I suppose they stole my birthright too, but the Catholic church is the real thing... the piskies are just pretenders. Come home to Rome. You'll be glad you did.
"Come home to Rome. You'll be glad you did."
As an Anglican (my VERY conservative Episcopal church was kicked out by our pathetic liberal Bishop and joined the Anglican church directly --- search "Episcopal" here on freep and read about Midland, TX), there would be serious theological difficulties "re-joining" the Roman church, in no small part:
1. Despite recent pronouncements of concilitory nature, Anglicans reject the continuing virginity of Mary as contrary to scripture (and pretty much everything else added around Mary ---- she was blessed above all woman, all right, mother of Jesus, but just a woman. Also, per black letter scriputre, only Jesus was sinless.
Obviously, you disagree on this point. Wars have been fought on this issue, and we won't change each others' minds. The point is: there is little or no middle ground on Mary. (Other than to say: it doesn't matter --- we agree Jesus is the Lord. How He got there is not essential to salvation.)
2. Anglicans reject RC traditions (for some RC) like praying for the dead to get them out of Purgatory. Indeed, they generally reject the idea of Purgatory altogether as without scriptural basis.
Again, little middle ground, other than I think a lot of R.C. theologians are coming to the conclusion that Purgatory concept was created with the good intention of preventing people from thinking Salvation was License to sin.
3. To Anglicans, every Christian is a "saint." Capital-letter "Saints" are really good Christians whose example we should follow: e.g., from Rite I, " . . follow the example of St. X . . . and all your saints, etc, but one does not pray to them or seek intervention from them. Anglicans pray directly to God/Jesus/Holy Spirit.
Finally, remember, while Anglicans were technically part of the RC church starting fairly early, the Anglican church got started on its own --- its chief core being the Celtic Church (allegedly founded by Joseph of Aramathia).
Even while part of the RC, it was a rebel --- with a distinctly different structure (married friars being one example and monks being the other). It was very populist and democratic. Its bishops bucked Rome early and often --- doing things like printing the Bible in English, for example, and teaching people the Bible directly, instead of filtered by Catchesim.
The oft-told story of Henry VIII creating a church to satisfy his lusts is baloney. Henry VIII co-opted an existing movement (for his own purposes, certainly).
Long and short, until Christ comes back and unifies the Universal Church --- fixing the problems with ALL of the flawed human denominations (be they Roman, Anglican, or Southern Baptist) --- reuninification ain't gonna happen.