AM - Anglican clergy defect for Catholic Church

DAVID HARDAKER: After a year of turmoil and division, the Anglican Church is now losing its clergy to the Catholic Church.

Father William Edebohls, once the Anglican Dean of Ballarat, is now the Assistant Priest at a Catholic church in suburban Melbourne.

Father Edebohls' move reflects discontent among a group of conservative priests. For those priests the crisis began with the Anglican Church's decision to ordain women as priests, and it's grown with the move to do the same with homosexuals.

They say it's caused a 'reclustering' amongst Anglicans, and that some of those clusters may move to make their own reunification with the Catholic Church.

BEN KNIGHT: Father Bill Edebohls declined to talk to AM about his decision this morning, saying it was a personal matter. But he did confirm that he had become a Catholic priest, and that as a husband and father, he'd been exempted from the rule of celibacy.

While his conversion, or defection, is unusual, he's by no means the only Anglican minister in Australia who feels that the Catholic Church might be more in line with his core beliefs.

BEN KNIGHT: Father David Chislett is the Rector of All Saints Anglican Church in Brisbane and is a close friend of Father Bill Edebohls.

DAVID CHISLETT: People's consciences must not be down, they mustn't be made to believe things that they can't believe, and one of the things that's happened to us over the last 15 years is, as we see it, we're trying to be faithful priests in a church which is drifting away from us.

DAVID CHISLETT: We have responsibility for people to whom we minister, we believe that we can't abandon people, we want to have the largest community possible with us, and in my particular parish we want to protect the people that we have and basically not let the liberals take over.

BEN KNIGHT: The liberals, are of course, the small "l" liberal Anglicans who support changes to the church, like the ordination of women and gays.

Those differences have been brought to a head this year by the appointment of gay bishop Gene Robinson in the United States.

In Australia, much of the debating has been done between the liberal Anglicans, mainly in Melbourne, and evangelical Anglicans in Sydney, led by Bishop Peter Jensen.

But David Chislett represents a third cluster in the church, the Anglo-Catholics.

It's a traditional group that's been in favour of reuniting with the Vatican, something which, despite strong progress in the 1970s, is now looking extremely unlikely.

This year, David Chislett made his own trip to Rome to begin what he calls very informal talks, but he says there are others who feel the same.

DAVID CHISLETT: I do think that there'll be others who will go to Rome, yeah, as individuals. Some of us still cling to the vision of a cluster of Anglicans with aspects of Anglican heritage and ethos as a kind of church in full communion with the Holy See.

BEN KNIGHY: Charles Sherlock is an Anglican liberal, and who leads the church's discussions with the Vatican on theology.

He doesn't believe the Anglican Church is leaving people like Bill Edebohls and David Chislett behind, and rejects the labelling of its members.

CHARLES SHERLOCK: Conservative and liberal really aren't the sort of terms that work. I mean, overwhelmingly Australian Christians are conservative theologically because the alternative, stuff like believing in Santa Claus and shopping, is so appalling. And so the differences between us, and there are them, tend to be more on applied issues and sometimes I think they're made to look far bigger than they actually are.

DAVID HARDAKER: Anglican theologian, Charles Sherlock ending Ben Knight's report.

Information for seekers (previously posted):

====================================================

There has been a long and often close relationship between
the Anglican and Catholic Churches. In many important areas
there remains a mutual recognition of the validity of key
doctrines, liturgies, and practices. And the Catholic
Church continues to hold and propagate the faith and moral
teachings as handed down by the Apostles.

In 1980 the Holy See, in response to requests from priests
and laity of the Episcopal Church who were seeking full
communion with the Catholic Church, created a Pastoral
Provision to provide them with special pastoral attention.

Three key areas were addresed in this document:
1 - Establishment of parishes for former Episcopalians
2 - Development of liturgies familiar to Anglicans
3 - Ordination of Episcopalian ministers as priests

The establishment of personal parishes in dioceses of the
United States was in response to the many requests of
former faithful of the Episcopal Church. Several have been
set up under this provision:

Our Lady of the Atonement Parish, San Antonio, TX
Our Lady of Walsingham Parish, Houston, TX
St. Mary the Virgin Parish, Arlington, TX
St. Thomas More Parish Fort Worth, TX
St. Margaret of Scotland Parish, Austin, TX
St. Anselm of Canterbury Catholic Mission, Corpus Christi, TX
St. Athanasius Congregation, Boston, MA
Church of the Good Shepherd Parish, Columbia, SC
Atlanta Area AU Catholic Laity, Dunwoody, GA
California AU Catholic Laity, St. Francis of Assisi Church, La Quinta, CA

They also retain certain liturgical elements proper to the
Anglican tradition. This Anglican Use liturgy uses the
Book of Common Prayer (with minor updates) for the Mass.
So there is no need to lose the liturgy Anglicans are
familiar with. This Mass is valid for all Catholics as well.

Under the Provision the ordination of married Episcopal
priests was made possible as well. Since 1983, close to 100
former Episcopal ministers have been ordained for priestly
ministry in Catholic dioceses of the United States.
(Yes, there are married priests in the Latin-rite church).

Resources for those interested in the Catholic faith:

Catholic Answers
www.catholic.com
A superb site for clearing away the myths propagated by too many.
Offers free on-line library that examines all the major issues,
free on-line archive of over 1,500 hours of radio/audio material,
plus magazines, books, pamphlets, tracts, videos, and more.

Coming Home Network
www.chnetwork.org
Provides fellowship, encouragement and support for Protestant
pastors and laymen who are somewhere along the journey or
have already been received into the Catholic Church.

Biblical Evidence for Catholicism
www.biblicalcatholic.com
Dave Armstrong's monster site. Eclectic, fun, exhaustingly
detailed, personal, moving, and more.

Resources for those interested in the Anglican Use rite:

Yahoo Discussion Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AnglicanUse/

And our own Sockmonkey and B-Chan are Anglican Use converts.
They have generously made themselves available for answering
questions via FreepMail.

May the Word be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.