Wednesday, November 10, 2010

A Pastoral Letter from the Bishop of Ebbsfleet

In the wake of his decision to resign his CofE bishopric and join the coming Ordinariate, the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, Andrew Burnham, has written a pastoral letter. +Andrew usually writes and speaks with a cheerful tone, and there are hints of that here. But this letter is a sad one, as is appropriate.

I am sad that I will no longer be able to have communion with Bishop Andrew. And that is one thing I abhor about the Roman Catholic Church. Yes, I know “abhor” is a strong word, and am hesitant to use it. I respect the RCC, have worshipped with it, wish it God’s best, and pray for it everyday. But if I were to fly to England right now, I could have communion with Andrew Burnham as I did with joy back in 2007. But after December 31st, even though neither his orthodoxy nor mine will have changed, we will not be able to have communion due to RCC strictures. And that is very sad . . . and very wrong.

1 comment:

readeroftime said...

Mark - you can receive communion in a Catholic church when you are in communion with the Catholic Church. It's not that controversial a teaching, when you think about it. Most Anglicans - well, the non-insane ones - would draw the line somewhere; it's just that, as a national church with no pretensions to universality, the CofE's ecclesiology allows it to imagine that the "Catholic Church" is a larger entity of which it is a constituent part.

On that note, I have been reading your posts for a while, and your stuff on board another site even longer. I always thought you'd make an excellent Catholic... perhaps your desire for communion with RCs is sign of a deeper yearning? :)