That is why a non-denominational who reads your criticism will not find it compelling.
Some people who call themsleves non-denominational would dismiss what I wrote. Others would not. I have non-denominational, evangelical, whatever else they call themselves, friends and we share ideas sincerely and they seem to track what I say. Some converted. Others are thinking about it.
…which shows that you actually have no idea how Anglicans understand themselves.
I have listened to several Anglicans explain to me their understanding of their positions and I do think I understood them, but remain amazed by their confused positions.
Consider the struggle with issues of schism, morality and faith. The leader is flat out befuddled. The conservative side has had enough nonsense and will tolerate no more. They do not know how to understand themselves, what they are or are becoming. They are trying to hold together an affiliation in name only that is being torn apart without resolving the conflict, trying to say whatever you believe about men marrying men, women bishops, married gay bishops, whatever is ok. You can still identify yourself as Anglican whatever you believe. Our system will accomodate anything. This is an impossible situation. I think my view of it, as written, is pretty accurate and Anglicans I know agree with it. So the pope told the one’s who were interested could be Catholic. Some accepted and seem happy about it.
Any system of thought claims it is ablt to explain the world around it in a sensible way. If you look at it from your own point of view using your own system, its explanations often won’t make sense, because they are interpreting the information in a whole different way.
How about if you look at it not from your own point of view as an outsider, or as an insider, but with logic and reason, objectively. If a is true and b is true then c must be true or false.
For that reason alone, Henry becomes a different kind of figure than you seem to imagine with a different significance.
What would have happened if Henry was happily married to Catherine?
But you are right. Anglicans claim they are Catholic. They imagine themselves this. The Catholics say, sorry, you are not of us. You are seperate. You cut yourself off. Call yourselves whatever you wish and believe what you want, you are not Catholic. If you call yourself Catholic you are posers.
The return Anglicans to Catholicism is a formal affair. Catholics claim the pope is the head of the, Church, calls the shots, is the visible leader. In order to be one of us, you have to buy into this proposition. Returning Anglicans did it, making them real Catholics, united to the head of Catholicism. No connection to the head, no connection to the body. These returning reunited ones have renounced Cantaberian ideas and systems, or the understanding they once claimed. They are Catholic now and were something else before, something non-Catholic. Ask them.
Surely they understand what it is or was to be Anglican having lived and struggled with Anglican assumptions and theological systems. They will say now they are truly Catholic, have come home, bridged the gap.
But it is only possible to see that if you learn the theological system and assumptions Anglicans work with.
The system is headless. You have a man who has a title from Canterbury with no authority in a system that says you can believe anything you want as an Anglican and it is ok. Let’s just get along. There is room in this system to accomodate a gay bishop June bride and an African who holds to a traditional orthodox morality. The African says, not so fast. I am no longer part of this. Maybe the reason it came to this is the system was trying to accomodate anything and everything by thinking the only way to relate to one another is by imagining what it was like be the other.
The same way a Protestant fundamentalist who is considering Catholicism will not be able to understand it if …and imagines that he himself holds that belief, the logic of the Catholic position will fall into place on many points that seemed difficult before. He may even find that it makes more sense than his views, and make him rethink his system. .
I know Protestants who have become Catholic, as well as the public conversion stories. I do not know one who converted by trying to imagine himself holding Catholic beliefs. They all vigorously challenge Catholic beliefs with a prove it to me totally skeptical attitude. When their doctrines fall under the light of reason and scripture, they grow less confident, from Catholicism is ridiculous to what about this other matter, from at first being combative to eventual docility (I don’t understand this please explain it).
… understand the word “worship” . Judges, for example, are called “your worship”; it does not only describe a relationship that one has with God. In the marriage service one of the promises to the spouse is even “with my body I thee worship” and it certainly doesn’t imply worship as if it were God.
I have not been to an Anglican wedding ceremony so I have not heard this usage. Nevertheless, all I can feel for the prince and Dr. Williams, et al, is pity. Maybe I can not undersatand them, not having imagined myself in their place, but maybe they also can not understand themselves and how they got there and what to do next.
Maybe by experience we have all found oursleves in situations that were a big mess and wondered how we got there. Maybe we imagine we have been on the right track all along and should continue forward.
