Of archbishops and stolen property

The T*blet of 17 September has an editorial about one Revd Nolbert Kunonga who has declared himself the Anglican "archbishop" of Harare and who has seized church property including the cathedral. The link is here. Caveat lector - reading The T*blet places one in spiritual danger.

I'm not sure I see the problem. Surely the good reverend is simply following a 450 year old Anglican tradition by seizing Church property and by awarding himself an ecclesial title?

I would have thought The T*blet would have approved. After all, that magazine is Anglican in all but name any way...

Great news for the Ordinariate

The Catholic Herald this morning is reporting that 5, yes 5, Anglican bishops are to join the Ordinariate!

From the headline article on the Catholic Herald website:

This morning, the Rt Rev Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury accepted the resignation of three flying Church of England and two retired assistant bishops in what is a major development in the move towards establishing an Ordinariate in Britain.

The Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Ebbsfleet, the Rt Rev Keith Newton, Bishop of Richborough and Rt Rev John Broadhurst Bishop of Fulham as well as the Rt Rev Edwin Barnes the emeritus Bishop of Richborough and the Rt Rev David Silk, an emeritus assistant bishop of Exeter released a statement announcing their resignations.

They said: “As bishops, we have even-handedly cared for those who have shared our understanding and those who have taken a different view. We have now reached the point, however, where we must formally declare our position and invite others who share it to join us on our journey. We shall be ceasing, therefore, from public episcopal ministry forthwith, resigning from our pastoral responsibilities in the Church of England with effect from 31st December 2010, and seeking to join an Ordinariate once one is created.”

Nearly home now Bishops! You are assured of our prayers.

They just don't get it do they?

The Guardian on 8 May carried a laughable opinion piece from the Anglican "dean" of Southwark.

The Anglican communion is in freefall and yet this buffoon sees fit to lecture Catholics. Here is a taster:

Roman Catholics far and wide have been writing articles that tell how they are hanging on by their fingernails. [Really? I must have missed those but then again I don't take The Tablet!] But they do not need to: there has been a church in this country for 400 years where a high doctrine of episcopacy and sacrament has been preserved. [Har de har] For instance, it is not commonly realised that sacramental confession was cunningly preserved [I have a cunning plan!] by Thomas Cranmer within the Book of Common Prayer service for the visitation of the sick. <...> The clergy can marry or enter civil partnerships [and what does that tell us about the Anglican view of marriage?] and live with affection and stability; women are being ordained, and may soon become bishops [the final nail in the coffin of the communion], and there is the flexibility of doctrinal boundaries [enough said!] that makes a lay Roman Catholic's double life regarding contraception unnecessary.

Read the whole thing here - it's sure to raise a chuckle!

And so follow the Canadians

Following hard on the heels of traditionalist Anglicans in Australia and America comes the news that The Anglican Catholic of Canada have requested the implementation of the provisions of Anglicanorum coetibus.

And so the Pope of Christian Unity's ecumenicalism continues to bear fruit.

After the Australians come the Americans

I love it when a plan comes together!

In February we had the news that Forward in Faith Australia had voted in favour of accepting the Pope of Christian Unity's offer for an Ordinariate.

Now comes the news that the Traditional Anglican Communion in the USA have made the decision to formally request an Ordinariate for the USA.

Deo gratias

Catholic and being stuck in the past

What is it with Anglicans and their desperate desire to be seen as Catholic? Richard Harries, the former bishop of Oxford, stakes his somewhat shaky claim in this article in The Times.

The premise of the article is, essentially, that as an Anglican he is already a Catholic, only better. The only better part is founded on the Anglican misconception that objective truth doesn't exist and that the church should accept the prevailing mores of society ie "move with the times". Artifical contraception - check. Abortion (in difficult cases of course) - check. IVF - check. Gay "marriage" - check. Ordination of women - check. And so the list goes on.

Moral relativism by leading Anglicans is nothing new. What is new is the outrageous attempt to legitimise the lack of doctrine or adherence to truth by suggesting that Cardinal Newman would somehow have approved of present state of Anglicanism.

I suspect the only sense in which Blessed John Henry Newman may have approved is that the present Anglican state of affairs is driving at least some of its members home to Rome.

Me? I'll take being "stuck in the past".

Fr Dwight Longenecker has a great rant about this same issue on his blog.

Australian Anglicans take up the Holy Father's offer!

The Telegraph is reporting here that Forward in Faith Australia, the traditionalist Anglican grouping for Australia has voted in favour of returning home.

God bless the Pope of Christian Unity.

Source: Wikipedia

Devil worship in the Forest of Dean

George Pitcher is an Anglican vicar. He is also a columnist for the Daily Telegraph and he has the following article on his blog. You can see the original by clicking here.

English satanic practices always make me smile. They conjure up images of very white, fat people dancing around clumsily in a wood. So when I read our story today that a vicar in the Forest of Dean is seeing signs of “dark forces”, I’m afraid I was reminded more of Ghostbusters than of The Omen.
But the Rev Nick Bromfield, rector of Drybrook, Lydbrook and Ruardean, is taking it all very seriously: “It might sound medieval to talk about the relationship between good and evil, but there is no middle ground on this. People need to leave well alone.”
Oh, c’mon, Rev Nick. We’re not talking about Old Nick here, are we? All that classical theistic Greek dualism, which gave us the battle between God and the Devil, with the great eschatological battle fought out at the Cross of Calvary? Are you mates with Mel Gibson?  Or perhaps you just didn’t like finding a sheep’s head impaled on a stake outside one of your churches?
I agree that’s not very nice, least of all for the sheep, but are we still really talking about a Miltonesque battle for dominion between the powers of darkness and light? I don’t think so. Evil is the absence of the divine in humanity, made potent by the power of human imagination gone wrong. So I agree that humans obviously have a capacity for great evil. But because they are possessed by the Prince of Darkness? No. There’s only room for one deity here.
Still, the Rev Nick may not be sensing a whiff of sulphur after all. In fact, he might not be into fallen angels at all. He might be taking the St Michael. Because he also says that it might be “our ‘friends’ from that sphere of activity sending a tribute because we are successful.”
Oh, I see. Atheists. That makes much more sense. Prof Richard Dawkins has yet to send me a severed sheep’s head to the Telegraph’s offices, but it’s only a matter of time.

 This is entirely typical of "liberal" Christianity that denies the presence of evil. It's pretty much a believe what you want attitude and it's the reason the Anglican Communion finds themselves in the terrible mess they are in right now.

This is how the Father of Lies works - he convinces people that he doesn't exist. Note the Reverend's comment that "There’s only room for one deity here". Just the response the Devil is looking for.

And as for St Michael, well...

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle;
be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray:
and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits
who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.

ht  Fr Dwight

Oh dear, this is horrid

Damian Thompson has the story of a vicar who has been threatened with violence if he accepts the Holy Father's generous offer. How very sad. The story is here.

Plain old fashioned Pope bashing, nothing more, nothing less.

Anglican converts

Fr Dwight Longenecker has a very interesting interview with a former Episcopalian (Anglican) priest who converted to Catholicism along with 65 of his Episcopalian parishoners. This is well worth a read.

Fr Dwight is himself a former Episcopalian priest.

The Bitter Pill Part II

Damian Thompson and Fr Z both have commentary on The Bitter Pill's latest attack on Catholicism. Fr Z fisks the editorial - if you can stomach the increasingly mad ravings from the magazine that was once Catholic

The Bitter Pill

I see failed priest Nicholas Lash is foaming at the mouth in the latest issue of The Tablet. I won't bother with a link as I see no reason to increase traffic to their site but predictably he is suffering a grand mal seizure brought on by the details of the Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans being announced.

There is no doubt the liberals don't like genuine ecumenical movement. Thank God for the Pope of Christian Unity.

Anglicans and the Apostolic Constitution

Damian Thompson has the norms and the Apostolic Constituion on his blog.

The norms are here and the Constitution here.

Just for fun

The Pope of Christian Unity

Fr Z has a post suggesting we should refer to Pope Benedict XVI as "the Pope of Christian Unity".

I like that.

Considering what the Holy Father has managed to achieve in 4 short years that couldn't be achieved by vast swathes of liberal theologians over the last 40 years, the suggestion really does make sense.

You can read all Fr Z's reasons here

More on the Anglicans

Fr Z has some more on this exciting story. Courtesy of VirtueOnline he has a fisked statement from ++ John Hepworth, Primate of the Tradional Anglican Commuion.

Statement of the Primate
of the Traditional Anglican Communion
20th October 2009

I have spent this evening speaking to bishops, priests and lay people of the Traditional Anglican Communion in England, Africa, Australia, India, Canada, the United States and South America.

We are profoundly moved by the generosity of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. He offers in this Apostolic Constitution the means for “former Anglicans to enter into the fullness of communion with the Catholic Church”. He hopes that we can “find in this canonical structure the opportunity to preserve those Anglican traditions precious to us and consistent with the Catholic faith”. He then warmly states “we are happy that these men and women bring with them their particular contributions to our common life of faith”.

May I firstly state that this is an act of great goodness on the part of the Holy Father. He has dedicated his pontificate to the cause of unity. [This is a key point to keep in mind when considering what Pope Benedict does.] It more than matches the dreams we dared to include in our petition of two years ago. It more than matches our prayers. In those two years, we have become very conscious of the prayers of our friends in the Catholic Church. Perhaps their prayers dared to ask even more than ours. [This is very interesting. What the Holy See did exceeds their expectations.]

While we await the full text of the Apostolic Constitution, we are also moved by the pastoral nature of the Notes issued today by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. My fellow bishops have indeed signed the Catechism of the Catholic Church and made a statement about the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, reflecting the words of Pope John Paul II in his letter “Ut Unum Sint”.

Other Anglican groups have indicated to the Holy See a similar desire and a similar acceptance of Catholic faith. As Cardinal Levada has indicated, this response to Anglican petitions is to be of a global character. It will now be for these groups to forge a close cooperation, even where they transcend the existing boundaries of the Anglican Communion. [hmmm… even beyond the Anglican Communion.]

Fortunately, the Statement issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury reflects the understanding that we have gained from him that he does not stand in our way, and understands the decisions that we have reached. Both his reaction and our petition are fruits of a century of prayer for Christian unity, a cause that many times must have seemed forlorn. We now express our gratitude to Archbishop Williams, and have regularly assured him of our prayers. The See of Augustine remains a focus of our pilgrim way, as it was in ages of faith in the past.

I have made a commitment to the Traditional Anglican Communion that the response of the Holy See will be taken to each of our National Synods. They have already endorsed our pathway. Now the Holy See challenges us to seek in the specific structures that are now available the “full, visible unity, especially Eucharistic communion”, for which we have long prayed and about which we have long dreamed. That process will begin at once.

In the Anglican Office of Morning Prayer, the great Hymn of Thanksgiving, the Te Deum, is part of the daily Order. It is with heartfelt thanks to Almighty God, the Lord and Source of all peace and unity, that the hymn is on our lips today. This is a moment of grace, perhaps even a moment of history, not because the past is undone, but because the past is transformed.

Archbishop John Hepworth

Primate

See Fr Z's blog here for his original post.

Big news from the Vatican

A big, big story from Damian Thompson posted at his Telegraph blog within the last few minutes.

Pope announces plans for Anglicans to convert en masse

By Damian Thompson Religion Last updated: October 20th, 2009

The Vatican has announced that Pope Benedict is setting up special provision for Anglicans, including married clergy, who want to convert to Rome together, preserving aspects of Anglican liturgy. They will be given their own pastoral supervision, according to this press release from the Vatican:

“In this Apostolic Constitution the Holy Father has introduced a canonical structure that provides for such corporate reunion by establishing Personal Ordinariates which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony.”

More on this very important story later. But this is clearly a historic gesture by Pope Benedict which will encourage thousands of disaffected Anglicans to become Roman Catholics.

The original post is here