Until recently, I was not aware that an Anglican Rite developed in the Western Church. How did that devekop and when. How many are there, churches, bishops, priests, and members? Do the married clergy have special dispensaions? Will new priests and bishops have to fit the mould of the Latin, Spanish and Poetugese rites?

-- Ron Potash (omaha30@comcast.net), November 14, 2003

Answers

The Anglican Church is the Church of England, arguably started by Henry VIII, during the Reformation.

The Episcopal Church, Charismatic Episcopal Church, Anglican Catholic Church and others are churches that stem from the Church of England. Some are part of the Anglican communion of Churches, some are not.

There has been serious dialogue for many years in an effort to reconcile the C of E, with the Roman Catholic in some manner.

There have been many problems. The main one today is the acceptabce of an openly gay bishop by the Episcopal Church in the U.S..

Currently, the Anglican Church is not in communion with the Holy See in Rome.

The Charismatic Episcopal Church has had serious dialogue with Rome. One of their priests told me the hope is that the Church will someday be accepted as an "american rite Church". There are some very well meaning people in the CEC, but their theology is very, very close to the Roman Catholic Church, so close that it might be better if they just came on board.

The differences are the use of the Book of Common Prayer, married priests and ordination of women deacons.

The Nicene Creed as a bedrock statement of faith unites many churches. Maybe one of these years, it will be the corner-post that brings unity.

God bless,

-- john placette (jplacette@catholic.org), November 14, 2003.

Jmj

Hello, Ron and John P.
John P, what you have stated is indeed correct. However, it may be helpful to Ron if I mention two things ...

(1) Although the name, "Charismatic Episcopal Church" ("CEC"), may cause one to think of Episcopalianism (within the Anglican Communion), the "CEC" is actually not a part of the Anglican Communion at all. The following is from one of its sites (http://www.intercom.net/user/vader/):
"The Charismatic Episcopal Church is not and has never been affiliated with the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) or the Church of England or the Anglican Communion. The CEC was not formed as the result of a split from the Episcopal Church. 'Episcopal' is a biblical term meaning Bishop or Overseer, and it refers to the church's form of government."

(2) Ron, I wonder if you are referring, not to the (Protestant) Anglican Communion (about which John P wrote), but rather to something that really has been developing within the Catholic Church since 1980. It has not officially been given the designation "Anglican rite," but rather the "Anglican Use liturgy" of the Mass, which is celebrated at a small (but growing) number of Catholic parishes.

You can read about the liturgy here. You can see a list of the parishes wherein this liturgy is celebrated here (and click on the "main page" link at bottom to see the last one). [These parishes are particularly prominent in Texas now, because the first one was Our Lady of the Atonement in San Antonio.]

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), November 16, 2003.

Sorry John and Ron, I misunderstood.

The liturgy you referenced John is if not the same, very very similar to an Anglican Catholic Church that I attended, just to see what it was like. But, I know it was not in communion with Rome. It seems that that group is not doing well.

But, I could very well see Anglican Rite attracting the conservative episcopalians if a major split does occur.

God bless,

-- john placette (jplacette@catholic.org), November 21, 2003.

"But, I could very well see Anglican Rite attracting the conservative episcopalians if a major split does occur."

Good point, John P. I had not thought of that!
JFG

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), November 22, 2003.

Have just come across yr site. The Traditional Anglican Communion, a worldwide communion of continuing Anglicans is serious about being in communion with the Holy See and has reached an advance stage. You can read about it in The Messenger, the newspaper of TAC on website www.themessenger.com.au Blessings Fr. Owen Buckton

-- Fr. Owen Buckton (messenger@iinet.net.au), December 12, 2003.

Cool!

In Christ, -bill

-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45@hotmail.com), December 12, 2003.