Wow. Huge. At least, for Anglicans like us.
The Pope has announced the formation of a new and rather innovative ecclesiastical structure for Anglicans/Episcopalians who are disappointed with all the wonderful developments in the West (women bishops in the UK, gay marriage in the US, church blessings of same-sex unions in Canada, you know). In a nutshell: Anglicans can become Roman Catholic AND retain their liturgy and hymnody and their married priests (to some extent, at least). That is a big deal. Hordes of evangelicals (like me) have left The Episcopal Church (USA) already. It is not unreasonable to think that a significant number of anglo-catholics (like me) will also leave now that communion with Rome AND retaining an Anglican identity is a very real option.
Anyway, the press release is HERE, as well as the best treatment of the underlying meanings of the document.
[And for those of you who are wondering if Abu Daoud & Co. are going that way, the answer is no. We don't live in the US or the UK, but in the Middle East. The Anglicans here don't do all those trendy things like gay marriage, so it's not a concern. And plus, like I have mentioned several times before, it would mean the end of our ministry here as Catholics don't support lay missioners. There are other reasons too, but that's just to start with.]
