Thursday, July 10, 2008

What took them so long?

A lot of people are making this point about the forthcoming Anglican Influx, but Fr. Tim's effort is quite concise.

people will ask what took them so long - should they not have realised that the game was up when the synod decided to ordain women priests?
When this is said, I always remind people of the Gorham judgement in 1850 when the privy council overturned the decision of the Bishop of Exeter and ruled that the Rev G C Gorham could be presented to the vicarage of Brampford Speke, despite his not believing in baptismal regeneration. Surely we did not need to wait until the ordination of women to realise that the Church of England was not really a part of the Catholic Church. Manning and Wilberforce converted as a result of the judgement, after all.

4 comments:

Zach said...

No comment. :)

Anonymous said...

This kind of clear, unambiguous thinking is precisely why Fr. Tim should be on the short list as the next Archbishop of Westminster.

DP said...

Agreed. (BTW, I'm certain that's what Zach would say, but since I'm a fellow beadsqueezer, I have a license).

Anglicanism has had several "Rubicon" moments before this one and the elevation of Elton John to the Episcopal See of
New Hampshire.

Anonymous said...

Cardinal Newman has a list somewhere of the various crises that racked the Anglo-Catholics with crises of conscience. Does anyone now remember the Kikuyu crisis?

And these were followed up with others, such as the South Indian prayer book. Does anyone remember these?

And at each crisis, a few souls left and joined the Catholic Church but the majority decided to muddle through.

Will it be different this time? Perhaps the crunch is that the liberals have decided that they won't allow the conservatives to muddle through?