Posted on 09/12/2010 11:19:57 AM PDT by marshmallow
Two traditionalist Anglican clerics have announced they are to be received into the Catholic Church.
Giles Pinnock, the vicar of St Mary-the-Virgin in Kenton, north London, told parishioners on Saturday that he was leaving the Church of England for the Catholic Church, while Robin Farrow told parishioners at St Peter’s in West Blatchington, East Sussex, in his Sunday homily that he was converting to Catholicism.
Fr Pinnock said: “The particular decision to leave this parish has been harder than the joyful decision to be received into the Catholic Church – although the two are of necessity connected, and as the Lord tells us in today’s Gospel, we must be willing to change fundamentally the context and the detail of our lives if we are truly to be His disciples.
“That call is always present to all of us, but can present itself more immediately at particular moments in life. This is such a moment for me and my family.”
He added: “I realise that some of you may feel that I am leaving just as you most need to be led through the difficult times which traditionalist parishes of the Church of England are to face over the next few years. “To those of you who will remain as committed members of the Church of England, I am on a path that is for now different from yours.
“I trust that one day, in God’s good time, our particular journeys may re-converge.
“In the meantime, I cannot provide the Anglican leadership you expect and so it would be wrong for me to remain as vicar of this parish.
“To those of you who are considering becoming Catholics, either as members of the forthcoming Ordinariate under the provisions of Anglicanorum coetibus or in a local Catholic parish, I trust that I am, in the manner of a Middle-Eastern shepherd, walking ahead of the flock, leading you by my example to safe pasture.” Fr Pinnock formally gives up his parish on November 1.
Fr Farrow has two children and a third on the way. They are are allowed to stay in the parish until they find alternative accommodation.
Fr Farrow told his parishioners: “As I have preached about many times this journey towards real unity with the Church from which our own was formed at the reformation is a biblical priority.
“I cannot read John 17 and believe that Our Lord’s will is anything other than the reunion of his broken body the Church.”
He added: “In conscience then I have come to the point where I cannot in good faith remain as your priest.”
I’ll say one thing about Dr. Williams. He may be a malignant Marxist troll but he has done more to unite Anglicans and Catholics than anyone since 1605.
These guys make me sick...They first proclaim that God called them to be shepherds of a Protestant flock of sheep...
Now, God is calling them to dump the flock of Protestant sheep to become a Catholic...No way, Jose'...This guy has probably never been saved...
The "I've already had my ticket punched" theology doesn't hold much water in traditional Christianity. Sensible Christians, of which this man appears to an example, practice the virtues of prudence and humility and recognize, as St. Paul himself said, that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and as long as we have breath in us, the capacity to do evil persists.
We find out whether we're saved when we stand before the judgment throne of God.
When we are finally united with the Orthodox Church, we may be one body, not just two lungs of the same church as Pope John Paul II described us!
Prayers for unity!
I thought the English Reformation was driven more by Hank 8 being a dawg than any theological basis.
More good news, looks like.
What about when he was licensed as a clergyman and had to assent to the 39 articles and the book of common prayer?
This man has behaved similarly to the ultra-liberals, he has held a license as a minister in a church while not believing the basic doctrines of that church.
To a large extent, very true. High Anglicans are often more Catholic than Catholics...
It’s not a question of thought, it’s true. Religion with the Anglican Church would serve Henry VIII’s political as well as desire to keep divorcing, executing, and remarrying till a wife would bear him a son. In addition, the Catholic Church could not always favor every little European king’s desires, if Ol’ Henry managed to get a church separate in authority from the Roman Catholic Church, he could have a church that was biased towards him, because it was an English Church. The matter of getting religion that interacts properly with the political leadership is an American breakthrough.
But some ultra-liberals become conservatives over time. Is change and growth forbidden, then? And as you once believe, forever and ever you are held to that?
Not so much the way life really is.
The Reformation was already underway before ‘Hank 8’ had even considered divorcing his first wife. Henry simply took advantage of the growing theological and political opposition towards the papacy that had been developing since the Lollard movement in the late 14th Century...
Amen
OR
When your spirit leaves your body and passes the pearly Gates of Heaven will we know better.
Just like the early church were martyred for not renouncing their faith in Christ and died. When the climate changes in this country. I wonder how many at the point of a gun will still believe in once saved always saved.
I hope to stand in Christ. I ask Jesus to give me the Holy boldness when this happens. I truly believe a lot of us sooner or later will be martyred as the years progress in this country. If the economic system fails beyond repair.
Since the "Anglican Communion" has been a very large tent from the very beginning, you could be almost a Puritan or almost a Catholic and still be under the tent. It's quite possible (indeed, it's probable) that this clergyman has shifted his position in that tent over his time in the church . . . and most likely that the shifting of other people's positions (like the hierarchy of the Anglicans, especially the Arch-Druid of Canterbury) was actually shoving him out of the tent.
That's what happened to us. We couldn't stay in a church that approved of abortion, homosexual 'marriage' and ordination, let alone the Gaia-worship, political radicalism, and all the rest of it. If you're serious about the liturgy and the Eucharist, then the Catholic Church is the only place a "high churcher" can go in good conscience.
We should have made the change years ago, when the first handwriting appeared on the wall with the revision of the BCP and the ordination of women. But better late than never.
I'll vouch for that! Our Catholic parish is considered very formal and orthodox and it's not that much more Catholic than our old 'high church' Episcopal parish . . . . but judging from the parishes I've visited round about, it's a notable exception (except for our local Latin Mass Parish which is probably more Catholic than Rome).
Way too many Catholic parishes have opted for quasi-protestant stripped-down churches, priest as emcee, hippie praise music, lay persons taking over priestly duties, etc. etc.
Instead of feeling sick over this conversion it might be better to feel sick with the sinful pride exhibited by those who encourage the division of the christian belief by condemning others who seek their salvation . God bless
we are all in a constant of change and I imagine the good vicars over the years have moved from where they were to where they are.
We have the theology of the Catholic church and then we have the theology of God in the scriptures...
Joh 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
Sorry but you're on the wrong side of the cross...The wrong side of the resurrection...
Christians have been judged already....That's why Jesus died...He paid the price of judgment for us
Henry VIII was a strong Romaan Catholic and supporter of the church until he wanted Rome to annul his marriage. The Protestant Reformation was a separate event unrelated to the English Reformation except possibly as inspiration.
You're on the wrong side of the Cross...
2Co 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
Rom 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Rom 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Rom 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
You might call it sinful pride of presumption but God calls it the Holy Spirit bearing witness with our spirit...
IF you don't know that you are saved, right now, would seem you are missing that witnessing Spirit...
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