ANGLICAN breakaway archbishop John Hepworth has been removed from his post as the global primate of the church at a meeting of bishops in South Africa.Read the rest here.
Archbishop Hepworth, the Australian leader of the Traditional Anglican Communion, last year claimed he was raped by three Catholic priests nearly 40 years ago.
He had planned to step down at Easter after bishops in several countries lost confidence in him and opposed his attempts to reunite with Rome.
A statement issued by the TAC's College of Bishops after the meeting in Johannesburg late on Thursday night also revealed the body voted to remain completely Anglican, despite Archbishop Hepworth's successful attempts to reconcile the TAC with the Catholic Church in Rome last year.
"The TAC will remain fully Anglican," the statement said.
"While it receives, with thanks, the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus from the Holy See, the TAC College of Bishops has voted as a communion to decline the invitation."
HT: T-19
4 comments:
An insult, considering the TAC approached Rome for this. Still, it hasn't stopped many TAC parishes and priests from becoming Catholic.
Why is it insulting? This is not like some sort of corporate merger wherein earnest money is put into escrow, "agreed frameworks" are signed, financial records are disclosed, and internal organizational changes are made only for the deal to fall though at the last minute. What we have here are a group of bishops who thought about ecclesiology and realized that they could not become Catholic because they fundamentally disagreed with the proposition that communion with the Pope of Rome is a necessary condition for membership in the one true Church. Much better for this to be discovered now than have a rush to embrace based upon a lie.
Han
I agree with your point. But I also can see where Roman Catholics might be raising eyebrows since the entire set up for Anglicans wishing to become Catholic while retaining at least some of their patrimony is a direct result of the petition of the TAC's bishops. It is also worth remembering that each of those bishops signed the Catechism of Catholic Church as part of their petition to Rome.
Anglicans wishing to become Catholic while retaining at least some of their patrimony
Oh man, did this ever get me thinking.
The Anglicans, as their name implies want "Orthodoxy." That is, they want their national Church, though the English nation is quite diffuse and dispersed at this point. Rome regards its patriarchy as supreme and universal, so the two views are in fact highly incompatible.
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