Britain's conservative Anglicans welcome Vatican's overture
Reporting from London - The parishioners at St. Savior's come from various backgrounds: Afro-Caribbean countries, Eastern European nations, Britain itself. But it may be that all roads are leading them to Rome.
The East London church is Anglican in name but Roman Catholic in spirit and worship, with the "smells and bells" of traditional Roman Catholic liturgy. Father David Waller sticks to the Vatican's line on doctrines such as transubstantiation -- the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus -- and teachings such as the ban on contraception. Neither he nor his congregation believes in allowing women into the priesthood.
So Pope Benedict XVI's stunning announcement this week of a new dispensation that would, in effect, give traditionally minded Anglicans their own niche within the Catholic Church seems almost too good an offer to pass up.
After years of feeling alienated and unwanted within the increasingly liberal Church of England, conservatives such as Waller hail the chance to return to the fold that many Christians in Britain left 500 years ago, when Henry VIII officially broke with Rome -- and, as every schoolchild here knows, with the wife who failed to bear him a son...
... What elements of Anglicanism would converts get to keep if they defected to Rome -- the Book of Common Prayer, their own much-loved hymns? What would happen to the property, including some beautiful stone churches dating to the Middle Ages, that many congregations use?
Questions arise on the other side too, such as whether allowing married Anglican priests to become Catholics would increase the pressure on the Vatican to ease its requirement of celibacy for the priesthood. Some Roman Catholic groups argue that the vow of lifelong chastity has made it much harder to combat the shortage of priests.
But both the Vatican and so-called Anglo-Catholics, Anglicans drawn to Roman rites and practices, hold firm on one principle: Women cannot be priests. Period.
Parkinson's group was founded specifically in opposition to the ordination of women, which began in the Church of England in 1994. (The Episcopal Church started ordaining women much earlier, in 1976.)
Not that Parkinson and other members of Forward in Faith don't also have strong views on hot-button topics such as homosexuality, one of the most divisive -- perhaps the most divisive -- issues in the Anglican communion. But they are adamant about not wanting a woman presiding at the altar or sitting on the bishop's throne.
Yet what happened after the initial controversy over female priests could be instructive. Opponents at the time warned that thousands of clergy would desert, but in the end, only about 440 did, and a few dozen later returned to the Anglican fold...
Read entire article at LA Times
The East London church is Anglican in name but Roman Catholic in spirit and worship, with the "smells and bells" of traditional Roman Catholic liturgy. Father David Waller sticks to the Vatican's line on doctrines such as transubstantiation -- the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus -- and teachings such as the ban on contraception. Neither he nor his congregation believes in allowing women into the priesthood.
So Pope Benedict XVI's stunning announcement this week of a new dispensation that would, in effect, give traditionally minded Anglicans their own niche within the Catholic Church seems almost too good an offer to pass up.
After years of feeling alienated and unwanted within the increasingly liberal Church of England, conservatives such as Waller hail the chance to return to the fold that many Christians in Britain left 500 years ago, when Henry VIII officially broke with Rome -- and, as every schoolchild here knows, with the wife who failed to bear him a son...
... What elements of Anglicanism would converts get to keep if they defected to Rome -- the Book of Common Prayer, their own much-loved hymns? What would happen to the property, including some beautiful stone churches dating to the Middle Ages, that many congregations use?
Questions arise on the other side too, such as whether allowing married Anglican priests to become Catholics would increase the pressure on the Vatican to ease its requirement of celibacy for the priesthood. Some Roman Catholic groups argue that the vow of lifelong chastity has made it much harder to combat the shortage of priests.
But both the Vatican and so-called Anglo-Catholics, Anglicans drawn to Roman rites and practices, hold firm on one principle: Women cannot be priests. Period.
Parkinson's group was founded specifically in opposition to the ordination of women, which began in the Church of England in 1994. (The Episcopal Church started ordaining women much earlier, in 1976.)
Not that Parkinson and other members of Forward in Faith don't also have strong views on hot-button topics such as homosexuality, one of the most divisive -- perhaps the most divisive -- issues in the Anglican communion. But they are adamant about not wanting a woman presiding at the altar or sitting on the bishop's throne.
Yet what happened after the initial controversy over female priests could be instructive. Opponents at the time warned that thousands of clergy would desert, but in the end, only about 440 did, and a few dozen later returned to the Anglican fold...