Thursday, October 22, 2009

Heck, we got loads of R.E. for y'all

In Father Longenecker's excellent piece on the Anglican Personal Ordinariate announcement, these paragraphs popped out at me:

For mainstream Anglicans, the right thing would be for the Anglican Communion worldwide to face this challenge squarely and put their own provisions in place for Anglo-Catholics to leave and take their buildings and resources with them. The Anglicans across the world should realize that their communion is shrinking and look at things from a practical point of view. They already have too many buildings and staff members to maintain. What would be the point of having a great Anglo-Catholic church if there is nobody there to fill the pews? In English cities, there are plenty of Anglican churches that could very easily be handed over. Corporations downsize all the time. Part of that process is stripping out and getting rid of the properties they no longer need.

The Anglicans should be realistic and set up the procedures for an Anglican-Use Roman Catholic parish in every town. That would solve their problem of the troublesome Anglo-Catholics and free them to then turn the Anglican Church into the Politically Correct Church of Christ. While this would be the sensible and Christian way forward, it is unlikely to happen. Instead, be prepared for more property battles as disaffected Anglicans attempt to leave and take their assets with them.

My guess is that the Anglican powers-that-be are not going to let the property go. But in Cleveland—and I'm guessing many other metro areas—this would not present much of a problem. There are all kinds of churches being closed which could be given to new Anglican use parishes. This would mean kind of a win-win in any case where the traditional Anglicans can't keep there old digs, the outcome on which I'd put my money.

Meanwhile, the Catholic League has a good release dispelling the myth of a supposed "bidding war" orchestrated by the Pope and the Vatican for the traditional Anglicans. Donohue ends the release by asking which other parties were bidding against the Catholic Church, lol.

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