Posted on 10/27/2009 6:00:36 AM PDT by marshmallow
For many sitting in the pews of Saint Augustine's Anglican church in north London it was a particularly special Sunday. There were three confirmations and one man received his first communion.
But amid the applause and smart outfits there was another sense of occasion, with people coming to terms with one of the biggest developments in Christendom since the Reformation.
Last week's decree from Pope Benedict, announcing the creation of a special section in the Roman Catholic church for ex-Anglican communities, has aroused strong opinions among traditionalist clergy. It has cast doubt on the authority of the archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and the future of the Anglican Communion.
And the impact of the announcement is beginning to dawn on rank and file members of the Church of England.
"I've been a member of this congregation for years and this is exciting news, it's really hopeful for us," said Rachel Graham, a parishioner at St Augustine's in Kilburn. "We appreciate that we are able to have worshipful integrity here. When this church was built there was a hope for unity with Rome. We're not here by mistake."
It was too early to make a decision about the pope's decree – which would allow Anglicans to move to the Catholic church, but keep their own liturgy and married priests – she said. The Vatican has released no further details about the decree, an apostolic constitution, but its very existence has given Graham and other parishioners plenty to think about.
"We hope we can all come together and be looked after by the bishop of Rome."
Graham, a mother of five, is not in a minority at Saint Augustine's. Before the general synod meeting in July 2008 – "when it all went wrong", she said, and the Church of England's..........
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
We all get the wedding invite....
Now, if the Anglicans allowed their clergy to marry, this wouldn't be an issue </sarcasm>.
I know that's something that's been said -- notably by posters on Fr. Z's blog -- but in my experience it's not true across the board.
This is sort of Inside Baseball talk, but you have to understand that there are crypto-High Churchers and 'real' High Churchers.
The Crypto-High Churchers like the incense, the fabulous vestments, and the good music. And yeah, a number of these priests are gay because they're attracted to the theatricality of it all. There are a number of fairly high-profile parishes where this is the case . . . and sadly a number of formerly reliable 'high church' parishes have been taken over by the crypto types. There's one in particular in Manhattan that everybody knows . . . with a homosexual curate.
But the 'real' High churchers are just as 'high' in theology as they are in liturgy. The 'high' church in Atlanta is one of those. And you sort of have to be (or have been) an Episcopalian to tell the difference.
Lifelong Episcopalian here, now in training to become a Catholic. I know the difference between the different shades and gradations of Episcopalian. I think that a lot of gays have just taken shelter in the Episcopal Church because they’re almost guaranteed full acceptance and no challenges to their state.
The late rector of Our Saviour, Virginia-Highlands, must be up to about 3000 rpm in his grave. He was so ultramontane it was funny, and he was a straight arrow all the way down the line. My husband's first encounter with him was on Easter Sunday, 1978 . . . poor guy walks in an Episcopal Church for the first time and gets holy water, incense, the Rosary, and a sermon on Purgatory.
Congratulations and welcome aboard, by the way. When are you due to be received? Are you in OCIA? How bad was your TEC parish (ours was o.k. to begin with but when we got a new loony lib rector it was truly awful).
I’m so glad you and narses and ottbmare and Salvation and NYer are here.
I was kind of hoping that we could initiate a trade: Conservative Anglicans for Liberal Catholics and a heretic to be named later.
That is the most hilarious comment I’ve read all night.
“Very strong anti-religious sentiment in the UK, right now.”
Very strong anti-everything: religion, patriotism, global warming, royalty. Their culture is dead, their identity is reduced to leftist platitudes of their one remaining value, “tolerance.” The British, on whose great Empire the sun once never set, are now pathetically irrelevant. They are basically nobodies on the world scene, and like losers often do, they are crying about it.
no in the middle ages, Britain was Christian.
He might have preferred to live in the Pagan times of Roman rule when the British had no rights, and the Anglo Saxons were poor farmers living near Denmark.
Thank you! I for one am VERY glad to be here. Should have made the trip years ago. One thing I have said before on FR is that when ECUSA started falling apart we were sitting mourning beside a dead body, while all the time the True Church was alive and well and beautiful right behind us, patiently waiting . . . .
D’ah, forgot how long it was. That just makes the comment-writer even more ignorant!
Thank you. I’ll be here ‘till Thursday. Don’t forget to try the veal.
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