The Lead

The Telegraph is reporting:

The Vatican said last night that the time has come for the Anglican Church to choose between Protestantism and the ancient sacramental Churches of Rome and Orthodoxy.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, told the Catholic Herald that the Anglican Communion must “clarify its identity” and stop hovering between the Catholic and Protestant traditions.

He said: “Ultimately, it is a question of the identity of the Anglican Church. Where does it belong? Does it belong more to the Churches of the first millennium – Catholic and Orthodox – or does it belong more to the Protestant churches of the 16th century?

More on the story is found at The Catholic Herald.

Speaking of choosing - it seems that Bishop Duncan of Pittsburgh will attend the Lambeth Conference after all. The diocesan e-newsletter reports:

Bishops Robert Duncan and Henry Scriven confirmed today that they will be attending both the Global Anglican Future Conference in Jordan and Jerusalem in June and the Lambeth Conference of Bishops in Kent, England, this July and August.

"After consulting with the people of Pittsburgh and our friends around the globe, we have come to the conclusion that it is necessary for us to be present at both gatherings,” said Bishop Robert Duncan.

Reports of breakaway bishops boycotting Lambeth seem to have been premature.

Comments (3)

With all due respect to Cardinal Kasper, whose ecumenical work is well known, is he honestly saying that the ostensible line between Orthodoxy/Catholicism and Protestantism is somehow defined by a current issue like the ordination of women as bishops (specifically in England no less) or other issues related to sexual ethics? The time had not already come for this apparently ultimate decision in Rome's view, for example, when Anglicans began ordaining women to the priesthood? Or when we first began ordaining women to the episcopate?

Cardinal Kasper appears to miss the point entirely in claiming that being "somewhere in between" - wandering along the via media, as it were - is undesirable. For the via media is, of course, a defining characteristic of Anglicanism. I am afraid the Cardinal's appeal functions primarily as an attempt to exert influence over the Anglican Communion, based on the way Rome thinks things should be. It would already seem a bit late for this to be an existential moment in that regard, however, no matter how much affection we feel for our Roman Catholic brethren.

Posted by Christopher Worthley | May 6, 2008 9:28 PM

And didn't Rome also just recently announce that all Christian churches that were not Roman Catholic or (particular types of) Eastern Orthodox were not - in their view - really churches at all?

Posted by Christopher Worthley | May 6, 2008 9:39 PM

Says who that we have to choose? Last time I checked we were both Protestant AND sacramental. And it's been almost 500 years since we answered to any Cardinal.
Let us be who we are how we are and let the rest of the world just deal with it.

Posted by Kit Carlson | May 7, 2008 11:33 AM

Add your comments

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

Reminder: At Episcopal Café, we hope to establish an ethic of transparency by requiring all contributors and commentators to make submissions under their real names. For more details see our Feedback Policy.

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)

CATEGORIES

Organizations