The See of Ebbsfleet has also issued its own statement, with the following announcement:
This is not a time for sudden decisions or general public discussion. We call for a time of quiet prayer and discernment. The coming season of Advent and the celebration of the mystery of the Incarnation at Christmas, seem to us to provide a good opportunity for this quiet prayer and discernment to take place, as well as some pastoral discussions. Some Anglicans in the Catholic tradition understandably will want to stay within the Anglican Communion. Others will wish to make individual arrangements as their conscience directs. A further group of Anglicans, we think, will begin to form a caravan, rather like the People of Israel crossing the desert in search of the Promised Land. As bishops we would want to reassure people that, whatever decisions people, priests and parishes make, they will find peace and blessing in following what they discern to be God’s will for them. We have chosen 22nd February, The Feast of the Chair of Peter, to be an appropriate day for priests and people to make an initial decision as to whether they wish to respond positively to and explore further the initiative of the Apostolic Constitution. Many, understandably, will need a much longer period of discernment and we would counsel against over-hasty reactions of whatever kind.
6 comments:
What has taken the Vatican so long (decades) to figure that one out...
Patience is a virtue Anonymous :-)
As I was saying yesterday, look for news from closer to home.
The present solution seems to allow the easier cases of the English Anglo-Catholics to move forward while keeping the door open for the more complicated case of the TAC. Note that Ebbsfleet and Richborough had their press release and discernment timetable ready before the announcement was made.
Let's not move too hastily as the Titanic sinks. Let's have some discussions, a parley, some meetings. Oh, do you need a glass of water, Miss Ipswich? Just bend down and scoop it from the rising flood.
P.K.T.P.
Why did it take decades? Well, that is rather quick for a 2,000-year-old organization.
More importantly, one has to look at this in the context of Vatican II and the 60s. Out of that tumultuous time, in Catholicism and Anglicanism, came in the 70s the Continuing Anglican churches such as the Traditional Anglican Communion, and the Pastoral Provision.
Now, that pioneering generation are retiring or passing away and we are confronted with the question: Now what? In the Catholic Church, the Pastoral Provision has proven successful, but the TAC and other Continuing Anglican churches are struggling.
So, what now? Expand the proven Pastoral Provision. Instead of the Pastoral Provision being allowed by individual dioceses, now it will be by Bishiops' conference. Instead of only in the US, now it will be potentially worldwide. Further, now there will be seminarians to replace the aging Pastoral Provision Anglican Use priests.
Why now? Because the first generation is passing and something needed to be done. Either Anglican Use would die or be made permanent. It will be the latter.
Mr. Hall, the TAC is unlikely to adopt the Anglican Use. They have a different liturgical traditional much closer to the traditional Latin Rite.
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