Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

To: livius
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

21 posted on 02/20/2007 10:30:11 AM PST by Claud
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies ]


To: Claud
"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."

24 posted on 02/20/2007 1:38:53 PM PST by livius
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson