Trooping to Rome
The Times - A tale of a tub, a Church and a sticky marriage. Past notes by Graham Stewart
GAY BISHOPS, women bishops, American liberals, African conservatives — it is little wonder that the Anglican Communion cites irreconcilable differences as it contemplates divorce.
It would not be its first failed marriage. Conceived by royal infidelity, the Church of England has gone through so many marital break-ups that, when next it seeks a union, it may qualify only for the secular rites of the register office.
Hehehe poor Charles.
Archdeacon Robert Wilberforce suggested to Archdeacon Henry Edward Manning that they set up a breakaway Free Church of England. Manning replied, “No. Three hundred years ago we left a good ship for a boat; I am not going to leave the boat for a tub.” So off the discontented trooped to Rome — where John Henry Newman had already gone before them.
Hee.
June 26th, 2006 at 2:43 am
Robert Wilberforce was Archdeacon of the East Riding and he was vicar of Burton Agnes which is the most lovely church, house and vicarage. He had to give it all up because he became a catholic. His brother, Bishop “Soapy Sam” Wilberforce stayed an Anglican, and they barely spoke for the last 20-odd years. Manning of course became Cardinal of Westminster. If anyone’s interested there’s a brilliant book by a chap called David Newsome about all these people and the agonies of conscience they endured over whether or not to Pape.
It’s all so very different from this woman:http://www.episcopalchurch.org/357776174ENG_HTM.htm What, one wonders, does she mean by “moving our sanctuaries into the streets to encounter and transform the bad news of this world”? Does that make sense?
June 26th, 2006 at 2:46 am
PS Three weeks today I’ll be on holiday about 5 miles from Burton Agnes. Eating pork pie and drinking beer, since you ask. The occasional dressed crab.
June 26th, 2006 at 9:03 am
Ever get the feeling these liberal churchmen are just UN mandarins in collars?
I expect she wants to put up store-front churches in city centers so people with hectic lives can pop in for some calm and “reflection” before leaving again without having to actually commit in any way to a religion or standard of living.
June 26th, 2006 at 9:25 am
They tell you they’re bearing witness to Christ, but when I hear them they always seem rather to be bearing witness to themselves and how great they are. That might be uncharitable, but it sometimes feels like that.
June 26th, 2006 at 11:28 am
Yes, well, it’s the same as all the raver types who run around telling people they’re Buddhists, without actually paying any attention to what the Dalai Lama hasn’t exactly kept secret. They like being “holy”.
June 26th, 2006 at 6:19 pm
people with hectic lives can pop in for some calm and “reflection” before leaving again without having to actually commit in any way to a religion or standard of living.
I expect I’m guilty of this, hell I’m guilty of most things, is it wrong to allow a little cheap mystic into our lives? Not arguing, just wondering, it may damn well be wrong for all I know.
June 26th, 2006 at 11:07 pm
No not at all. I just object to them telling everyone how well they’re doing the Organized Religion gig when if they served Espresso drinks they’d be a less structured Starbucks.
June 27th, 2006 at 6:09 am
The sort of people I mean don’t go round admitting they’re guilty of anything, Half. Think Pharisee. We guilty types most certainly do need a “a little cheap mystic” - which is precisely what these people don’t offer. Self-love can’t be mystical by definition, after all.
June 29th, 2006 at 7:14 am
There’s religion and then there’s Boomereligion.
June 29th, 2006 at 8:55 am
And we all know how popular Boomers are here.