Archbishop Hepworth, a former Catholic priest ... what's with that?
Catholic Ping
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Posted on 12/25/2005 10:09:32 AM PST by churchillbuff
As the Anglican Communion threatens to break up, one large group of Anglicans is blazing a trail to Rome, and another could follow suit.
The Traditional Anglican Communion, an autonomous group of 400,000 clergy and laity separate from the Anglican Communion, has drawn up detailed plans on how to come into full communion with the Holy See.
After 12 years of consultations, both internally and informally with the Vatican, the group - with the help of a Catholic layman - is preparing a "Pastoral Plan" asking the Vatican for an "Anglican Rite Church" that would preserve their Anglican heritage while allowing them to be "visibly united" with Rome.
The Traditional Anglican Communion's worldwide primate, Archbishop John Hepworth, hopes the group's College of Bishops will approve the plan at a possible Rome Synod in February 2006.
The church's members are so far reported to be unanimous in their desire for full communion. If formally agreed, the proposal would then be presented to Vatican officials.
If Rome approves, the Traditional Anglican Communion, a worldwide ecclesial body based in Australia, could become the largest Anglican assembly to return to the Church since the Reformation.
In a statement released earlier this year, Archbishop Hepworth, a former Catholic priest, said the denomination had "no doctrinal differences with Rome" that impeded full communion. "My broad vision is to see the end of the Reformation of the 16th century," he said.
The denominations has pursued unity with Rome since the Anglican started ordaining women as priests, a move that, Archbishop Hepworth says, was the "ultimate of schismatic acts" and irrevocably "fractured" the 1966 Common Declaration between Rome and Canterbury.
The historic agreement made between Pope VI and then-Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey, obliged both communions to work towards unity through serious dialogue.
Vatican Caution
During recent informal talks, Vatican officials advised TAC to grow in numbers, become better known by forming friendships with local Catholic clergy and laity, and build structures through which they can dialogue with other churches. We've now done that," Archbishop Hepworth said. "By next year's synod, our conscience will have brought us to a certain point - it will then be for the Holy See to decide what to do."
Meanwhile, the Catholic bishops of England and Wales have warned the Church of England that going ahead with women bishops risks destabilizing both the Church of England and the whole Anglican Communion, in a report the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales referred to "tremendous and intolerable ecclesiological risk" involved in ordaining women bishops.
The Church of England is considering whether to allow women to become bishops, with a debate expected at its general synod in February.
Ordaining women as bishops is particularly contentious for those opposed to women priests as they would be unable to recognize or accept the authority of all priests, male or female, who were ordained by female bishops.
For Forward in Faith, a worldwide association of Anglican who remain part of the Anglican Communion but are unable to accept the female ordinations, the situation is somewhat different than that of the Traditional Anglican Communion.
They remain committed to being Anglicans, so communion with Rome "is not on the agenda," according to Stephen Parkinson, director of Forward in Faith in the United Kingdom. However, the group is sympathetic to the Traditional Anglican Communion and is likely to move closer to that denomination's position if women are ordained bishops in England and Wales.
Currently, Forward in Faith-UK is negotiating with the Church of England for a "structural solution" that would enable its members to belong to a separate province within the Anglican Communion should the church decide to consecrate women as bishops.
But greater independence for Forward in Faith members might open the way for the group to move unilaterally towards Rome. "We could then pursue our own agenda," said Parkinson. "Ecumenism could then become an imperative for us."
Not if But When?
The Vatican is monitoring the current problems besetting the Anglican Communion. Not only do the communion's member churches have divisions over ordaining women as bishops, but Anglicans continue to be torn apart by the consecration in 2003 of Gene Robinson, the openly homosexual Episcopalian bishop of New Hampshire.
At a Church of England synod in London in November, Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, was strongly criticized by nearly half the church's presiding archbishops over the issue of homosexual clergy.
In the same week, the archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, announced that he was aligning the country's 17 million Anglican with the breakaway United States Episcopal churches. His church has already severed constitutional ties with the Church of England over Robinson's consecration.
For Anglicans like Archbishop Hepworth and Parkinson, it is a question of not if by when the Anglican Communion will fracture. But even if they're right, the Vatican is not inclined to work out precise plans for receiving large groups of Anglicans. Each case is likely to be different, which precludes forward planning.
The Vatican is, however, understood to be urging those groups wishing to come into communion with it to demonstrate they are comfortable with Church teaching, and that they aren't motivated soley by disillusionment with the Anglican Communion.
The two departments responsible for group conversions, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, are keeping a low profile for now.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Council for Promoting Christian Unity, has been focusing on issues that unite the churches and urging Anglicans to strengthen the bonds that unify the communion, particularly those surround the Anglican Communion's traditional teaching on human sexuality.
In the meantime, both Rome and the estranged Anglicans are waiting to see what the Anglican hierarchy does and how national Anglican churches and individual Anglicans respond.
"If many come over to Rome at the same time, then they're still all treated as individual conversions," said Dominican Father Charles Morerod, a member of the Anglican/Catholic International Commission. "But it is different if a whole province wants to come into communion."
If that's the case then The Traditional Anglican Communion won't be coming home to the Roman Catholic Church. You either accept all of the teachings and publicly profess belief in said teachings of the Church or you won't be confirmed. The Church isn't a smorgasbord.
Actually the distinctness of the British Church from the Patriarchate of Rome was extinguished by the Normans. Henry VIII could point to precedents, but he did establish a new institution.
Many of the most traditional Orthodox argue for the sainthood of Harold Godwinson, Last Orthodox King of England, and his companions who died at Hastings.
The Saxon coronation rite used at Harold's coronation, did not include the filioque in the Creed, and the English church was out of communion with Rome over local matters from 1052 until the Norman invasion. Harold's daughter married Prince Vladimir Monomach of Kiev, and Saxon nobility who fled England mostly went to Constantinople or Kiev.
Henry's movement, however, was not a restoration of the pre-Norman status quo ante ecclesiologically, and the Thirty-Nine Article of Religion, the standard Anglican exposition of the faith and of ecclesiological order, are decidedly protestant, not something any of the notable British saints from before the Norman uniformization of the British church to papal rule--be it Joseph of Aramathia; Patrick, Enlightener of Ireland; David of Menavia; Chad of Litchfield; or a host of others--would have recognized or assented to.
Would the last Episcopalian pease turn out the lights?
yes prophesies is being fulfilled {and all the world wondered after the} now you all tell me what.
ping.
I don't think they are completly "coming home" --- more being in communion, with acceptable doctrinal differences.
Archbishop Hepworth, a former Catholic priest ... what's with that?
Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
What percentage of Roman Catholics do you believe could do this truthfully?
Enough. And if you don't, why belong?
Although it is not widely known in our Western world, the Catholic Church is actually a communion of Churches. According to the Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, the Catholic Church is understood to be "a corporate body of Churches," united with the Pope of Rome, who serves as the guardian of unity (LG, no. 23). At present there are 22 Churches that comprise the Catholic Church. The new Code of Canon Law, promulgated by Pope John Paul II, uses the phrase "autonomous ritual Churches" to describe these various Churches (canon 112). Each Church has its own hierarchy, spirituality, and theological perspective.
However, they all share the same doctrines of faith.
"Anglican Use" is simply strange. There's one in San Antonio (www.atonmentonline.com) - and I can't get over the fact that the "priest" is married with children. It's not a Catholic church IMHO...and I cannot accept the "Anglican Use" as a valid liturgy.
Call me bigoted, biased or what have you. It's unacceptable to me.
I believe A.A. is referring to the Church hierarchy, responsible for properly instructing their faithful.
(And I don't mean this kind of married priesthood, as they have at the Episcopalian Church after seizure by the Queer Mafia coup d'etat):
That's a very good question which does not have a good answer that I've ever seen.
So what about the Catholic "priests" ordained and recpgnized by the Church who have families by reason of being married while being Protestant ministers? Are you disputing their calling?
This strange idea that everyone ought be celibate could only last any people for a generation;after that they're extinct!Priestly clibacy is required only by men not by God;or do you deny the Levites ?
This is an important point but it's also worth noting that there is a significant movement within the Catholic Church which is clearly not comfortable with Catholic teaching in key areas, including sexuality, the all male priesthood, the role of the Pope and other key doctrinal issues such as the bodily Resurrection of Jesus, the Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, etc., etc.
I sure hope we're not going to run a fine tooth comb over the new converts while ignoring the usual suspects who continue to openly question Church teaching yet still call themselves Catholic.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't be sure about the whole-hearted assent of the new converts to Catholic teaching. Just that I hope they're not held to a different standard than our home-grown heretics.
Maybe we could do a trade. We can bring in some traditional Anglicans and ship out (i.e. excommunicate) some liberal-modernists in return.
Oh. So that explains you.
"I believe the position is going to be agree-to-disagree about Mary
If that's the case then The Traditional Anglican Communion won't be coming home to the Roman Catholic Church. You either accept all of the teachings and publicly profess belief in said teachings of the Church or you won't be confirmed. The Church isn't a smorgasbord."
If the TAC holds the traditional "Anglo-Catholic" beliefs about Mary, then they follow Rome's lead on this already and they will probably be more orthodox on this issue than most in the N.O. Church.
In fact, apart from them not being in communion in Rome, they are probably more orthodox than most home-grown Catholics in most areas of doctrine. It is the convert former-Anglican clergy who seem to be having a harder time with the liberalization of the faith in these parts than do the cradle-Catholic clergy.
http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3394&com_id=28556&com_rootid=28556&com_mode=thread&
SAN DIEGO, CA: Traditionalist Parish Leaves ECUSA for APA. Priest inhibited
By David W. Virtue
ALPINE, CA (12/16/2005)--A traditionalist, Forward in Faith parish in the Diocese of San Diego has walked away from its building and allied itself with the Anglican Province of America (APA), coming under the ecclesiastical authority of Bishop Richard Boyce, (Diocese of the West) and its Presiding Bishop Walter Grundorf.
Father Keith Acker, 49, left with his parish, Christ the King (East County of San Diego) "to walk with the Primates of the Global South and formed Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity." They will meet Sunday morning at Alpine Elementary School. The Vestry didn't want to get bogged down in litigation over a building, as much as it is a holy place. The decision was 7 to 0 with one abstention, said Acker.
Fr. Acker, who is also the Communications Director for Forward in Faith North America, told VirtueOnline that, "we have been accepted this week in the Anglican Province of America as a priest of the Diocese of the West. The congregation will this Sunday make a formal request to become a mission. This is the beginning of the realignment here in San Diego."
"Archbishop Hepworth, a former Catholic priest ... what's with that?"
That is what jumped out at me from the article as well. This is the first time I have heard he was a former Catholic priest.
I wonder if anybody out there would know what his situation is from the canonical p.o.v. if the TAC did reconcile with Rome? Does anyone know if he has married since becoming an Anglican? Would it be likely that he would be able to retain his position if they were in communion with the Catholic Church?
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