Monday, April 4, 2011

Can Anglo Catholics In North America Survive Outside The Ordinariate

The former Episcopal now Easter Orthodox seems to have unleashed an hornets nets with her post Impressions of the New American Anglicanism See here follow ups: at Bishop Doc Loomis Responds and especially Growing Consensus That WO Must Be Addressed .

That last post has the link to where her posts got some discussion at TITUSONENINE plus the comments of Catholic Priests Fr. Jay Scott Newman.

Now of course there is the open question if Anglo Catholicism can survived and flourish in the Catholic Ordianariate structure. Despite what will be the bumps in the road and tensions I suspect it has a real fighting chance there. However there will be Anglo Catholics that because of various reasons will not be able to cross the Tiber.

I am an outsider looking in as to this though I noted the tensions early on between The Catholic branch and the reformed and Evangelical wings. I think the different viewpoints in the various comments in the above links are pretty good.

The key is outside the Ordinariate will there be a structure that allows a culture of Anglo Catholic life to happen. This includes such things as Seminary training, schools, and other things that relate to that ethos. In modern America where people are on the move as never before having a somewhat national structure for this is important if one wishes to raise the kids in the faith.


Thus the importance of the tension we see in these various new Anglican structures outside the Episcopal Church USA (and not just on women's ordination). It all comes down to if an Anglo Catholic presence already divided into different camps can still make the Elizabethan settlement doable in the new arrangements. Of course the question arises for them if such a arrangement should not jettisoned finally altogether.

1 comment:

Alice C. Linsley said...

It is difficult for individualistic Americans to accept that some things are not negotiable for catholics. The marks of true catholicism include the all-male priesthood, and veneration of Mary as the Virgin mother of the Son of God. These have been set aside among Reformed Anglicans and so they cannot be considered "catholics."