Some Thoughts on Recent Events in the Anglican Communion
This past week, the Episcopal Church USA voted to consecrate a practicing homosexual as a bishop and to allow local parishes to bless same-sex couples.
A convert to Catholicism, I spent six years worshipping at Anglican Churches and thus feel I have a right to comment. I never became a member, Anglicanism's openness did not seem to compel me to do so, but in my years with the Anglican Communion I learned a lot and gained a lot. Anglicanism served as a via media, in the real sense of the term, between the Lutheranism I grew up with and the Catholicism I now embrace. From Lutheranism and Anglicanism I learned the importance of the Liturgy. From Anglicanism, I learned the Doctrine of Apostolic Succession. Once I started down the road of Anglo-Catholicism and met John Henry Cardinal Newman, I was on a road that led to no other place but Rome. I thank the Anglican Church for that.
That is why what happened this week pains me so. My wife was baptized in the Anglican Church. She told me recently that she would be embarrassed to say so now, as the Anglican Church (Seonggonghoi) is not so well-known here in Korea, but will be known now as the "gay" church.
What strikes me most is the selfishness and arrogance of Gene Robinson. He left his wife and daughters because he wasn't sexually fulfilled, displaying the kind of hedonism that not only Christianity but all world religions worthy of the name reject. He is putting his 70-million member Church in danger of schism, putting himself and his agenda first and foremost. And he is saying to the faithful of Asia, Africa, and Latin America that his "American" ways are superior, culturally more advanced, and will some day be acceptable in their dark and savage homelands after "progress" catches up with them. He is showing the worst type of cultural chauvinism.
All this was damage was done by a vote, which gives more evidence that while democracy is fine in the nation-state, the Church should NEVER be a democracy. We need the authority of the Pope. Viva il Papa!
I'll pray for the Anglican Communion in its hour of need. The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is and will be here for all its disaffected members. Come home to Rome.
This past week, the Episcopal Church USA voted to consecrate a practicing homosexual as a bishop and to allow local parishes to bless same-sex couples.
A convert to Catholicism, I spent six years worshipping at Anglican Churches and thus feel I have a right to comment. I never became a member, Anglicanism's openness did not seem to compel me to do so, but in my years with the Anglican Communion I learned a lot and gained a lot. Anglicanism served as a via media, in the real sense of the term, between the Lutheranism I grew up with and the Catholicism I now embrace. From Lutheranism and Anglicanism I learned the importance of the Liturgy. From Anglicanism, I learned the Doctrine of Apostolic Succession. Once I started down the road of Anglo-Catholicism and met John Henry Cardinal Newman, I was on a road that led to no other place but Rome. I thank the Anglican Church for that.
That is why what happened this week pains me so. My wife was baptized in the Anglican Church. She told me recently that she would be embarrassed to say so now, as the Anglican Church (Seonggonghoi) is not so well-known here in Korea, but will be known now as the "gay" church.
What strikes me most is the selfishness and arrogance of Gene Robinson. He left his wife and daughters because he wasn't sexually fulfilled, displaying the kind of hedonism that not only Christianity but all world religions worthy of the name reject. He is putting his 70-million member Church in danger of schism, putting himself and his agenda first and foremost. And he is saying to the faithful of Asia, Africa, and Latin America that his "American" ways are superior, culturally more advanced, and will some day be acceptable in their dark and savage homelands after "progress" catches up with them. He is showing the worst type of cultural chauvinism.
All this was damage was done by a vote, which gives more evidence that while democracy is fine in the nation-state, the Church should NEVER be a democracy. We need the authority of the Pope. Viva il Papa!
I'll pray for the Anglican Communion in its hour of need. The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is and will be here for all its disaffected members. Come home to Rome.
Redeemed by Our Savior, I work out my salvation with fear and trembling in Pohang, South Korea, where I live with my wife, daughter, and son and teach English at a science and technology university. Baptized a Methodist and raised a Missouri Synod Lutheran in Buffalo, NY, I spent six years as a guest of the Anglican Communion before being received by the Grace of God into the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church on the Feast of Saint Andrew, my patron, anno domini 2002.
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