Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The Huge News today

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.]

5 comments:

Don said...

But there's one headline people in the Middle East definitely understand: Pope parks tanks on Rowan's lawn.

I think Ruth Gledhill should get an award for that one.

Abu Daoud said...

Thanks Don.

Amy said...

That is a bold move but beware of the Catholic Church. I used to be Catholic but then I stopped practicing after I found out some disturbing truth. Some say the papacy is the antichrist. They changed the ten commandments which is the Law of God, the Pope claims to be a god, they have killed innocent people for centuries like the Spanish Inquisition and supporting the Nazis, and the priests have molested a lot of children. Jesus would not approve of any of these, it is not Christian, that is evil hiding behind religion. I pray people really to open their eyes. I know I did!!!

JohnG. said...

Amy :

Funny ! I have another for you : a friend of mine explained me that "some" think that Jesus is an alien. "Some" say that the proof is clearly written in the Bible : as an evidence, read : the Maggi followed its flying socer (that ie its star) and them found him !

Abu :
If it's just a matter of lack of support, just creat a catholic mission. Then see what happen ;-). We too need to be evangelised ! That's exactly what pope Paul VI has written in its encyclical on that matter.

Odysseus said...

Actually, there are plenty of Catholic lay missionaries, but perhaps not in the Middle East. I was in Latin America and there are many in Africa.