I have a question that I would appreciate your thoughts on.
The Anglican Church is very broad from liberals & evangelicals on one side to Catholics on the other.
We all know that the Church of England was created because Henry VIII wanted to commit adultery & he was encouraged by Protestants like Cranmer & Cardinal Wolsley’s enemies such as the Duke of Norfolk etc.
Since then the British Monarch has been head of the C of E and it has been made very clear by the Vatican that the Anglican orders are not considered to be valid.
If the Monarch were no longer to be head of the Anglican Church, do you think that it could pave the way for the Catholics within it & there are many sincere Catholics there, to find communion with Rome?
This question comes along about once every month or so in various forms. GKC or one of the other regular Anglicans or Episcopalians will likely respond shortly. Here’s my take, as a convert to Episcopalianism who is reflecting seriously on a return to Rome. See the following for details about my own thoughts:
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=227311
I probably lack the sense of Episcopalianism that a lifelong or longtime member of the Episcopal Movement might have, but I certainly doubt that the British Monarch is the chief impediment to reunion between Rome and Canterbury. In fact I doubt that the two communions will join formally any time soon under any circumstances.
What is happening is that a number of Anglican splinter groups are in fact in dialogue with Rome about joining. And a relatively significant number of Episcopalians are becoming or rejoining the RCC. Other Episcopalians are leaving to join the Lutherans, the Presbyterians, or whatever. Sadly, too many are simply drifting away from Christian faith altogether. One of my friends in the Episcopal church I attended is now a Hindu. He is rabidly anti-Catholic these days, even though he actually considered the RCC back in his teenage years, when he was treated kindly by some nuns during a hospital stay. Apparently he was given a Rosary by one of them, which he still treasures–even as he denounces the RCC as ‘medieval’ and ‘superstitious’.
Mostly you’re going to see reunion to Rome by Protestants in onesies, twosies, and small groups. Rarely a significant denomination though that can happen. And many won’t convert at all: they just won’t understand. My wife already finds the Episcopal style of worship ‘odd’.
“But honey, this sort of music has been used in churches for hundreds of years . . .”
“Then isn’t it time to get some new music?”
She is enculturated to the idea that things change rapidly and totally, every few years, and she just does not grasp the idea of things staying the same for centuries. She finds the standing/sitting/kneeling regimen of liturgical worship odd, even though she is perfectly comfortable in Pentecostal/Charismatic churches where people collapse backwards on the floor after being ‘slain in the Spirit’. It’s a paradigm-shift issue for my wife, and it is so for any number of other folks like her. And I don’t want to make my wife seem like some sort of oaf here: I’m just using her reactions as an example of the obstacles found generally among many Protestants.
Hence, you should not look for widespread mass conversions in the normal course of things. God, of course being free to work a miracle of grace as He chooses . . .
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