gurneyhalleck-- someone that I enjoy calling my friend,
It is wonderful to see you on fire for your faith! What a blessing indeed!
Well friend, the highlighted part of your post brought to mind a great saying that I heard and I wanted to share it with you…
“If you have gone to another vineyard to serve God, do that and do it well. Stop throwing dead cats over the fences of our vineyard!”
God Bless!
Hey Jane,
Am I to glean that you mean that I can’t criticize the Anglican Church now that I’m comfortably back at home with the Catholic Church? LOL…I would never throw dead cats anywhere. I’m a big animal lover. I have two cats and a dog. I might throw a dead rat, though or some sort of carcass but never a cat. Big cat lover LOL…
I’m just telling people my journey and what I saw as an Anglican. It always seems they are retreating from Rome’s morality and trying to write their own ticket. That’s just what I’ve seen, heard, and know. In fact, the Anglican priest that came to our house told us, direct quote, “most Catholics that come to us are divorcees that have remarried and want to take communion. Many are liberal Catholics that wanted women priests or birth control and many are just protestants and catholics in a marriage who want to meet half-way.”
I’ve heard that and seen it on many many an occasion. The idea of a “via media” became crazy to me after I analyzed it enough. Has Christianity before the early 1500’s EVER been a half-way meeting place of conflicting ideas?
I also was disturbed at the poor catechesis there. I hear so many protestants trash Catholics for being ill-informed about their faith and yet most Catholics I know are much better-informed than the Anglicans I’ve met around here and have spoken with in other forums.
Most Anglicans I’ve met have a jag on for Rome. They are former Catholics who just didn’t like the setup or the theology somewhere but they want to keep the vestments, liturgy, looks, and sounds of Catholicism.
It wasn’t for Kate and I. We just felt that the devil was working in us. Everything we said was all about making life EASIER and more palatable for us. Christianity most definitely is not an easy religion or a faith that can be reconciled with this world. The world we live in right now is full of death, abortion, homosexuality, dubious scientific ethics, cohabitation, lack of respect for marriage, divorce, and hate. What I see in Catholicism is a head-on battle against every one of those issues. Rome has been at the forefront of fighting each one of those sins against Christ while Anglicanism, whether it be the liberal Episcopalian variety or the “conservative” Anglican break-off groups, most of them are yielding and complicite in one of those areas. What I see in “conservative” Anglicanism would be considered liberal in Catholic circles.
I really don’t want to throw “dead cats” over your fence. That’s just my experience and what I see. Kate and I felt a chill in our spines after a few weeks and we feel the Holy Spirit was yanking us with a chain away from our old roots. Like Lot’s wife, one should never look back. We nearly turned to a pillar of salt!
What we’ve come to find is that Christianity is about OBEDIENCE. It really is. It’s not about mindless, brainwashed obedience, but obedience to the word of God. I don’t feel Anglicanism is about obedience. It seems more geared toward tailor-making a theological suit that fits the individual. No hang-ups, man! Do what feels right! That kind of stuff.
Like I said, the people were kind, sweet, friendly as heck, caring, and pastorally the parish is strong as heck! The fellowship is superior, the liturgy very beautifully-worded, the songs (I know you hate the 1800’s music, I’m ok with it lol), the style, the organization of the parish, everything there was great.
But even the assistant priest, a Filipino, admitted that he was a life-long Roman Catholic who wanted to be a priest. Problem was, he was married. He wanted both and so he went to Anglicanism to get both. That doesn’t make sense to me? Again, obedience, not getting what we want. My wife, being Filipino, and I felt that this guy was a bit of a sell-out. We thought, “wow, how can a staunch Catholic go Anglican just to be a priest?” and then we realized we were doing THE SAME THING! Just to avoid some teachings of Rome we didn’t like, we ran like heck. Anyway…just my observations…
He’s still there, you know. I got him under control.
