Anglicans Vote to Ordain Women Bishops. Canterbury Trail Leading to Rome?

What brought the Anglican Communion to this insurmountable division is as fundamental a theological issue as one can imagine; the structure, nature, mission and purpose of the Church. It is no accident that this historic vote occurred right before the Vicar of Christ, the successor of Peter, travels to the United Kingdom where he will beatify the great witness of the Catholic vision of the Church, the late John Henry Cardinal Newman. In fact, it is prophetic.

LONDON (Catholic Online) - On Monday, July 11, 2010, the last effort at a compromise move proposed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, failed. The national assembly voted to ordain women as Bishops in the Anglican Church. During the weekend leading up to this historic vote, 70 members of the Clergy met in Leicester, central England with Catholic Bishop Malcolm McMahon of Nottingham.

They discussed coming into full communion with the Catholic Church. Some Press reports present the dispute as "traditionalists" vs. the "enlightened". In reality it is a division between those who want to move away from Christian orthodoxy and orthopraxy and those who seek to be faithful to the historic Christian faith handed down to us from the Apostles.  In truth, what brought the Anglican Communion to this insurmountable division is as fundamental a theological issue as one can imagine; the structure, nature, mission and purpose of the Church. In his typical manner, Damien Thompson of the Telegraph described it quite clearly, " Tonight the Church of England finally acknowledged something that has been obvious since 1992, when it decided to ordain women priests: that it remains, despite the Oxford Movement, and as John Henry Newman came to believe very firmly, a Protestant Church." However, there are many within the Anglican Communion who held onto a very different vision, a catholic ecclesial vision. Now, the question is where will the Canterbury trail lead? I have followed the movement of Anglican Clergy and lay faithful toward the safe harbor that is found in the Bark of Peter. I grieved along with many of them as their own Christian community was torn asunder by the rejection of both orthodoxy and orthopraxy. I grieve with them today in the aftermath of this vote. However, I am also filled great hope and anticipation. I followed the formal request of the Traditional Anglican Communion for full communion with the Catholic Church from the very beginning. I persisted in covering it after many news sources, including Catholic ones, dismissed the possibility that it would ever bring a positive response from Rome.  Now, those who doubted the possibilities it presented know that it received more than a favorable response; it opened up the front door of the House. The coming influx of faithful, orthodox Anglican Christians into the full communion of the Catholic Church is a gift for the Catholic Church. I believe it is no accident that this historic vote occurred right before the Vicar of Christ, the successor of Peter, travels to the United Kingdom where he will beatify the great witness of the Catholic vision of the Church, the late John Henry Cardinal Newman. In fact, it is prophetic. Anglicans coming into full communion with the Catholic Church will be a resource for this new missionary age. They will be leaven for the Catholic Church. They will call us to be more faithful to our Catholic identity - in its fullness of expression - and truly begin to live our mission. They will help us rediscover the legitimate diversity within the bedrock unity we have in fidelity to the Magisterium, the teaching office, of the Catholic Church. We are a Church with many beautiful liturgical expressions. What will emerge for these Anglican Christians who come home, in their unique liturgical expression, will be one more gem in the crown of liturgical expressions within the one Church of Christ.  Many Catholics do not even know of the existence of differing liturgies within the One Catholic Church. As a Deacon, I have the privilege of serving at "Mass" (both Novus Ordo and extraordinary form) of the Western Rite. I also have permission to serve the beautiful "Divine Liturgy" of the Eastern or "Byzantine" Church. I love them all. Many Catholics do not even know there are "Eastern" or "Byzantine" Catholics. They also do not know of our full recognition of the Orthodox Church and the historic movement toward the healing between Eastern and Western Christianity currently underway. The Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans seeking full communion (Anglicanorum Coetibus) and the norms which accompany it form a juridic structure which will integrate our brethren into full and visible unity with the One Catholic Church while maintaining elements which reflect their Anglican patrimony. It will dramatically affect the ecclesial landscape of our Church going forward. The coming reunion of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, breathing with both lungs, East and West, is the only real hope for a Western culture ravaged by neo-paganism. In the midst of the darkness of this hour the Catholic Church is doing what she has done for over two millennia; shine the light of the Truth. The "Dictatorship of Relativism" has been engaged by the faithful followers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The Church is not some optional organizational "extra" which we fashioned; she is the Body of Christ, the new world, the seed of the Kingdom to come, the place where all men and women can find their fulfillment and the path to authentic peace. She is God's Plan for the whole human race. The prayer of the Son of God "May They Be One" (John 17) echoes and the heavens are opening. Right before the New Year Deal Hudson and my friends at Inside Catholic invited me to be a part of their "Predictions for 2010 by the InsideCatholic Staff and Friends" I decided to accept. Here is what I wrote: "The promulgation of Anglicanorum Coetibus by Pope Benedict XVI is prophetic. The early fathers called the Church the "world reconciled": She is God's plan for the whole human race. The Pope of Christian unity has opened the door for the coming full communion of the Church. 2010 will be a year of amazing progress toward that end. Benedict has offered a Catholic vision for legitimate diversity within authentic orthodoxy and orthopraxy. The entry of these convinced Anglican Christians into full communion will contribute to the authentic renewal of the Catholic Church. It will hasten the accelerating move toward communion between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. This work of the Holy Spirit will change the church -- and the world into which she is called -- in a way in which we have not seen in our lifetime. We do not need a "conservative revolution" in the United States or in the West. We need a "Christian Revolution." It is from the Church that Western civilization was birthed. It is from the Church -- with her vision for the human person, the family, freedom, and a just society -- that the West will be re-birthed. Stay tuned." We must pray for our brothers and sisters in the Anglican Communion. The implications of this vote are huge. We are living in an historic time for the Catholic Church. Some reports from the United Kingdom speak of hundreds of Anglican Clergy discerning coming into full communion with the Catholic Church through the procedure worked out by the Holy See in Pope Benedict XVI's 2009 Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus. May this be just the beginning of a wonderful resurgence of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.  

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