The ecumenical Dutch Touch that leads to unity
Fr. Robert Hart of the Continuum Blog has an interesting article on the “Dutch Touch” and Anglican Orders. In The Dutch Touch: A study in irrelevance he says:
Frankly, Saepius Officio, written in 1897 by the Archbishops of England (Canterbury and York) said everything that needed to be said in defense of our Orders, and the best summary anywhere is that of Bicknell.
As for the subject of the Infusion itself, it is a relic of an innocent age of ecumenical hope, that innocence and hope that would suffer destruction for the official Anglican Communion in 1976. If the Infusion may help someday between orthodox Anglicans of the Continuum and Rome or, restart some ecumenical relations with the Polish National Catholic Church, then maybe it will not have been a big wasted effort after all.
Until such a time, who cares?
Two observations: First, I think that ecumenical contact between orthodox Anglicans and the PNCC would be a fine thing. We offer the Declaration of Scranton as a point of unity between national churches, and as a structural building block in accord with the National Church philosophy expounded by Bishop Hodur.
The interesting thing about the word continuum is that it means a connection that surpasses the here and now. At core it is a continuation of a Church’s traditions, practices, and character (of course only important if they are Catholic in character and in fact). I have said before, including to local clergy of the TAC, swimming the Tiber will eventually lead to the dissolution of everything that you are. Simply put, the weight of the Roman Church will subsume the TAC and any other Continuum Church that joins it, just as Anglican Use parishes will disappear within two generations.
I also think that there is another issue that gets lost in the whole swimming the Tiber spirit within the TAC, “Is that what your people really want? Just as among clergy some will say yes, but I believe that a majority will see what I see, that ‘who they are’ will slip away.
My second observation, and I congratulate Fr. Hart for making the point, is “who cares.” That is really the point if your Church believes itself to be Catholic. Like the Orthodox Churches we need to place less emphasis on what Rome thinks of us and more on what we think of ourselves (and no emphasis on what some over-the-top on-line R.C. pundits and detractors think of us). The full body of Catholic Churches are, in their varied external manifestations (those whose ecclesiology, polity, and praxis are Catholic), the totality of the Church, which is truly universal.
I agree with you about “who cares” but for different reasons:
1.) There are now so many so-called “orthodox Anglicans” (both “Catholic”
and evangelical) that it is hard to tell who is who. With so many new,
small, continuing Anglican denominations, who cares?
2.) The question of Infusion has become moot because of the Episcopal
Church’s attempt to ordain women as priests and to consecrate them as
bishops. Whatever may have been asserted about Anglican orders after
the English Reformation, it is now apparent that the Episcopal and soon
the British Anglican Churches will have little claim to the Catholic
Tradition on the priesthood. So again, who cares?
Thomas,
To your first point, that is more or less the history of Anglicanism – many different approaches to Christianity cobbled together in one Church. That’s why it wasn’t sustainable, and why I explicitly noted the Catholic aspect in the Continuum.
On the second point, also correct. The PNCC generally conditionally ordains Anglican clergy who come over.
To the author’s point, I think he is generally disinterested in the fight over orders/legitimacy of such/etc. Key to his argument is being self-aware/self-assured.
My suspicion is that if the ACA is successful in corporately uniting with Rome, it will occasion a schism within the ACA.
Beyond that, I you are probably right, although perhaps, prior to reuniting with Rome, the ACA can carve out a distinct niche for itself within the Roman Church; however, I am not optimistic about that. Perhaps the ACA would be better served by an agreement with Rome similar to the one to which the PNCC is party.