These are strange days indeed. From the Times:
Radical proposals to reunite Anglicans with the Roman Catholic Church under the leadership of the Pope are to be published this year, The Times has learnt.
The proposals have been agreed by senior bishops of both churches.
In a 42-page statement prepared by an international commission of both churches, Anglicans and Roman Catholics are urged to explore how they might reunite under the Pope.
The statement, leaked to The Times, is being considered by the Vatican, where Catholic bishops are preparing a formal response.
It comes as the archbishops who lead the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion meet in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in an attempt to avoid schism over gay ordination and other liberal doctrines that have taken hold in parts of the Western Church.
The 36 primates at the gathering will be aware that the Pope, while still a cardinal, sent a message of support to the orthodox wing of the Episcopal Church of the US as it struggled to cope with the fallout after the ordination of the gay bishop Gene Robinson.
Albert Mohler had this to say in his blog yesterday:
If the report had been published in a paper less respected than The Times, we might have reason to doubt it. Gledhill reports that "senior bishops" of the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church are ready to support a proposal for union under the Pope.
The Church of England's doctrinal differences with the Roman Catholic Church are historic and theologically significant -- at least as represented by its own confessional statement. Some of the most significant theological contributions of the Reformation came from the pens and ministries of those associated with the Church of England. Do the names Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer -- all martyred for the faith of the Reformation -- not suffice to make this point? Add to these the names of the Puritans and others who continued that Reformation tradition.
This report is but another indication of the theological confusion that now vexes and threatens the Anglican Communion. Would the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, suggest that Anglican bishops could have a close communion with Rome -- even unified under the papacy -- when they cannot share communion with each other in Dar es Salaam?
Pray for this church, and stay tuned. The news out of Dar es Salaam is likely to be very important this coming week.
Read the rest at Albert Mohler's blog
