In dramatic reversal TAC bishops decide not to enter communion with Rome; +Hepworth is deposed

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.

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."

Read the rest here.

HT: T-19

A Feast Not Kept: Josephat of Polotsk

I don't usually have a major issue with those considered saints by the Western Church. But Josaphat Kuntsevych? Sorry, I can't go there.  I don't hang icons on my wall of murderers and those who violently repress the Orthodox Church.  In fairness there was much intolerance in those days. Modern concepts of religious liberty were completely alien to that era and religious minorities were routinely persecuted. Josephat was backed by the power of the state, and he wielded that power ruthlessly in pursuit of what he believed to be the "true faith."  The man was many things, and probably not all of them were evil.  But a saint and martyr for Christian unity?  Ummm... no.

Cardinal Husar of the Ukrainian Catholic (Eastern Rite) Church calls for unity in the Ukraine

Kiev. December 15. Interfax - The leader of the Uniates Lubomir Husar called for the unification of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the self-proclaimed "Kiev Patriarchate and Ukrainian autocephalous Orthodox Church, as well as the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in one local Church of the country.

"We have a desire to see these four branches back to the primitive unity. But this unity will not be the same as in the times (prince), Vladimir (Grand - IF)," - said the head of Church in Tuesday's press conference Kiev.

According to L. Husar, the establishment of a united church of Kiev should occur in the form of participations - need to combine faith and traditions of each of the branches to leave. "We are all equal ... We are the same can be only in the holy faith. And those already operating time, tradition, way - this is secondary. We must learn to be tolerant to each other, take it, do not insist that we must all become like one or another branch ", - the head of the Uniates.

In the view of L. Husar, Patriarch, who will head one local church, could belong to any of the four branches, and the spiritual center of the united Church will be Cathedral of St. Sophia in Kiev.

Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church came under the Brest union in 1596 to unite the Orthodox and Catholic churches in the territory of the Commonwealth with the recognition of the primacy of the Pope and a number of Roman Catholic canon, while maintaining the Eastern rite.

After the Lviv Cathedral Church in 1946 has been eliminated, although continued to operate illegally in the western regions of Ukraine and abroad. In 1989, the Church in fact was re-legalized as a result of diplomatic agreements between Mikhail Gorbachev and Pope John Paul II.

Source

Hat tip to Mike L. at the Byzantine Forum

Note: The above translation is from Mike L.