-ordained by a Catholic bishop in order to function as a priest?"
I'm pretty sure they do, but I'm also pretty sure it is a "formality" kind of ceremony (certainly validly sacramental, but not like having to go thru seminary again), since the academic requirements and training for the priesthood in both Anglicanism and Catholicism are so similar.
The place to find out for sure is the "Coming Home Network" website---http://www.chnetwork.org/. Their specific ministry is aiding non-Catholic priests and ministers who are converting to Roman Catholicism. The largest number of coverts (not surprisingly) are former Episcopalians.
Shirley you jest! Those issues are largely why Anglicans/Episcopalians are converting in the first place.
Dear Wonder Warthog,
I believe that it isn't unusual for non-Catholic clergy, including Episcopalians and Anglicans, to go through a brief period of seminary training, although I don't know if it's required of every candidate.
sitetest
I suspect it is decided on a case-by-case basis. But the place to find out "is" the Coming Home Network. I've read a number of the conversion stories of former Episcopalian (and now Catholic) priests there and in the "Suprised by Truth" books, and I don't recall any mention of additional seminary training in those--but that hardly constitutes a statistically valid sample.
Dear Wonder Warthog,
I found this at Catholic Online:
http://www.catholic.org/diocese/diocese_story.php?id=22360
Here's an excerpt:
Training, yes---seminary, no. Nothing whatsoever said there training being done at a seminary. I suspect the case is more likely that the bishop at the individual diocese sets up (or has in existence) a team who oversees the process. In fact I specifically think that such training would best NOT be done in a seminary--which is used to handling young, relatively "unformed" students, not seasoned adults.
Dear Wonder Warthog,
Well then, I suppose I was using the phrase "seminary training" a bit loosely. By it, I meant training in the sort of material that would ordinarily be covered in a seminary. Whether or not any of this training takes place in actual seminaries isn't something that I know, although I wouldn't preclude it.
But that wasn't what I was trying to get across.
I initially responded to what you posted here:
"I'm pretty sure they do, but I'm also pretty sure it is a 'formality' kind of ceremony (certainly validly sacramental, but not like having to go thru seminary again), since the academic requirements and training for the priesthood in both Anglicanism and Catholicism are so similar."
In that a normal seminary program for Catholic priests is usually four years in length, and the process for non-Catholic clergy can include up to two years of training, there is a substantial academic, training requirement. That's much more than the "formality" about which you spoke.
sitetest
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