[OLDCATH-L] Anglican leader urges 'convergence' with Catholics

[Andre Queen, Sr]

Blessings from Rome!

As I have been in Rome this past week and, as we speak, let me see what the feel here is on the meeting.
 


Yours in Christ the King, 

Most Rev. Andre J. W. Queen, SCR 
Archbishop, Province of the United States
Catholic Apostolic National Church 
www.catholic-canc.us 







________________________________
From: +Marty <FrMarty_Patton at fuse.net>
To: oldcatholicunity at yahoogroups.com; Old Catholic Discussion List <oldcath-l at stsams.org>
Sent: Fri, November 20, 2009 2:13:32 AM
Subject: [OLDCATH-L] Anglican leader urges 'convergence' with Catholics

FYI



May God Bless You,



+Marty



For the Greater Glory of God



Anglican leader urges 'convergence' with Catholics

(AFP) - 4 hours ago  12pm November 20, 2009

ROME - Church of England leader Rowan Williams, Archbishop of
Canterbury, said Thursday the "glass is half-full" in relations with
the Catholic Church despite strains over a Vatican overture to
disaffected Anglicans.

Speaking ahead of a meeting Saturday with Pope Benedict XVI, who last
month approved a new structure for allowing groups of Anglicans into
the Catholic fold, Williams said the two churches had "unfinished
business" to resolve, but that "the ecumenical glass is genuinely
half-full."

"The strong convergence... about what the Church of God really is, is
very striking," he said in a lecture at Rome's Gregorian University,
questioning "whether this unfinished business is as fundamentally
church-dividing as our Roman Catholic friends generally assume and
maintain."

While appearing conciliatory, Williams also laid down a "challenge to
recent Roman Catholic thinking" on women priests, the issue behind
many Anglicans' wish to leave the Church of England in preference for
Catholicism.

The archbishop, noting the "sharpness of division" among Anglicans on
the question of the ordination of women, said they had managed to
"maintain a degree of undoubtedly impaired communion among themselves"
by taking a broader view.

So he asked: "Is there a way of recognising that somehow the corporate
exercise of a Catholic and evangelical ministry remains intact even
when there is dispute about the standing of female individuals?"

The Vatican unveiled the new framework for the conversions on November
9 in what was described by The Times of London as "potentially the
most explosive development in Anglican-Catholic relations since the
Reformation."

The move, which could attract hundreds of Anglicans from around the
world who oppose women and openly gay clergy, was a response to what
the Vatican called "repeated and insistent" petitions.

The meeting between the pope and Williams, who is in Rome to help
celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Johannes Willebrands
-- a Dutch cardinal who was a pioneer in Catholic ecumenism -- was
scheduled long before the controversy.



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