In a move that religious scholars say is unprecedented, 10 of the 12 nuns at an Episcopal convent in Catonsville left their church Thursday to become Roman Catholics, the latest defectors from a denomination divided over the ordination of gay men and women.
The members of the All Saints Sisters of the Poor were welcomed into the Catholic Church by Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, who confirmed the women during a Mass in their chapel. Each vowed to continue the tradition of consecrated life, now as a religious institute within the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
“We know our beliefs and where we are,” said Mother Christina Christie, superior of the order that came to Baltimore in 1872. “We were drifting farther apart from the more liberal road the Episcopal Church is traveling. We are now more at home in the Roman Catholic Church.”
Also joining the church was the Rev. Warren Tanghe, the sisters’ chaplain. In a statement, Episcopal Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton wished them God’s blessings.
Did Bishop Sutton confer with Bishop Frade before issuing his statement? I surprised Sutton didn’t mention the newly-wed, newly received into TEC, Father Cutie as an equal exchange. Or was he too embarassed?
About par for religion coverage. Ignorant. Regarding mass moves of religious houses, what about Caldey? The Graymoor friars and nuns?
Russell’s [Edited by Elf] in a typically liberal Protestant and particularly Episcopal way: disagree with her on gay weddings and you’re George Wallace blocking a school door. The hippie gospel of self-gratification has always been about pleasing upper-middle-class whites like her (she’s in Pasadena: how persecuted can she be?) but they’ve always said it’s to help blacks (which it doesn’t).
So if the Episcopal Diocese going to sue to get the property back?
#3 – I asked this question on the posting just after this one. Apparently convents are not part of a diocese, so there is no property connection to the diocese.
Right, I understand they get to keep the convent and grounds.
And more important: They get to keep the faith once delivered.
6: true.
P.S. And what of the real Anglo-Catholics who both were early leaders of the anti-apartheid movement and opposed WO for the same reason, Catholic principles? (I don’t mean liberal sellouts like Huddleston and Tutu.) Most weren’t Episcopalians because they weren’t Americans and they don’t fit Russell’s rhetoric but they existed. (Of course I know what she’s referring to: there were two Dixiecrat Episcopal splinters 40-45 years ago but such doesn’t describe all conservative Anglicans!) I knew one: kicked out of Namibia in the ’60s and ended his days supplying at at a Continuing church.
Elves, Young Fogey [#2] is out of line about Susan Russell. A bit of editing, please.
PS: Here’s the actual quote from Susan:
[blockquote]It grieves the heart of God whenever brother and sister Christians can’t come to agreement and someone chooses to leave a fellowship,†said Russell, an Episcopal parish priest in Pasadena, Calif. But she likened it to the past departures of members who differed with the church’s positions on segregation, the Vietnam War and the ordination of women.[/blockquote]
Did the Episcopalians have a doctrinal teaching or even an official policy at the time on segregation? Again I know of the two ’60s Dixiecrat splits. But according to the writer, disagree with her and side instead with Catholicism and most of humanity throughout all ages on her pet subject and you’re Bull Connor. I call foul. Do what you will.
It’s perfectly reasonable to say that segregation, the Vietnam war, and the ordination of women have nothing in common and that Russell’s comment makes little sense.
Man, I wish I had a dollar for every time a southpaw demanded someone he disagreed with be squelched here.
11: Good call, Katherine! Of course I think segregation is abhorrent but AFAIK there is no doctrinal teaching on it. Likewise Christians can disagree on the war in Vietnam, which they did! WO makes sense if you’re Protestant: fallible church, changeable teaching and practice.
#9, I think the Young Fogey summed Ms. Russell up quite accurately. Apparently you choose to think he’s only referring to her quote from this one article. It grieves me greatly every time I see her quoted as a representative of our Church at all. I believe she does great damage to many souls as well. Those who wear the collar have a responsibility not to bear false witness.
[D.C. Toedt is correct. Would commenters please be careful how they express themselves – Elf]
In point of fact, the quotes the Baltimore Sun reporter chose to use were from a longer conversation we had about experiences over my fiftysomething years of life in the Episcopal Church. They included:
Members of our congregation who left the Episcopal Church when the likes of Jonathan Daniels and Malcolm Boyd joined the Freedom Riders in the 60’s.
The 40% of the parish of All Saints Pasadena who left when George Regas spoke out against the war in Vietnam.
The four congregations here in Los Angeles — including the one where my Aunt Gretchen was the Altar Guild Directress — who attempted to leave the diocese over the ordination of women in the 70’s.
I do believe it grieves the heart of God when we cannot find ways to work across the differences that challenge us and focus on the things that unite us as members of the same Body of Christ through the sacrament of our baptism. But historically that has been part of our story … and I’m convinced knowing our history helps us not only understand our present but improve our future.
Disagree if you choose. (And many of you will.) But at least can’t we strive to quote each other accurately — and remember that no matter how deeply we disagree with one another, the person on the other side of that opinion we abhor is just as beloved-by-and-created-in-the-image-of-God as we are?
Maybe we’ve moved beyond the point where that’s an option in this debate. Maybe it’s impossible. Or maybe we could make [url=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1:37&version=NIV]Luke 1:37[/url] mandatory reading hitting “submit” on the comment page and see what happens. (Couldn’t hurt!)