Anglican Use and its implications
Fr. Peregrinator at the Canterbury Tales blog makes the following comments regarding information he gathered at the recent Anglican Use conference held in Scranton, PA.:
Will There Be an Anglican Rite?
All the buzz surrounds the very explicit statement by Father William Stetson with reference to a rumored Anglican sui juris “uniat” Church. Fr Stetson related that it is nearly impossible to arrange Anglicans in an ecclesiastical structure akin to the Eastern Catholic sui juris Churches.
It essentially centers on a question of Catholic ecclesiology. The ancient metropolitan see of Canterbury and that of York were metropolitan sees established by Rome and governed by Rome. From the Roman point of view, these two sees fell into schism. It is therefore impossible to create a sui juris ecclesiastical body that exists at a greater canonical status than it possesed [sic] prior to schism. To put it briefly, Canterbury and York belonged to the Roman patriarchate and their descendents will continue to belong to that patriarchate as they return to full communion with Rome.
There is also information posted on the conference by Mr. Kimel (Pontifications) and by David Virtue of Virtue Online.
I’ve previously commented on Anglican Use and the fact that it is just a stop-gap. It will last 20-30 years and then disappear. There will be no new Anglican clergy converting (anyone with a mind to join a Catholic Church will have done so already) and the converting generation will have died off.
Rome is at least being somewhat honest in not holding out hope for something greater. As David Virtue opines: ‘No Refuge for Anglicans Seeking Unity with Rome’. None should be expected —“ and those who hope for more delude themselves.
The key here is how does Rome’s opinion regarding Anglican Use translate for other Churches seeking unity? Could the PNCC ever be a sui juris Church in communion with Rome?
Based on the opinion of Father William Stetson, and whomever he represents, absolutely not. If you agree to be in communion then you are left with options such as personal prelatures and apostolic administrations. That is just slow death by strangulation and absorption (look at Campos). All those who wish to rush headlong into unity, please remember to do so based on the reality of the situation, rather than your own personal assumptions and fantasies.
Logically the only way to accommodate the PNCC in the long run would be for Rome to change its rules on clerical marriage and the ownership of church properties, all of which it can do (not necessarily the same as should or must) but probably won’t. They don’t want to have to explain to other RCs why they can’t have those things too.
It was my experiences as an Anglican that showed that to be Anglican is to stand for things and beliefs that would not allow one to be Roman Catholic. So as to a Roman parish using a Prayer Book that would not make them anglican at all. The Unitarian Universalist Church uses the Anglican Prayer book for marriages, does that make them anglican unitarians???