Showing posts with label Anglicanorum Coetibus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anglicanorum Coetibus. Show all posts

Monday, August 20, 2012

Anglicanorum Coetibus Hailed as a Failure


Edit: While it may be true that only a few thousand Anglicans have joined the Catholic Church worldwide, it remains also true that the Anglican Communion from which an admittedly small number are leaving, is quickly dying anyway due to very possible indifference. But the Catholic Church got some very enthusiastic converts, particularly, Our Lady of Walsingham in UK.   Unfortunately, the transition to the Church has been handled by individuals who were somewhat less than inspiring.  As Daily Episcopalian reports:

From a sociological perspective, the Episcopal Church (TEC) has suffered both a striking numerical loss in membership (almost 30%) and an even larger decline as a percentage of the nation’s population (almost 60%). In 1960, TEC had 2.9 million members, equaling 1.6% of the U.S. population. Forty-eight years later, TEC had fewer than 2.06 million members, or only 0.65% of the U.S. population.

From an organizational perspective, TEC struggles with declining revenues. For example, the national Church budget for the 2010-2012 triennium is $23 million smaller than for 2007-2009. The current recession, especially for entities such as TEC that are heavily dependent upon endowment income, has accentuated financial difficulties. Underlying the recession, the real cause is declining membership.

Here's the Article:


ANDREW MCGOWAN AUGUST 20, 2012


TankWhen the idea of an Anglican Ordinariate was announced in September 2009 in the apostolic constitutionAnglicanorum Coetibus, theTimes of London ran the headline 'Vatican Parks Tanks on Rowan's Lawn'.

It seemed an apt image at the time, for all sorts of reasons: one was the spectacularly undiplomatic character of the act, which was opposed by some in the Vatican and by very senior English Roman Catholics; another was the personal affront to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, whose progressive leanings have never hidden a genuine admiration for the wider western catholic tradition of which his own Anglicanism is a part.
But the other implication of the image was one of a serious and lasting shift in power, a re-drawing of boundaries or movement of populations. Three years later it is more as though the Pope had, uninvited, sent over a Fiat cinquecento or two to pick up some stranded friends and their bags. As they leave the Lambeth Palace gates there is probably relief on both sides.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Will Incoming Anglicans be Permitted in the Catholic Church who Believe in Injustice


Edit: the Catholic Church apparently allows people like at NCR to make a lot of money based on their affiliation with the name Catholic when they don't themselves believe its doctrines, so why not?

[NCR] The Vatican has created a new "Ordinariate" for disaffected Episcopalians who come over to the Catholic church. Most of the disaffected Episcopalians are unhappy with the ordination of women as priests and bishops, the welcoming of openly gay/lesbian clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions. Many of them believe that such practices violate the basic teachings of Christianity.

As I read such stories, I understand all the ecclesial reasons for this move, and I'm happy that former Episcopal priests can remain married as they make the move. I just wish we'd extend the same right to our own Catholic priests.

And I have nothing against Episcopalians (or anyone) choosing to join the Catholic church. I think we need an open door.

Link to NCR... 

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

TAC Leader Takes Abuse Claims Against Church to Police

Edit: Bishop Hepworth was told recently that he wouldn't be accepted into the Catholic Church as either a Bishop or a priest, but as a layman. Now the Old Liberal establishment has decided that his allegations are groundless.

A BREAKAWAY Anglican church leader, who claims he was raped by a Catholic priest, has filed a police complaint after an internal church investigation cleared his alleged abuser.

It was part of the agreement that men who'd been previously ordained in the Catholic Church as John Hepworth was wouldn't be ordained, but it doesn't seem like he was aware of that fact from the start.

A breakaway Anglican church leader, who claims he was raped by a Catholic priest, has filed a police complaint after an internal church investigation cleared his alleged abuser.

Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) Archbishop John Hepworth said earlier this year he had been raped by three priests, beginning in 1960 when he was 15.

Senator Nick Xenophon named Adelaide priest Monsignor Ian Dempsey as one of the rapists under federal parliamentary privilege, saying the Catholic church had taken too long to investigate.


Link to original...

Friday, September 30, 2011

Traditional Anglicans Lose Bid to Control Parish Property

Edit: what with all of these churches closing down in the Catholic Church, like this parish in in Bennington, Vermont, you'd think these Anglicans would consider joining with the Catholic Church and taking over a parish devastated by liberalism as this parish, Our Lady of Lourdes in Vermont was closed recently.

Anyhow, the Liberal Anglicans who are for this particular things are going to die out anyway.  This, incidentally, happens to be the Diocese that "consercrated" a homosexual to the episcopate.  The parish broke away from the Diocese when it decided to align itself with Sodom but wasn't able to keep its parish goods in the transition. 

Why bother, the Liberal Anglicans are just going to die out anyway?  Why not admit that you're beaten and give up the ghost gracefully.  Our advice to Traditional Anglican is, meet in gymnasiums or wherever you need to and wait.  Chances are you'll be picking up some of these on the cheap as mainstream protestantism continues its inevitable wane as it proceeds to align itself with the prevailing and all-too-perishable world.
[boston.com] HARTFORD, Conn.—A 135-year-old parish that broke away from the Episcopal Church after it consecrated its first openly gay bishop cannot keep its building and land, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Friday.
Justices rejected an appeal of a lower court ruling by the Bishop Seabury Church in Groton, which like dozens of parishes nationwide split from the national Episcopal Church after the 2003 appointment of Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Bishop Seabury Church's governing board voted in 2007 to join the more conservative Convocation of Anglicans in North America.
Similar land disputes involving breakaway Episcopal parishes have been playing out across the country, with most courts ruling in favor of the national church and its dioceses. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a similar case involving a California church in 2009.

Link to original...

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

PHILADELPHIA, PA: Judge Tosses out Anglo-Catholic Priest and Two Vestry in Parish Shake-Up

Edit: you may control the real-estate, but will you have very many people in the pews with all the abortion, birth-control and homosexuality going on in the ECUSA?

[Virtue Online] After more than a decade of ecclesiastical infighting and lawsuits, a Montgomery County Court Judge delivered the final blow to the Anglo-Catholic rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, on Monday by saying Fr. David L. Moyer must leave the parish. He also ordered two men to step down from the Vestry.

It is the end of a long and bitter battle waged between the Diocese of Pennsylvania, its Bishop Charles E. Bennison, the Standing Committee and Fr. David L. Moyer (AKA Bishop Moyer of the Traditional Anglican Communion). The latter fought the bishop charging him with heresy and his failure to uphold a flying bishop arrangement for Anglo-Catholics made under his predecessor Bishop Alan Bartlett.

Moyer has instigated and been dogged by multiple lawsuits for nearly a decade.

Link to Virtue Online...

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Episcopal Bishop of San Joaquin Signs off on Same-Sex "Unions"

Editor: Does this mean that more Episcopalians are going to flee this sinking scow and climb aboard the Barque of St. Peter?

[CVBT] “Sacred unions,” such as those between couples of the same sex, will now be able to get the blessing of the Episcopal Church in the Central Valley.
Clergy in the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin have been authorized by The Rt. Rev. Chester Talton, bishop of the diocese, to perform blessings of same sex civil marriages, domestic partnerships, and relationships that are lifelong committed relationships as of Sunday, June 12.
The unions need to be “characterized by ‘fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication, and the holy love which enables those in such relationships to see in each other the image of God,'" he says in a letter to clergy.


Link to original..here.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Still More Hundreds of Anglicans Will be Catholic by Easter

Hallelujah -- More Hundreds of Anglicans Will be Catholic this Easter

Around 20 priests and 600 laity are entering into the newly structured Peronal Ordinariat "Our Lady of Walsingham".

LLondon (kath.net/KAP)In Great Britain, beginning this Ash Wednesday, there are in total 33 large groups of Anglicans which will make the step to cross over to the Catholic Church in Easter.  It is consists of around 20 Priests 600 Laity, which  will enter the newly structured Catholic Personal Ordinariat "Our Lady of Walsingham", according to the Italian Catholic News Agency 'SIR' this Tuesday.  After additional weeks of preparation the converts could receive the Sacrament of Confirmation by Easter Sunday or Holy Thursday in the Catholic Church.  The first priestly ordination for the new Ordinariat should fall on Pentecost.

The Vatican decree of 2009 "Anglicanorum coetibus" made a church structure, created to enable  Anglicans who wanted to come over. They allow the converts the maintenance of a series of Anglican Traditions.  In the middle of January 2011 the first Personal Ordinariat was erected and the earlier Anglican Bishop Keith Newton was named as its leader.  Further Ordinariats could be erected next in the USA, in Canada and Australia, according to Rome.

The Vatican has repeatedly explained that the new structures will not disturb the ecumenical dialog between Catholics and Anglicans.  It does not constitute active wooing away of members of other churches; in any case one wants persons, who for their part, are seeking a new spiritual home.

Link to kath.net...

Monday, January 31, 2011

Japanese Anglican Priest Plans on Entering the Catholic Church

On the heels of yesterday's story about Dean Sellers of Fargo, UCANews.com is carrying the story of another Anglican Communion priest who will be entering the Catholic Church:
By ucanews.com special correspondent, Tokyo

Father Satoru Kato, 56, until recently an Anglican priest working in England, is set to enter full communion with the Catholic Church and be ordained a Catholic priest.

According to Father Hiroshi Oka of the Saitama diocese, who has been helping coordinate the convert’s entry into that diocese, once he is ordained Kato will work at a welfare institute and parishes as an assistant priest in Gunma Prefecture. Since Christmas, he has been doing interim work in Gunma.

Read further at The Epiphany of Our Lord, here.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Ex-Anglican bishops ordained as Catholics

John Broadhurst and Andrew Burnham Ex-bishops Broadhurst and Burnham were unhappy about the direction of the Anglican Church


Related stories

Three former Anglican bishops, unhappy with the ordination of women, have been ordained as Roman Catholic priests at Westminster Cathedral.
Their ordination signals the inauguration of a special section of the Catholic Church for such Anglicans.
Keith Newton, Andrew Burnham and John Broadhurst will take up roles in the section known as the Ordinariate.
Father Newton has been chosen as leader of what is to be known as the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Three Anglican Bishops Come to the Catholic Church

Former Bishop Burnham of Ebbsfleet


It was announced back in October when we cited Kath.net, and now it's final. As Anglo-Catholic reports, history is being made. Deo Gratias, what a wonderful gift from providence and the Holy Father since he promulgated Anglicanorum Coetibus last year. Hearty welcome to them all and we're glad they're here. They're reinforcements for those of us who love Tradition and Orthodoxy.  Cardinal Hume must be rolling in his grave, and Cardinal Kasper has already been duly chastened for his part in attempting to sideline this day. More later. Here's the report from Anglo-Catholic.

History Being Made

Photo stolen from, here.

H/t: Liturgia Latina.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The Anglican Use Society of St. Bede the Venerable

Founding Members of the Venerable Bede Society
The Ancient and mighty Tertullian once asked, "what hath Athens to do with Jerusalem?" We'd like to ask a similar question, "what hath anglo-Catholicism to do with Collegeville?"

Collegeville is an ugly place that unabashedly shoots for a contrived and cozy get-along-with the world complacency. Anglo-Catholicism is about the beauty, or at least it should be.

"Abbot" John Klassen, an inveterate Old Liberal, has given his permission for the Anglo-Catholics to say Mass at Collegeville. You can see from the photos provided at the Anglo-Catholic, that the setting isn't the most appealing. Well, you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool them all the time.

But now St. John's has another faux Catholic cyberspot in addition to its other one, "Prey, Tell", that's called, "The Society of the Venerable Bede".

Nevertheless, "charity thinketh no evil," and so we ought to rejoice that something good is coming out of Collegeville; yet, we must ask why the powers that be at St. John's would want to promote ad-orientem, Anglo-Catholic liturgy when such liturgy is opposed to everything they support. Could it be that they hate everything Roman so much that traditional Anglican forms of liturgy are ok? Or is the Anglican Use just the next liturgical experiment in an attempt try something "new"?


The Anglican Use Society of St. Bede the Venerableolic,

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Calgary Anglican parish accepts Pope’s offer to join Rome

Perhaps this is jumping the gun, but it should be evident why the incoming Anglicans are regarded with such suspicion by many Bishops and their camp followers, they're afraid of being put out of work.

Calgary Anglican parish accepts Pope’s offer to join Rome

Monday, November 22, 2010

Cardinal Burke Censures False Ecumenism at Consistory

At the Consistory in Rome behind closed doors, the subject of the implementation of Anglicanorum Coetibus was discussed by the assembled Bishops and new Cardinals.  It deals in part with the return of Anglicans to Communion with the Holy See.  We'd reported earlier that Cardinal Burke would criticize Cardinal Kasper within the context of the meeting.  Well, our sources now tell us that it certainly did not happen, for although Cardinal Kasper was not mentioned specifically, Cardinal Burke still condemned  those who refer to the "ecumenism of return" with contempt; so they were criticized all the same and in their number would certainly be included Cardinal Kasper, whose career was built upon false ecumenism and in preventing moments like the return of the Anglicans from taking place.

 Unfortunately, as with the implementation of Sumorum Pontificum, the Motu Proprio freeing up the Immemorial Latin Mass to be said without the interference of liberal Bishops, there are old Liberal Bishops who are blocking the way.  Most notable among them is Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto, who wants to appoint an existing Roman Bishop to head the Ordinariate, rather than have him be elected from a bi-cameral lay-clerical arrangement.  There is also Bishop Peter Elliot of Australia, who wishes to implement changes which basically amount to an oversimplification of the Anglican Liturgy which is, in the words of Maximilian Hanlon, going to make it like a Novus Ordo Liturgy with some Anglican prayers tacked on.  We're a little puzzled by this characterization because Bishop Elliot actually seems pretty conservative as illustrated by his article in New Liturgical Movement, as he writes here:

Next year a new ICEL translation of the Mass of the Roman Rite will come into effect. More gracious poetic English will mean that the beauty of the language used in the Ordinariates will not clash with the banal and inaccurate old ICEL “translation” we currently endure.

Ultimately, what these liberal Bishops, like those who Damian Thompson calls the "Magic Circle" in England,  intend upon doing is to delay and create impediments to the entrance of Anglicans into full communion with Rome. For like Cardinal Kasper, they would prefer to "dialogue" with Archbishop Rowan and his female clergy, and their assortment of liturgical chipmunks.[Video forthcoming]

It would be a good time to pray, do penance, fast and keep vigil for the good intentions of the Bishops, laity and priests of the incoming members of the Anglican Communion.

Photo from: St. Louis Catholic, here.

The Pope here talks about how pressing is the need to resuscitate Ecumenism. 

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Cardinal Burke to Reprimand Cardinal Kasper With Blessing of Holy Father

[EF Exclusive] According to Catholic Culture, there will be an emergency consistory held by the Pope next week which will deal, in addition to issues related to the clerical sex abuse hysteria, with the reception of Anglicans into the Catholic Church.

We are told by Maximilian Hanlon that it is within the context of this meeting that Cardinal Burke will  publicly reprimand Cardinal Kasper, owing possibly to the notoriously liberal Cardinal's hostility to the "ecumenism of return".  Indeed, since Cardinal Kasper has been opposed to an ecumenism of return, so it should be easy to see why Cardinal Burke would object to this.  What is more surprising is that he is doing this with the blessing of the Holy Father.

Cardinal Kasper had gotten into trouble, you may remember, for saying some controversial things prior to the Pope's trip to England and suddenly became ill and could not participate.

This will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Photo:  St. Louis Today

Related Articles:

Cardinal Kasper complains about SSPX talks

Cardinal Kasper says Europe Must Return to Christian Roots.

A Destroyer of the Faith Leaves the Curia.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

England: 3 More Anglican bishops Want to Be Catholic

Now after Bishop John Broadhurst three more Bishops of the Anglican Church want to cross over to the Roman Catholic Church.

London [kath.net/idea/red] Now there are already four Bishops of the Anglican Church crossing over to the Roman Catholic Church. They are against women in the office of Bishop. The general Synod had opened the way for the ordination of female Bishops in July. The official Bishop John Broadhurst (Fulham, Suffragen of London Diocese), Andrew Burnham (Ebbsfleet) and Keith Newton (Richborough) as well as the retired Bishop Edward Barnes desire, according to information at the "Times", to make use of the possibility, afforded to Anglicans, to form special Ordinariats within the Catholic Church. The Vatican published an "Apostolic Constitution" in the previous year.

Broadhurst attacked the General Synod in the middle of October with bitter words: They are "fascist in their behavior" on the day in which they pushed the opponents of women's ordination over the edge, Kath.net reports. The 68 year old presided over the conservative group "Forward in Faith". According to the Times, 58 year old Newton will be Superior of the new special Diocese.

According to press reports numerous Anglicans are considering to follow them. The St. Peters Community in Folkestone (Southern England) had already decided on crossing over at the end of September.


Read further...

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Good News, Three Episcopalian Parishes Come to Rome

There are three parishes that are coming whole and entire to the Catholic Church in the USA. You can read about it here at the Anglo-Catholic.

Creation of New "Traditional" Society Within the Anglican Communion

With the news that there's a new Ordinariate (See article below) in the making, there's no small amount of skepticism in the air, and that is certainly felt in the coming formation of SSWSH (Society of Saint Wilfrid and Saint Hilda. The following coverage of the new establishment, which is meant as a kind of reserveration within the Anglican Communion which will appease the consciences of those Anglicans who:

1) Want to Object to the ordination of women.

2) Favor solemnity in their worship

3) Object to the Dogma of Papal Primacy

4) Don't want to lose their living (stipends) doing any of the above, even if they are inclined to Papal Primacy and Catholicism.

The page at "Thinking Anglicans" takes umbrage at their moral objections on grounds that are obscure, but they insist that one of the Society's namesakes, St. Hilda, was put in charge of men herself, although she couldn't have said Mass. Sorry.

It is important to remember at this point that Damian Thompson is presiding over the funeral of Archbishop Rowan's authority. Whatever you think of it, SSWSH, or Swish!!!, as it's called by some of it's detractors, the conference they've recently held had over 600 priest participants. This is nothing to sneeze at, whatever their motivations, they are at least concerned enough about the future of the Church of England to do something, anything, to maintain their integrity with the slightest amount of personal pain to themselves and their wives and children.

Too bad they abandoned clerical celibacy! It might have made this transition so much easier. In the meantime, the English people are completely disinterested in their established church as membership has declined to 33% according to one survey. Can it be that those who control the land, the churches and schools of the Church of England can be so out of touch to suppose that further accommodating themselves to the spirit of the age, that they will overturn this trend? At least SSWSH seems to understand that much.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Anglican Bishop Writes about the Ordinariate

Bishop Andrew Writes:



In this, the third of a series of Pastoral Letters, I promised to address the issue of the English Ordinariate. In August I looked at what had happened at the General Synod in York and in September I looked at the business of electing a new General Synod. Those who join the new Ordinariate, offered by the Pope in Anglicanorum Cœtibus in the autumn of 2009, will do so for one of two reasons. One reason would be that, looking hard at the General Synod, past and future, there seems little prospect of adequate provision for Anglo-catholics in the Church of England. We don't need a glasshouse with a special climate, or an Indian Reserve where we can do strange dances round a totem pole, follow strange customs, and wear strange clothes. Still less do we need some kind of nursing home where we can live out our days in peace and quiet. In our view, the Anglican orders of bishop, priest, and deacon, and Anglican sacraments, are either the ancient orders and sacraments of the Church, as they have been handed down to us from the time of the apostles, or they are not. You can't muck about with orders and sacraments! If Anglo-catholic orders and sacraments are not the same as those of other Anglicans, we are not proper Anglicans, and if Anglican orders and sacraments generally are not the same as those of other Catholic Christians, East and West, then our orders and sacraments are not Catholic. Our main problem is not with our own orders and sacraments at this present moment in Anglo-catholic parishes, but what has been happening with other Anglicans. This has already begun to affect our orders and sacraments and what they will be in the future.There are stories of people no longer being baptised 'in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit'. There are stories of people - even a dog! - being admitted to Holy Communion without being baptised. There are stories of people no longer using wheat flour and grape for the Eucharist or making up the order of service as they go along. There are stories about lay people presiding at the Eucharist. There are marriages of two people of the same sex. These are mostly stories from overseas but, leaving aside what is happening in the Anglican Communion, we are now challenged in England by the prospect of women bishops, an unscriptural development. In short, the first reason for joining the Ordinariate might be that Anglo-catholics are no longer confident that they belong to the Catholic Church whose Faith and Order has been handed down from the apostles. If we finally came to that conclusion, that would be a good reason to seek to join one of the ancient branches of the Church, East or West. If we made the decision to explore the ancient branches of the Church, that, in turn, might be a reason to choose to join the Ordinariate, part of the ancient Church of the West. The second reason for joining the new Ordinariate is, I think, a better one. It is not about leaving anything behind but about joining something new. It is not about leaving a body which has gone astray and belonging to a more reliable body. The second reason works something like this. Anglo-catholics have always thought of themselves as separated from Rome - from the Pope - by circumstances of history. Henry VIII's divorce from his first wife was made possible by divorcing the whole English Church from the Holy See. The King was to be in charge of the Church and not the Pope. It is for this reason that we have been brought up on a diet of 'No popery!', the propaganda of the Tudor state and of Stuarts imperilled by the gunpowder plot. It is for this reason that the heir to the British crown cannot be a Catholic. Anglo-catholics have generally regretted this and seen it as necessary to do all they could to bring about a reconciliation with Rome. No one has been more enthusiastic about the work of ARCIC, the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, this last forty years, than Anglo-catholics. And yet as the work of ARCIC goes into its third phase, Anglicans and Roman Catholics have grown further apart. It is for this reason that the Holy See has responded to the plight of Anglo-catholics with the offer of an Ordinariate. In short, the second reason to join the new Ordinariate is because it is the way - and for the foreseeable future the only way - that groups of Anglicans can become reconciled with Rome, and embrace the ministry of Peter. It is the only way of pursuing together our ecumenical agenda, the urgency of which becomes more obvious, the more Christianity is under attack by secularism. Joining the Ordinariate is not a matter to be considered lightly. Clergy who do so put their stipends and pensions, their homes and their security at risk. In some cases the response of laity will be so enthusiastic that whole congregations might be able to move together, with their parish priest. In most cases, the Ordinariate groups will be church-planting new congregations, congregations of perhaps only thirty or so people to start with, but thirty enthusiasts nonetheless. Such congregations of activists will probably grow rapidly, but there, of course, lies another risk. There are many clergy and laity who would love to possess the courage for this pioneering venture but they simply do not. Not everyone is at heart a risk-all pioneer. Not everyone can be: we all have real responsibilities to families to balance against the radical demand of the Gospel. And where do Ebbsfleet congregations, their clergy and people, stand in relation to all this? I want people to make decisions about the future carefully and prayerfully. I set out a prospectus for some of this a few years ago. There are, I think, three different responses to the present emergency. None is right for everyone. One is what I called the 'non-jurors', those who soldier on, know that they are a dying breed, but are content to be witnesses of what they have always believed and practised. Some mainly elderly clergy and congregations are of that view. The second group are the 'solo swimmers', individuals who go off on their own and join the local Catholic congregation. The third group is the 'caravan'. By this I don't mean a holiday home. The 'caravan' in biblical times was something like the trek of the Children of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land, via Mount Sinaï. The caravan is large and ramshackle, camels and people trudging along, children running around and playing . There are new-borns in the caravan and people dying. People join and people leave. The beginning of the caravan is somewhere ahead of us, over the horizon. The back of the horizon is way behind us, further than eye can see. This, I think, is, for many, the Ebbsfleet journey. This was the theme, the Exodus theme - Marching towards the Promised Land: a Land of Milk and Honey - at our joyful Festivals of Faith. May God bless you as you faithfully seek to serve him in his holy Church.
+Andrew.

Link to source at Ancient Richborough...

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Anglicans Swim the Tiber but it's full of Sharks!

The Anglican exodus begins…

… in Australia, where, as my colleagues Bonnie Malkin and Martin Beckford report, Forward in Faith Australia has voted to join the Ordinariate.

We’re not talking about a large group, not everyone is going, and it’s led by a retired bishop. But the psychological impact of official Anglicans bearing the Forward in Faith logo voting to convert to Rome under the new corporate scheme will be significant. I wonder if it explains the malicious leak of an email from Bishop Andrew Burnham to the Australian Bishop Peter Elliot: did someone want to distract us from this development?

Incidentally, I like the quote from the FiF bishop, the Rt Rev David Robarts: “I love my Anglican heritage, but I’m not going to lose it by taking this step.”


Also, here, at Telegraph also from Damian Thompson, someone leaked an e-mail between Ebbsfleet Anglican Bishop, Burnham and Bishop Peter Elliot of Melbourne, Australia. Apparently, there are blue meanies in the liberal hierarchy who want to throw up some roadblocks and generate some enmity.

You might remember that Bishop Ebbsfleet made the extraordinary announcement a few years ago that he'd leave the Anglican Communion if Women Bishops were ordained, and renewed that promise in 2008, here, (it's a terrible photo of him btw).

Monday, February 8, 2010

Anglicans Going to Rome not Catholics. Really?

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, says those Anglicans who respond to Pope Benedict's invitation to join the Catholic Church under the provisions of the new Apostolic Constitution, would not be "proper Catholics". You can listen to the interview in full on this week's Sunday Sequence (Sunday, from 8.30am).

In the same interview, Dr Sentamu also called for the banning of the British National Party and says he is "surprised that Parliament doesn't want to do it." He also says he has "every hope" that [Robert] Mugabe will be gone very soon."

Here's part of the exchange I had with Dr Sentamu on this week's Sunday Sequence:

Read it...