October 26, 2009 — Like the Monty Python knights of old, the Pope raised a Holy Hand Grenade on high, counted to 3, and lobbed it into the midst of the Anglicans, including the Episcopalians, who apparently never saw it coming.
The explosion echoed throughout the global Anglican Communion. The shock waves must have rendered Episcopal Church leaders mute, for not a word about the significance of this moment has come out of Church headquarters to this day — a week after Pope Benedict XVI offered to open the gates of Rome to all Anglicans willing to convert and to allow them to use many of their traditional prayers and hymns (many, but not all?) under certain conditions.
Monty Python's Holy Hand Grenade
A reliable source close to the matter has told ETF that Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, knew of the Vatican’s intent well in advance of the October 20 announcement, giving him time to formulate a joint response with the Archbishop of Westminster (see below) and arrange for a press conference on the very day the Pope tossed his bomb. “The Archbishop certainly knew what was coming in the weeks before the announcement,” the source told us.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the Episcopal Church, however, has said not a word, at least in public, about this momentous event. Although she spoke in public yesterday at Kansas City’s Grace Cathedral during a Eucharist celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, she made no mention of the announcement that shook the Church last Tuesday. She based her homily Sunday on analogies having to do with salt. She was raised a Roman Catholic until her parents and she converted in 1963.
Today ETF obtained the Episcopal Church’s brief statement that spoke vaguely of “dialogue,” did not carry the presiding bishop’s name, and had absolutely nothing to say about the impact of the Holy Hand Grenade:
From The Episcopal Church on the recent statement from the Vatican
We have received the Vatican’s statement and the joint statement signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of Westminster. We are in dialogue with the Archbishop’s office and will, in the coming days, continue to explore the full implications of this in our ecumenical relations.
The announcement reflects what the Roman Catholic Church, through its acceptance of Anglican rite parishes, has been doing for some years more informally.
We in the Episcopal Church continue to look to the Holy Spirit, who guides us in understanding of what it means to be the Church in the Anglican Tradition.
We continue to remain in dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church through participation in the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Consultation (ARCIC) and the Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue in the USA (ARC-USA).
The Episcopal Church is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and works together with other Provinces and with our ecumenical and interfaith partners to promote God’s reign on earth.
Bishop Christopher Epting
Deputy for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations
The Episcopal Church
October 20, 2009
Joint Statement by The Archbishop of Westminster
And The Archbishop of Canterbury
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 • 5:48 am
Today’s announcement of the Apostolic Constitution is a response by Pope Benedict XVI to a number of requests over the past few years to the Holy See from groups of Anglicans who wish to enter into full visible communion with the Roman Catholic Church, and are willing to declare that they share a common Catholic faith and accept the Petrine ministry as willed by Christ for his Church.
Pope Benedict XVI has approved, within the Apostolic Constitution, a canonical structure that provides for Personal Ordinariates, which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of distinctive Anglican spiritual patrimony.
The announcement of this Apostolic Constitution brings to an end a period of uncertainty for such groups who have nurtured hopes of new ways of embracing unity with the Catholic Church. It will now be up to those who have made requests to the Holy See to respond to the Apostolic Constitution.
The Apostolic Constitution is further recognition of the substantial overlap in faith, doctrine and spirituality between the Catholic Church and the Anglican tradition. Without the dialogues of the past forty years, this recognition would not have been possible, nor would hopes for full visible unity have been nurtured. In this sense, this Apostolic Constitution is one consequence of ecumenical dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion.
The on-going official dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion provides the basis for our continuing cooperation. The Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) and International Anglican Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM) agreements make clear the path we will follow together.
With God’s grace and prayer we are determined that our on-going mutual commitment and consultation on these and other matters should continue to be strengthened. Locally, in the spirit of IARCCUM, we look forward to building on the pattern of shared meetings between the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales and the Church of England’s House of Bishops with a focus on our common mission. Joint days of reflection and prayer were begun in Leeds in 2006 and continued in Lambeth in 2008, and further meetings are in preparation. This close cooperation will continue as we grow together in unity and mission, in witness to the Gospel in our country, and in the Church at large.
+ Rowan Williams
Archbishop of Canterbury
+ Vincent Nichols
Archbishop of Westminster
London
20 October 2009
– Jan Mahood, Editor
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