My next door neighbor, and friend, is an Anglican pastor

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I’m just curious if anyone can tell me some of the major differences between Catholics and Anglicans besides divorce. My friend, the Anglican minister, has a love of the early church fathers, he loves the idea of Catholic Eucharist and Catholic priesthood. He’s not high Anglican but he’s probably pretty close. He clearly has a respect and reverence for the early church fathers and early Saints. He’s writing his thesis on growing in spirituality in the areas of praying the psalms, honouring the trinity, having a spiritual director and a few other areas.

In our many backyard conversations, him and I have so many commonalities and we share so many similar beliefs in areas of social justice and the weaknesses we see in religion. Our views on faith and works, morality and our duty to the poor, broken and lonely are practically identical.

As a faithful practicing Catholic, would there be anything wrong with going to one of his Anglican services?
 
I think you can go to their services as long as you don’t receive their version of communion.
 
Ok thanks. I knew I couldn’t recieve and obviously I wouldn’t be missing Mass to go.
 
If you go, I’d be interested in your reaction. Also, is this in the US, or elsewhere?
 
I love talking to this pastor as we pretty much share the same beliefs and ideas about everyday things, social justice issues… I’m just wondering what the main doctrinal differences are. I know some Anglicans pray to Mary, mother of God and the Saints(to intercede for us).
 
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Mtdobbs said:
I love talking to this pastor as we pretty much share the same beliefs and ideas about everyday things, social justice issues… I’m just wondering what the main doctrinal differences are. I know some Anglicans pray to Mary, mother of God and the Saints(to intercede for us).
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I wonder then if this particular Anglican is of the Anglo-Catholic stripe in the entire Anglican spectrum.

Anglicans range from Anglo-Papalists (“we’re Anglicans but we believe the Pope has supreme jurisdiction but for whatever reason, we can’t become Catholic but he is still the boss, it’s just that we can’t”) to Anglo-Catholics (“we’re Anglican, but we love the Catholic heritage, so we’ll offer Mass and do other Catholic things, but to be safe, we’ll sprinkle in stuff from the Book of Common Prayer here and there”) to Prayer Book Anglicans, to Common Worship/Alternative Services, to “north-side” Evangelicals, to Mother-Goddess-worshipping covens.
 
Yep. Some Anglicans do that.

Some also have Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, on Corpus Christi.

Anglicans are a variegated lot (to change my usual expression).
 
Mtdobbs said:
As a faithful practicing Catholic, would there be anything wrong with going to one of his Anglican services?
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You cannot receive their communion and you still have to make it to a Catholic Mass. Attending their service does NOT count for your Sunday Obligation. So you will either need to attend Mass on Saturday night or attend Mass before or after attending his service on Sunday.

As far as differences, will need to be another post.
 
porthos11 said:
Anglicans range from Anglo-Papalists (“we’re Anglicans but we believe the Pope has supreme jurisdiction but for whatever reason, we can’t become Catholic but he is still the boss, it’s just that we can’t”)
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Now that’s funny.
 
Mtdobbs said:
I’m just curious if anyone can tell me some of the major differences between Catholics and Anglicans besides divorce.
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It really depends on the Anglican. Anglicanism has a lot of variety and far less demands that an individual Anglican adhere to particular doctrines. About the only thing you can certainly say is that they necessarily reject the authority of the Bishop of Rome.
Mtdobbs said:
As a faithful practicing Catholic, would there be anything wrong with going to one of his Anglican services?
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You can go, but what would be the reason for attending? Would this be a regular or a one time thing?
 
Depends on what that authority (Papal) is defined as. My late rector always included the Pope and the Ecumenical Patriarch (by name) in the Prayers for the Whole State of Christ’s Church, at Mass,
 
I think that could be OK. I’d probably ask him to come to Mass sometime too.

Personally I’d not be comfortable going to many ecclesiastical communities these days because of certain doctrines the denomination has accepted. For instance with the Episcopal church in the US having accepted same sex marriage I wouldn’t attend one of their services, even if the pastor himself didn’t agree.
 
I say go and enjoy the music and homily. And the Anglican tea, coffee, and treats after.

If you happen to be on familiar terms with your own clergy, maybe invite him and your priest or deacon and introduce them at a cook out at your house or something. Catholic and Anglican clergy like your neighbor tend to gel pretty well.
 
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Yeah I know what you mean. He said the Anglican communion is going to split on homosexual marriage. His regional bishop is voting against it and this pastor supports that, as his views are conservative.
 
If your friend ends up coming to your own Church, be careful that he doesn’t end up taking Communion. He probably doesn’t recognize there is a difference between the Real Presence and his own version of communion.

I think you should ask your friend more questions. Ecumenism sounds like a nice and warm feeling, but the truth is there can be no compromise for a Catholic on his beliefs, and for an Anglican, everything can shift. So who is the one that has to do the changing? the Anglican of course. It’s wonderful to have many things in common with somebody and to have a friend. But remember the Anglican Church is founded on the unwillingness of King Henry VIII to accept that he could not remarry. It is founded on an obstinate guy who cut off two of his wives’ heads and St. Thomas More’s head.

Of course, you will have many things in common with any Christian, and it’s best to focus on those things. But remember, he isn’t going to believe all of the right stuff, only a portion.
 
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