<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt">from http://deacbench.blogspot.com/2008/07/could-pope-aid-anglican-split.html<br><br><h2 class="date-header">Thursday, July 10, 2008</h2>
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<a href="http://deacbench.blogspot.com/2008/07/could-pope-aid-anglican-split.html">Could the pope aid an Anglican split?</a>
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<a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_0DySLTT4PWo/SHYl1kBVTYI/AAAAAAAACms/FuraustL4Sc/s1600-h/acns4400af%5B1%5D.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_0DySLTT4PWo/SHYl1kBVTYI/AAAAAAAACms/FuraustL4Sc/s400/acns4400af%5B1%5D.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5221402420115230082" border="0"></a>That's the question explored in <a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1821374,00.html?imw=Y">this fascinating piece</a>
from Time magazine, which indicates the Vatican is already heavily
involved, and a mass migration across the Tiber may be in the works: <blockquote>
For an ordained clergyman to depart his cradle faith is a lonely
endeavor, done individually. But that is probably not how things will
roll out in this case. A Catholic Church official explained to TIME
that the last time a situation like this arose (when the Church of
England voted to allow women to become priests), "some 400 [dissidents]
became Catholic priests or bishops." The issue, he says, is "whether
there is some way for [the current crop] to come into the Catholic
church in a corporate way, [with] their [congregations]." Along those
lines, he notes, there are so-called "Anglican Rite" groups in the U.S.
that maintain Anglican ritual, but recognize the Pope's authority and
count as Catholics.<br><br>In fact, in a letter to the newspaper The
Catholic Herald on Wednesday, the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, Bishop of
Eversfleet, announced his intention of converting to Catholicism —
along with his diocese. According to the Herald, Burnham and another
traditionalist Bishop have been discussing the migration of
Anglo-Catholics with Cardinals William Levada and Walter Kasper, two of
the Vatican’s most powerful prelates. Burnham’s letter requests
"magnanimous gestures by our Catholic friends, especially the Holy
Father, who well understands our longing for unity." According to the
Herald, Burnham has been requesting a dispensation whereby Anglicans
could remain in their parishes guided by Catholic bishops.<br><br>Terry Mattingly, for years an acute observer of the Anglican scene as founder of the popular religion blog <a href="http://www.getreligion.org/">Getreligion.org</a>,
and a religion columnist for Scripps Howard says, "I expect some of the
old-school Anglo-Catholics to pack up and go to Rome, period." But if
Benedict were to sweeten the pot by allowing an Anglican Rite Church in
England, "that's gotta be huge." And when Mattingly says "huge," he
doesn't just mean for the Anglo-Catholics. Rather, he believes that an
exodus of that size could affect the worldwide Communion after all, by
giving other dissidents, with entirely different grievances, a model
with which to unravelling the fabric of Anglicanism.<br><br>Mattingly
points out that — more so than in other religious groupings — one of
the things that holds the Anglican Communion together is the simple
belief that the Anglican Communion must hold together. The case can be
made that a dutiful sense of global unity, represented by four
"instruments" — including the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams —
is stronger than any Anglican doctrinal agreement. Mattingly suggests
that the departure of 1,300 priests and bishops from the English mother
church could act as a kind of spell-breaking moment, the first time
during the Communion's current round of troubles when a significant
number of Anglicans "are saying, 'I'm no longer in communion with
Canterbury.'"<br><br>Such a defection, as it played out in terms of
theology, finances and British law, would be a kind of seminar for all
possible schismatics on how to break with the Communion, without the
world ending. Other dissidents might then feel freer to go their own
way.<br><br>And it could happen a good deal sooner than almost any
other version of schism, primarily because it would take the key
decision out of the hands of the Anglicans, who, as Mattingly puts it,
"have a special knack for not making decisions." Rome, he notes,
"doesn't usually act fast, either. But Rome — and especially, it seems
to me, Benedict — has a knack for acting with clarity more than
Anglicanism."</blockquote> Check out <a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1821374,00.html?imw=Y">the link</a> for the rest. And stay tuned.
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Posted by
<span class="fn">Deacon Greg Kandra</span>
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</div><div><div><div><font color="#0000bf"><em><font face="comic sans ms"><div><em><font color="#0000bf" face="Comic Sans MS">Like a deer that longs for running waters so my soul longs for you, O God.</font></em></div></font></em></font></div><div><font color="#0000bf"><em><font face="comic sans ms">Ps 42:1</font></em></font></div><div><em><font color="#0000bf" face="Comic Sans MS" size="1"></font></em> </div><div><em><font color="#0000bf" face="Comic Sans MS" size="1"></font></em> </div></div></div><div><br></div></div><br>
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