Anglicans could receive Roman Catholic communion, Archbishop suggests

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The Archbishop of Birmingham, the Most Rev Bernard Longley, signalled that restrictions, which can be traced back to the Reformation, might be “reconsidered” as a result of “deeper sharing” between the two churches.
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This is the Archbishop’s personal expression, but I doubt if he would have gone public if there was not something in the wings. He is co-Chair of ARCIC.

What a wonderful thing to see in our lifetime! I am quite excited about the possibilities. We’ve already heard that there is talk of Lutherans and Catholics sharing communion; it makes sense to revisit the 1993 document and open communion between Anglicans and RCs.

telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10373268/Anglicans-could-receive-Roman-Catholic-communion-Archbishop-suggests.html
 
ComplineSanFran said:
This is the Archbishop’s personal expression, but I doubt if he would have gone public if there was not something in the wings. He is co-Chair of ARCIC.

What a wonderful thing to see in our lifetime! I am quite excited about the possibilities. We’ve already heard that there is talk of Lutherans and Catholics sharing communion; it makes sense to revisit the 1993 document and open communion between Anglicans and RCs.

telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10373268/Anglicans-could-receive-Roman-Catholic-communion-Archbishop-suggests.html
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Let me know if this has any followup. I’ll be surprised to hear of anything coming of it.
 
Before Vatican II, Protestants were not allowed to receive Roman Catholic Holy Communion.
 
Well they can’t and they’re never going to be able to, at least not legitimately someone’s personal opinion is not a theological fact. Actually come to think of it I can think of a very good way they’d be able to if they became Catholic
 
Is there any way to reunite the Churches, with their female and gay clergy?

Because such a reunion would be the only way to rejoin the communion.

ICXC NIKA
 
ComplineSanFran said:
This is the Archbishop’s personal expression, but I doubt if he would have gone public if there was not something in the wings. He is co-Chair of ARCIC.

What a wonderful thing to see in our lifetime! I am quite excited about the possibilities. We’ve already heard that there is talk of Lutherans and Catholics sharing communion; it makes sense to revisit the 1993 document and open communion between Anglicans and RCs.

telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10373268/Anglicans-could-receive-Roman-Catholic-communion-Archbishop-suggests.html
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Like you I am excited about the possibilities Catholics and Anglicans sharing communion. My concern is that the Anglican Church and the Catholic Church has different doctrines on the Eucharist. It is my understanding that the Anglican Church does not believe in the Transubstantiation, At the present time the Eucharist is just a symbol while the Catholic Church believes that the Eucharist becomes the body and blood of Jesus.

I read the article and was struck by the fact that the article makes no mention of the difference between the two churches in terms of doctrine on communion. For me as a Catholic if we have a shared communion with another church that does not recognize the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist well then the whole doctrine of the Transubstantiation is thrown into question.
 
catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2013/10/18/the-catholic-co-chairman-of-arcic-iii-is-reported-as-having-said-that-the-ban-on-administering-communion-to-anglicans-might-be-relaxed-well-did-he/
Now, that isn’t at all the same thing as saying there ought to be intercommunion between our Churches: and the simple fact is that the “obstacles” Archbishop Longley points to, principally the ordination of women to the Anglican priesthood, are not simply a temporary glitch but a permanent and definitive barrier to any possibility of intercommunion, ever. Another fact is that the very existence of ARCIC is now an unending source of misunderstanding, and it ought to be dissolved, or at least have its remit clearly redefined…
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When ARCIC III was first established, two or three years ago I wrote the following:
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*¡n an attempt to explain why Catholics should be deeply suspicious, not only of ARCIC and all its works, but of any notion of theological understanding of Anglicans by Catholics and Catholics by Anglicans. “It isn’t just that Catholics and Anglicans believe different doctrines: it’s that there is between them a fundamental difference over their attitude to the entire doctrinal enterprise. I remember very vividly, in my days as an (Anglican) clergy member of the Chelmsford Diocesan Synod, a debate on one of the ARCIC documents followed by a vote on whether to recommend to the General Synod in London that it should be accepted. The document was accepted overwhelmingly. At lunchtime, standing at the bar with a number of clergy, I asked how they had voted; they had all voted affirmatively. I then asked them if they had read the document. Not one of them had; and most of them, it became clear, had little idea of what it contained. ‘Well’, I asked, puzzled, ‘why did you vote for it, then?’
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‘The point is,’ one of them replied, ‘the important thing is unity. The RCs are frightfully keen on doctrine. You have to encourage them: so I voted for their document’. There you have it: what the late Mgr Graham Leonard, when he was still an Anglican bishop, once called ‘the doctrinal levity of the Church of England’.”*
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The fact is that the eventual possibility of administering Holy Communion to Anglicans, “on the basis of a deeper theological understanding of one another’s churches” is a simple nonsense, given the fundamental institutional character of the Anglican Church itself. The point is that as far as Holy Communion is concerned, there is absolutely no common theological understanding of its meaning even between Anglicans, let alone between Anglicans and Catholics. There is no “Anglican doctrine” to be had on the meaning of the Eucharist: there is, indeed, no Anglican doctrine on anything else, simply a maelstrom of confused personal opinions.
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Knowing that, as surely he does, Archbishop Longley should not have dipped his toes into these perilous waters. He ought now to issue a “clarification” of some kind, in an attempt to undo the damage that has been done, and the false expectations his interview has engendered. If he does not, we will know what to think: that ARCIC has become not merely a pointless exercise, but a positively dangerous one.
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ComplineSanFran said:
This is the Archbishop’s personal expression, but I doubt if he would have gone public if there was not something in the wings. He is co-Chair of ARCIC.

What a wonderful thing to see in our lifetime! I am quite excited about the possibilities. We’ve already heard that there is talk of Lutherans and Catholics sharing communion; it makes sense to revisit the 1993 document and open communion between Anglicans and RCs.

telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10373268/Anglicans-could-receive-Roman-Catholic-communion-Archbishop-suggests.html
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Well, as clearly stated, it was his personal opinion. There’s nothing to it actually. It’s not like the Vatican was purposefully leaking information through this Archbishop.

What’s significant here is when he said there was ‘deep sharing’ between the two churches. In Catholic terminology, as far as Communion is concerned, that’s include actual communion of the churches under the Pope. That’s why that was still wishful thinking by the Archbishop. Of course if he has personal information to this effect which we do not know, then his suggestion could very well materialise.
 
wllmjoseph said:
Like you I am excited about the possibilities Catholics and Anglicans sharing communion. My concern is that the Anglican Church and the Catholic Church has different doctrines on the Eucharist. It is my understanding that the Anglican Church does not believe in the Transubstantiation, At the present time the Eucharist is just a symbol while the Catholic Church believes that the Eucharist becomes the body and blood of Jesus.

I read the article and was struck by the fact that the article makes no mention of the difference between the two churches in terms of doctrine on communion. For me as a Catholic if we have a shared communion with another church that does not recognize the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist well then the whole doctrine of the Transubstantiation is thrown into question.
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As I’ve posted oft, during my long and storied career here, if you want to know what Anglicans believe on a given subject, it is best to ask one. The answer likely will vary. You certainly will find Anglicans who affirm the Real presence in the Eucharist, and those who further accept transubstantiation as the explication of how this comes about. And you will find those who don’t. Asking is useful.

There are certainly Anglicans whose Eucharistic theology would permit reception under Canon 844, in theory. That this is likely to become something normalized, I seriously doubt. Times and things being what they are.
 
GKC said:
As I’ve posted oft, during my long and storied career here, if you want to know what Anglicans believe on a given subject, it is best to ask one. The answer likely will vary. You certainly will find Anglicans who affirm the Real presence in the Eucharist, and those who further accept transubstantiation as the explication of how this comes about. And you will find those who don’t. Asking is useful.

There are certainly Anglicans whose Eucharistic theology would permit reception under Canon 844, in theory. That this is likely to become something normalized, I seriously doubt. Times and things being what they are.
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Why then do you think the Archbishop made these statements? He has been working with ARCIC for lo these many years; he seems to be solid enough to know when to say something and when not to. I don’t think he would give a major interview like this if things were moving in a certain direction.
 
To receive communion one has to be in a state of grace, correct? How do we get to a state of grace? Through the sacrament of confession.

I want anyone who wants communion from the Catholic church to get it…by becoming properly disposed, just as we must. Become Catholic. That is what I did. When I was an Episcopalian, I wanted communion as well. I did not understand the ins and outs of mortal sin and being properly disposed.

Believe me it is worth the wait. Now if you want to say in your current faith, that is a blessing for you, but you should also be happy with communion there. We would love to have you, we are brothers with all Christians, but the path has been the same for centuries, and for good reason.
 
ComplineSanFran said:
Why then do you think the Archbishop made these statements? He has been working with ARCIC for lo these many years; he seems to be solid enough to know when to say something and when not to. I don’t think he would give a major interview like this if things were moving in a certain direction.
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One hears happy talk often, in certain ecclesial circles. Though originally formed when something might have come of it (given Paul VI’s and ++Ramsey’s relationship), ARCIC is mostly happy talk, given the … progress … of mainstream Anglicanism, over the past 50 years or so…

If you hear anything more, and, in particular, more substantive as opposed to self identified opinion, on the subject, I’d learn of it with interest.
 
GKC said:
One hears happy talk often, in certain ecclesial circles. Though originally formed when something might have come of it (given Paul VI’s and ++Ramsey’s relationship), ARCIC is mostly happy talk, given the … progress … of mainstream Anglicanism, over the past 50 years or so…

If you hear anything more, and, in particular, more substantive as opposed to self identified opinion, on the subject, I’d learn of it with interest.
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I think it is telling that the article is from three years ago, with nothing new since.
 
adamhovey1988 said:
Where do you get your info? Protestants still aren’t allowed to. Read canon law on this.
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At the funeral Mass for Pope John Paul II, Ratzinger gave Holy Communion to the Rev. Roger Schutz, a Swiss Protestant pastor and founder of the Taizé ecumenical community in France. Further, the Protestant pastor received Holy Communion quite often at the Catholic Mass in Taizé. Cardinal Kasper said that the Protestant pastor never left the Protestantism into which he was born.
 
Tomdstone said:
At the funeral Mass for Pope John Paul II, Ratzinger gave Holy Communion to the Rev. Roger Schutz, a Swiss Protestant pastor and founder of the Taizé ecumenical community in France. Further, the Protestant pastor received Holy Communion quite often at the Catholic Mass in Taizé. Cardinal Kasper said that the Protestant pastor never left the Protestantism into which he was born.
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Thank you; I was about to mention Br Roger who incidentally was not a pastor ie not ordained but a simple brother?

When I first was in Ireland, as a seeker to enter the Church, a faithful Anglican, I was welcomed at Mass and for communion. I seem to remember the expression is “properly disposed” I was also assured that after reception I would be allowed to take communion in the Anglican church if I explained to the Bishop that I found it “burdensome” not to be able to do so.

BUT and it is a huge BUT; welcoming individuals to take communion under such circumstances may be seen as different from what the article says. It is not,
 
Rosebud77 said:
BUT and it is a huge BUT; welcoming individuals to take communion under such circumstances may be seen as different from what the article says. It is not,
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Guess it takes for Popes to die for that to happen.😉

Seriously. I think that can fall under the special circumstances category. Of course, someone doesn’t have to always be at near death situation.

It does not mean that non-Catholics are allowed to receive Communion after Vatican II or before that.
 
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