A very personal note:
By now, avid, attentive and even curious readers of the internet and blogosphere are keenly aware of what has transpired over the past five days in the deliberations of the General Synod of the Church of England recently held in York: the Synod rejected by five votes in the House of Clergy an amendment to the legislation for the proposed 'consecration' of female bishops submitted by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York which would have created necessary accommodations for traditional Anglicans in the wake of the innovation. 'Co-ordinate jurisdiction,' or a new incarnation of provincial episcopal visitors, would have been established to provide pastoral care, sacramental assurance and ministry in unbroken apostolic succession for those orthodox traditionalists who in conscience can only accept the received practice and teaching of the historic Catholic Church. But that measure was defeated, and with it, the original legislation for the authorisation of female bishops was approved and sent to the Dioceses of the Church of England for discussion before a new General Synod votes on the proposed legislation in eighteen months. By February 2014, barring the failure of ultimate passage by the General Synod, a new form of order and ministry, contrary to the received Apostolic tradition and practice of the Catholic Church for two-thousand years, will be introduced into the C of E. Gone will be, in the fulness of time, the historic episcopate, and the historic deposit of faith, transmitted by the Apostles to their successors in the English Church from the mists of antiquity.
In light of these developments, I wish to offer an earnest and heartfelt plea to those orthodox Anglo-Catholics now agonising and distressed over what has occurred: if you cannot accept the theological claims of the Roman Catholic Church or the position of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, please give the most intense and prayerful consideration to the Churches of the Continuing Anglican Tradition. There continues a true and genuine home for you in Anglicanism, a loving, supportive, vibrant and growing family awaiting you and eager to receive the gift of yourselves and your spiritual vocation and charisms. There is yet an Anglicanism, scriptural, patristic, orthodox, traditional, sacramental, liturgical, Eucharistic, in which one may achieve one's calling to love, serve, adore and proclaim Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of Creation, Head and Priest of the Body and Lord of the Church. There is a living, viable option for orthodox Anglican Catholics who wish to remain Anglican as well as Catholic. I know this because I have experienced the pilgrimage in my own life. Please be assured of the prayers of thousands of orthodox Continuing Anglicans in this country and around the world for their beloved brothers and sisters in England who must now make terribly difficult decisions about their ecclesiastical future. You have brethren in Christ who love you and stand with you in this time of great pain and grief. Anglicanism lives! And it offers continuity and spiritual fulfillment to all those who seek to remain children of the Ecclesia Anglicana. Please do consider it - for the time of exodus has come.
God bless you and Our Lady keep you!
3 comments:
Amen to that.
Amen and I say again Amen. I know that my opinion on the authority of bishops is on the "fringe", but I believe that no bishop has the authority to ordain a woman and that no woman has received a valid ordination. That includes the Office of deacon and the Office of priest. The present pope and his predecessor have both stated that the Church has no authority to ordain women to any office. Our Eastern brothers teach that when a bishop lays hands on a woman (to ordain her) she receives nothing and he is no longer a bishop. He has self excommunicated himself. What is now needed in the Continuing Churches is a clear teaching on this matter. ACNA and other Anglican bodies are going through this problem now.
We are in a time of fission within the Communion. And it looks as if the CofE is well on the road towards joining Sorceress Kate and her Wiccan Band (despite “MiterGate”). As the Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner recently wrote, things are progressing towards a move whereby formal Communion members will encamp themselves in there own dioceses – He does not see this as a bad thing and argues that Anglicism will survive regardless. The ABC is taking steps to hold the Communion together – even as it reflects some intellectual dishonesty on his part given his personal conclusions on women in the clergy and his pro-gay stance. As we heard from the Global South at their recent Synod, they may truly be moving towards fraction from the Communion and despite the ABC’s recent attempt to centralize his role as more than the spiritual head, the Covenant is just “a piece of paper.” Rome. Of course – has thrown her hat in the ring by offering a gondola across the Tiber. So things do not look very healthy. But in agreement with Radner, I’m okay with all of this. Those of us who are committed to Apostolic Succession know who we are, as are those of us committed to the Early Church and its Anglican Orthodox manifestation. We’re all going to be just fine.
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