Rome and Canterbury, Continued

The Rev. George Rutler, Pastor of Incarnation's sister Roman Catholic parish, the Church of Our Saviour recently issued a scathing series of comments on the upcoming Vatican plan to receive Anglican clergy and laity. Father Rutler sees the plan as just the latest sign of the disintegration of the branch of Christianity of which he himself was once a prominent priest.

More temperate are the remarks of the Episcopal Bishop of New York, the Rt. Rev. Mark Sisk, who notes that there has long been movement back and forth between Roman Catholic and Anglican churches.

At the moment, my only additional thought is to wonder whether the controversy has become such big news only because there seemed that such a close relationship between the churches had been established in recent decades. Those who resent that relationship--especially converts to Catholicism--appear to be the people who are most excited about the prospect of an Anglican subculture within the Roman Mother Church. --J. Douglas Ousley

Vatican to Anglicans: Drop Dead?

From 1978 to 1985, I was fortunate to serve Episcopal Churches in Paris and Rome. During that time, I had numerous ecumenical contacts with Roman Catholics, ranging from shared baptisms at the high altar of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, to addresses to French bishops and communion from their hands, to audiences with Pope John Paul II. Such contacts have continued since my return to this country.

What is interesting is that at no time when I was in Europe did I hear anything like the recent proposal from the Vatican to receive Anglicans into the Roman Catholic Church on what appear to be very generous terms, including allowing married Anglican priests to stay married.

The heads of the Church of England and of English Catholics immediately issued a response that is breathtakingly bland and unenthusiastic. Even Anglican conservatives have expressed some distaste for what the NY Times observes may be an attempt to revivify a declining Catholic Church in Europe.

Admittedly, Vatican authorities may resent the fact ath disaffected Roman Catholics have been joining the Anglican Communion in large numbers ever since the 1960's. Our church offers a similar liturgy and structure and the same sacraments while providing more freedom of biblical interpretation and ethical behavior. The jibe that we are "Catholic lite" is partly true.

Even so, we have never publicly endorsed sheep-stealing, nor have we gone out of our way to entice Roman Catholics toward Anglo-catholicism. The new Vatican policy is an affront--very nearly, a declaration of war. --J. Douglas Ousley

A = B = C?

This summer, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America held a convention similar to our General Convention. The major news was consent to gay relationships, which has the effect of bolstering our own progressive position on that issue.

Less prominently reported was the ELCA's recognition of ministers in the United Methodist Church as interchangeable with Lutheran pastors. To me, a convert from the Methodist Church, this is perplexing and troubling. If Methodist ministers can lead Lutheran churches and Lutheran pastors can be rectors of Episcopal parishes, can Methodists take charge of our churches--even though they have a very different concept of ordination, the sacraments, the apostolic succession and many other traditional doctrines?

To me, this is a far more substantial issue than the private behavior of a tiny minority of Christian adults. --J. Douglas Ousley

The Good Old C of E

I am just back from a trip to London and Cambridge, and I am happy to report that there are still many signs of life in our mother Church of England.

For example, I was invited to attend a majestic service for the new Lord Mayor of the City of London, and the fine choral music, enthusiastically-sung hymns, and perfect ceremonial reflected the harmony between church and state there. I also preached at our link parish of St. Vedast, which is thriving and which mirrors the random diversity of small urban congregations in New York.

Perhaps most important, I asked many people whether they thought the American position on homosexuality would lead to our expulsion from the Anglican Communion. No one I talked to thought it would, and most members of my (admittedly small and liberal) group of churchgoers were surprised that I was even worried about schism. --J. Douglas Ousley