It is a sure sign of the degree of panic over the Pope’s offer to Anglicans that the Archbishop of Canterbury is even considering such a thing, but at the end of the day its too little too late.
The head of the Anglican Communion, Rowan Williams, is reportedly considering new rules to protect Anglican traditionalists from women Bishops. The Anglican communion is slated, at their general synod, to put its stamp of approval on women Bishops. However, they are sufficiently worried that traditionalists would rightly bolt to the Catholic church that they are attempting to create a ‘his/hers church.’
The AoC is reportedly considering rules in which so-called Anglican traditionalists would no be forced to serve under a women bishop.
Exactly how this allows traditionalist Anglicans to maintain communion is beyond me. If you really believe that the Church has no right to ordain women priests and bishops, how can such communion be maintained. If and when the Anglican communion formally accepts women Bishops, two sets of rules or not, if a priest or Bishop does not bolt the communion they can no longer call themselves traditionalist or Anglo-Catholic. The fiction will be revealed as such.
I don’t see how this last ditch effort by Rowan Williams changes a thing. The only way left to be Anglo-Catholic is to be Catholic first and Anglo second. When the Anglican general synod votes to accept women Bishops, rules or no rules, the time for choice is nigh.
June 21, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Umm … small correction: General Synod is the governing body of the Church of England, under the Crown in Parliament natch. They can't decide things for the Anglican Communion as a whole, though. Which is part of the problem …
June 21, 2010 at 3:27 pm
and it simply postpones things a short while. Eventually a 'traditional' Anglican Priest will have to carry a card with the gender of the Anglican Bishop who confirmed and ordained him, and the Bishop who ordained him, etc. If an Anglican Priest 'crossed over' from the gyno-episcopal side would he have to be ordained? Could there be priests with 'dual citizenship'? etc.
June 21, 2010 at 5:47 pm
As the first commenter stated, this is about the Church of England, not about "The Anglican Communion." The ABOC has very little control over the Anglican communion as a whole.
And with reference to your "how does this change anything?" comment, the C of E is still somewhat tenuously "in communion" with TEC which has long had female "bishops."
Anonymous 10:27AM is correct in his reductio ad absurdem; that is just how absurd it is. A priest who had been ordained by a female "bishop" WOULD have to be reordained for "traditionalist" Anglo Catholics to accept him as a priest.
But Anglo-Catholics have lived with a patently illogical and contradictory set of ideas for so long that some of them will probably accept this crumb rather than "Pope"
Susan Peterson
June 21, 2010 at 5:59 pm
http://totallylookslike.com/2008/07/21/pope-benedict-xvi/
What a great resource!
June 21, 2010 at 6:57 pm
Pardon the comparison, but this latest junk shot by the ABC won't work.
The ABC's attempt to bandaid the hemorrhaging of believers who are the backbone of the CofE is another slap in the face of trad-anglicans who, confronted by previous impotent gestures to accommodate catholic minded folk, must be growing weary of empty jargon and limp promises. And, even if provision is made, won't trad-anglicans be consigned to an even more restrictive ghetto than they currently… enjoy?
June 21, 2010 at 8:12 pm
If someone ran a photo of the Holy Father as insulting as the one you have posted of Rowan Williams, you would be screaming bloody murder, and rightfully so.
June 21, 2010 at 9:51 pm
first of all, i will respectfully point out that if we wish to object to insulting pictures and comparisons of OUR religious leaders, then we should not be posting such things ourselves.
as a convert to the Catholic Church FROM the Episcopal church, i have no love lost for the Archbishop of Canterbury, or most of the bishops of the Episcopal Synod.
however
i fail to see the relevance of the "totally looks like" photos to your post.
June 22, 2010 at 1:04 am
I also am a convert from the Episcopal community to the Catholic church. I was shocked when I saw his picture next to a muppet. They may bear a resemblance, but the comparison wasn't relevant to the article at hand.
June 22, 2010 at 1:04 am
@Anonymous
Personally I think is more insulting to Jim Henson's puppets to be associated with this Rowan Williams guy. At least with the Muppets you always knew who was really pulling the strings, but with the CoE….
June 22, 2010 at 5:15 am
I feel a little sorry for Archbishop Rowan. He is in the impossible decision of presiding over the implosion of the Anglican communion. I am Catholic and would love to see the conversion of all of our seperated bretheren (and sisters), but there is something very sad in watching the CoE self-destruct in this way. Even though he has said and done some things that I don't agree with, it is rather cruel to lampoon him. I think Christian charity demands that we respect even those we disagree with. After all, Our Lord died for them as well as for us.
June 22, 2010 at 5:46 am
Well, I always confuse Rowan Williams with Rowan Atkinson and Robin Williams, so I don't think the Muppet thing is so bad. And the CoE do keep taking about Primates, which always makes me giggle.
June 22, 2010 at 3:54 pm
I would love to see the Pope compared to the adorable puppet, but I can see those of another faith taking anything like it as offensive.
Stick to Catholics with upbeat comparisons like this, as other faiths will see their leader's comparisons more sensitively.
Like I tell my boys…tease them UP, not down.
June 22, 2010 at 4:50 pm
All they do at this time is meaningless. Once One has ordained a woman as "priest" you have ended the validity of the Sacrements in that body.
Michael
June 23, 2010 at 5:25 am
As a convert from the Baptist religion to the one true faith, the Catholic faith, I say that at some point (hopefully before you enter the Church) you have to realized that your previous protestant religion may have taught you some things along the way, but that all the prot pastors etc. are just lay people wielding their private interpretation of scripture. They have no valid orders, no power to confect the eucharist or hear confessions, and even their baptisms, due to a malformed intent, are dubious at best. Extra Ecclessiam Nulla Salus.
June 23, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Pope Benedict looks like a white-haired troll doll. Of course, I find trolls cute, but your mileage may vary.
I, too, doubt the efficacy of splitting of the Anglican church into traditionalists and… what? Reformed? Modernist? Association of Evangelical Anglican Churches? That certainly worked well for the Lutheran church.
June 24, 2010 at 5:02 pm
You really ought to remove that photo and apologize. It is a petty, childish thing to do, worthy of outlets like Lavender perhaps, but beneath the calling of a Catholic. I pray that you will make greater effort to correct others in charity; this sort of thing damages our witness in the world.