2/19/07
Could it be
that we are rapidly moving towards a tipping point when many Protestants and
Protestant denominations in name will join with Rome?
At least it has been my experience that many people I know who are Protestant
in name either do not know or do not believe the doctrines of grace, the
regulative principle of worship, etc. And
how many denominations require knowledge and belief in these doctrines before
admission to communion? And if we can commune with those who are so obviously
either ignorant of or disbelieve in these
doctrines, what is the rationale for ecclesiastical separation from a body like
the Roman Catholic Church?
We have sought to show the evidence of that trend in other articles,
and today we witness new evidence.
Consider these excerpts from an article at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article1403702.ece
:
Radical
proposals to reunite Anglicans with the Roman Catholic Church under the
leadership of the Pope are to be published this year, The Times has
learnt.
The
proposals have been agreed by senior bishops of both churches.
In a 42-page
statement prepared by an international commission of both churches, Anglicans and
Roman Catholics are urged to explore how they might reunite under the Pope.
The
statement, leaked to The Times, is being considered by the Vatican,
where Catholic bishops are preparing a formal response.
It
comes as the archbishops who lead the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion
meet in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in an attempt to avoid schism over gay
ordination and other liberal doctrines that have taken hold in parts of the
Western Church.
The 36
primates at the gathering will be aware that the Pope, while still a cardinal,
sent a message of support to the orthodox wing of the Episcopal Church of the
US as it struggled to cope with the fallout after the ordination of the gay
bishop Gene Robinson.
Were this
week’s discussions to lead to a split between liberals and conservatives, many
of the former objections in Rome to a reunion with Anglican conservatives would
disappear. Many of those Anglicans who object most strongly to gay ordination
also oppose the ordination of women priests.
Rome has
already shown itself willing to be flexible on the subject of celibacywhen it
received dozens of married priests from the Church of England into the Catholic
priesthood after they left over the issue of women’s ordination.
There are
about 78 million Anglicans, compared with a billion Roman Catholics, worldwide.
In England and Wales, the Catholic Church is set to overtake Anglicanism as the
predominant Christian denomination for the first time since the Reformation, thanks
to immigration from Catholic countries.
As the
Anglicans’ squabbles over the fundamentals of Christian doctrine continue —
with seven of the conservative primates twice refusing to share Communion with
the other Anglican leaders at their meeting in Tanzania — the Church’s
credibility is being increasingly undermined in a world that is looking for
strong witness from its international religious leaders.
…
The latest
Anglican-Catholic report could hardly come at a more sensitive time. It has
been drawn up by the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity
and Mission, which is chaired by the Right Rev David Beetge, an Anglican bishop
from South Africa, and the Most Rev John Bathersby, the Catholic Archbishop of
Brisbane, Australia.
The commission
was set up in 2000 by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of
Clifton, and Cardinal Edward Cassidy, then head of the Vatican’s Council for
Christian Unity. Its aim was to find a way of moving towards unity through
“common life and mission”.
The document
leaked to The Times is the commission’s first statement, Growing
Together in Unity and Mission. The report acknowledges the “imperfect
communion” between the two churches but says that there is enough common ground
to make its “call for action” about the Pope and other issues.
In one
significant passage the report notes: “The Roman Catholic Church teaches that
the ministry of the Bishop of Rome [the Pope] as universal primate is in
accordance with Christ’s will for the Church and an essential element of
maintaining it in unity and truth.” Anglicans rejected the Bishop of Rome as
universal primate in the 16th century. Today, however, some Anglicans are
beginning to see the potential value of a ministry of universal primacy, which
would be exercised by the Bishop of Rome, as a sign and focus of unity within a
reunited Church.
In another
paragraph the report goes even further: “We urge Anglicans and Roman Catholics
to explore together how the ministry of the Bishop of Rome might be offered and
received in order to assist our Communions to grow towards full, ecclesial
communion.”
Other
recommendations include inviting lay and ordained members of both denominations
to attend each other’s synodical and collegial gatherings and conferences. Anglican
bishops could be invited to accompany Catholic ones on visits to Rome.
The report
adds that special “protocols” should also be drawn up to handle the movement of
clergy from one Church to the other. Other proposals include common teaching
resources for children in Sunday schools and attendance at each other’s
services, pilgrimages and processions.
Anglicans
are also urged to begin praying for the Pope during the intercessionary prayers
in church services, and Catholics are asked also to pray publicly for the
Archbishop of Canterbury.
In today’s
Anglican Church, it is unlikely that a majority of parishioners would wish to
heal the centuries-old rift and return to Rome.
However, the
stance of the Archbishop of Canterbury over the present dispute dividing his
Church gives an indication of how priorities could be changing in light of the
gospel imperative towards church unity.
Dr Rowan
Williams, who as Primate of the Church of England is its “focus for unity”, has
in the past supported a liberal interpretation of Scripture on the gay issue.
But he has made it clear that church unity must come before provincial
autonomy. A logical extension of that, once this crisis is overcome either by
agreement or schism, would be to seek reunion with the Church of England's own
mother Church.