Congregational Catholics

Cardinal Reinhard Marx and fellow bishops from Germany meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, Nov. 17, 2022 | Vatican Media. Source: CNA

At the Collation & Installation of the new Dean of Llandaff, the Rev Canon Richard Peers, the retiring bishop, June Osbourne, repeated the claim that "the Church in Wales is part of the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church", a claim rejected by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches following the unilateral action of some Anglicans to ordain women to the priesthood.

 The bishop invited the Dean-designate to make the following declaration:

"I do solemnly declare my belief in the Faith which is revealed in Holy Scripture and set forth in 
the Catholic Creeds and to which the historic formularies, namely the Thirty-nine Articles of 
Religion, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Ordering of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons as
published in 1662, bear witness; and in public prayer and the administration of the Sacraments,

I will use only those forms of service which are allowed by lawful authority, and none other. And
I hereby undertake to be bound by the Constitution of the Church in Wales, and to accept,
submit to, and carry out any sentence or judgement which may at any time be passed upon me
by the Archbishop, a Diocesan Bishop or any Court or the Tribunal of the Church in Wales."

Somewhat removed from the faith of one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, the Dean of Llandaff is in a same sex relationship living openly with his partner. The campaigning bishop of Monmouth is also living openly with her partner in a same sex relationship while the Archbishop of Wales is a re-married divorcee.

How can this be? 

Anglican beliefs allow local discretion under The Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral :

1. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the revealed Word of God.

2. The Nicene Creed as the sufficient statement of the Christian Faith.

3. The two Sacraments,–Baptism and the Supper of the Lord,–ministered with unfailing use of Christ’s words of institution and of the elements ordained by Him.

4. The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the unity of His Church.

'Locally adapted' opens a can of worms. The liberal agenda took hold in the Episcopal Church of the United States (ECUSA, now TEC). In 2003 Anglican provinces declare 'impaired' or 'broken' relationship with ECUSA following the consecration of Gene Robinson, the first openly gay priest to be consecrated a bishop in a major Christian denomination, as bishop of New Hampshire.

Within a generation liberal revisionists have taken control of many Anglican provinces. The Church in Wales has become a joke among orthodox Anglicans and the wider Christian fellowship. The Church of England teeters on the edge of disaster as bishops push their latest deception, Living in Love and Faith.

Liberal provinces face extinction while Anglicanism elsewhere thrives. In the USA, Alarm Bells as Episcopal Church Decline Accelerates but nothing deters the revisionists. If at first they don't succeed they try, try and try again until they have their own way.

For those Anglicans who swam the Tiber the same ominous signs are appearing as German bishops meet with Pope Francis amid concern over Synodal Way

The president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, said he will not deny blessings for same-sex couples.

The Synodal Way "is a controversial discussion process underway in Germany with the declared aim of addressing the Church’s clerical sexual abuse crisis by debating and passing resolutions on whether, or how, Catholicism needs to change (“develop”) its teaching – and the Catholic Church therefore change its approach – to questions of sexuality and the exercise of power, including doctrine and the sacraments."

The Church of England Synod voted to ordain women to the priesthood and to the episcopate. The Governing Body of the Church in Wales followed suit. The Church of England is seeking to emulate the Church in Wales, blessing same sex partnerships as a precursor to same sex marriage in Church. Disaster looms closer.

Faith by committee is not the faith of the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Ultimately it has led to Jesus being depicted as a "rosy-cheeked Christ with breasts, beard and make-up jumping in front of a rainbow".

As Tony Barber wrote in the Financial Times yesterday, "The American priest and author Andrew Greeley once said: “The opposite of Catholic is not Protestant. The opposite of Catholic is sectarian.” But just as secular politics in western countries is a battleground between mutually suspicious conservatives and liberals, so Greeley’s appeal to respect differences of religious opinion is drowning in a doctrinal struggle for control of the Roman Catholic Church."

Postscript [04.12.2022]

Greek City Times The Ordination of Women in the Orthodox Church: Revealing The Truth