Anglican bishops explain decision to enter Catholic Church
November 09, 2010
In a statement explaining their decision to enter an ordinariate in the Catholic Church, five Anglican bishops say that they have “been dismayed, over the last thirty years, to see Anglicans and Catholics move further apart on some of the issues of the day.”
The Anglican prelates say that they were particularly concerned by new developments within the Anglican communion that they find “incompatible with the historic vocation of Anglicanism and the tradition of the Church for nearly two thousand years.”
The Anglican leaders explain that they are responding to the invitation extended by Pope Benedict in the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus:
This is both a generous response to various approaches to the Holy See for help and a bold, new ecumenical instrument in the search for the unity of Christians, the unity for which Christ himself prayed before his Passion and Death. It is a unity, we believe, which is possible only in eucharistic communion with the successor of St Peter.?
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has issued his own announcement that he has “with regret accepted the resignations” of the Anglican bishops “who have decided that their future in Christian ministry lies in the new structures proposed by the Vatican.”
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Further information:
- Resignation Announcement of 5 Church of England Bishops (Zenit)
- Archbishop of Canterbury accepts resignation of Anglican bishops (Guardian)
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