WORDS TO THE WHYS
The truth will make you odd. Flannery O’Connor
The Long Division of Continuing Anglicans
At the joy filled moment when continuing Anglicans inaugurated the Anglican Church in North America, commonly known as ACNA, the wraith of women's ordination ambled among the attendees of the constitutional convention.
When, during the convention, the question of women's ordination was put to Robert William Duncan, the first Archbishop (Primate) of ACNA, a strangely familiar answer was given.
After the Anglican Church in North America’s (ACNA) momentous inaugural gathering, the verdict is out on whether the issue of women’s ordination will inhibit the budding alliance from moving forward.
“For those who believe the ordination of women to be a grave error, and for those who believe it scripturally justifiable . . . we should be in mission together until God sorts us out,” said (Robert) Duncan in last week’s opening address. “It is not perfect, but it is enough.”
Since both human sexuality and the authority of Scripture are so central to ACNA’s formation in the first place, it seems unlikely that the issue of women priests won’t at some point cause the newly formed partnership to fracture.
But Duncan stressed the importance of keeping unity — for the time being.
He warned those celebrating their new unity to guard against old habits of infighting. Satan, he said, will try to use their differences over matters such as women's ordination to turn them against each other.
"He will try to lure us back to old ways and old hurts and old fights. Mark my words," he said, calling them to practice healing, forbearance and forgiveness.
There can be little hope for unity if there is not unity in the Truth. Truth delayed is a torpedo en route.
Rt. Rev. William Ilgenfritz, MDAS Bishop Ordinary reported from the recent [ACNA] College of Bishops meeting on the Task Force Report on the Ordination of Women that the bishops requested a moratorium on the ordination of women to the priesthood in ACNA, as such ordinations are a divisive issue in ACNA. The request was rebuffed, he said.
“Orthodox bishops were told to ‘love it or leave for Rome.’
Furthermore, the Primate of South Sudan secretly ordained women contrary to his own constitution and canons in direct defiance of the moratorium by GAFCON and kept it secret for two years.
Women’s ordination is not the only problem with ACNA.
Mr. Simon Dennerly, at the
Anglicanorum Coetibus blog, documents the developments concerning the relationship between ACNA and the Missionary Diocese of All Saints (MDAS).
“Problems with the ACNA”: MDAS Synod Minutes
The Ordinariate brings the best of the noble Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony into communion with the Catholic Church, the Church that Jesus founded upon Saint Peter. Seekers might consider the fact that a missal, uniquely conceived to include the Anglican Patrimony, is now a treasure to be shared with the entire Catholic Church. Divine Worship: the Missal is a real and substantive expression of that Patrimony.
Through the Ordinariate and its Liturgy, God is giving Anglicans an(other) opportunity to say 'yes' to communion with the See of Peter established by Jesus Christ. Through the Ordinariate, God is giving cradle Catholics the opportunity to renew their understanding of the fundamental importance of the Sacred Liturgy to the life of every Catholic.
The liturgical renewal sought by the fathers of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (Concilium Oecumenicum Vaticanum Secundum) is elegantly and authentically realized in the Ordinariate Mass.
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preach (v.) - from www.etymonline.com Middle English prechen , "deliver a sermon, proclaim the Gospel," from late Old English predician , a loan word from Church Latin; reborrowed 12c. as preachen , from Old French preechier "to preach, give a sermon" (11c., Modern French précher ), from Late Latin praedicare "to proclaim publicly, announce" (in Medieval Latin "to preach," source also of Spanish predicar ), from Latin prae "before" (from PIE root * per - "forward," hence "in front of, before") + dicare "to proclaim, to say" (from PIE root * deik - "to show," also "pronounce solemnly"). Meaning "give earnest advice, especially on moral subjects" is by 1520s. To preach to the converted is recorded from 1867 (the form preach to the choir attested from 1979). The Role of Preaching in the Church The Catechism explains that preaching is central to the Church’s mission of sharing t...
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Mass - Bloodless Synonym for Christ's Eternal Sacrifice for the Salvation of Souls The first offertory prayer of Divine Worship discloses the sacrifice of the Mass as an act in which Christ’s once‑for‑all oblation is made present and lovingly offered to the Father through the Church’s hands. Its language emphasizes that the gifts set upon the altar—“holy bread” and “chalice of salvation”—are not merely symbolic tokens but the very matter through which the faithful join themselves to Christ’s self‑giving. The prayer frames the offering as both propitiatory and participatory: propitiatory, because it looks to the Cross as the singular source of reconciliation; participatory, because the faithful unite their intentions, labours, and lives to Christ’s perfect sacrifice. This offertory thus reveals the Mass as a living movement of ascent, in which earthly gifts are taken up into the heavenly worship. It also underscores the priest’s mediating role, asking that the sacrifice be accepted ...
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EZEKIEL 44:23
They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common.
POPE LEO XIV Magnifica Humanitas
Even in the darkest nights, the Lord raises up men and women who refuse to give up, who persevere in doing good, who protect the vulnerable and open pathways to reconciliation. The memory of the saints, righteous people and the oft-forgotten peacemakers, show us that grace does not magically eliminate conflict, but instead it inspires active resistance to evil and an astonishing creativity in doing good” (paragraph 211).
A PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING TO GOD FOR ONE'S GUARDIAN ANGEL
ALMIGHTY and eternal God, it is fitting to render unto Thee thanks for my guardian angel. At the end of my earthly sojourn, grant, I humbly beseech Thee, that my guardian may accompany me into Thy glorious Presence, there to rejoice with the entire company of heaven, and to offer praise unto Thee for all eternity; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
I doubt not then but innocence shall make false accusation blush, and tyranny tremble at patience.
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