I think it is appropriate that I write this last post on "Remnant Anglican" on the feast day of St. Augustine of Canterbury (in the Roman Calender).I am leaving the Episcopal church for the Roman Catholic Church.
After not going into Seminary as I planned last year, I was thankfully given more time to study and pray about my vocation in the Episcopal church. Part of my application to the Diocese of Quincy for postulancy included answering questions that really made me face who I am, what is my faith, what is "Church", and what am I called to be/do.
Who defines what being Anglican means? Presently everybody in the Church does... so in it we can find the Pagan and Atheist to the Reformed and Catholic. Having such opposing views continue in the Anglican Communion is untenable. The Anglican Communion is trying to work out these questions by writing a "Covenant" which they hope will more clearly define what "Anglican" means.
In my discernment for postulancy I realized that I would be willing to vow obedience to only 3 Bishops out of 110. This made me question the reasons why I chose to stay in the Episcopal Church. I didn't have any defensible answer.
Why the Roman Catholic Church? The Pope. (check out my new blog in a couple weeks.) Now I'm off to Chicago to find an apartment....
"[T]here are many other things which most properly can keep me in [the Catholic Church’s] bosom. The unanimity of peoples and nations keeps me here. Her authority, inaugurated in miracles, nourished by hope, augmented by love, and confirmed by her age, keeps me here. The succession of priests, from the very see of the apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after his resurrection, gave the charge of feeding his sheep [John 21:15–17], up to the present episcopate, keeps me here. And last, the very name Catholic, which, not without reason, belongs to this Church alone, in the face of so many heretics, so much so that, although all heretics want to be called ‘Catholic,’ when a stranger inquires where the Catholic Church meets, none of the heretics would dare to point out his own basilica or house" (St. Augustine of Hippo: Against the Letter of Mani Called "The Foundation" 4:5 [A.D. 397]).
4 comments:
Welcome!
Insightful post, especially your question Who defines what being Anglican means?. I think that is the core of the problem. It is the primary theological question which I asked sometime ago and I never received any answer. I was once told by an Anglican bishop that having no identity is what defines and Anglican.
I will pray for you and your vocation.
Dear Jeff,
May God bless you as you seek to enter the Roman Church! No doubt you will find it very different from the Anglican tradition in ethos. I will be interested in hearing of your progress. I will call you soon.
JGA+
Any explanation about why you are moving to Chicago? Your readers want to know.
Y E S !!!!!
Welcome home!!!!
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