When the house you're standing in has disappeared

can you really be said to be "leaving" it?

"We saw where the church was going and decided we could no longer stay in the Church of England and it was about the same sort of time the Pope made the offer of the Ordinariate," he said.

"My wife and I decided the Church of England was no longer where we wanted to be and we joined the Ordinariate for a number of reasons.

"Their [the Church of England's] attitude towards homosexuality and in light of the possible ordination of women as bishops, neither of us can accept that. If it hadn't been for the Catholic church, we would possibly have considered the Orthodox church."

A spokesman for the Diocese of Southwark, said: "Father Minchew and some members of his congregation felt it was right for them to continue their Christian life within the Ordinariate.

"Whilst we regret that we are losing them as Anglicans, we wish them well for their future Christian journey."

I think the last line is sufficient evidence to show that there is nothing left to leave.




~

For our bulging Anglicans Are Peculiar file...

I realise that she's very helpfully with us on at least one important issue, but really,


what on earth is she wearing?

I have to say that the absurdity of the whole Anglican Ministrix thing comes painfully home when presented with the day to day usages. For instance, I had trouble not bursting out laughing when I was instructed to refer to one as "Mother" so and so. You see, she was...err...umm... a priest and because one calls a "male priest" "Father" it stands to reason that...

(I solved the problem by addressing the person in question as "Miss" so and so, since she was not married. I thought this was a hilarious solution since, at first sight - processing down the aisle of Chester Cathedral in a cope - I had had no idea that she was not a man. It is perhaps a bit improper, but have you ever heard the joke about the real reason the Anglican Church agreed to start ordaining women? It's slightly impolite, so email me and I'll tell you.)

That sort of thing. That and the clothes. I had the pleasure of meeting Victoria Matthews, lauded far and wide as the most "conservative" Anglican "bishop" in the Canadian Anglican establishment. And she is. It's just that, well... when I met her, she was all got up in a black skirt/jacket suit combo paired with a purple clerical shirt and collar. I had a hard time figuring out where to put my eyes so they didn't become an occasion for at least a giant social faux pas.

It's what happens when a group of people replace The Real with their personal preferences.



~

Bennie's getting the band back together

Been waiting to hear from Broadhurst for some time.

At its meeting on September 28th, the PCC of Folkestone St Peter unanimously requested the Churchwardens to approach The Archbishop of Canterbury, our Diocesan Bishop, in order to consult about the wish of the PCC and many of the congregation to join the English Ordinariate of the Catholic Church when it is erected. We are anxious that this should be made as easy as possible, not only for us, but for the diocesan family of Canterbury that we shall regretfully be leaving behind.

Fr. Finigan comments:

He said that he had intended to continue in his post until he was 70, but that he will now resign in order to smooth the way for the appointment of his successor. He then said that he intended to join the Ordinariate as soon as it is established. This announcement was met with warm applause. The Bishop quipped that the applause was from those who are not going to join the ordinariate and would be pleased to see the back of him.

Now they're going to learn in fine, bulleted point detail about how much fun it is to be a believing Catholic and live in England...

Welcome aboard ladies and gentlemen. Here are your buckets.

Now start bailing.



~

Because it worked so well for the Catholics

Rwandan House of Bishops Urge Conciliar Process to Resolve Anglican Crisis

Hey, Anglicans!

It's over. Time to come back.

Streaming in...

~

Yep. Anglicans are coming into the Church in tens.

Tens of tens!



~

Anglicans... still confused

~

The Muddled Religion still seems to have a problem grasping some fundamentals.

This headline actually made me laugh aloud:

"Will Gender and Sexuality Rend The Anglican Communion?"

Um...guys?

Interesting tense-usage there...

...

Anyway, there was a line in it, as I gave it my customary 5.34 second glance, that caught my sand-flea-like attention:

It’s a question that only begs more: Does sweeping change cause schism or does incremental change cause it as well? Why would the divide last the next 90 years? How would a shift of Anglican-Catholics to Vatican loyalty change the Catholic Church?

Sorry? A "shift of loyalty" is not what is on offer here chaps. Reception into the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, from which you have spent your apostate lives separated is what's on the table.

I think there is going to be a lot of this. One of the weirdest and most tangle-brained things Anglicans believe is that they are not outside communion with the Church. This despite the use of papal language like "absolutely null and utterly void," which on first glance would appear to admit of few nuances.

I must have had less frustrating conversations than the ones I have had with Anglicans on ecclesiology, but I can't recall them off the top of my head. Perhaps they were with people who categorically and absolutely denied the existence of categories or absolutes...not sure.

But this kind of language: "a shift of Anglican-Catholics to Vatican loyalty," is, I think, representative of the long future of migraine-inducing problems to be faced by Cardinal Levada and his successors for jolly sherry-sipping decades to come.

Maybe the next pope will put an Italian in charge of the CDF like in the good old days. Then we'd really be in for a show.


Update:

Holy cow! She's the anti-Me. And she even sort of looks like me.

Yeee!



~

...and thick and fast they came at last, and more and more and more...

Oysters Anglicans welcome offer from Rome

...all hopping through the frothy waves
and scrambling to the shore...

Apart from the Walrus and the Carpenter, Lewis Carroll's verse just seems so sweetly apropos. (And so many of them seem to be about seafood. Odd.)

How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws!

"Oh Anglicans, come and walk with us!"

Pope Benedict did beseech.

A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each."

The eldest Anglican looked at him,
But never a word he said:
The eldest Anglican winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head--
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the liberal bed.

... and don't forget to bring your stuff.

Like your choirs.

And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more--
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.

Well, yes...but...

John Allen comments on the Anglican thing, that those who like the endless tea parties of the ecumenical movement don't have to worry about that Anglican schism actually, you know, healing or anything.

When the dust settles, the centuries-long breach between Rome and Canterbury will remain intact.

Well, yes, but the point is that there isn't going to be anyone left on the other side.

In some reports, the move was touted as a bold gambit to end the schism that began with the English Reformation in the 16th century -- a dubious bit of spin, given that the actual number of Anglicans likely to sign up for one of these ordinariates will almost certainly be quite small.

...well, yes. But really the reason for this is that the number of Anglicans is also pretty small.

Church of England:

Average Sunday attendance in 1992 was 1,122,600, or 2.3 per cent of the population; down from 2.4 per cent or 1,137,000.

As someone at the Anglican press conference on Tues pointed out, the whole thing is going to be more or less moot in 20 years. The Anglican Communion will be no more.

The only question is going to be, who gets the big pointy buildings in the end? The Government? or the Islams?

Just please, please, don't give them to the English Catholic Bishops, mmkay?

Invitation

I wonder, has anyone thought to ask her?

We could really use someone in this Church who still knows ladies ought to wear hats to Mass.

I'm not the only one suggesting it

So, Anglicans, how about just a straight-up trade: You can have all the people in the Catholic Church who believe in "equality" in sex and marriage and priesthood and who hold the idea of a "woman's right to choose" as her paramount right,

...and we'll take all your Christians.

But what about the liturgy?

More from the Anglican press conference:

It was also interesting to note that the greater part of the Vatican correspondents from the secular press (NYT, ABC, etc) really didn't seem to know what to ask. They were more or less at sea without an accepted "angle" that could bring in one or more of their religious hobby-horses. "Yes, but what has this got to do with homosexuals, married priests and womynpriests?" ....yaaaaaawwwwwnnn... Oh, sorry, were y'all asking something?

I think mine was the second to last question asked, and I was thanked by AB Di Noia for bringing up the liturgy.

I pointed out that the Anglos have a multiplicity of uses, what with the BCP, the Book of Alternative Services, high church stuff, low church stuff, broad church...and we have the Novus Ordo and the Extraordinary Form even just in the Latin rite, what was going to be the accepted form of liturgy for these envisioned Anglican-rite Catholic Masses?

He told us that while this Apostolic Constitution was only the beginning and things like the liturgy was still to be hammered out, the use that had already been established was going to be the groundwork.

He held up a copy of the Book of Divine Worship and said that this was probably going to form the ground work for the new practices.

I take it from my friends who pay attention to these things that this is good news.

Good News from Rome

...plus, I'm on Vatican TV. Cool.

As a friend of ours said, this is probably the largest and most significant act of Christian reunification since the Big Split. It also means that in four years, Benedict has accomplished more for Christian unity than his predecessor did in nearly 30. (To be fair, as Archbishop Di Noia said, this is really because of how profoundly things have been changing just recently.) My friend also commented that it is going to drive the ecumaniacs into apoplexy.

Well, yes. And it has to be admitted, that watching our enemies' heads spinning around and exploding is one of the consolations.

That faint popping sound you hear...

There's quite a bit more to be said about this.

Of course, probably the most predictable lines are already being drawn. The left wasted no time in getting the memes and themes rolling, calling it "divisive"

Cindy Wooden was hot off the mark, being the first called upon for a question at yesterday's press conference: "Are you worried at all that this is going to be the end of the ecumenical movement?" (Well, Cindy, since you have put it so interestingly, let's examine that question. What, precisely, is the "end" of the ecumenical movement? Is it to continue to produce endless unreadable reports on the warmth of our mutual handshakes?)

The Globe and Mail, taking up the accepted theme:An embrace that divides

But it's mostly just sour grapes. They're just miffed that their hippie-era crusade has failed so manifestly. Pay it no mind.

I'll be busy today. You may talk amongst yourselves.

Let's hear it for the liturgical uses of communicable diseases!

Thanks Lord for letting the Episcopalians lead the way:

Bishop David A. Zubik wrote to Pittsburgh diocesan priests Oct. 2. "Liturgical practices are one of many encounters throughout the day that are capable of transmitting viruses."

I was in Toronto during the "SARS scare". It was exceedingly dumb. The AD of Toronto had issued a ban on receiving on the tongue so I stopped receiving at all, naturally.

I then went to the local Ukrainian Catholic parish where the only sign posted that was not written in Cyrillic was one that read, "The Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy is not under the jurisdiction of the Latin ordinary of Toronto. The practices of receiving Communion in the Eastern Rites is perfectly hygenic and safe and we have no intention of changing it." Good enough for me.

"Someone suggested we eliminate the (sign of) peace, but a lot of people look forward to it, especially the young people," said the Rev. Bruce Nordeen, pastor at St. John's.

Actually, hated it when I was young too, but maybe I'm just weird.

"...Those uncomfortable receiving from the cup during the flu season should not feel obligated to do so," he wrote.

What about all the other times?

Vocation call

I gotta admit, it looks really really good.

They need vocations. I'd be the last one to suggest it outright, and as they are new to the Real, I imagine they've got a sharp learning curve ahead of them. Anglicanism is a deeply confused and confusing creed and a round of instruction, by a Novusordoist no doubt, and formal reception are going to be just the start of the journey, but they've started and that is an unqualified Good Thing.

I am not being the least facetious when I say that the bringing in of the Anglo-Catholics may be something that will contribute perhaps more than anything else to the liturgical salvage operation being undertaken by Bennie and some other friends. At least in the English language sectors.

Worth checking out, at the very least.

Welcome aboard ladies,

And in the words of the great Anne Muggeridge,

here's your bucket, now start bailing.


BTW: Sure hope ECUSA lets you keep your lovely convent, but judging from their recent record of litigious spite against anyone who crosses them, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Moving right along

The Episcopals are moving forward on Gene Robinson's suggestion that they transform themselves into the Church of Holy Gayness.

It's not Kumbayah

You'd think that if an Anglican can figure this out, the Vaticanistas would be right on top of it...

Canon Julian Dobbs, the canon missioner for the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) told the June 22-25 meeting that “so-called moderate Islam” was a myth.

The American variety of “moderate Islam” was “no more moderate than the militant Islam of Saudi Arabia or Indonesia,” Canon Dobbs said. Quoting the founder of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), he explained that "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant.

“Don't be misled or misguided, the peace Islam offers is not the peace of sitting around the camp fire singing [songs]. Islam's peace is the implementation of Sharia Law and the global submission to Islamic ideology,” he argued.

...but if you did, then you'd probably be thinking of some other Catholic Church.

"If only they'd let priests marry...

Doh!

In an unprecedented report, the Anglican Church has examined the circumstances surrounding allegations of child sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy and church workers. It found that church youth groups are the most likely place for a victim to become known to an attacker who was often a friend of the family.

You mean, they're not flocking to your churches.

I wonder if there might be other factors involved in that.

One wonders what Episcopal boundaries and barriers have yet to be crossed that the dying embers of historic Christianity could possibly fan into life. That the Diocese of Massachusetts has a functioning transgendered priest complete with a sex change operation (he appeared at Lambeth 2008) mocks not only marriage, but any notion of what normalcy in sexual matters might mean in The Episcopal Church. ... They mock The Episcopal Church as a Christian denomination.