Division in the CofE

Amy Welborne says

One really wonders how this is all going to end...Anglican clergy put their feet down.
Liberal bishops who support homosexual priests are to be barred from entering some churches and money intended for Anglican coffers will be withheld.
In a dramatic escalation in the Church of England's civil war over homosexual clergy, scores of evangelical churches will break their historic links with liberal bishops who oversee their parishes.
The deepening of the conflict represents the "ultimate" protest by conservative clergy against liberal bishops' support for homosexual priests who have used the Civil Partnerships Act to "marry" their boyfriends.
The rebel clerics are setting up a panel of retired bishops to provide pastoral care to parishes in dioceses run by liberal bishops. The move is similar to the provision of "flying bishops" to opponents of women priests when they were first ordained in 1994.
Up to 100 churches have said that they intend to split from their bishops and seek support from the new panel. That is likely to mark only the beginning of the schism, however, as the panel of conservative bishops will provide an attractive alternative to other disaffected parishes.
Leading evangelicals will meet the Most Rev Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on Tuesday to deliver papers laying out the plans for a restructuring of the Church.
The archbishop will be told that dozens of churches in liberal dioceses feel forced to take the radical step of breaking with their bishops. The initiative has been organised by Reform and Anglican Mainstream, evangelical groups that represent about 2,000 parishes. The initial number of disaffected parishes could rise dramatically, however, because traditionalists from the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church have expressed their support.
Other evangelical parishes might also follow suit if an incumbent bishop with whom they agree is succeeded by a liberal cleric.
The bishops of Chelmsford, Southwark and St Albans, who have all been supportive to homosexual clergy, are among those who will no longer be allowed to celebrate confirmations at many evangelical churches in their own dioceses.

I desire all Christians should come into full communion with Peter but I know how painful it is for many members of the Church of England at this particular time so pray for the members of the Anglican Communion.

If you are going to comment please do so charitably

C of E; Reformed and Catholic?

The Church of England’s Bishop Tom Butler, of the Nuffield report, see below, was on BBC's Thought for the Day today. He came out with the idea; I haven’t heard it for years, that the C of E is both Catholic and Reformed. He sited the fact that the C of E has lead the way in having the liturgy in the vernacular – four hundred years the Catholic Church followed, the ordination of married men – four hundred years later the Catholic Church allows married former Anglican clergy to be priests.
He suggested that the ordination of women as priests and bishops and the ordination of active homosexuals was also leading the way, indeed he suggested that there were already homosexual clergy in both the Catholic Church and the Anglican Ecclesial Communion.

The theological naiveté of men like Butler is dreadful indictment of the C of E. I mean not being able to distinguish between theology and discipline. Language and celibacy are not doctrinal issues; indeed the Catholic Church in its Oriental Rites has always allowed married priests and liturgy in the vernacular. Silly, silly man!

Of course there have always been homosexual clergy, the difference is that in the C of E homosexuality clergy are actively encouraged and the teaching, which comes from the Apostles, is actively rejected.
The introduction of women priests and bishops is a novelty, no Apostolic Church has done this before or is doing it now, and indeed the consensus amongst those Churches that are Apostolic is that the Church’s authority is limited, that Church is the servant of the Word of God not its master.

I do think that one of the marks of Apostolicity in the Church is that “from their place in Heaven the Apostle guide us still” (Preface of Apostles). None of those Churches that Dominus Jesus identifies as sister Churches either has women priests or bishops nor actively encourages homosexual clergy, it only happens in Protestant Churches which have broken from Catholic Tradition and Communion.

Dogs at C of E Weddings

According to the Sunday Times:

Church of England priests have been given the power to include dogs in the wedding service. A spokesman said: “While it would be inappropriate for a dog to replace (the) father of the bride, there would be no sensible grounds for objecting to it taking the role of ring bearer.”

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comment: Not in my Church! Thank God I am a Catholic!