Thank you ever so much for your knowledgeable reply to my query regarding developments in the Anglican world.
Homosexuality, which seems to consume so much energy of ACNA, for me is of secondary concern. Our Articles make it clear enough that the sins of the priest do not invalidate the efficacy of his sacerdotal acts. But that is another thing for another time.
I think the far more serious issue is that of women purporting to be priests. The church can survive homosexual priests but not women priests.
The confection of a sacrament depends upon a proper minister, a proper matter, a proper form, and a proper intention. Our formularies insist that salvation universally depends upon two sacraments: Holy Baptism and Holy Communion. And though a layman can baptize in extremis, no such provision is made for celebrating Mass. So if indeed Communion is necessary for salvation, souls are in jeopardy if any terms of the sacraments are unmet.
The Orthodox understand the priest to present Christ at the altar rather than represent Him. And so I do believe. If the priest merely represents Christ, alter Christus, woman might indeed so act. If the priest is there in place of Christ, is merely His representative, then a woman might be that representative. But the priest is not Christ’s representative. The priest in himself presents Christ. He must therefore be male.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Wise Counsel from a Dear Friend
Words penned to me by one who has served in the Anglican Priesthood for sixty years...
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2 comments:
I agree. Form, intention, matter.
God Bless Fr. Wanterland, Assistant Bishop Diocese Fort Worth Texas. He would weed WO out. Let's pray 22/28 diocese "hold the line" and bring these churches to Godly repentance.
Here is an interesting quote from Richard Hooker, Book 5, regarding historical relations between churches and extending friendship in order to bring their reform. Forgive the derogatory tone of Papist vs. Turk, but the analogy to the Continuum and ACNA I believe holds--
"And as to the assertion, that when the children of God and Belial are near neighborurs, a more stringent line of demarcation is necessary: and that in fact we ought to guard against imitating the cermonies of Papists, because of their nearness, more carefully even than against those of the Turks: this seems to be utterly wrong. Surely the infection of Turkish or heathenish principles would be worse than that of Papistry. The Papists are much nearer to us in Christ, than Turks are; indeed, we were once a part of them: and when, through God's good Spirit, we reformed ourselves from them and from their corruptions, it was our duty rather to seek their reformation in such things, than by absolute severance from them because of things indifferent, to prejudice them so as to prevent our future usefulness in that respect. As Judah might, in thigs indifferent, choose conformity with Israel rather than with pagans, so might we with Papists, rather than with Turks."
"The church can survive homosexual priests but not women priests."
Though I agree in principle that all things being equal a sexually perverse priest is less serious than the sacramental and Christological heterodoxy of WO. With all due respect, however,I think this gentleman is dangerously overlooking a key issue. Robinson is not merely a homosexual who happens to be a priest; he was consecrated as an openly practicing homosexual by TEC. That is to say, the issue is not primarily one of a sinner being a priest--that is merely the material cause. It is the fact that his ordination and consecration are a scandalous and flagrant defiance by the leadership of TEC to practice godly discipline or, still greater, accept the authority of Holy Scripture and live in fellowship with the Church Catholic under either the old or new dispensation. In short, his consecration is a direct, and much more clear challenge to the authority of the Gospel.
Please do not read me as saying that the purported ordination of women is a secondary issue--it is not. But, please, do not accept and further the rhetoric of the neo-pagan leadership of the TEC who say this is all a matter of sexuality. We must be more clear thinking than that. This is not at all the spirit of the Augustinian formula we embrace as Anglicans that the efficacy of the sacrament is not tied to the sanctity of the priest. I would venture to say that St. Augustine would rend his robes and weep before he would allow the open embrace and elevation of a notorious heretic and sexual pervert to be considered an issue of secondary importance to WO.
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