Here are some press reports following today’s release of papers for this month’s General Synod and a press briefing this morning.
Riazat Butt in The Guardian: Church of England eyes £5m of state funds to combat extremism
Tim Ross in the Telegraph: Anglicans who defect to Rome ‘could share CofE churches’
and Religiously ‘illiterate’ politicians treat all faiths with suspicion, says CofE
‘treating believers as “sub rational” elements that must be contained.’
Perish the thought.
Tim Ross in the Telegraph: Anglicans who defect to Rome ‘could share CofE churches’
FYI: link doesn’t work. (Suspect Mr Ross’s logic doesn’t either. ;-/)
ED NOTE: Sorry, link now fixed. Form your opinion about the logic 🙂
“Nevertheless, we do have a rather important contribution to make in relation to how people of different faiths get along with each other”. Riazat Butt in ‘The Guardian’ draws our attention to this statement made by a ‘Church of England official’ to the British Government, in support of the request for just five million UK Pounds to help with religious/race relations in Britain. This would be small enough a price to pay provided all members of the Church of England were willing to engage in the dialogue that would need to happen to secure the best outcome. Sadly, many fundamentalist… Read more »
Regarding “Church of England eyes £5m of state funds to combat extremism,” one excellent way to spend some of that money to combat extremism would be to send Carey, Nazir-Ali, and Scott-Joynt on a very long vacation in some faraway place with no Internet access.
As usual the Church of England shows a spirit of flexibility and compromise; I wonder if the RCC has offered such hospitality to other Christian churches? And will those accepting the Roman offer be happy to continue worshipping in the same building as their former fellow-Anglicans? Is the offer of the church buildings a sort of Solomonic response to Rome’s original offer. Rome: “You can belong to us while retaining all your Anglican customs.” CofE: “We go one better, you can belong to Rome without even leaving your church!”
Surely, it is not that Politicians are religiously “illiterate” that makes them suspicious of self acclaimed “Christians”, but the excursions of the latter into Politics: Misogyny, Homophobia, Racism…
‘the Church of England shows a spirit of flexibility and compromise’
Really where was this in Synod?
My reading would be that buildings are expensive and that the C of E is trying to save face given that it has treated its Catholic members appallingly. All rather embarrassing now that the Pope offers what synod continues to refuse!
Still it is welcome and I am grateful. If true.
aS far as I am aware, while Mr. Fittall might be speaking out of personal belief and opinion, he is not a voting member of Synod, nor of the Archbishop’s Council, nor of the House of Bishops etc etc. He may be saying what others believe, but….
Graeme Buttery
If Anglicans and Ordinariate RCs are sharing a church, I envisage two situations which could be problematic: 1) The Anglicans end up with a woman priest, or a visiting woman priest celebrates the Eucharist in that church – how would the Ordinariate priest feel about ‘sharing’ the same altar? 2) Both the remaining Anglicans and the Ordinariate RCs are likely to want to keep the Blessed Sacrament in an aumbry or tabernacle. Obviously the RCs wouldn’t accept that our Sacrament is anything more than a wafer. How would that problem be resolved? A side chapel for the Ordinariate parish to… Read more »
Ed:
Apparently, your definition of “compromise” is similar to that of the Republican party here in the US: “Give me whatever I want.”
“better enable Mr and Mrs Smith, Mr and Mrs Patel, and Mr and Mrs Hussain”
When the CoE also includes single Miss Jones and her 3 children, Mr and Mr Davies, and Mrs and Mrs Williams as equal partners in these conversations it might even no longer be considered as a sub-rational force in society that has to be contained.
Bravo, Mr Fittall! Surely as Christians we should try to walk the extra mile with our brothers and sisters in Christ with whom we disagree. But when they choose to journey apart from us, let us bless them on their way and give them a present for the journey!
As we discovered in 1992/4 congregations, led to Rome by clergy zealous for their own ‘reading of the runes’, if allowed to stay in their own buildings soon return to the Church of England when the dynamic of the RCC church takes over i.e. priest moves on, new priest arrives, ‘changes’ are introduced and/or a new vicar arrives who is not fixated upon ‘that’ issue. I was musing (after this mornings protestant service for the departed which we call a Requiem) on the numbers of clergy who I knew then – how long they were in orders when they rattled… Read more »
Imagine a liberal Roman Catholic congregation defecting to Canterbury..would they be allowed to share their building?
My apologies to Mr Ross: it is “Mr Fittall, secretary general of the General Synod”, who seems to have taken leave of his senses! :-0
Well, wait a minute. It IS Mr Ross who writes “Many Anglican churches were originally built centuries ago as places of worship for Catholics”: thank you for the agitprop, Voice of the Vatican!
“Tell-A-Lie” wishful-thinking, methinks (still).
This may be a very American, perhaps even more a very West Coast perspective, but Catholics sharing their buildings with other denominations doesn’t seem a bit unusual or difficult to me.
But then the last Catholic Church I attended before joining the Episcopal Church shared their building with a local synagogue.
“how would the Ordinariate priest feel about ‘sharing’ the same altar?” Fr. James Interesting. An anecdote from the CofE retreat house where I work as treasurer may illustrate the potential problems. Last week a visiting Mired in Misogyny – sorry, Forward in Faith – priest was not prepared to worship in the cathedral some 50 yards away as it has been tainted by having a female Canon Precentor. He insisted that mass be held in the chapel in the retreat house. Unwittingly, he wore some of the Canon Precentor’s vestments when celebrating – I await the breakout of a rash… Read more »
” All rather embarrassing now that the Pope offers what synod continues to refuse!”
– Ed Tomlinson, on Tuesday –
What the pope is actually offering you, Ed, is the benefit of protection from women clergy – for the time being! There is no guarantee how long that situation will last. The pope certainly is not offering you the fairly comfortable life-style you have enjoyed as an Anglo-Catholic priest in the Church of England. Still, your choice!
“Imagine a liberal Roman Catholic congregation defecting to Canterbury..would they be allowed to share their building?” -Robert Ian Williams
Wow! I actually find myself in agreement with Mr. Williams; that is a change.
It is also an astute observation on his part.
Well, me too, Gene O. Twenty years ago, my TEC parish in Portland, Oregon, shared worship space w/ Roman Catholics . . .
. . . but they were a group of dissident Romans (w/ a canonical, though extra-provincial, priest). NOT sharing our sanctuary w/ dissident Episcopalians who’d gone over to Rome! O_o
“My reading would be that buildings are expensive and that the C of E is trying to save face given that it has treated its Catholic members appallingly.” Ed Tomlinson Actually, it’s the RCC who’s engaging in appalling behavior if it doesn’t make an effort to find a place of worship for those few who do join the Ordinariate. The CofE is under no obligation whatsoever to help set up the Ordinariates. Your anger, like that of the handful of TAC members here in the states who’ve decided to take up the offer, is displaced. By the way, if in… Read more »
‘only a wafer’
now there is a thought
that our Sacrament is anything more than a wafer.
Surely, ‘the sacrament’ is an action.
Verb rather than mere noun …
But then the last Catholic Church I attended before joining the Episcopal Church shared their building with a local synagogue.
Posted by: Gene O’Grady on Tuesday, 2 Nov 10.
How wonderful ! It should or could all be like this.
And MCC church soon, perhaps.
The article in the Telegraph says:
“It emerged last month that an entire parish, St Peter’s in Folkestone, and the Bishop of Fulham, the Rt Rev John Broadhurst, would be among the first to join the ordinariate when it is established.”
It’s not true that the entire parish wants to move to the ordinariate.
I don’t see a problem with sharing churches. Each group would have their own services. No women would share the altar in RC services.
“I don’t see a problem with sharing churches. Each group would have their own services. No women would share the altar in RC services.”
– Grandmere Mimi –
The only trouble with this sentiment, in England, Mimi, is that the altar would be considered (by F.i.F. people) to have been profaned if, at any time, a woman had had the temerity to ‘celebrate Eucharist’ at it.
I know of at least one altar near me which is regularly used – by women Anglican clergy, by Roman Catholic clergy, and by male FiF clergy. Given the use by the second listed, it would be quite hard for the third listed to object.