The work of the Holy Spirit
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I anxiously wait to hear Pope Benedict XVI announcement concerning your communion being united with the Bishop of Rome.
I pray that the Holy Spirit will make it possible for all you wonderful traditional Anglicans to be welcomed home with open and loving arms. I am a Roman Catholic, but my heritage is both English and Irish. It would truly be a gift from God for all of us Roman Catholics who are Anglophiles to have you Anglicans in communion with our Holy Father. I also pray for England’s return to Catholicism, through Our Lady of Walsingham.
It is my hope that you will be granted the status of “Anglican Rite” into the fold of our Catholic Church. May Jesus Christ and the most Holy Trinity be glorified in everything we do.
I will pray for your intentions through our Most Blessed Mother Mary and St. Thomas More.
Because of Jesus,
+Charles Wadlow
Seattle WA United States of America
TAC’s fidelity to its Anglo-Catholic heritage an inspiration
I am a Roman Catholic layman in Minnesota and I just wanted to share with you what joy it brings me to hear of a possible formal reconciliation between the Traditional Anglican Communion and the Holy See. I hope this prospect comes to frutition, as it pains me to speculate that tradition seems to have been jettisoned within Canterbury-aligned Anglicanism to an even greater extent than in the Church of Rome. I admire your Communion's fidelity to its Anglo-Catholic heritage, and it serves as an inspiration to me, furthering my commitment to stand by two-thousand years of Christian history rather than forty years of zeitgeist. I want your Communion and its member parishes to know that this process of reunion holds a special place in my prayers and rosary intentions. The Roman Catholic Church would benefit immensely from your Communion's full corporate presence, and hope one day to fully assist in your Eucharistic liturgy.
God Speed,
Ryan Chegwin
Dear Friends in Christ,
My very best wishes to Archbishop Hepworth and all in the TAC for a blessed Christmas and a happy new year. May the new year bring fulfillment of the wishes for unity so nobly expressed by the TAC bishops in October. As one who is a Roman Catholic of the Anglican Usage, I await the full union of our brethren in the TAC with much prayer and sense of urgency. I hope in 2008 not merely to assist at Mass at TAc churches, such as St Mary of the Angels in Los Angeles, but also to receive Our Lord there in full communion with you all.
Again permit me to wish you all the best.
Yours in Christ,
Sherwood O. Jones
Hope and pray for corporate reunion
I AM a former Anglican who was received into the Catholic Church over three years ago. I am fervently hoping and praying for a corporate reunion between the TAC and Rome, so that our common liturgical and cultural heritage may be preserved within the Church and so that we may be reunited in the same Communion, my family especially.
I would love to receive a subscription to The Messenger Journal effective immediately.
Thank you, and God bless,
Christopher Mahon
A welcome awaits with warmth and tears
DEAR Brothers and Sisters in Christ;
As a Roman Catholic layman and student of English History, I can't express in words how joyously I and my family received the news of your request for full communion with Rome!
I have for many years admired the Sarum Liturgy, ever since I was given a copy of the Saint Augustine Prayer Book by a dear friend. The prayers of the Mass and devotions are pious, theologically correct and very, very moving. The Elizabethan English is very much to my liking. This treasured book sits on my night stand where it receives much prayerful use.
It is certainly gratifying to see that after almost 500 years of sad separation, a faithful, robust wing of "Mary's Dower," is seeking to return home. This is one Roman Catholic, and I am sure one of many millions, who will be waiting with warmth in his heart and tears in his eyes!
I do hope that your journey home is swift and bears much fruit.
May God bless you all for your courage and true witness!
Michael Mattes
Neponsit, New York
Wonderful work
WE are pleased to renew our subscription to the Messenger Journal, an excellent journal, full of Catholic Tradition, Faith and Witness. Keep up the wonderful work.
Sincerely,
Mr and Mrs Gordon Gage
New Zealand
Beauty of Anglican worship
FOR over forty years I have longed to attend a proper old fashioned Evensong service and now at last I have found such a service.
We had the works! – Sung Magnificat, Nunc Demitus, responses and prayers plus (oh joy!) eventide hymns with a short homily delivered by the Rector.
All so lovely, also very convenient, with the Service commencing at 4.00p.m. So home before dark.
This type of Service is held on the fourth Sunday of the month at the St. Ninian and St Chad Traditional Anglican Church, Susan Street, Maylands, (Perth).
Yours sincerely
Margaret Corlett
Morley, Western Australia.
Thank you, Dr Carnley!
Those of us who have left the “Anything Goes” (also known as “Anglican”) Church have done so for a variety of reasons. I wonder how many of us have Dr Carnley to thank for it?
I was at the Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Perth in October 1988 when Dr Carnley, in his Pastoral Charge, mentioned “the self-styled Anglican Catholic Church”. He went on to say that members of that Church had “voluntarily made themselves ex-communicate.”
For some time I had been growing uneasy (and unhappy) about the direction the Anglican Church was taking, particularly with regard to the ordination of women, but there was nothing I could do as I was in the minority, and matters were decided by a majority vote at synods.
I had considered Rome (I would surmise that most of us have, at some stage of our pilgrimage) and the Orthodox, but did not think that I could be “at home” in either.
I had never heard of the “self styled Anglican Catholic Church” until Dr Carnley mentioned it. It stuck in my mind and, sometime later, I looked it up in the telephone directory and spoke to the Priest at St Ninian’s Church in Maylands who offered to send me The Messenger (the Journal’s predecessor); it arrived regularly.
Push came to shove, as the saying goes, when Dr Carnley went ahead and ordained women to the priesthood. It was then that I realized that the church in which I had grown up no longer existed and subsequently, in Dr Carnley’s words, I voluntarily made myself ex-communicate.
So I would like to say “thank you” to Dr Carnley for alerting me to the existence of the Anglican Catholic Church!
By the way, Dr Carnley, I am still waiting for you (and you successor) to exercise your responsibility, as you put it at the 1988 Synod, “lovingly to urge the small company of people who have been persuaded to take this sad and disastrous step to re-connect with the historic succession of the Anglican Communion”.
Sadly, I have not been able to discern any love in your subsequent actions, or those of your successor.
The Revd Fr Brian Tee.
Perth, Western Australia
Be not afraid!
I JUST discovered the "Traditional Anglicans" and watched a video about your desire to return to Rome as a group. Deo Gratias! As a Traditionalist Roman Catholic, I know your concerns and fears, but I want to encourage you and let you know that you will be in my prayers! Be not afraid! Take the plunge. Go to the Holy Father and demand to be accepted back all together! Something can certainly be worked out, and the sooner the better, the Church is in bad shape herself and needs more liturgically sound and faithful children to console her. Perhaps the Bishops and priests of the Anglican communion could be re-consecrated and then established as a personal prelature like Opus Dei? Or they could have a role similar to Eastern Churches...
I find this quite exciting, and will be praying for your speedy return. Sooner rather than later!
In Jesus through Mary,
Alexander Niles Cooper
Website – great job!
HAVE just read the latest issue of The Messenger on line - what a great job of journalism on behalf of TAC and other supporters. We're delighted to have found you and have added The Messenger to our list of favorites to be checked periodically for new news. Great job - God bless and guide your pen as you report on important issues noted in The Messenger.
Allen & Claudia Ryan
Saco, Maine, USA
Reunion news brings happiness
I’M Catholic and I just heard the news about a possible reunion of our Churches . I just wanted to tell you how happy it makes me. I do hope and pray that you will be reunited with Rome soon.
God Bless
Dan
Excited “we may be one”
GOD Bless You. I am excited with the prospects of union. As a Roman Catholic laymen from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, my heart was filled with the joy upon reading the article about the possibilities of reunion. My prayers will be with you, as you work so we "may be one" just as Christ and the Father are One.
Yours in Christ,
Caleb Bernacchio
Godspeed on journey
AS a traditional Roman Catholic layman, I wish you Godspeed on your journey to Rome. This is indeed exciting news. Inevitably there will be rough spots on the road, but since there is no doctrinal problem, I'm sure they can be smoothed. I have to say that I am curious about your orders and Rome's attitude toward them, but I am sure that question can be settled agreeably. I shall keep you in my prayers and look forward to the day I can attend Mass in one of your parishes.
Deus Regit!
Christopher Uhl
Hoosick, New York USA
Too much in common to divide us
JUST a little note to praise the Lord for the continuing interest of the Traditional Anglo-Catholic Community in being reunited with the Catholic Church in Rome under the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI. I have a good friend who is a Traditional Anglican Priest (and I am a Roman Catholic Priest), and it would be wonderful if one day we could concelebrate the Eucharist. He is 78 and I am 75 - but we still hope that it will happen in our lifetimes. God bless you for your good work, and I will certainly keep this intention in my prayers.
We have too much in common to let us be divided any longer!
Rev. Gerald T. Shovelton
Lady Lake, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Longing for Anglican Rite
GREETINGS in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!
I read with great joy that TAC is seeking full communion with the Catholic Church! 10 years ago I was on the verge of entering study for the priesthood in the Episcopal Church USA, but events led me to be a lay Catholic and Dominican Tertiary instead. I was baptized by a Ugandan Anglican Father John Mbishibishi, with whom I have stayed in touch for these last 18 years. I have long joined my prayer with our Lord that we be one, as He and His Father are one, that the world may know that He has sent us. I do so look forward with prayers and longing to see the growth of the Anglican Rite Usage within the Catholic Church. Praise God.
Mark Gross,
Boise, Idaho.
Noble Anglican Tradition
I AM writing to express my excitement and anticipation regarding the efforts of your faith community and Rome to enter into communion with one another. The Anglican tradition has a noble and holy past which will only contribute to the faith, zeal, and unity of Christ’s visible body, the Church. I pray that your desire to enter into communion with Rome is realized and compliment you on your staunch devotion to Christian unity and to the true doctrine of Christ. With arms wide open, I, and surely millions of fellow Roman Catholics, welcome you to the one sheep fold and pray that visible and spiritual unity becomes reality soon. God Bless You.
R. Chavez
Santa Fe, NM USA
Appreciate Statement
2nd March 2005
I APPRECIATE Archbishop Hepworth's statement posted yesterday (Feb 27) at the TAC website. (Reference: Tanzania aftermath).
One gets used to murky, lengthy documents in America...
One gets used to crappy theology in America as well.
My enouragement, affirmation of your Australian soundness will not help "square the circle," but I proffer it anyway as your due.
Sincerely in Christ,
(Ms.) Vickie Kress
Good Shepherd, Rosemont USA
Who will rid me of this turbulent faith?
3rd November 2005
DOCTOR Rowan Williams is one of those men all but impossible to take seriously, for the simple fact that it's all but impossible to believe he's not play-acting a role he secretly finds ridiculous. Like the bishops in the P.G. Wodehouse stories, he speaks in a sonorous phraseology four percent more grand than the occasion requires. Unlike the Wodehouse bishops, Williams conveys an eerie sense of detachment in his pronouncements: his mind always seems to be elsewhere. Kendall Harmon posts an article detailing Williams's address to the Anglican Global South conference in Egypt:
Following the lecture, Dr Williams answered questions from the conference on a number of areas. On sexuality, he affirmed that the church had not been persuaded of the acceptability of same sex unions. These questions, though, would not go away.
See what I mean? You'd think Williams were reporting the decisions of the Vestry Refreshments Committee: "The chairman affirmed that the church had not been persuaded of the advisability of serving spiced cider after Evensong, or of the acceptability of same sex unions ..."
You can detect something of the kind operating in secular contexts. Take your local college. The Dean of the School of Communications, say, might spend his time negotiating salaries and re-ordering toner cartridges for the photocopiers. Then once a year he finds himself dressed in a mortarboard and gown on a dais and it dawns on him that he has to act the part of the academic -- quidquid recipitur and all that. Yet those Oxbridge church history dons who became bishops when they weren't paying attention are in a predicament with almost daily vexations, and avenge their annoyance by bringing an air of Gilbert & Sullivan farce to aspects of the business they find tedious or embarrassing.
For Doctor Williams, poor man, nearly the whole of his job has become tedious and embarrassing, given the issues over which the Anglican communion is currently delaminating. He's a Wodehouse bishop transported into the middle of an evangelical tract, where he makes the unsettling discovery that the old, elegant evasions no longer work their soothing magic. Small wonder if he's seldom at his ease.
George Rutler
United States of America
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NO LONGER must we be divided
13th October 2005
JUST a little note to praise the Lord for the continuing interest of the Traditional Anglo-Catholic Community in being reunited with the Catholic Church in Rome under the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI. I have a good friend who is a Traditional Anglican Priest (and I am a Roman Catholic Priest), and it would be wonderful if one day we could concelebrate the Eucharist. He is 78 and I am 75 - but we still hope that it will happen in our lifetimes. God bless you for your good work, and I will certainly keep this intention in my prayers. We have too much in common to let us be divided any longer!
Rev. Gerald T. Shovelton
Lady Lake, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
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Exciting News!
13th October 2005
AS a traditional Roman Catholic layman, I wish you Godspeed on your journey to Rome. This is indeed exciting news. Inevitably there will be rough spots on the road, but since there is no doctrinal problem, I'm sure they can be smoothed. I have to say that I am curious about your orders and Rome's attitude toward them, but I am sure that question can be settled agreeably. I shall keep you in my prayers and look forward to the day I can attend Mass in one of your parishes.
Deus Regit!Christopher Uhl Hoosick,
New York USA
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That we may be ONE
13th October 2005
GOD Bless You. I am excited with the prospects of union. As a Roman Catholic laymen from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, my heart was filled with the joy upon reading the article about the possibilities of reunion. My prayers will be with you, as you work so we "may be one" just as Christ and the Father are One.
Yours in Christ
Caleb Bernacchio
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Anglican Brothers
10th October 2005
TO Anglicans who choose to discard the Book of Common Prayer, I would refer them to the paean in the front of the King James Bible. This praise was written to honour King James by the scholars he hired to translate the Bible into English.
When the scholars asked the King into what language he wanted the translation done, he answered simply, "Why, into the King's English of course." (There were many dialects in London at the time.) The King knew that no one had a problem understanding him when he spoke, yet his English was of high quality and respectful. The translators realized in his genius he was making it possible for the readers to learn Christianity and show respect for The Lord at the same time.
These men, genii in there own right, realized that the King who oversaw their work had made it possible for every English speaking person to read the word of God and learn the proper way to address him. They wrote the paean to their King because they realized that; first, he cared whether others might be saved as well as himself and his friends. Second, he loved God enough to ensure that all who used these words were speaking with the respect due him who died for us. Third, that he showed them the promise of eternal life.
The words in the Book of Common Prayer were taken from this beautiful Bible translation. When my Pentecostal friends ask why we Anglicans use an Altar with candles and incense in our service, I explain that we are Worshipping a risen King, Not just Jesus the Carpenter. The one who died for us and was raised from the dead to sit at the right hand of God. We are pleased to do a little extra effort for Our Lord. We also do not shake hands during the service. Can we not concentrate on prayer to God for one hour without stopping to congratulate ourselves for being Christians. There is a time for fellowship afterwards.
Those who changed these words have totally ignored why we get down on our knees when we pray. They have cast aside the words
"Faith of our Fathers, Holy Faith, we will be true to Thee till death."
We in the Anglican Catholic faith will support the Canadian Prayer book society in every way possible. We're not doing this for our own preservation, we already have the BCP and use it exclusively.
However, there are a lot of disgruntled Anglicans who are our Brothers and Sisters in Christ and we feel for them. I know how they feel when I am asked to play for a funeral at an Anglican Church. Listening to the words of the Book of Alternate Services breaks my Heart. I can't help thinking, it worked so well....why?
The one thing I don't understand is the severe animosity on the part of Anglican Clergy toward members of the Anglican Catholic Faith. I was told by an Anglican Primate, "You people are deserters. You don't believe in our book. You are against women Priests and gay Priests." My answer was, "Where do you suppose we learned all those terrible things. We learned them from you, Father.
These are what you taught us for centuries. You are the ones who changed horses in mid stream, and you did it to please man, not to please God."
When we discuss these things at our Church, there is no bad feeling toward our Anglican cousins. We speak highly of their Churches and Clergy, but when I am amongst them I can sense the feeling that I am considered less than they and have as much as been told so. I'm sorry they feel this way and hope the feeling can be eradicated. How can we say we Christians are one with Christ if Anglicans cannot show warmth and love to one another. St. Paul said, " Do not offer praise to God if thou hast aught in thy heart towards thy fellow man. First, lay down thy gifts (Of Praise) go thy way, and make peace with thy fellow man. Then bring unto the Lord thy gifts and He will accept them."
I will not apologize for my decision to serve and Worship as Anglican Catholic. I do not see myself better than other Anglicans for having done so. We opted to Worship in the way we preferred and both Anglicans and Anglican Catholics must respect each others choice and be in full fellowship under God.
Sincerely
Ed Brown People's Warden
St. Athanasius Church
Verdun h4g 1s9
St.athanasius@videotron.ca
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Thanks be to God!
27th September 2005
Just a little note to praise the Lord for the continuing interest of the Traditional Anglo-Catholic Community in being reunited with the Catholic Church in Rome under the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI. I have a good friend who is a Traditional Anglican Priest (and I am a Roman Catholic Priest), and it would be wonderful if one day we could concelebrate the Eucharist. He is 78 and I am 75 - but we still hope that it will happen in our lifetimes. God bless you for your good work, and I will certainly keep this intention in my prayers. We have too much in common to let us be divided any longer!
Rev. Gerald T. Shovelton
Lady Lake, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
