From South Dakota-
As an Episcopal priest and member of the Worldwide Anglican Communion, I must say I am more than a bit curious about the Vatican’s appeal Tuesday to so-called “dissatisfied Anglicans” (as reported in an Associated Press report in Wednesday’s Daily Republic).
First, I am curious about the use of the term “convert,” as in “The Vatican announced Tuesday it was making it easier for Anglicans to convert to Roman Catholicism.”
If the Vatican’s chief doctrinal official used the term “convert,” it is incorrect. One only “converts” from one faith tradition to another (i.e. from the Islamic faith to the Christian faith). Therefore, as we are both members of Christian denominations, and therefore part of the Christian faith, this is a scurrilous term at best.
Second, while dissatisfied people changing denominations is nothing new, openly recruiting the dissatisfied certainly is. Regardless of denominational affiliation, all Christians are called to be one in the Body of Christ; we are all called to serve God through serving each other; we are all called to reconcile the world with our loving God. If this is the litmus test we as Christians use to live our lives (and if it isn’t, it should be), certainly an appeal such as the Vatican’s falls quite short of this.
Imagine, if you will, the outcry if any other denomination were to appeal to dissatisfied Roman Catholics — perhaps mentioning their well-publicized problems of the past and present, perhaps mentioning its continuing misogynistic doctrines, perhaps mentioning any number of issues with which a reasonable person could be dissatisfied. Would it not be wrong for them to do so and, if so, doesn’t this point to the current error in the Vatican’s ways?
More here-
http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/event/article/id/37903/group/Opinion/
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