From the Baltimore sun. Did he have to say "swings both ways"?
In the wake of Vatican plans to make it easier for Episcopalians to become Catholic, the Episcopal bishop of Maryland would like to make one point clear: The door swings both ways.
Lost in talk of the splintering of the Anglican Communion, Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton says, is the appeal that the 45,000-member Episcopal Diocese of Maryland has held for former Roman Catholics and others looking for a big-tent church.
While attention focused on the conversion en masse last month of a Catonsville-based order of Episcopal nuns to the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland has received three former Roman Catholic clergy in the past couple of months, Sutton says.
"We just want to remind people that this switching from Anglicans becoming Roman Catholics goes both ways," Sutton said. "Many, many laypeople in our churches came from the Roman Catholic Church. We get many clergy."
He spoke a week after Vatican officials said the Roman Catholic Church would create structures to welcome the Anglican (called Episcopalian in the U.S.) clergy and laypeople who have asked about joining. The surprise move comes amid a growing divide among conservatives and liberals in the worldwide Anglican Communion over the ordination of women, acceptance of gay clergy and the celebration of same-sex relationships.
More here-
http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/faith/bal-md.fa.episcopal30oct30,0,1481184.story
1 comment:
While numbers don't mean everything, and I know they don't, I suspect there are far more Roman Catholics unhappy with the position of their Church on the role of women clergy and gay priests, than there are Episcopalians on the role of women priests and the role of admitted homosexuals among both clergy and laity.
I know lots of ROman Catholics who are unhappy with the stance of their Church on the role of women and gays but, in the hope that things will change, they remain loyal where they are!
Lee
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