The wife of a Church of Ireland bishop has converted to Catholicism in a move unprecedented in modern Irish church history.
The close-knit Anglican community in the west has been stunned by the shock conversion of the wife of Richard Henderson, Bishop of the United Diocese of Tuam, Killala and Achonry.
African-born Anita Henderson — who is also the daughter of a Church of Ireland clergyman in Cork — was received into the Catholic Church at a Sunday evening prayer service in the private chapel of the Catholic Bishop of Killala, John Fleming.
Mrs Henderson’s devoted husband, their two teenage daughters and their schoolboy son attended the service in Bishop Fleming’s palace overlooking the River Moy in the market town of Ballina.
Mrs Henderson said her decision was “the combination of a long journey of spiritual searching.
“I feel under God that is what I am being called to do,” she said.
I don’t know much about the bishop.
But that’s gotta hurt.
Regardless of the merits of converting to Rome or staying Protestant, this act alone would be justification on biblical grounds for expecting the Anglican bishop’s resignation. If his religion is so unconvincing even to his wife, what witness can he possibly make to anyone else?
An Irishwoman becoming Catholic…how shocking.
One of the major aspects of such unique conversions (including of Episcopal bishops themselves) is that it seems to have totally squelched the common “liberal” Catholic refrain inside our Church that the Catholic Church could somehow be strengthened by “modernizing” like the Episcopalians. The last time I heard a Catholic make a similar comment at a meeting of Catholics the reaction was that of total incredulity.
Oh, come now, Christopher, if Episcopal PRIESTS can be druids and Episcopalian and/or Muslim and Episcoplain and remain priests with the blessings of their bishops, then why can’t the WIFE of a bishop in Ireland be Catholic? Inclusiveness and embracing diversity, you know.
“Biblical grounds”? Good grief, Christopher, are you so anti-Catholic that you are saying Mrs. Henderson is now an unbeliever? In that event, Bishop Henderson can simply make it right by following in the footsteps of so many of his episcopal brethren and divorce her.
We just lost one of our vestry members to Rome. They flee there to escape the theological chaos of the TEC. The very liberal Anglican church of Ireland is in the same degree or worse than the TEC. I imagine this is as big and as disheartening as the conversion of Bp Steenson was to those in the diocese of the Rio Grande.
This can’t really be too surprising.
At an earlier, similarly bewildering time in the Church of England’s history, a number of prominent women, some Anglican, became RC through the influence of John Henry Newman:
http://www.patrickkillough.com/courses/newman_women.html
The one who first sprang to mind was Catherine Froude, wife of William Froude and sister-in-law to Tractarian priest Richard Hurrell Froude (Wm.’s brother); they were sons of an Anglican vicar in Devonshire.
[i]If his religion is so unconvincing even to his wife….[/i]
I’m not sure this came out the way meant, Chris, it has wider meaniings than you may intend. 🙂
franksta, my comment was not “anti-catholic. I made no judgment on whether her conversion was the right move or not, merely that it communicated to the world that her husband’s spiritual leadership was spactacularly unconvincing to her, and a wife ought to respect her husband’s judgment if he is a good spiritual leader. I certainly made no judment that her faith was unChristian. I believe nothing of the sort.
Kindly get your chip off your shoulder and your head out of your ass.
Interesting observation, Christopher (well, all except the last line).
… but I wonder, if the husband was the one who converted to another denomination, would you expect the wife to follow suit because of the ‘spiritual authority’ issue? Even if she wasn’t convinced it was the right thing for her to do, save for obedience sake?
Just asking.
Jim, converting is not the same as not converting. That is, for a woman to break from her husbands spiritual authority by her own religious move is more severe than when he is the one making the move and she is staying put. In the first instance she has repudiated his spiritual leadership. In the second example he himself has repudiated his own leadership by changing his religion and is seeking to have her follow him on his new direction. She is not expected to follow merely out of respect, as she is accountable for her own salvation. But if she refuses to follow it probably would still diminish his spiritual authority. The same would be the case of a man who married a hindo while he was also hindu, but who has now become a Christian while his wife remains hindu. He is in a divided marriage and is stuck if she does not want to divorce him. He would thus be less than ideal as a choice for a spiritual leader.