By percent 87.5 yes
11.5 no
1 abstain

85.1 yes
14.6 no
.3 abstention
by percent

Clergy: 87 yes 17 no 1 abstention
Lay: parishes 39 yes 8 no, missions 13 yes, 3 no, 2 divided, 1 abstention

86.7 percent

He called strongly for support of the resolutions

We begin with Eucharist. It appears likely there will be rollcall votes.

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Officials of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, which oversees more than 70 parishes along the coastal half of the state, meet today for a special convention that could significantly change the nature of the diocese ‘s relationship with the national church.

Concerned over what many diocese officials say is the liberal trajectory of The Episcopal Church, they have proposed five resolutions to be voted on.

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This week’s announcement that the Roman Catholic Church will welcome disaffected Anglicans en masse is of primary interest to members of the two Christian communions. But this religious realignment is also a reminder to supporters of equality for women and gays and lesbians that they must literally preach to the converted if they are to win believers to their cause.

Pope Benedict XVI has offered the Anglicans a special status within Catholicism that will preserve their traditions and allow married Anglican priests to continue their ministry. Those likely to accept are animated by opposition to innovations including the ordination of an openly gay bishop in the United States, blessings for same-sex couples in Canada and the Church of England’s decision to allow female bishops.

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You can find all the links for information here.

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BERNETHY: What do you both think, John first, what do you think about the numbers that will be involved here? Will it be a lot of people that are switching, or just a few?

ALLEN: Well, the signals from the Catholic side, at least, is that expectations are this is going to be a fairly small number of folks. When Cardinal Levada was asked this question at a Vatican briefing earlier in the week, he said that there were 20 or 30 Anglican bishops in various parts of the world who had put out feelers, but of course putting out feelers is different than signing on the bottom line. And at the grassroots the expectation is that at least in the early stages you’re talking about fairly small pockets of people who will be coming over.

LAWTON: And especially, well, here in the United States, the people that are unhappy with the Episcopal Church, which is the US branch of the Anglican Communion””they come from two different wings of the church. One certainly are those who are more Catholic in their traditions and their style of worship, but there are also evangelicals, who are conservative theologically but not so comfortable with the idea of Rome and the pope, and those two groups here in the US have come together. They’ve formed their own structure, the Anglican Church of North America, and they’re really focusing on building that. So I think a lot of the traditionalist Anglicans here in the US may not immediately head to the Catholic Church.

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In approaching this work, some important perspectives have to be kept in mind.

First, this response does not alter our determined and continuing dedication to the pathway of mutual commitment and cooperation between the Church of England and the Catholic Church in this country. The foundations of all the joint work in ARCIC and the International Anglican Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission make clear the path we follow together. An Anglo-Catholic tradition will continue to be a part of the Church of England, nurtured by those who cherish this tradition while not ready to accept the current jurisdiction of the Holy See.

We also need to appreciate what this moment makes clear about the mind of Pope Benedict XVI. I believe this is another illustration of his desire to achieve reconciliation with those who are estranged from the Catholic Church and who show a willingness to be reconciled. This desire is clearly one of the priorities of his pontificate. As he has written: “In our days, when in vast areas of the world the faith is in danger of dying out like a flame which no longer has fuel, the overriding priority is to make God present in this world and to show men and women the way to God. Not just any god, but the God who spoke on Sinai; to that God whose face we recognise in a love, which presses ‘to the end’ (cf John 13.1) – in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen … So if the arduous task of working for faith, hope and love in the world is presently (and in various ways, always) the Church’s real priority, then part of this is also made up of acts of reconciliation, small and not so small.” (Letter to Bishops, March 10 2009). Reconciliation, then, is a part of the proclamation of the Gospel.

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In a momentous move on Tuesday, the Vatican said it would help Anglicans uncomfortable with female priests and openly gay bishops join a new Anglican rite within the Catholic Church.

The invitation also extends to married Anglican clergy. And so some have begun to wonder, even if the 82-year-old Benedict himself would never allow it, would more people in the Roman Catholic Church begin to entertain the possibility of married Catholic priests?

“If you get used to the idea of your priests being married, then that changes the perception of the Catholic priesthood necessarily,” said Austen Ivereigh, a Catholic commentator in London and a former adviser to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster.

“We face the prospect in the future of going to a Catholic church in London and it being normal to find a married Catholic priest celebrating at the altar, with his wife sitting in the third pew and his children running up and down the aisle,” he said.

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She said her intention in writing to the deputies from South Carolina was to preserve their presence in the House of Deputies.

“I could see them throughout the whole convention,” she said of South Carolina’s deputation to this summer’s General Convention. “I appreciated the depth of their involvement.”

The Rev. Kendall Harmon, canon theologian to the Diocese of South Carolina and a four-time deputy to General Convention, objects to the letter as an intrusion in the deliberations of the special convention.

“I am interested in the issue of precedent,” said Canon Harmon, who published the letter on his weblog, TitusOneNine. “I can’t name a time when a House of Deputies president intervened in a diocese before a convention like this.”

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