The RIte Stuff

The religion news of the week has the Roman Catholic Church essentially setting up an Anglican Rite wing of the church; they're open to receiving Anglican looking to cross the Tiber as fellow Catholics and open to whole Anglican churches and dioceses to come over, accepting the ordination of Anglican priests, even if they're married. Here's one of many Get Religion posts on the topic.

If I remember the shortcomings of non-Catholic churches as viewed by Catholics, the two shortcomings are lack of apostolic succession and the lack of fellowship with Rome; I may be off in my terminology a bit. The Anglicans and the Orthodox both have apostolic succession, where they can trace the ordination of their priests back to pre-schism Catholic ties.

To top it off, the Anglican-Catholic split brought about by Henry VIII was more political than theological; other than not looking to Rome for leadership, high church Anglicans kept most Catholic theology, often thinking of themselves as Anglo-Catholics. So, if you just opt to bow the knee to Rome, there isn't much to stop a Anglican-Catholic merger other than five centuries of bad blood, blood that can be buried by the blood of Jesus.

Of course, not every Anglican would be interested in crossing the Tiber. Low church conservatives would have a more evangelical theology and might not be comfortable under Rome's tutelage. Liberal Anglicans won't be the least bit interested, especially when they'd be hanging out with conservatives in the new Anglican Rite. High Church conservatives from the global South don't have liberal bosses screwing up their theology and praxis, so they would have little reason to cross.

The one possible batch of takers are conservatives in liberal terrain who want to get out from under left-listing Anglican/Episcopal leadership. In the US, many conservative Eposcipal churches have already boogied, but Anglican conservatives in Canada and England might be a market for such a push.

Don't hold your breath for a Baptist Rite or a Cambellite Rite Catholic, however.

Comments

[Bene D]

I haven't followed this closely but Canadian Anglican schismics aren't biting, at least not in the Ottawa area.

I wonder if memory of the hold Catholicism had on Quebec might make Canadian conservative Anglicans a bit Tiber crossing shy.