Catholic opinion on Rowan Williams, the Church and 'secret communions'

Ed: Rome gets it right (and it is so tempting to add, "While Wright gets it wrong."

Part of the problem with Dr. Williams approach to schism is the way in which he is trying to be the only point of unity between the factions in tension. As long as each faction of the church can have relationship with him, he feels unity can be achieved.The problem is much greater than just a relationship with the Archbishop of Canterbury as a person. While the Anglican Communion qualifies its members by their relationship with Canterbury, that relationship has been historically built upon the faithfulness of Canterbury to Christian faith as it has been understood within Protestant Anglicanism.

It is this fundamental understanding of the Christian faith which is said to be incarnate within the honorary position of the Archbishop and Lambeth Palace. Over the past quarter to half-century the battle for the fundamentals of this expression of faith has been in contention.

Most recently issues like women’s ordination and human sexuality have become the foci for battles within local parishes and dioceses in many Anglican jurisdictions. In America, the consecration of an openly gay bishop, which included participation by his partner, brought the matter of sexuality - and homosexuality in particular - to the forefront.

On the one hand, the Anglican Communion has been dealing with the Episcopal Church U.S.A., the official branch of Anglicanism is the United States, in a punitive way concerning this issue, the words and actions of their senior bishop seem to run at cross purposes.

Dom Gregory Dix, the famous Anglican theologian, stated in his essay on the Episcopate in the early church that a bishop has a two-fold responsibility, to stand for God to the church and to stand for the church to God. Both of these dynamics position the bishop as the active and accountable concerning the orthodoxy of his jurisdiction.

All too often bishops have been seen - and probably have viewed themselves - as church officials whose responsibilities are temporal rather than spiritual. Former Bishop of Oxford, The Right Reverend Dr. Kenneth Kirk, offered that observation in writing “The Apostolic Ministry.”

It would seem that the Church of England may find itself working so hard to appease its spurious factions that she loses sight of why the Church exists in the first place. Some may argue that this is already the case in at least a portion of the Communion.

Of this, or any church, a bishop is called to be the defender of the faith, whose work it is to bring the faithful into a proper relationship with Jesus Christ and to be a teacher of that faith, as it has been passed down from our Lord and His Apostles in Scripture and tradition.

In the Anglican Order for Holy Communion, 1948, the following invitation was given prior to offering the General Confession: “You that do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins and offences committed to Almighty God, and be in love and charity with your neighbours, and intend to lead a new life, and heartily to follow the commandments of God, and to walk from henceforth in his holy ways; draw near, and take this holy Sacrament to your comfort, make your humble Confession to Almighty God, and to his holy Church, here gathered together in his Name, meekly kneeling upon your knees.”

It would seem that now is a good time for the Communion to reflect upon the words of their own liturgy, to repent and return to the work of faith. Read more

No comments will be posted without a full name and location, see the policy.