Ecumenism can’t be based on wishful thinking about the past

From The Catholic Herald-

One hopes that the Pope enjoyed his recent visit to All Saints in the Via del Babuino, a rather fine Anglican Church in the heart of Rome, the work of the famous architect G E Street. In the course of his visit, he preached a sermon in Italian. It centred on the blessing of an icon, using language that is more redolent of the Christian East than the Christian West. One wonders who writes these things.

More interesting were the remarks made in a question and answer session, which are reported by Vatican Radio. When wishing to emphasise what Anglicans and Catholics share, the Pope had this to say:

“We have a common tradition of the saints … Never, never in the two Churches, have the two traditions renounced the saints: Christians who lived the Christian witness until that point. This is important.

“There is another thing that has kept up a strong connection between our religious traditions: [male and female] monks, monasteries. And monks, both Catholic and Anglican, are a great spiritual strength of our traditions.”

This is interesting from a historical perspective and suggests that the Pope should perhaps take a close look at the history of England or the Thirty-Nine Articles.

More here-

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2017/02/28/ecumenism-cant-be-based-on-wishful-thinking-about-the-past/

Thirty-Nine Articles Revived

From The Living Church-

Nearly thirty years ago when I ventured to publish a small book discussing the Thirty-Nine Articles, having found the existing literature, as I was so brash as to say, “disagreeable,” it was considered a rather self-destructive thing to do. Slowly the Articles had become decentred from the life of the Church of England, which of all the Anglican churches was most likely to have a stake in them, and even clerical subscription could be done on terms that hardly required the subscriber to read them. It seemed to have become established that this document attracted no more than an occasional feisty pamphlet from the disenchanted fringes, beyond which it was left to the historians to get excited about.

Nearly thirty years ago when I ventured to publish a small book discussing the Thirty-Nine Articles, having found the existing literature, as I was so brash as to say, “disagreeable,” it was considered a rather self-destructive thing to do. Slowly the Articles had become decentred from the life of the Church of England, which of all the Anglican churches was most likely to have a stake in them, and even clerical subscription could be done on terms that hardly required the subscriber to read them. It seemed to have become established that this document attracted no more than an occasional feisty pamphlet from the disenchanted fringes, beyond which it was left to the historians to get excited about.

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/thirty-nine-articles-revived