The Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor today spoke of his regret at the divisions in the Anglican Communion that have taken it to the brink of schism.
Addressing the General Synod in Church House, Westminster he said the Anglican Church’s struggles affected all churches or “ecclesial communities”, as the Pope has instructed Catholic bishops to refer to non-Catholic and non-Orthodox churches.
“Divisions within any church or eccclesial community impoverish the communion of the whole Church,” he said. “We Roman Catholics cannot be indifferent to what is happening to our friends in the Anglican Communion and, in particular, in the Church of England.
Oh c’mon. This makes me feel like Rush. Why can’t competing churches just admit they want each other to fail?
I suppose it’s possible the Catholic Church is worried about schism fervor spreading to their own church.
Look at the history of ecumenical movements. Whenever there has been a move toward greater secularism, cultural change, Churches have banded together to fight the ‘common enemy’ of secularism. Why? Because compromised witness in one Church casts a great shadow on all the others.
Roman Catholics don’t schism; people just leave and go to Protestant Churches.
“Roman Catholics don’t schism”.
Reminds me that it is never the Church that is wrong, just some schismatics that erroneously leave it. But when an individual does well: heck, he’s canonized and prayed to as a sparkling paragon of the Church Infallible people just leave and go to Protestant Churches.
For Romans you can indeed have it both ways.
The quote got mixed in with my comment:
“Roman Catholics don’t schism; people just leave and go to Protestant Churchesâ€.
When hundreds of Churchmen do wrong, it is still never the Church that has done wrong, just some schismatics who should be blamed. But when a an individual does right: heck, he’s canonized and prayed to as a sparkling paragon of the Church Infallible.
For Romans you can indeed have it both ways.
“it is only in a fuller and deeper unity that the truth and the demands of the Gospel are to be discerned. In this sense, unity is a prerequisite to truth and you should not settle for less – even if it takes time.”
I hope he is referring to unity within the one holy catholic and apostolic church, not just unity within the Anglican Communion.
I think the Anglican Communion has been rather myopic in not understanding how their problem creates problems for the church universal.
Which one holy church? The Orthodox Church? Or the Roman Church? Because we KNOW that the Orthodox schismatics split from the true Roman church, and not vice versa. We Anglicans blame all of our protestant quibbling and schisming on our bigger, older brothers. They’ve provided us with a long, bright history of mutual excommunications, executions, and other such love-fests.
Dcn, bless your little Roman socks!
My first thought is “isn’t truth the prerequisite to unity?” First you come to the truth, then you gather together with those in unity who have also found the Truth?
Psalm 133
1 How good and pleasant it is
when brothers live together in unity!
2 It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard,
down upon the collar of his robes.
3 It is as if the dew of Hermon
were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the LORD bestows his blessing,
even life forevermore.
Psalm 1
1 Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. [i.e., Unity?]
6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
libraryjim,
history is full of people in search of ‘the truth.’ Far from there being a movement toward unity, the movement has in fact been toward greater division. Even if we were to look at some of the ecumenical ‘mergers,’ what we find is not unity around a common understanding of truth; but rather movement from one group to another when such ‘mergers’ occur.
The pursuit of truth (God’s will) is in fact a constant process of discerning Scripture across time. But that requires an ordered discernment, so unity. Of course I don’t mean unity for unity’s sake; that would simply preserve compromise in discerning and articulating the Church’s ‘mind’. I mean unity in which the practices and teachings of the local Church are subject to the Church universal (which for Anglicans is articulated at Lambeth).
Truth and unity cannot be pursued in a mutually exclusive fashion. They must be sought together. The conciliarity upon which much (not all) of historical Anglican polity is based accounted well for this reality. Three good books to check out if you’re interested are: 1. “Ecclesiastical Authority and Spiritual Power” by Von Campenhausen; 2. “The Catholic Concordance” by Nicholas of Cusa; 3. “Beyond the Reformation? Authority, Primacy and Unity in the Conciliar Tradition” by Paul Avis (this book has a great history of Anglican polity).
#6. justinmartyr ,
“Dcn, bless your little Roman socks!”
My quote is from the Nicene Creed.
“the one holy catholic and apostolic Church”. Notice that the creed does not capitalize the word “catholic” but does capitalize the word “Church”. I am anglo Catholic but the “catholic” (small “c”) Church certainly includes the Orthodox Church too.