Anglican bishop denies merger with Catholics

TONY EASTLEY: Reports of a possible re-unification of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, have been played down by the senior international body co-ordinating relations between the two.

A newspaper in London claimed senior Bishops on both sides are considering repairing the split that occurred at the time of Reformation.

But a South African Anglican Bishop, who co-chairs the special bi-lateral body reportedly behind the move, has told AM any possible merger is a long way off.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: There's been an official dialogue for 40 years, and in 2000 the then Pope John Paul the Second and the then Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, established the International Anglican Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission.

Its co-chair is South African Bishop David Beetge. He travelled to Rome late last year with the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, to meet Pope Benedict.

DAVID BEETGE: All we have said are there are certain areas, after 40 years of theological study, where we believe we have a degree of compatibility and agreement.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: The idea that the two churches would actually merge, is this the sort of thing that the Commission's actually been looking at?

DAVID BEETGE: Not at all, not at all. Those areas where we have reached, or have a degree of, of agreement. That's all the document is.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: The worldwide Anglican Church has just wrapped up a meeting in Tanzania, trying to accommodate tensions over homosexuality and female priests. Some Bishops even refused to take Communion with those they consider had taken the Church's liberal teachings too far.

This Commission, working with both churches, is the most important group of clerics working on non-theological issues. It was said in The Times newspaper to have written a report urging many in the Anglican Church should move their allegiances to Rome.

DAVID BEETGE: We didn't even come to that conclusion. From what I've heard of the article, it may well have been just, taking it far too far.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: And I saw on your website, you've got female clergy in, under you in South Africa. The idea that somehow you would merge and become part of the Catholic Church, that's a bit absurd...

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Bishop Beetge's co-chair on the Commission is the Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, John Bathersby. He's quoted in News Limited newspapers this morning saying the merger is "longed for by Catholics and Anglicans, that separation interferes with our mission, and that there are no insurmountable hurdles to a merger".

Some of the quotes appear to support this idea of a union between the two Churches, but that's not how you understand his thinking?

DAVID BEETGE: No, I mean I think any form of union is a very long journey and process.

DAVID BEETGE: I think unity is a long, long, long, long, long journey. Of course we pray for it, of course we long for it. I, I would be surprised if I saw anything in my lifetime.

TONY EASTLEY: South African Anglican Bishop Beetge ending Rafael Epstein's report.

I think you've nailed it. Many Anglicans are not all that comfortable thinking of themselves as an invisible body of believers not attached or in communion with anyone else. When you have a "high" ecclesiology, you definitely don't want to be off in la-la land as a Pope/church of one. Here's an interesting excerpt from a statement written by Hepworth of the TAC in January 06:

Having had our communion with the Anglican Communion shattered, we cannot remain "a church on the loose". To hold the catholic faith requires that faith be exercised in communion. Bishops cannot exist cut off from the mainstream of the church's life. Unity is not an option. Jesus commanded it.

More here:

http://www.thetraditionalanglicanchurch.org.uk/hepworthjan06.html

And the truly beautiful liturgical praxis that Anglo-Catholics have...that old '28 Prayer Book spirit that is now--sadly--that's almost totally missing in the English speaking Roman Catholic Church. So I wonder myself how this will shake out. It is hard to imagine an Anglican "Rite" that can rise to the level of the 5 traditional Patriarchates, but some sort of preservation of the best of Anglo-Catholicism is absolutely vital to Roman Catholicism today.

Speaking of African accents, is there ANY accent in the English world that is more melodious and beautiful than an African one? LOL

That's unfortunate - I know there is a low-church branch of Anglicans who really do consider themselves to be more Protestant than Anglo-Catholic, and I'm sure they wouldn't be interested in going to Rome. But the two African bishops I met (who were brought along by an American Episcopal priest or bishop) were definitely not evangelical in tendency, so maybe some of them would be considering it, on a church by church or diocese by diocese basis.

"a church on the loose"

That's a great phrase! I have been thinking a lot about this because I went to Rome recently and visited the Scavi, the excavations under the Vatican. Never have I seen so clearly the "roots" of the Church: that is, the fact that the circus of Nero, scene of many Christian martyrdoms, was on that site, as was the necropolis where the body of the martyred St. Peter was buried, and the clear evidence that the very earliest Christians were visiting that spot from the very earliest times. And now we have the great dome of St. Peter's Basilica, directly crowning the very spot where St. Peter was buried those two millenia ago. I can't imagine how anybody could be anything other than Catholic, for all the current problems of the Church, because when you go to that place, you see the seed and the root of the great tree that grows up and out through the centuries. It must be very sad to be part of a "church on the loose."

Dear livius,

I'm sure that any generalization about African Anglicans has exceptions.

However, my understanding is that there's a difference between low church, high church, and broad church, vs. Anglo-Catholic and evangelical. My understanding is that high vs. low is more about liturgy, and Catholic vs. evangelical is more about theology (although, to me, logically, high church would seem to fit better with Anglo-Catholics and low church with evangelicals).

I've pinged AnAmericanMother who can give a better, more detailed explanation.

sitetest

It is a great phrase, isn't it? :)

And you're right...Italy quite literally compels one to face history. I felt it strongly when on the subway in Rome and seeing the stops....place-names 2000 years old!

Have a holy, profitable, and penitential Lent, my FRiends! I'm on computer fast, so you probably won't see me here again until the glorious alleluias of Eastertide.

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