Reason #1001 for Anglicanorum Coetibus
October 8, 2012 31 Comments
It may shock traditionalists but vicars have taken to the catwalk to model the latest fashions in clergy robes.
Shock? I don’t think there’s anything shocking or implausible left within Anglicanism.
The modelling ministers are showing off the latest designs at an annual Christian event nicknamed The Ideal Church Show this week.
But some of the outfits, from an electric blue dress for female clergy to a full Easter tableau on the front of a flowing white smock, may shock traditionalists used to a simple dog collar.
Senior Anglican figures are hoping to show that the church is modernising and can attract younger audiences to it.
Seven clergy from churches in the North West will be taking to the ‘righteous runway’ to exhibit the designs at the Christian Resources Exhibition in Manchester this week.
Called Clergy on the Catwalk it features designers Juliet Hemingray, Hayes and Finch, Cross Designs and J&M Sewing.
The Bishop of Middleton, Rt Rev Mark Davies, said: “It will be interesting to see the variety of clergy robes produced by contemporary designers.
“The church has modernised so much in the past 20 years and what clergy wear reflects that change.
“Gone are the 50 shades of grey and in has come a spectrum of colour and design which can be seen in everything from a Church of England royal wedding to the humblest Christening in one of our smaller churches.”
Among those taking part are five male and two female vicars…
‘Clergy on the Catwalk’?! You know, one just cannot make this stuff up.
There is more on the madness here.
Watch as the tide of heresy sweeps on…
About Fr Stephen Smuts
Anything the Anglicans can do, others can do better.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Pf9bAAuHF98/UHL49as_eeI/AAAAAAAAApw/bboWGKshXyc/s1600/liturgicaldancearoundthealtar.jpg
WHAT!? What is this?
Are… Are those Filipinos??? Noooooo! What is wrong with people?!
oh, that’s right, liberalism. Pro left-wing politically active priests and nuns who participated in the ouster of Right-wing American-backed dictator Ferdinand Marcos (Who actually got things done in the Philippines, Imelda’s shoe collection notwithstanding) Now have nothing to do but be cheerleaders of PRO ABORTION PRO HOMOSEXUAL President Benigno Aquino III.
It would be better if the Spaniards took back the islands, but alas, good King Carlos gave his kingdom to DIRTY COMMUNISTS. And now? Now what?
Dance like idiots around the altar. >:(
Oh, and I also lament how idolatry seems to be tolerated in the Philippines. Some think it’s harmless devotion, but I am starting to be suspicious of such practice and superstitious behavior.
I’m not quite sure where you are coming from here, Ioannes.
I am a South African of Afrikaner and French ancestry who was embraced and welcomed into the Episcopal church of the Philippines when I was a teacher and Chaplain at Brent international school between 2007 and 2012. Both the the Anglican church in Southern Africa (Traditional Rite) and the church in which I was ‘cradled’ as an Anglican, the former Church of the Province of South Africa as it was then known, for whatever reason
( and to this day I still do not know why) told me that I could not be ordained a priest as they did not believe that I had a vocation to ministry.
It was in this part of the Anglican communion, the youngest and dare I say poorest part of the Anglican Communion , namely The Episcopal Church in the Philippines, in which I was taken in and nurtured and in which my vocation to priesthood was confirmed.
I am very happily married to Chita Lora, a wonderful wife who comes from the province of Leyte, who is Visaya, and dare I say proudly Filipino.
Our son, Desmond, now two years old, is a Filipino, although he can also claim South African nationality on his father’s side (i.e me) of his ancestry.
He is Filipino and carries a Filipino passport because he was born there.
My Filipino family, who are very dear to me and who have embraced me as one of their own are humble fishermen and rice farmers who lived under the reign of Marcos and his cronies and who suffered greatly, as did many Filipinos, at that time under his rule.
I am absolutely aghast and asounded that you can dare say that in Marcos’s time ‘Things got done!” Building highways and monuments, increasing the strength and power of the military and being a ruthless dictator does not put bread into the mouths of the poor, neither does it give them any dignity!
It is well know that Marcos and his henchmen were responsible for the murder of the current president’s father on the tarmac of the airport as he was alighting from the plane on his return to exile!
It was not King Carlos who handed over the Islands to ‘the dirty communists’ as you say in your comment; the Americans colonised the islands during the Spanish American wars. The Americans used the Philippinees as a military base for a long while after WW11; the legacy the forces left there was one of bars and hookers on every main street of the towns in which they were stationed! You obviously don’t knoew your history or you would not be making these outrageous statements.
It was General Franco who abolished the monarchy in Spain during his rule and the monarchy was only reinstated after Franco’s death.The last time I checked , Spain is a constitutional monarchy and a member of the European Union, hardly Communist!
Likewise the Philippines has an elected government of the people’s choice in terms of a democratic constitution. Yes there is corruption, but you can blame that on the Spanish and on people like Marcos who milked the country for all that it was worth, all because he would not let go of political power because he was too greedy.
For you to say that Benigno Auqino III is a “Communist” is absolutely ludicrous.
The recent passing of the family health bill in the Philippine legislature is not ‘pro abortion’ nor ‘pro homosexual’. Any person who knows anything about the Philippines will know the misery of teenage pregnancies in a country that is bulging at the seams in terms of its rapdly growing population . HIV /AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are at very high to say the least. The Philippine government in passing this bill is promoting responsible parenting for the health of the nation.
Even though the country is predominenty and perhaps nominally Roman catholic, the catholic church has not been an institution which has been able to find a way in which to prevent families form bearing to many children.Whilst it has promoted celibacy as a means to prevent unwanted pregnancies, celibacy has not been embraced as a way of life by all of its adherents. Rich catholics can and indeed do use contraception; the poorer ones who do not bring more unwanted children intomthe world with all the accompany misery that goes with it.
The people of the Philippines are some of the most generous , caring, proud and wonderful people on God’s earth. All over the World, Filipinos can be found working in caring professions such as nursing, care giving, the hospitality industry in hotels and tourism.Many doctors in the USA and in my own country are from the Philippines. Here in Canada where I live, most of the Roman catholic priests, because of dwindling vocations to the preisthood in rural areas such as Saskatchewan are form the Philippines.It can be said that the Philippines proudest export is its people.
I find your remarks Sir about Filipinos and the the Philippines as a counrty to be unkind, cruel, biggotted, absolutely without any substance and totally uncalled for on a Church website such as this.
On the Filipino banknotes they quote the words of Benigno Aquino, late father of the current president which read “The Filipino is worth dying for”. Whilst i am not Filipino, my family and offspring are.
I for one would be willing to die in the service of my family and fellow Filipinos!
I am an adopted son of the Philippines and I find your remarks utterly distateful.
Your sort of disgusting remarks reek of prejudice of the worst kind, and you call yourself a Christian?
Your sort of Christianity and churchmanship is the kind I can definitely do without.
As for your remarks about idolatry and superstition, you can blame that on the Spanish Inquisition (a Catholic church institution)and the Spanish missionaries (whom you laud so highly in your comments) who instituted many of these customs and who also brought great suffering to colonies they ruled over.
You obviously have never been to the Philippines, neither are you as clued up as you think you are about that country.
Were i not a priest my language and criticism of your comments would not have been so polite!!!
I am a great believer in freedom of speech, but if this is the level of Christian thought and attitude to which this website has sunk , Fr Smuts , then perhaps I shall stop reading it and contributing to it.
[The Reverend Michael Anthony Rossouw, formerly of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines and now a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada.]
Ouch! Rock on Rev’d Michael! People like “Ioannes” simply don’t understand the personal “conscience”, religious or otherwise! Indeed moral honesty simply must be pressed into any Christian theological “conscience”. Here is “spirit and truth” also!
First of all, I don’t care if you’re the Archbishop of the Episcopal Province of Timbuktu, much like “Fr.” Robert the apostate who apparently is your cheerleader.
Second, you are a foreigner to Filipino society. I don’t care how well you speak one of the languages, or how long you lived in the Philippines or even if you married a Filipino citizen; you are as foreign as the Koreans and the Chinese along with other exploiters and economic Imperialists who make their little colonies in sovereign Filipino territory and intermarry with our people. It has been the history of that nation that no unity could be had because of constant foreign meddling in either culture or economy, and the propagation moral weakness. That is extended to the personal level, for you are a representative of this foreign encroachment. The lot of you ought to be expelled and prohibited from entering! You’re just fortunate that corruption in the Philippines is as abundant as rice, so all you need is to pay a sufficient amount of bribe money and you can do whatever you want.
I’m sick of my people behaving like dogs to people like you and you acting so condescendingly like you’re enlightened and doing us a favor. Roman Catholicism is the pillar of Filipino Identity that comes closest to uniting us, and people like you seek to “redefine” it like so many expatriates and repatriates who would otherwise be abject failures were it not for the xenophilic propensity of Filipinos to worship anyone with the slightest bit of celebrity or a light skin. Filipinos have no sense of unity and as a result they are petty and think that marrying a foreigner or living abroad is a life achievement. As a result, the have children that can’t speak the language, don’t know what community they belong to, and thus have made it the point in their life to establish their identity rather than objectively contribute to strength and wealth of the Philippines.
The Bishops of Kenya know exactly how frustrating it is especially with people like Melinda Gates telling them to use contraception, and people like you are like a multitude of Melinda Gates that want to be do-gooders for the backwards Filipino people.
Third; National Churches, like the Aglipayan and whatever little “communion” you belong to are poison to the Roman Catholic presence in the Philippines; it’s bad enough that we have liberal, leftist homosexual priests instituting their own god-forsaken liturgies and hide behind “Vatican 2″ we don’t need more confusion and division through the introduction of “Missionaries” who are nothing more than proselytizing wolves that have no business being in Catholic territory. Rather, we need unity under the ONE TRUE RELIGION, as expressed by the Catholic Church in communion with the Pope. You are with us, or against us; if you are against us, we will bury you.
Fourth
Benigno Aquino is a collaborator with the Chinese, is a leftist, anti-Catholic criminal who would do well to get assassinated along with his whore of a sister, and to have his family’s ill-gotten wealth confiscated. His father was a power-hungry hypocrite who wanted to follow the footsteps of Benigno Sr., who collaborated with the Japanese and fled like the coward that he is to Japan during the collapse of the 2nd Philippine Republic. Except Benigno Jr. ended up being a “martyr” and his unqualified widow became president. Noynoy never had anything passed as a senator, and he is a vengeful and petty man who removed people who were blocking his way to absolute power. And Filipinos -love- him. Or not, if you’re current with Filipino news.
Marcos, on the other hand, actually had plans to improve the country and deal with the flooding problem by consulting with Dutch engineers… well, before the MOB that people lionize as “People’s Power Revolution” happened and destroyed such plans. The people that surround the current president are sycophants and wily political survivors who HAVE THEMSELVES AMASSED FORTUNES. (Where did it come from? Magic?)
So Marcos is entirely preferable.
Finally, you are obviously pro-RH bill, and that says a lot. IT IS a pro-abortion law. IT IS a pro-contraception law. IT IS a pro-homosexual law. It is anti-Catholic, and it must be stamped out. But I think that the Superstar at the Malacanang will have his way ANYWAY.
I would rather stage a coup and kill the whole of that decayed congress and general administration than to pretend that this perverse “democracy” is in any way honest.
It is better to have a brutal dictatorship than a dishonest democracy, for brutality is sincere and fitting to the stubborn Filipino temperament. That is, after all, the only thing that united Filipinos.
I must agree with Irishanglican here; you do not hold your own people in high regard, neither do you have any respect for any opinions other than your own.
Firstly: On your accusation that i am ‘apostate’ and that the jurisdiction in which I reside is that of Timbuktu, I just wish to inform you that I have no aspirations whatsoever to wear a mitre. I am an ordinary parish priest trying to be faithful to God in my calling to serve Him and to be a faithful pastor to those in my parish and to those outside of it.
Secondly:On your accusation that I am “an exploiter and economic Imperialist who has made little colonies in sovereign Filipino territory and intermarry with our people” I should like to point out that I am a teacher and a minister of the Gospel. To accuse me personally of exploiting the country and it’s people and making myself into some sort of “imperialist” is quite absurd. You don’t even know me and yet you choose to cast Judgment upon me in this manner.
Remember the words of Our Lord Jesus “Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged:” (Matt7:1-2a)
Thirdly: In your accusation that I as a foreigner am “meddling in the culture and economy” of your country and “propagating moral weakness”, may I point out that this situation in the Philippines in my opinion is the result of colonization as well as corruption within the ruling Filipino class (some 2% of the total population) who control the bulk of the nation’s wealth.
Check out who owns San Miguel Breweries, The SM Malls, the multitude of property developers and Banks in the Philippines! Hardly the product of foreigners like me meddling in the economy!
Don’t forget that it was Spain, a catholic country, who gained these Islands in the name of the Spanish King when Magellan, a Portuguese explorer employed by the Spanish crown, arrived on their shores. The descendants of this ruling class still rule the country today, so don’t blame the situation on foreign meddling!
Again your remarks are prejudiced and you appear to have a very jaundiced view of your own people!
Fourthly: On your accusation that I am a representative of foreign encroachment on your country , and that I bribed my way into the country, may I say that I have never encroached on anyone anywhere. To suggest that I have done so reeks of prejudice and bigotry, for which you seem to be well known on this website!
Just for the record I came to the Philippines on a legitimately issued working visa as a teaching priest through legitimate means. I have never bribed anyone for anything, neither have I accepted any bribes from anyone. Drive all foreigners out by all means. ‘Not sure what it will do to the economy and how many workers in foreign companies in the Philippines would be affected when they are not be able to support their families because they are unemployed.
Just remember what happened when Kenyan-born Asians were driven out of Kenya. It took the Kenyan economy years to recover. How many jeepney drivers, tricycle drivers and street vendors can you have in a city like Manila for example? (There is no shame in honest work, but many squeeze out a meager existence in these types of jobs. Hardly the product of foreign exploitation!)
Fifthly:On your remarks that Roman Catholicism is ‘the pillar’ uniting Philippine society, I think that you need to be reminded of the fact that catholicism was brought to these Islands by your Spanish colonial masters.Remember also that it was this same catholic church that excommunicated Gregorio Aglipay when he and his fellow priests attempted to petition the Holy Father to appoint Filipino priests into local leadership of the church in the Philippines.It was this ‘unitifying force’ which entrenched colonial domination by the Spanish and their descendants still rule to this day.It would do well for you to remember that whilst catholicism is the dominant religious force within the country,
there are also other expressions of Christianity that are growing steadily. Surely we need to at least respect these? You sir seem to look upon these churches with disdain.
You also seem to forget that the Philippines has a substantial Muslim population who are also making their presence felt in politics as well as in religious expression in the life of the nation.Have you been to Mindanao lately?.
I also take exception to your remark that expatriates and repatriates are “abject failures in their own country.” Your remarks reek of prejudice of the worst kind. I think you would have fitted in well in Apartheid South Africa and perhaps even in the new South Africa;There is xenophobia in South Africa towards those Africans from north of our borders who migrate to RSA in droves with disastrous consequences.Perhaps we should just use the brutality you prpose to kick them out? Fine Christians we be then!
For the record, I was never an “abject failure” in my own country; neither have I been a failure anywhere else where I have worked, in Thailand , Burma , Singapore and the Philippines.
Again your remarks are extremely rude and are racist!
Sixth: I take exception to your remark that for Filipino women who marry a foreigner or live abroad that this is ‘a life achievement’.For the record I do believe my wife married me because she loves me and does not see me as a meal ticket or a way out of her situation where she was a single working Mom.
As for you remark saying that Filipinos are petty and have no sense of unity, you can bame that on your colonial past as well. (Spanish, American and Japanese!)Filipino uprisings against their colonial masters are well documented. To say that Filipinos have no sense of unity is simply not true.
Granted there is also the fact that those who ruled the Philippines from the Spanish colonists to the Americans, did little to foster Filipino unity.You seem to forget also that there are many ‘tribes’ or peoples in the Philippines, just as there are in my native South Africa.
Surely the Gospel of jesus brings unity to people. We in South Africa have had to take a long winding road towards reconcilliation. Unity comes at a price as does Liberty.
Surely as Christians we should strive towards the kind of society that God wants us to be., respecting one another and serving one another in the Love of Christ.
Seventh: on your remarks regarding children born of foreign fathers who “can’t speak the language, don’t know what community they belong to, and thus have made it the point in their life to establish their identity rather than objectively contribute to strength and wealth of the Philippines” , may I respond by saying that my step-daughter (yes her father is a Filipino, but we have no idea of his whereabouts and she neither knows him nor has she ever seen him since the day she was born!) speaks fluent Tagalog and English at the appropriate level for a child of her age.She also speaks some Bicol and a smattering of Visaya; This is pretty good ffor a four year old. My son, who is two, is also learning to speak his native language as well as English. He is Filipino and I shall do my utmost to ensure that he is brought up according to his Filipino culture and to respect what is his heritage and birthright. He was born in the Philippines and holds a Filipino passport and not one from South Africa, a land he may never see or know. No-one, least of all you and your disparaging remarks can take that away from him! Like any father, I want the best for my children.
Is it not my right as a parent to give my children the best education possible? If you are suggesting that my children will never contribute to the strength and wealth of the Philippine nation because I have sent them to schools in South Africa and Canada, you are sadly mistaken.
Yes, at the moment they are happy in their School in the Philippines right now and they are being educated right now in the national education system of the Philippines.(Theyb are attending local public schools, not private ones.
He and his Mom and sister are still in Bicol as it takes a while for Filipinos to get visas to travel anywhere, (God knows why) but you can be assured that wherever we may find ourselves my son will be brought up as “Proudly Filipino.”
The nature of my work is such that I move from jobs and appointments every three years or so.
My children will return and I will assure, to the best of my ability, that they come back and live in the country of their birth and contribute something worthwhile to their fellow citizens,
to the country and it’s people. Who knows, he may even one day be a catholic priest. (My wife still retains her catholic faith as do my children, and I as a so called “protestant” ensure that I attend Sunday Mass with them.Yes it saddens me that I cannot receive the Blessed sacrament with my family, but I encourage them to keep their faith. I have never forced them , neither will I force them or anyone else to be come Anglicans. If youn had your way you’d hang the lot of us it would seem.
For you to even suggest that my children will never have an identity of their own and therefore never contribute to the strength and wealth of the country of their birth is absolutely untrue and reeks of prejudice of the worst kind.
Eighth: on the subject of the frustration of Kenyan bishops,and on your remarks about Filipinos being a “backward people” may I say Filipinos are definitely not a backward people! Don’t forget that most of Africa during the 19th century was colonized by European powers.
Yes Africans were exploited, as was the wealth of their countries.It hasn’t changed much for now China is spreading its wings to be come the new industrial giant and the economic powerhouse of the world. Remember too that it was the same colonists duringbthe 19th century who brought with them to Africa their respective brands of Christianity and these very same churches were used by their governments to promote “Christianity and Commerce”, not quite what Jesus meant when He said “Go into the World and make disciples of all nations.”
I am no ‘do-gooder’ as you rudely state; I am a humble teacher and priest called by our Lord to serve Him and to fulfill as best I can His calling on my life.
Nine: Your remarks that “you are for us or against us …and we’ll bury” you reek if intollerance , and prejudice.Not exactly the kind of stuff that will encourage people of other expressions of Christianity to run into the open arms of the Roman church, even less into the Ordinariate,which is the product of the Holy Father’s generous offer to Anglicans who are some what disenchanted with the current situation in Anglicanism.
Nevertheless, I believe that God is calling us to be faithful to Him where we are, whether ‘catholic’ or ‘protestant’ (how I hate that word!) or Orthodox Christians.
Only when we are all faithful to Him, and when we come to a point where we can can agree on the essentials of the catholic (universal) faith and when we will truly acknowledge as Christians God’s sovereignty in our lives will we ever see “One church, one Faith and One Lord.” as the hymnwriter says.
We will not get into Heaven by being judged how much lace we wear on our cottas , how much insence we wave at the Mass, or whether our priests are robed in fine vestments and our bishops bedecked with the finest copes and mitres! Our Lord calls us to ‘be’ the church, his Bride , to see the suffering of Christ in the face of the one who is hurting and to truly “Love one another” as He loves us.
Remarks such as yours expressed in this blogg are not helpful in bringing about that true unity which Our Lord requires of us..
All of us who profess and call ourselves Christians are working towards being part of the ‘one holy, catholic and apostolic church.’ Roman Catholic church dignitaries and state officials alike have praised work done by those whom you so sarcastically call ‘missionaries’ in the Philippines. To spurn the work of others working in projects which are a response to the Gospel and which help people to help themselves and give them back heir dignity as you have done is quite distastefultosay the least. I would never dream of chasing out Korean or for that matter Filipino catholic priests working in dis advantaged parishes in my country , so why are you so siparaging in your remarks to people like me.
I’m sure you’ll agree that the Philippine state cannot achieve what NGO’s do on its own, yet you spurn the work done by these people as that of ‘proselytizing wolves’.
Can the Catholic Church in the Philippines claim a monopoly on missionary endeavors and works of mercy in this regard? I think not.
Ten: as for your remarks on the president, may I remind you that he (Noy Noy)is still the legitimately elected president under the present constitution!
Philippine politics seems to be dominated by political dynasties; The Aquinos the Arroyos, the Magsaysays and the Gordons to name a few.
The late Marcos’ wife and his son are in the corridors of power too and have been democratically elected under the present constitution as well. You’d do well to remember that it is because of the Democratic constitution that those who long for the years of Marcos to return, that members of the Marcos family are in ‘high places’ in the House of Reps and the Senate because of that democracy.
You say that Marcos is preferable to the current administration: remember the Words of Holy Scripture; “ Put not your trust in Princes….” (Ps 147:3)
Marcos himself amassed millions during his dictatorship. Everyone knows that. I cannot believe that a person of your stature would even suggest that “Marcos is better.”
Remember “Power Corrupts; Absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton and others…)
Enough said!
On your comments on the RH Bill may I say that ,in a country where there are reportedly almost a half a million terminations of unwanted pregnancies annually, I would think there is a need for this Bill to be passed. The use of responsible family planning is a must.
The cold reality is that ‘the rich’ in the Philippines can preach contraception, as they are the ones who have access to it and can afford to pay for it should they need it.
I’m sorry but the catholic church in the Philippines is in denial on this issue.
In the end it is the children who suffer.I am totally ‘pro life’ and anti abortion.
The Bill as I understand it is geared to promote responsible family planning, and not “abortion on demand ‘ as you imply.
Contrary to popular perception, not all children born out of wedlock in the Philippines are fathered by foreigners who are sex tourists! Most of these children living with their mothers who are single parents were fathered by FILIPINO men, who take advantage of young women and girls, do the damage and leave these young mothers destitute. My own step-daughter has never seen their real father, who simply took advantage of a vulnerable and innocent young girl and has never been seen since. If this is how the catholic church is promoting celibacy in the lives its people, whether single or married, well I’m not sure that they are doing a good job, for it’s not working.
AS to your remarks on the RH Bill promoting homosexuality, I need to remind you that that churches both in the Anglican and Roman Catholic domains have paid out Millions in compensation to victims of sexual and other forms of abuse in recent years. These crimes were committed by priests. Abuses such as these have yet to be exposed in the Philippines and when they are exposed (and believe me they will be) the church will once again hang its head in shame as they have done in Germany, Ireland , Australia, the USA and many other countries including my own where prominent catholic priestsand bishops who were regarded as “pillars” of the church have been involved in such cases.
Finally as to your comments on the perverse democracy in the Philippines and in your view that you “would rather stage a coup and kill the whole of that decayed congress and general administration than to pretend that this perverse “democracy” is in any way honest”, may I remind you of the Commandments of the Lord , which amongst others include amongst others “Thou shalt not kill.”
You sound like the characters in Orwell’s “Animal farm;” where the ruling class on Manor farm say ‘No animal shall kill any other animal….without cause!” and that,
“all animals are equal…. but some are more equal than others!”
You say that “It is better to have a brutal dictatorship than a dishonest democracy, for brutality is sincere and fitting to the stubborn Filipino temperament. That is, after all, the only thing that united Filipinos. ”
I’m Sorry but this suggests to me that you look upon your own people with disdain.
Brutality is sincere? Think again Sir. Would you have allowed Adolf Hitler to continue to force his brutal dictatorship upon the people of Germany and indeed the world?
There were initially catholic bishops in Germany who supported Hitler’s rise to power. Even the Holy Father at that time maintained silence on the treatment of Jews in the concentration camps when news gotout about the brutality exhibited by the Gestap and Nazi toops.
If brutality is a uniting force, well then there is no hope, in the earthly sense, for Filipinos or indeed the world.
“God is our Hope and Strenghth…” says the Psalmist.We have to as Christians claim that and believe that and not resort to the brutality of Dictatorship as you suggest.
‘Sorry but for one who professes to a Christian, and is a member of Christ’s “ one, true, holy , catholic and apostolic church”, you don’t particularly sound like one to me!
What hope is there for bringing all of God’s people into that one faith when views such as yours are propagated in such a hostile manner.
I remind you of the words of St Paul in his letter to the Ephesians: Chapter 4 vs 6:
“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”
I make no apologies for using the King James version of this text, which the catholic church for centuries depised as not being a true rflection of Holy Scripture”, but then again it doesn’t matter, for you already think I’m apostate anyway.
I do not have the time nor the energy to engage in this kind of debate via the internet with you as your writings are ‘a diatribe’ as Irsihanglican says. I am simply coming to the defnce of my Roman catholic Filipino children who deserve a better ‘catholic’ Republic of the Philippines state in which to live than the one which you propose under a brutal dictator.
Only when we all obedient to the Lordship of Christ will we see His Glory!
Oh, and your “Christianity” is weak and flaccid. Impotent. No wonder so many people leave or become Muslims or militant atheists.
I am always quite amazed at your religious diatribe, and now even toward your own people?! You just don’t know when to keep your mouth shut…very sad! I wonder sometimes if you read and know the Holy Scripture? Myself, I find it very hard to see a true Christian soul that does not hunger after God’s Word! And I have found myself a true humility here, not in myself, but when one approaches the Holy God and the Holy Scripture itself!
“For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” (Exodus 34:13)
Is it not the case (a) the Episcopal Church in the Phillipines has embraced the pretended ordination of women and the other absurdities and enormities of the Episcopal Church in the USA, and (b) that the Philippine Independent Church (i.e., the Aglipayan sect) has embraced them likewise? (I am not sure that either body, given the relatively greater degree of “social conservatism” in the Phillipines than in the USA, has yet embraced the pretended blessing of sodomitic pseudogamy, but no doubt they will come with time.) I can certainly respect your stance, Mr. Rossouw, while disagreeing, if you minister in some Continuing Anglican body in the Philippines, but if you are in the “offical” Episcopal Church I view your situation with the same bemusement as I do that of all purportedly “orthodox” Christians ministering in an apostate denominational body — and I have always thought that WO constitutes the fundamental defection, to which the acceptance of SS (= sanctified sodomy) bears the same relation as does the frosting on a cake.
When will Catholic lay people quite trying to “judicate” itself/church and other churches, one can go to Holy Scripture and give light, but “judgment” and the end product are the Lords. Certainly we can see the great apostasy of the visible Church today, both doctrinally and morally, and see the almost cult of postmodernity in every area of life. But as I have said, what and where is the life of the Local Church? And have we forgotten that WE are the Church, the Living Body of Christ! Let it began with me: “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.” (Ps. 119: 11) And as our Lord said, we are to be “salt” and “light”.. and something of the “life” of Christ to the world! Let’s BE the Lord’s People on earth… whatever our historical and ecclesiastical persuasion!
@ Dr. William Tighe:
Sir, I know for certain that the influence and power of homosexuals through the media, which saturates Filipino culture, and even regularly infiltrates the ranks of the Roman Catholic Clergy makes it sufficiently clear that “homosexual marriage” which you rightly call “Sodomitic Pseudogamy” is not impossible. Even in the context of “Civil Union”, blessed by a damnable secular state, is intolerable! They even teach children in Filipino elementary schools that homosexuals are “normal” DESPITE REALITY SAYING THE CONTRARY.
Not very different from Chinese Communist policies, such as the “One Child Policy” which will result in a demographic crisis in China. Even in a non-communist country, such as Japan, the irreligious (read: materialistic) nature and embrace of liberalized sexuality of the culture is the reason for high suicide rates and low birth rates, dooming that country in the same way Europe dooms itself and lets itself be replaced by Muslims, making Islam a fast-growing religion in that area, at 1.84 percent anually. Nevermind the atheists who delude themselves into thinking that we are somehow at the cusp of a golden age that can be triggered by the elimination of religion, at least in the public sphere.
I suppose many will have seen these but for those who haven’t :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
There is nothing worse to me (in dress), than seeing a woman with a shirt & religious collar! And again, I see Matt. 23: 5, etc. here, to degree. And myself as a Low Church Evangelical, I am for the least or more tasteful amount of liturgical dress; for me that means the minimal.
Yuck !!! This is what happens when clergy become confused about the difference between wearing “robes” and “vestments”.
“But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings’ courts.” (Luke 7:25)
- King James Bible “Authorized Version”, Pure Cambridge Edition
This says it plainly.
Love the King James for reading and liturgy myself, (but I like the ESV too). Btw, what ever happended to the balance of a John the Baptist with that too of Jesus Himself, noting Matt. 23! Sort of OT with NT, i.e. Law/ Gospel, and of course that is a Reformational/Reformed, hermeneutic.
Looks just about like the local Roman parish in my neck of the woods! But, where are the puppets and balloons?
Feillini foresaw this. Thankfully, I have yet to learn of this actually happening in the Roman Catholic Church.
If it did, it’s SSPX time. Or Eastern Catholic time. Or maybe… even Antiochian Orthodox time.
The less they resemble Catholics, the happier we should be.
And why, Father, it is not also a reason for Continuing Anglicanism, such as we both find ourself in?
Because if I had said ‘Reason #1001′ for the Affirmation of St Louis (which is the founding document of Continuing Anglicanism – back in 1977), that would not have been true.
Thankfully Jesus Christ is also always so much more than the visible church, whether Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, etc. HE alone is LORD! May we worship HIM! And Christianity will not be fulfilled and whole until National Israel is itself Redeemed!
I was hoping we could have these made in our workshop…………..strictly for a fundraiser of course!!!
Check it out :
The Embryo Parson • a month ago • parent
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
I have tried ( twice ) on this site to direct readers to examples of similar aberrations being found in the Roman Catholic Church in North America.Nothing has shown up yet . Perhaps it is my lack of computer skills ?
It says something about our secularised age when a chasuble is referred to as a “flowing white smock” !!
Thank the Lord that the Roman Catholic Church does not participate in all those horrible Anglican liturgical monstrosities: Here is an example of a modern Catholic ceremony, its taste speaks for itself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxfO7a7_bWs&feature=youtu.be
I guess you have not heard of the Anglican Ordinariate’s! And maybe God is an Englishman!
I’m kidd’in on the latter!
Reminder: That is not a Mass.
Also, certain people in Los Angeles are certainly envious of how they did not go crazier than that sort of thing.
Here’s a “Cultural” Mass at the Los Angeles Cathedral.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5O9uVG-RWM
It’s rather tame, isn’t it?
So that makes it all right? One should mention neither was the fashion show a Mass; but here is one that is a Mass:
I said it’s “tame”, I didn’t say it was “appropriate”. Were it up to me, I would have that damned “Cathedral” Demolished, and remodel it MYSELF.
Alas, so many people with deep pockets and and left-wing sympathies are affiliated with the making of the Cathedral. And I suspect that’s the case with many parishes in the Roman Catholic Church, like the one in Brazil. Hence, why even the conservative Archbishop Gomez can do nothing but go with the flow to keep Los Angeles from disintegrating.
If there is any change, it will have to come from the people. Even a conservative, traditionalist Pope will be overwhelmed if we are blind and cannot call out the blatant errors our leaders make.
Now, that stupid “Puppet Mass”, I think, has become the “standard” for liturgical abuse; it certainly has gone viral. What are we going to do about it? Politely talk to them about it? Write a strongly-worded letter? Or support the Traditional Mass, and let these things die and burn in a fire like they ought to?