The Ordinariate as the Church’s front porch

It is perhaps a bit premature, but I’ve been thinking for years that a new Anglican body within the Catholic Church will bring with it to Peter’s barque more than tasteful vestments and glorious formal hymnody and a sense for the  quaint and antiquated. It will bring fishers of men.

 

That has been my hope and it seems to be confirmed here and there that evangelization will be its mission.  Catholicism in English speaking lands

The Anglican Ordinariate and Celibacy

In the 60’s and 70’s, the beginning of the Radical Dissident Catholic Era, many priests were laicized and got married. In fact, many of them married former nuns. While I have only personally been acquainted (that I know of) with one laicized priest, he wasn’t someone who should’ve been ordained. He had the same sort of wardrobe malfunction that Ted Kennedy had. I believe it was intended as a way out. In his case it was successful.

Now that the personal ordinariate for Anglicans has been announced, The Washington Post thinks that celibacy for Roman Catholic Priests is on its way out. What impressed me about the article is that they do point out that Eastern Catholics ordain married men but that priests aren’t married; most people assume that priests may marry after ordination. Eastern Catholic Churches in the US typically ordain only celibate men. Eastern Catholic Bishops are always celibate as are Orthodox Bishops.

I disagree with the Washington Post; Anglicans have made many changes since the church of England was formed, including allowing priests to be married before or after ordination. Eastern Catholics, formerly Orthodox, were brought into Communion with Rome while retaining their traditions, traditions that had existed at the time of the Great Schism, including the Ordination of married men. The difference here is that a married priesthood in the Latin Rite Catholic Church did not exist at the time the Anglicans left and while married men in the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Orthodox Church may be Ordained, priests may not marry after ordination. While it’s certainly possible that the Church would decide to allow married men to be Ordained within the Anglican Personal Ordinariate, I would be very surprised if she would allow priests to get married or allow a married Priesthood in the Latin Rite.

 

Celebrate Advent, Question Christmas

This year may be the best one in a long time for all Christians to re-examine Christmas and take Advent to heart.  A bad economy and a Walmart stampede which gave new meaning to “Black Friday,” offer us good occassion to reflect on the inanity of the American “Christmas” Season.

For years I have been deeply disturbed by the grand materialistic orgy that is the gringo Xmas.  The Lord who came to us in humble human vesture, in utter simplicity and taught us to find our serenity in the goods of heaven rather than the goods of this world has become hopelessly lost in a sea of Santa’s hocking gadgets which rob us of time and mental energy to reflect upon and deepen our spiritual lives.

Big News: Episcopal Bishop ‘Skip’ Adams: Christianity is NOT a Religion

Episcopalian Bishop “Skip” Adams of the Diocese of Central New York also informs the world that morality is an obstacle to God.  With “Bishops” like this, the Episcopal “Church” is showing that it has broken from Christianity in more ways that one…er, six…er, 12:

If this faith of ours is going to be a living one, we have to let go of the idea of Christianity as religion, which I understand to be a system of rules and regulations to get people to behave a certain way that we have deemed acceptable. To say it another way, to make Christian faith primarily about being moral and good. By the way, I believe that this approach has direct import on the struggles we have in being and becoming an Anglican Communion. Stay tuned on that one.

There have been differing moral codes associated with Christianity throughout history. Christian faith, in itself, is not a moral code, however. It is a response in faith to the God revealed in Jesus Christ. It was the theologian Jacque Ellul who said in The Subversion of Christianity, “When I say that the revelation of God in Jesus Christ is against morality, I am not trying to say that it replaces one form of morality with another…Revelation is an attack on all morality, as is wonderfully shown by the parables of the kingdom of heaven, that of the prodigal son, that of the talents, that of the eleventh hour laborers, that of the unfaithful steward, and many others (I would add Zacchaeus in the tree). In all the parables the person who serves as an example has not lived a moral life. The one who is rejected is the one who has lived a moral life. Naturally this does not mean that we are counseled to become robbers, murderers, adulterers, etc. On the contrary, the behavior to which we are summoned surpasses morality, all morality, which is shown to be an obstacle to encounter with God.”

Anglican Bitterness over Converts to Rome

It’s all over the net. All kinds of talk about Anglicans swimming, put on swim trunks, taking the plunge, testing the waters, dipping the toe, crossing over, etc. It will be a wonder if the Tiber can handle the traffic as well as it handles the copious references to the metaphor … if they all come.

Those who do come are deserving of a hearty welcome from those of us standing along the shore. They certainly will have paid a hefty price in strained and even lost friendships as they have made a momentous and meaningful journey to the Catholic Church.

As an Anglican watcher I have noticed a distinct pattern on most Anglican blogs. Whenever something positive about the Catholic Church is posted there is a strong and bitter reaction among many of the commenters. Antipathy toward the Catholic Church is deeply ingrained in the minds of Anglicans and protestants from an early age. So it erupts almost without reflection whenever the moment calls for it. It has been particularly heavy in the wake of word of talks between some Diocese of Fort Worth Episcopal clergy and the local Catholic bishop.

Here is an example of the kind of visceral bitterness that has surfaced at blogs like the Continuum:

Tiber Crossings, Anglican Mass Conversion in Fort Worth?

5 Bob to: Midwest Conservative Journal:

Will the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth make the ultimate jump?

A delegation of Episcopal priests from Fort Worth paid a visit to Catholic Bishop Kevin Vann earlier this summer, asking for guidance on how their highly conservative diocese might come into “full communion” with the Catholic Church.

Whether that portends a serious move to turn Fort Worth Episcopalians and their churches into Catholics and Catholic churches is a matter of dispute.

The Rev. William Crary, senior rector of the Fort Worth diocese, confirmed that on June 16 he and three other priests met with Bishop Vann, leader of the Fort Worth Catholic diocese, and presented him a document that is highly critical of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.

The document states that the overwhelming majority of Episcopal clergy in the Fort Worth diocese favor pursuing an “active plan” to bring the diocese into full communion with the Catholic Church.

While declining to specify what that might mean, Mr. Crary said it likely would not mean “absorption” by the Catholic Church.

He cast the initiative as following Anglican and Catholic leaders in longstanding efforts to bring the two groups into greater cooperation, with the ultimate goal of honoring Jesus’ call in John 17:21 for Christian unity.

“These discussions between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion have been going on for 42 years,” he said. “We would like to bring these down to the local level.”

But other local Episcopalians interpret the meeting and document differently.

“There’s a very serious attempt on the part of Episcopal clergy in the Diocese of Forth Worth to petition Rome for some kind of recognition,” said the Rev. Courtland Moore, who is retired as rector of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Arlington.

“They make it clear that they no longer believe there is truth in the Anglican Communion, and the only way they can find truth is reunion with Rome.”

Mr. Moore is co-chairman of Steering Committee North Texas Episcopalians, a group that wants the Fort Worth diocese to remain in the Episcopal Church. He obtained a copy of the document the priests gave to Bishop Vann and made it available to reporters.

Vatican ‘Surprised’ at Plan to Move Parish into Anglican church

Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Wirral, to be abandoned

No, it’s not a case of Church swapping.  They are going to live together.  Ignoring all recent developments to the contrary, some “ecumenists” will not be deterred from their plans to blur the important distinctions between Anglicanism and Catholicism.  Apparently, this wacky idea includes the dumping of a grand Depression-era basilica style Catholic church building.

Orthodox Metropolitan Soft on Sacred Tradition

Metropolitan Kallistos Ware was waxing philosophical in the wake of the Lambeth Conference, presenting a soft approach to Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture. There are some interesting parallels with an earlier post of mine, Orthodox EP Soft Like Anglicans on Abortion, in that these comments are given with the intention of being sympathetic with the current Anglican predicament. Still, this cannot be understood as mere diplomatic speech as it was given in the wake of the Vatican’s stunningly frank language on the same matters delivered by Cardinal Kasper just days prior. The full interview is found here.

An interesting exerpt (emphasis mine):

… First, I admire deeply the way in which Archbishop Rowan is fulfilling his role as Archbishop of Canterbury, at this moment of crisis. It’s easy to say, with reference to his position here at the Lambeth Conference or generally in the current Anglican world, that he is in a no-win situation. But granted the immense difficulties that he is facing, he is not doing too badly. Now, what should he be doing here at Lambeth? Should he be offering very firm and clear leadership, insisting on a particular point of view, putting forward resolutions to the plenary gathering of the bishops for their acceptance? He has not chosen to do that. Some people feel disappointed. Some people feel he should be doing that. But if he were to do that, it would create confrontation and division. If you walk through the mountains and you find a large rock in your path, one method is to kick it out of the way. The other is to walk around it and go on with your journey. Now Archbishop Rowan has probably understood that if he tries to kick this particular stone, or this double rock – the ordination of women and homosexual relations – if he tries to confront it head-on and insist on a clear expression of the position of the Anglican Communion, to kick the stone out of the path, he is likely to hurt his toe.

Text of Cardinal Kasper to Anglican Bishops: It’s Over

Anglicanism Fading from Historic Christianity

Cardinal Kasper, the best Catholic friend to the Anglican Communion, the one who has remained most optimistic for an ongoing relationship with Anglicanism, delivers the coup de grace wearing a velvet glove. Anglican orders will never be recognized and Anglican-Catholic relations are no longer ordered toward a future unity.

Emphasis mine.

Full text here.

The Catholic Church’s teaching regarding human sexuality, especially homosexuality, is clear, as set forth in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, nn. 2357-59. We are convinced that this teaching is well founded in the Old and in the New Testament, and therefore that faithfulness to the Scriptures and to apostolic tradition is at stake. I can only highlight what IARCCUM’s “Growing Together in Unity and Mission” said: “In the discussions on human sexuality within the Anglican Communion, and between it and the Catholic Church, stand anthropological and biblical hermeneutical questions which need to be addressed” (§86e). Not without reason is today’s principal theme at the Lambeth Conference concerned with biblical hermeneutics.

I would like briefly to draw your attention to the ARCIC statement “Life in Christ”, where it was noted (nn. 87-88) that Anglicans could agree with Catholics that homosexual activity is disordered, but that we might differ in the moral and pastoral advice we would offer to those seeking our counsel. We realise and appreciate that the recent statements of the Primates are consistent with that teaching, which was given clear expression in Resolution 1.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference. In light of tensions over the past years in this regard, a clear statement from the Anglican Communion would greatly strengthen the possibility of us giving common witness regarding human sexuality and marriage, a witness which is sorely needed in the world of today.

Anglican White Superiority at Lambeth … Again

The very lovely Bishop Catherine Roskam

Anglican colonialism/racism rears its ugly head once again at Lambeth. Not only has this woman bishop shown the high quality of TEC social analysis, she has demonstrated in a conclusive fashion the fruits of ordaining feminist women. Notice that she considers every man a virtual violent criminal, even if he is a bishop.

The Right Rev Catherine Roskam, suffragan bishop of New York, with a responsibility for 66 congregations, said domestic violence was culturally acceptable in some parts of the world and that “even the most devout Christians” were guilty of it.

Surreal Anglican….

New Director of the Anglican Center in Rome and Rowan Williams

The Anglican Communion News Service has a completely surreal article today that derserves examination as it could not get the Vatican more WRONG. The Article reads that Vatican’s concern for Anglican unity as greater than the Vatican’s concerns for the issues now before the Communion, homosexuality and WO. Here is the opening of the article:

Some in the Anglican Communion may have found themselves a little irritated by the amount of rhetoric that has issued from the Vatican in recent weeks on the divisions facing the church. The Anglican Representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Holy See, the Very Revd David Richardson, says that instead, the concerns of the Roman Catholic Church should be taken as a very positive reminder that the unity of the church is God’s will.

While the Pope was in Australia celebrating World Youth Day, he urged the Anglican Church to avoid schism, and Cardinal Dias warned in his address to the Lambeth Conference about the dangers of disunity to evangelism.

“My take on it at this stage,” says Revd Richardson, “is that there is a lot of investment from the Roman Catholic Church in the Anglican Church cohering, for a whole range of reasons … the last thing they want to see is a church structurally split.” Schism, from the point of view of the Roman Catholic Church was therefore, he said, “a really much more serious issue than the discipline or moral theological issues with which we’re wrestling.”

Orthodox EP Soft Like Anglicans on Abortion

It’s not just about the filioque or the Immaculate Conception, folks. Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have encouraged Catholics to reach out to Orthodox Christians, to respect them and learn their traditions. Catholics by and large have accepted that the Orthodox really are very close to Catholicism in many areas. But many would be surprised to learn that some Orthodox hierarchs (and Oriental Orthodox hierarchs) are soft, even permissive on the issue of abortion–soft like Anglicans.

His Holiness, Patriarch Karekin I of Etchmiadzin of Armenia (Oriental Orthodox) who came on a pastoral visit to the US had this to say about the Oriental Orthodox Church’s position on abortion-

July 19: St. John Plessington, English Martyr, d. 1679

John William Plessington, Priest of the Apostolic Vicariate of England

Born: 1637 in Dimples, Lancashire, England (United Kingdom)

Martyred: 19 July 1679 in Chester, Cheshire, England (United Kingdom)

One of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. He was born at Dimples, Lancashire, England, the son of a Royalist Catholic. Educated at Valladolid, Spain, and St. Omer’s in France. he was ordained in Segovia in 1662. John returned to England after ordination and served as a missionary in Cheshire. He became a tutor at Puddington Hall near Chester until his arrest and martyrdom by hanging at Barrowshill, Boughton. near Chester. Pope Paul VI canonized him in 1970.

Source.

Former Anglican Bishop, Catholic Convert, Jeffrey Steenson on Anglocatholicism

Steenson as an Anglican Bishop

Former Anglican Bishop Jeffrey Steenson is widely revered among Anglicans as a man of profound integrity and service in the Lord’s vineyard. Last week he spoke at the Anglican Use Conference. He spoke with his usual clarity and Anglican eloquence. Welcome home, Jeffery.

His full address can be found here.

It all begins with the conviction that the Catholic Church simply is. She is not one option amongst many. People who become alienated from their own churches will sometimes think that the next step is to go down to the marketplace and see what is on offer: which church is going to give me the best deal? Those people seldom find the Catholic Church because they have missed the essential point – the fullness of Christ’s blessings is not distributed across the ecclesial landscape but flows from the one Church.

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America = Episcopal Church 2.0?

I am the most casual of amateur “Anglican watchers”… As a Catholic, looking at what is going on over in TEC causes me no glee, but honestly I see the writing on the wall. (Feel free to weigh in with disagreement – that is what comboxes are for!)

A Lutheran watcher,  I am not at any level – amateur or otherwise.  Recently, however, I am having a spell of being, I dunno “Lutheran Curious” as I see snippets here and there of things coming out of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) – America’s largest Lutheran body of just under 4.77M members, formed in 1988 with the merging of three Lutheran bodies, they are in full communion with the Episcopal Church.

Again, as a rank amature with no vested interest in the internal politics of this community myself (save a desire/fantasy – I admit – to see an end to the divisions and a return to Catholic unity on the part of all baptized).

But in the past few weeks of looking at some things that are coming out of some blogs and news  sources here and there about the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, I have come up with the following questions:

1. What trajectory has the ELCA taken on the GLBT issue?  Today it appears they are about three to five years behind the Episcopal Church on the matter, with affirming clergy being lined up to shore up support of what seems to be an affirming stance that is coming…
2. TEC and ELCA have an inter-communion and pulpit sharing arrangement… What influence has this had?  Some speculate that this re-enforces and re-affirms the influences of pro-GLBT parties within the ELCA… The TEC and ELCA in 2008 both have more clergy than ever, as their memberships both decline.  An observation that has been made by some is that in some diocese the TEC has rostered a good number of clergy who are not needed or used for parochial assignments, but serve – in effect – to “weight the strength of certain ideological agendas”… The ordinands have no or little parochial responsibility… but when it comes time to gather the rostered clergy to vote, they are votes that can be counted on.  “Stacking the deck” so to speak.  Is this a trend we have seen in the ELCA? 
3. Has clergy sharing had this influence or allowed for re-enforcements to be sent into ELCA synods from TEC for similar stacking?
4. What trends have we seen with ELCA congregations re-aligning in other synods? (The number of re-aligning congregations seems to have increased each year since 2002.)
5. Has the divisions between Lutheran bodies like WELS, Missouri Synod and the ELCA had an effect on how the situation in the ELCA has played out in these last ten years?  That is to say at the time of formation of the ELCA, WELS & the Missouri Synod did not opt to join back in 1988… That being the case, is it already a de factosituation that folks who self-describe as conservative Lutherans are already pre-divided into other non-ELCA bodies allowing for smooth transitions into a female-minister dominated body that is traveling in a trajectory to be widely and openly affirming of pro-GLBT (Affirming of homogenital sex acts)?
6. Continental Lutheranism (Germany and Scandinavia) has already gone the direction of the “mainline moderns”…  African Lutheranism – like African Anglicanism – seems to be more rooted in concepts of “Protestant Orthodoxy” with the eschewing of women’s ordination and pro-homosexual theologies.  Yet being that there is no “big tent Lutheran communion” analogous to what we see in Anglicanism with the world-wide communion and Lambeth, it would seem that neither Continental nor African bodies are in a position to exert pressures on the ELCA one way or another in the dramatic fashion that a global confrontation in The Anglican Communion has forced the hand of the TEC (in a fashion) to take a definative stand that (supposedly) will have an influence on TEC membership in the Anglican Communion.  As of 2008, I am sceptical this is going to happen in a fashion as dramatic as some predict – 11th hour comprimises seem to be the standard in the history of confrontations that liberal and affirming clergy and communities always recieve in a slow – if somewhat recently accelerated – war of attrition.  They always win.) Has this lack of a sense of world communion been a factor in the directions the ELCA has taken and will take?
7. In the past few years we have seen well over 25 clergy and notable theologians from American Lutheranism embrace the Catholic Faith.  Has this exodus hindered movements within the ELCA to ?

Worth looking at:

LUTHERAN CHURCH MISSOURI SYNOD BLASTS ELCA OVER GAY STANCE
Statement regarding 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly Action

by Gerald B. Kieschnick

GAFCON did nothing…

…well next to nothing. Status of conservative Anglicans prior to GAFCON:

1. problematic membership in the AC which de facto now ordains gay bishops.
2. odd structures not recognized by Canterbury (bishops of some provinces exercising authority in the territory of other provinces)
3. inability to force the ABC to enforce church discipline
4. a unity of agreement on gay issues between Anglocatholics and evangelical Anglicans
5. status a party within Anglicanism rather than defining Anglicanism

So, what is the status of conservative Anglicans post GAFCON? Exactly the same with some minor differences:

C of E bishop will defect to RomeC of E bishop will defect to Rome

C of E bishop will defect to Rome

C of E bishop will defect to Rome

Thursday, June 26, 2008, 08:13 PM GMT [General]

At least one Church of England bishop will defect to Rome soon after the Lambeth Conference, I gather from Anglo-Catholic sources. And there could be more to follow.

I can’t tell you much more than that at the moment, because the negotiations with Rome are so sensitive – and the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, who distrust Anglican traditionalists, are quite capable of throwing a spanner in the works. (READ ALL…)

5 bob to CVSTOS FIDEI

Who will it be?

Time will tell! (Note, image included in post is randomly chosen – no idea who those blokes are… if it just so happens that one of them is the rumored bishop, Rob owes me a Miller Lite™.)

The Best Hope for GAFCON

I have not always been a fan of Rev. Matt Kennedy. But, lately my estimation of him, a conservative Anglican cleric, has risen significantly. First, he changed his mind on WO and is now opposed. Second, he led his parish out of TEC. Both, are very good moves for this evangelical Anglican who has now written enough on Catholic theology at Stand Firm to make me wonder if he is edging toward becoming a crypto-Catholic.

Anyway, here is his very lucid explanation of what may come of GAFCON:

The brighter vision is that of a “Communion within a Communion.”

If we might leave here with at least the foundations laid for a new confessional and conciliar entity with its own leadership, its own “instruments of communion”, its own process of decision-making and discipline distinct from Canterbury then we will have created, or be well along the path to creating, a cohesive entity capable of gathering, growing, and empowering orthodox Anglicans that is not dependent upon the invitational decisions of one man.

TAC-Related Announcement Post-Lambeth?

Traditional Anglicans await ruling from Holy See  

Traditionalist Anglicans applying for communion with Rome, rumor has it, may be receiving an answer after Lambeth 2008.

(One wonders if the Spouse’s Conference is now officially co-ed too…)

Personally, I prayerfully hope so.

Say a Rosary to help effect the co-ordination of the return home of those who are so clearly ready.

“orthodox” Anglicans

In the past 5 years two bitterly opposed camps on issues like scripture and sexuality have rent the fabric of the Episcopal Church (TEC) into two very unequal parts–the liberals having almost complete say and the power of the courts to crush the self proclaimed “orthodox.” At least this is the point of view of the so called “orthodox” Episcopalians/Anglicans, who bleat on and on about their victim status in TEC and in the Anglican Communion. Theologically, as a Catholic, I am on the side of the “orthodox.” Their moral position on homosexuality is the right one. But, I don’t agree entirely that they are either victims or orthodox.

What has happened to TEC since the 2003 ordination of practicing gay bishop is clearly the fault of the “orthodox” who have stood by with hands on hips for decades while their church has been swirling down the toilet.

+Kasper, The Anglicans, The Future

Anglicans must choose between Protestantism and tradition, says Vatican

I am hoping that with these remarks we are seeing a new +Kasper the Friendly Cardinal…

That is to say, friendly to those parties looking to unite in communion and love to the Holy See.

As it stands right now, he and his ilk have been instrumental in discouraging or disparaging talk of accomadation for groups like the Traditional Anglican Communin (TAC) which are outside of the mainstream Anglican communion and wish to be united to Rome. Also the Russian Greek Catholics (Russian Orthodox who have pledged their allegiance to Rome, sometimes by demanding Rome accept their allegiance!) have been denied a bishop of their own, and priests have been turned away and discouraged from unia left and right. We don’t – or so the thinking goes – want to alienate the churches and ecclesial communities from whence these groups hail.

Combox Genius: William Witt on T19 on Barth and Schleiermacher

William Witt, a lay Anglican theologian, has a PhD from Notre Dame and now currently is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Historical Theology at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA. His comment is found here:

Yesterday my students and I finished an entire semester of studying Contemporary Theology. We began with Schleiermacher and Barth, then covered everyone from Brunner, Bonhoeffer, the Niebuhrs, the Catholic Resourcement movement (DeLubac, Congar, Danielou), Orthodoxy (Bulgakof, Schmemann, Lossky), post-Vatican II theology (Rahner, Lonergan, von Balthasar), theology of hope/revelation history (Moltmann, Pannenberg) post-Liberalism (Lindbeck, Hauerwas), Evangelicals (Packer, Henry),(post-conservative)Evangelicals (N.T. Wright, Vanhoozer), “Scientific” theology (T. F. Torrance, Alister McGrath). We finished with Anglican theology–Ramsey and Sykes. All of these fairly clearly lined up with Barth.

What a Difference a Century Makes: The Catholic Church and Anglicanism

In 1900, one could not have guessed where Anglicanism and Catholicism would be today. Anglicanism was the chaplain to the British Empire and Catholicism was the religion of the failed Spanish Empire. Britannia ruled the waves and held a fifth of the world under its yoke. The sun never set on her majesty, Queen Victoria’s realm. What had remained of the Spanish Empire had finally just collapsed two years prior.

In 1900 the pope was still the prisoner of the Vatican, still reigning in the aftergloom of the Kulturkampf and Italian unification which “stole” the papal states. Catholics were second class citizens in English speaking countries and Anglicanism was the religion of the power elite in the most advanced society the earth had ever known. Anglicanism was busy baptizing the “white man’s burden.” Catholic countries were known to be the poorest and least educated in Europe and the Americas. No one could then have guessed the remarkable turns of affairs that would lead us to this present moment in which Catholicism would appear to all the Christian world as the bulwark of Christian morality and the last hope of a Christian West.

J.I. Packer Quits Anglican Church of Canada

5 bob to Biblical Evidence for Catholicism by Dave Armstrong

Packer, 81, is one of the most renowned evangelical theologians. He is joining a more orthodox traditional Anglican group – See this story.

————————–

I am going to have a Mass offered for the intention of his conversion and those has influenced to the Catholic Church. Folks interested in doing the same can do so at the Catholic Near East Welfare Association where for $5 a priest in desperate need will be supported.

Keep going Rev. Packer!

“Separate But Equal?” or “How WON’T Women In The Church Of England Be Consecrated Bishops Within 10 Years?”

Father Jeffrey Steel over at de cura animarum writes and interesting post: Women Bishops in the Church of England: What will happen?

Among the suggestions he feels need to be thought about is the possibility of alternative oversight for the hold outs in the CofE who think oppose women’s ordination altogether.

Alternative oversight is just a temporary concession in the war of attrition. 

Full steam down the slippery slope folks!  In 1984 “Women will only ever be deacons” in 1993 “Women will only ever be priests”  in 20XX “Women will only ever be auxiliary bishops!“????

Anglican Use ad in Episcopal Life Mag

Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church, Anglican Use, San Antonio, Texas

Creedal Christian noticed this:

There’s an incredible advertisement in the April 2008 edition of Episcopal Life. It’s on the bottom right-hand side of page 8. Here’s what it says:

THE ANGLICAN USE SOCIETY in America in communion with the Holy See of Rome offers to Clergy, Religious and Laity of the Anglican Tradition an information booklet explaining THE PASTORAL PROVISION, the canonical instrument that has made possible their reconciliation with the Holy See as units of common identity which preserve their Anglican heritage of liturgy, hymnody and spirituality.

In other words, an official publication of the Episcopal Church includes an advertisement from an official Roman Catholic organization that invites Episcopal congregations to leave the Episcopal Church and become Roman Catholic. As part of the package, the Episcopal priests of those congregations will be ordained as Roman Catholic priests, even if they are married. Those congregations and clergy will also be allowed to “retain certain liturgical elements proper to the Anglican tradition.”

Episcopal Life is running this ad while our Presiding Bishop is deposing Episcopal bishops for their schismatic actions.

My friends, you just can’t make this stuff up!

H/T: MCJ

What Is TEC Fighting Over?

   5 bob to: Retractiones

The Episcopal Church has gone to court – and met with failure – in trying to prevent 11 Northern Virginia churches from leaving TEC to strike out on there own.

At first glance, looking at these conservative congregations that are looking to disaffiliate altogether with TEC and realign with Anglicans in Africa, it is somewhat beffudling to me why TEC is trying to stop them. At least at first – then I think it through.

They – the libs – are greedy. They don’t want or need those church buildings, and the folks in charge don’t want the conservatism those folks represent to remain within TEC.

They want the buildings and the endowments – the cash and real estate.

If they succeeded in keeping the real estate, what use would they have for them? They know the members would not stay, they would move and rebuild from scratch.

They know they are losing members at break-neck speed. Keeping the membership and the communion intact is no longer the priority – the perhaps billions of dollars in endowment money, great real estate and The Episcopal Church™ name brand is what is being fought for now by what is left.

I run hot and cold on Catholic efforts to start endowments – on one hand given the shear size of our numbers here in the US if even 5% of the Catholic population agreed to donate $10 per paycheck ($20 a month) to an endowment for buildings, schools, pensions, social programs, in 20 years (at 8%) that could grow to an impressive endowment of $38,940,392,581.79. Yea, almost $40B.

But if it isn’t handled well by folks who oversee it rightly this is the risk you run – vultures picking over a fatty, well endowed carcass located on some great real estate.
 

Sharia The Musical!

(To be sung to the tune of “Maria” from West Side Story. With thanks to Raymond Arroyo of EWTN and apologies to Leonard Bernstein …)

Sharia!

Sharia, the Archbishop is all for Sharia!
His really awkward shame will never be the same to me.

Sharia! Don’t publically kiss your girl Maria!
Ask Dhimmi who’ve found how awful a sound it can be!

Sharia, please watch out what music your playing.
If it comes, be quiet when you are a Catholic praying!

Sharia, He’s actually open to Sharia!

Oh +Cantuar… Given that all variations of “Muhammed” combined have become the most popular name for boys in the UK, leave this lobbying to home-grown sharia enthusiasts.

They will call for it soon enough.

Thanks Lambeth 1930!