What the Anglo-Catholics Have to Offer to Anglicanism

Via Ordinariate Expats:

Those who have read the recent post on Fr. Philip’s North lead story in the May 2013 issue of New Directions may well have wondered what the specific gifts are which in Philip North’s view the Anglo-Catholics have to offer to the Church of England.

Cleverly Fr. North had already given the answer to this question in the previous month’s lead story. Here is a summary of the article and some quotations:

“What is the point in having us now? What does our tradition have to offer the wider Church?”

1. “We witness to (the) true identity (of the Church of England) as part of the Universal Catholic Church.” Fr. North wonders whether this argument has perhaps already been lost, saying that many view the C of E as “free, independent, Protestant”. Should this be the case, he believes that “then we have no excuse for staying in the Church of England”.

Linked with this guardianship of the true ecclesial identity of Anglicanism is “a passion for the unity of Christ’s Church“. Again the signs are not good. Relations with the Roman Catholic Church are at a low, suspicion of Rome is rife. And ecumenism with the other Protestant denominations is in the doldrums. Indeed “the whole movement towards Christian unity is in crisis” and Fr. North considers this a scandal. Anglo-Catholics have the vocation to “keep alive relationships with the Roman Catholic Church” and – in constant conversation with their own Church of England – to try to “create the conditions required for ecumenical discussion”. Again he says: “If we think the argument is lost once and for all, our self-justification is lost.”

2.  The second gift is to offer the wider Church a “sacramental world view“. The Mass is not one worship option among many but “the primary way in which God invites us to worship him“. It is the duty of Anglo-Catholics “to remind people of the primacy of the sacramental life” and of the role of the Mass to make effective the saving work of Christ in the present, to proclaim the Kingdom, to feed and commission God’s people and to sanctify all creation.

And without the priest there is no sacrament, so Anglo-Catholics offer “a proper view of Christian priesthood”. In the C of E priesthood is often viewed as a waste of young people’s lives, a squandering of their educational opportunities, even “synonymous with child abuse”. Priests are seen by many as an expensive luxury and as “part of a hierarchical cabal holding back the gifts and talents of the laity”. Priests are “a problem that needs solving”.

Philip North believes that people are, however, willing to listen when told about the “correct context” of priesthood in a sacramental view of the world, and he tells a story of a talk he gave at Holy Trinity, Brompton, by which the listeners were “fascinated and moved”.  Fr. North concludes that Anglo-Catholics “are the ones who can lead (the) debate” about “a proper and balanced vision of priesthood“.

3. The third gift concerns “the proper ordering of public worship“. Fr. North finds much public worship is ”inept, unimaginative, banal and pointless”. Few, he believes, “understand the books”. Anglo-Catholics., on the other hand, “know how to offer worship which is both dignified and numinous and yet human enough to meet needs and engage people”, “to show confidence in the Mass”, “to order spaces and beautiful buildings and plan dignified ceremonial”. He also underlines the “enormously imaginative and broad” use of music and the “first-rate preachers who can put across sharp, challenging and relevant messages without banging on all day”.

4. The fourth gift is the “long tradition … of ministering in areas of poverty and social deprivation“. “We don’t bus in the middle classes” Fr. North writes, “but rather we serve local people”, including vulnerable adults, ethnic minority groups, those with mental health problems, the neglected and sidelined and the broken. ”Our movement has a long and proud history of locating itself where human need is greatest”.

He is of the opinion that the wider Church “is forgetting how to pay anything more than lip-service to the bias to the poor”, and that Anglo-Catholics “have a great deal to offer the evangelical world in this respect”. Many evangelical churches are accused of being “a white, professional, middle-class, graduate movement” and are “desperately longing for ways to offer service to poorer communities and for a theological underpinning to such work”.

He sees examples of “the middle classes seeking to improve the lives of the poor by imposing upon them their own lifestyles and values” and believes that this would be “unthinkable” within the Catholic movement, because Anglo-Catholics “instinctively see things from the point of view of local people”, “the incarnational approach to community development is in our bloodstream”.

5. And the fifth gift he identifies is a “disciplined, devotional life”, and he specifically names two aspects of the (Anglo-)Catholic spiritual life: the Sacrament of Confession and the “proper place of Mary within the Christian life“.

(to be completed)

David Murphy

Fasting: An Integral Part of our Spiritual Armour

Fasting: An Integral Part of our Spiritual Armourng PowerPoint by Bishop Michael Gill.

A great resource.

 

Only Traditionalist Archbishop of Canterbury Can Save Anglican Church, Warn Primates

The worldwide Anglican Church risks a permanent split unless someone committed to traditional values is chosen as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, the leaders of 55 million churchgoers have warned.

The Telegraph:

In a major intervention in the selection process, an alliance of archbishops and bishops from four continents has written directly to the selection committee urging them to choose someone prepared to halt a drift towards liberal values on issues such as homosexuality.

The next Archbishop must be willing to “uphold the orthodoxy of the Christian faith” in order to secure the “future and unity” of the church “at a foundational level”, they say in a letter seen by The Daily Telegraph.

Only someone with an understanding of the more traditional views of Anglicans in Africa and elsewhere and the ability to gain their “respect” would be acceptable they add.

The warning comes in a letter to Lord Luce, the chairman of the Crown Nominations Commission, which is selecting the next Archbishop, by the leaders of the Church in the so-called “Global South”, who met earlier this week in Singapore.

Their intervention is likely to be viewed as a boost to the chances of the Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, being selected for Canterbury, as a figure well-regarded in Africa and elsewhere.

In addition to being the leader of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury is the titular head of the estimated 80-million strong Anglican Church worldwide.

Despite its historic ties to England, it is increasingly dominated by the fast-growing churches primarily in southern hemisphere.

Most southern provinces still hold firmly to more traditional doctrines but some branches of the Church elsewhere, particularly in North America, have steered a more liberal course in recent years.

The splits were laid bare four years ago when a third of the bishops boycotted the 10-yearly Lambeth Conference in London in protest at the American church’s decision to ordain its first openly homosexual bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

Since then the split has only become more entrenched. Earlier this year an attempted unity pact on which Dr Rowan Williams staked his authority was rejected in the Church of England itself.

Following the announcement of Dr Williams’s retirement, leaders of African and Asian churches have privately voiced fears that their views are being ignored in a selection committee dominated by white, liberal-leaning Britons.

Earlier this month Bishop Mouneer Anis, the leader of the Church in the Middle East and North Africa, warned of a “colonial” approach to choosing the new Archbishop.

In the letter, signed by 17 primates, they make clear that, as leaders of what is now the majority of the Anglican church, they “expect to be consulted”.

“At a time when the Christian faith faces challenges from other religions as well as secular worldviews, the new Archbishop of Canterbury must be committed to uphold the orthodoxy of the Christian ‘faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints’,” they write, quoting a phrase from the New Testament.

In order to act as “Guardian of the faith” the new Archbishop must be able to enforce unity “especially on issues that have led to the present crisis in the Communion”, they add.

“The new Archbishop of Canterbury should have the experience and cross-cultural sensitivity to understand the concerns and conflicts in the worldwide Communion,” they add.

“He has to be able to communicate effectively and gain the respect and confidence of, his fellow primates in the Global South.”

But last night one senior figure in the Church of England warned that the global split could now be too deep for the new Archbishop to bridge.

“Whoever it is I don’t think one man can achieve it really because the splits are so deep,” he said.

 

Priests to Face East at Ordinariate Masses

Good!

From the Tablet:

Masses celebrated by priests in the ordinariate are likely to be ad orientem, according to one of its leaders. While the liturgy for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham has yet to be approved by the Holy See, Mgr Andrew Burnham said the Congregation for Divine Worship “is likely to commend eastward celebration, when the dynamic of the building suggests it”. Mgr Burnham also said that it may also recommend kneeling at mention of the Incarnation during the Creed.

 

The Congress of Traditional Anglicans

Virtue Online details the Congress of Traditional Anglicans:

To Traditional Anglican Church leaders.
May 14, 2011

You may not have already read the scathing attack on RC Archbishop Collins, who has the responsibility for erection of a Canadian Ordinariate.

“TAC Primate Writes Angry Letter”. Clearly this appears to signify the end of the TAC’s bid to join.

The mission of the upcoming Congress of Traditional Anglicans is to help bring unity to Churches that have committed themselves to the Affirmation of St.Louis, but who through differences in canons and constitution have moved apart.

We hope you will agree that this will be an opportunity for discussions that will help foster unity and give Traditional Anglicans a powerful “voice” that may ensure many worshippers who have been struggling with the ecclesiastical chaos that has impeded the spread of the Gospel.  

We hope you will agree that this will be an opportunity for discussions that will help foster unity and give Traditional Anglicans a powerful “voice” that may ensure many worshippers who have been struggling with the ecclesiastical chaos that has impeded the spread of the Gospel…

Sadly it is in the chaos that Continuing (or Traditional) Anglicanism has become, that the spread of the Gospel has suffered most. What a terrible indictment!

Traditionalist Anglicans Urged Not to Cling to 'illusion'

Traditionalist Anglicans who remain in the Anglican Church, against Pope Benedict XVI’s offer of an Anglican ordinariate, are wasting “time and spiritual energy” clinging to a “dangerous illusion“, said the Vatican’s delegate for the Australian ordinariate, reports the Catholic News Service.

CathNews has more:

Melbourne Auxiliary Bishop Peter Elliott urged Anglicans at festival in Perth to take up the Pope’s offer of “peace.”

“I would caution people who still claim to be Anglo-Catholics and yet are holding back,” he told The Record, Catholic newspaper of the Archdiocese of Perth this week. “I’d say ‘When are you going to face realities?‘ because there’s no place for a classical Anglo-Catholic in the Anglican Communion anymore.”

Those coming into the ordinariates are the “last fruits” of the Anglicans’ Oxford Movement started in 1833 by Blessed John Henry Newman to restore Catholic identity in the Anglican Church, Bishop Elliott said. But he warned that times have changed and events have taken a “new and confronting turn.”

“These realities seem to be lost on some Anglo-Catholics who are tempted to make a desperate last stand by just staying where they are,” he told the festival, which drew more than 100 people.

“Permit me to suggest that it is a waste of time and spiritual energy to cling to such a dangerous illusion. Valuing the Catholic faith should not be confused with polemics,” Bishop Elliott said.

“Let me quietly invite you to lay down weapons of controversies that are now pointless, to set aside endless intrigues which lead nowhere, to walk away from futile conflicts which cannot build up the body of Christ in charity. Accept the invitation of the vicar of Christ on earth.”

The prelate also dismissed suggestions that the Pope’s offer would hinder ecumenism. Rather, it has kick-started it, he said, in the continuing ARCIC (Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission) process.

See also: Australia leading way with UK in Anglicans swimming Tiber here.

Some Senior Anglicans Wish They Could Strangle the Ordinariate at Birth

But they cannot: this is an idea whose time has come.

It’s William Oddie at his best…

… The fact is that the ordinariate, though it has good will from some Anglicans who can see the benefit to themselves… has deadly enemies who would rather cut off their noses to spite their faces than do anything that might help the ordinariate. They would love to destroy it at the outset. But they cannot do that. This is an idea whose time has come. Those who join the ordinariate know that life isn’t going to be easy. But they are determined; they are also buoyed up by the exhilaration of this great adventure and by the prayers of many, including the Holy Father himself. These are stirring times: and nothing that Bishop Chartres and his ilk can do will achieve anything but demonstrate their own pettiness and spite.

Read it all here.

When Heresy Leads to Apostacy

Do read this excellent apology by Fr Z.

It also well exposes much of what is wrong with (and the danger of) ‘Continuing Anglicanism’.

And on a side note, I commentated on his blog:

The Continuum blog lot tend to be nasty, belligerent and ant-Catholic in the extreme. They are dead against the idea of anyone leaving ‘Continuing Anglicanism’ for Rome. Fr Robert Hart is particularly vocal in that. It’s almost as if they think that the truth resides with them alone, yet sadly, they (as ‘Continuing Anglicans’) are unable to see their own very fractured state… Not a friendly blog and not worth visiting at all.

Anglican Ordinariate Breaking News

via the grapevine:

… five former Anglican bishops, their wives and three former Anglican nuns from Walshinghas are to be received into the full communion of the Catholic Chuch at 12.30pm tomorrow, New Years Day, at Westminster Cathedral.

I presume that the former bishops concerned (and their former dioceses) are: Andrew Burnham (Ebbsfleet), Keith Newton (Richborough), John Broadhurst (Fulham), Edwin Barnes (assistant bishop, Winchester) and David Silk (assistant bishop, Exeter).

This will be the first step on the road to the eventual establishment of the Ordinariate for former Anglicans who wish to be in full communion with the Catholic Church.

I have found nothing about this anywhere on the internet, which all seems rather strange. It is, surely, a momentous occasion.

Let’s see what happens…

UPDATE I:   It seems as if it will happen:

• Anglican bishops ‘to become Catholics at Westminster Cathedral today’ as Damian Thompson reports.
• It’s actually happening – The Anglo Catholic.
• Ordinariate Portal.

UPDATE II:  Or, maybe, not… at least not quite yet:

Following my post yesterday I have received information to the effect that three of the five former Anglican bishops received into the Catholic Church this morning will be ordained to the diaconate on January 13th and then to the priesthood two days later on January 15th, all pointing towards the setting up of an Ordinariate for England and Wales in the first half of January. Let’s see.

Yes, the absence of reporting by the larger Catholic media / secular news corporations was the telling factor here.

UPDATE III:   Notwithstanding, it indeed appears as if reception has taken place!