Over 900 Anglicans joined at Easter, including 61 clergy. The co-secretary for the Anglican side of things at today’s gathering is Alyson Barnett-Cowan, who does not think that development will affect the progress of the talks.
“I am trusting that it’s not going to affect the climate very much at the talks itself. Much of the talk about the Ordinariate is based upon speculation and not based on what is actually going ahead. The Ordinariate is not the agenda for theological dialogue. We will have an opportunity in one of the evenings, informally, to update people on what is going on. But at this stage that ball is really in the court of episcopal conferences and their discussion with local Anglicans about how the Ordinariate will be put into place.”
Others, though, are not so sure. William Oddie, a former Anglican vicar and journalist from England who converted to the Catholic Church, says the problem with ARCIC is that only the Catholic side of the table represents a clear, collective viewpoint.
William Oddie does seem to make sense. If between every meeting of the Churches to bring us closer together there is another digging away of Catholic Tradition and Biblical doctrine in the Anglican Church–it is hard to see how such meetings can draw us closer together.
In fact, from the Catholic side, such meetings erroneously convince some Catholics that it is the Catholic Church digging away creating the chasm between the two churches.
Yes, for those who make the proposal and accept it, dating is over. Sacraments happen, the hunt is at an end. Some people live for the hunt though, and their salary depends on it.
Frankly, I dont know how those talks EVER made sense. There are at least 3 parties in Anglicanism, the liberal, the Catholic, and the Evangelical. So, Anglicans just morph to whomever they are talking to. I just dont see how these talks were ever intellectually honest. Does anyone really think that all Anglicans relate to the Mother of God the way described in the last talks? Forget it.