Anyone Up for a Good Laugh?
Embryo Parson Posted on Wednesday, May 29, 2013 at 07:10PM "The Secret to Preserving Anglicanism" -- become Orthodox.
UPDATE 5/31, 7:32 MST: Which led to a discussion regarding the Orthodox Western Rite at Fr. Chadwick's blog. One commenter there, "Ad Orientem", who has also blogged on the VOL article, had this to say (among other things) at Chadwick's blog:
Long term I do not know what the future holds for the WR. But my instincts tell me it is too big to just dismantle as a failed experiment.
Ah. "Too big to fail." We've heard that one before in another unpleasant context.
But as I've noted here previously, it probably will fail, and probably should fail. The note of desperation in Ad Orientem's comment is likely warranted. The fellow I quote in the linked OJC entry was a principal in American Western Rite Orthodoxy. He threw in the towel and returned to the Roman Catholic Church of his youth. When I asked him, " Do you think the Western Rite has a secured place in the Orthodox Church, or do you foresee eventual assimilation into the Eastern Rite?", he replied:
Frankly, I don't believe that WRO has much of a future at all. There is simply no common vision. I do foresee eventual ER assimilation, or mass defections to Rome or traditional Anglicanism (the latter, admittedly, has the advantage of a non-exceptional married clergy).
My feeling is that Orthodox ought to be Byzantine, Romans ought to be Roman, Anglicans ought to be Anglican. Uniate projects (and yes, I include here Greek Catholicism and Anglican Use Roman Catholicism) never seem to work out; they always produce a sort of bastardized "tertium quid".
Reader Comments (1)
Anglican patrimony will be preserved within the Orthodox vicariates about as well as Byzantine patrimony has been preserved within the Uniat eparchies. If you thrive on cognitive dissonance, by all means, change your creed and your calendar and tell yourself that you're preserving the faith of your fathers.