Summary: In the most liberal religious building in Italy (Bose), the most useless debate society in history keeps on as if nothing had changed.
The Anglican - Roman Catholic International Commission has completed the first meeting of its new phase (ARCIC III) at the Monastery of Bose in northern Italy (May 17-27, 2011). The Commission, chaired by the Most Reverend David Moxon (Anglican Archbishop of the New Zealand Dioceses) and the Most Reverend Bernard Longley (Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham) comprises eighteen theologians from a wide range of backgrounds across the world. [If you wish to waste your time, keep reading it here.]
The Anglican side included a delightful provocation: a "bishopess" (the "Right Reverend" Linda Nicholls, Area "Bishop" for Trent-Durham, "Diocese" of Toronto) and a "canoness" ("Canon" Alyson Barnett-Cowan, pictured above in Saint Peter's with another Anglican "canon"- image source). The ladies, of course, helped the number of ordained clerics on the Anglican side reach the total of zero.
So, "Whence Ecumenism," Michael Davies's repeated question regarding ARCIC? The Personal Ordinariates mandated by Anglicanorum Coetibus are the true ecumenism, not ARCIC. But it is hard, very hard, to give up a lifetime of soft theology, empty careerism, free travel, free lodging, and free food.
Sancta Dei Genetrix, Regina Angliae, ora pro nobis.
Sancte Augustine, ora pro nobis.
Sancte Augustine, ora pro nobis.
