The three former Episcopal priests said they found themselves more aligned with Roman Catholicism and less with increasingly liberal stances taken by Episcopal leaders. The nation’s sixth-largest Protestant denomination has been divided in recent years over the ordination of [non-celibate] gay men and women and same-sex marriage. Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church has made efforts to draw Anglicans interested in conversion; even Anglican priests who are married can be ordained.
“It really boils down to understanding of Scripture,” said Vidal, 52. “We believe that the Catholic Church is following the early church teachings more consistently.”
“[non-celibate]” was, of course, an improvement on what the actual person said in the actual article.
I find it interesting that these priests are running away from something and NOT towards what they consider the “true” religion. There are some serious differences between the Episcopal Church and Catholic church (WO & GLBT issues aside) such as Papal infallibilaty, papal supremacy, the Immaculate conception, extreme veneration of Mary, etc
These items also keep the RC & EO churches from uniting as well. I also wonder about how long the Ordinariate parishes will really survive — i.e. will they be like the Eastern Catholic churches and fill a niche temporarily? I would think many of the Anglican Traditions will die off without the fount to feed them.
And let us not forget “Dave in Dallas” that in addition to Papal in Papal infallibility, papal supremacy, the Immaculate conception, extreme veneration of Mary we should explicitly add soteriology for it was this more than these peripheral things, save perhaps papal supremacy, that led Anglicans to leave Rome. Reformation soteriology is a hallmark of Anglicanism. Although, admittedly the Episcopal Church abandoned any semblance of it long ago and even “orthodox” Anglo-Catholic are orthodox Anglican more in the sense that they don’t approve of WO and GLBT, than in that they hold orthodox Anglican positions on substantive theological matters.