You have understand that I’m asking if in the eyes of the Church, can Anglicans go to heaven. I have been told by an Anglican priest, a friend of my father, that I was going straight to Hell for practising “popish” devotions. On another occasion at my uncle’s funeral, the Priest on the altar said “all who believe in Christ can come to Holy Communion except those under the devillish Roman mantle”, and I can’t be told it wasn’t an intentional comment because he well knew that my uncle’s family were Catholics.
I wasn’t offended, it’s only a comment from one person. It weighs nothing on my shoulders. The ground didn’t fall out from beneath me. I’m alive, I’m here, well and good. I apologise with my heart and soul for having phrase my question like that and I ask forgiveness; in Christian charity that isn’t the intent of my post. It’s a theological discussion, particularly in relation to the doctrine of Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus, and a personal discovery and attempt to see what the popular opinion is of where is Christ’s Church, and what are its boundaries.
Now, personally, I believe the Anglican Communion to certainly be within those boundaries of Christ’s Church, and I have witnessed it first hand. My great grandfathers were both priests ordained in the Church of England and Church of Ireland respectively, and I learnt a great deal from them growing up on how to love God and even my Catholic mother and father taught me to have a great respect for Anglican practise and belief, but my mind is allowed to wander and human nature is to ask questions.