Standing on My Head: Anglican Catholics to Keep Buildings?

Monday, November 01, 2010

Anglican Catholics to Keep Buildings?

Here's one Church of England official who doesn't have a problem with members of the new ordinariate occupying Church of England buildings.

I wonder what other Anglicans think of such a proposal?

9 comments:

BHG said...: If they are like their American counterparts, they will keep the buildings and deplete the bank accounts, then shutter the places up and sell them to a mosque.; 7:15 PM
flyingvic said...: I would happily share my church building with other denominations. Indeed, in the recent past local Greek Orthodox, Baptist and Free Evangelical congregations have all used some of our accommodation during the temporary unavailability of their own.

The handing over of a building for the sole use and possession of Anglo-Romans, however, is a very different matter. Even if priest and congregation all wanted to turn their backs on Canterbury, you need to know that the church building in a parish is there (in the UK) for every single person living within the carefully marked parish boundary, whether they claim membership of that church or not. Every person resident in England, therefore, has their own parish church. Every person living within the boundaries of my parishes has a legal right to make demands upon my time for prayer, for counsel, for instruction and for discussion on baptisms, weddings or funerals - quite apart from the time I am to be found preaching and leading worship in church - actual membership of my congregations notwithstanding. To hand a church over, therefore, would be to deprive those who remain of their rightful church building.

Father has done quite a neat job in some recent posts of suggesting that empty Anglican churches abound over here and many would not be missed. It is, of course, some little time since he was himself living and working within the Church of England. And if I may speak simply of my own deanery - a market town with satellite villages: over the past fifteen or twenty years no Anglican churches have been closed; several country churches have had the threat of closure removed bcause of reviving congregation numbers; and two brand new churches have been built to accommodate developing congregations. During the same period the three local Roman Catholic churches, which used to have one or more resident priests each, are now all run from the one church. There are those here who are so thoroughly cynical that they see in this often-repeated scenario the real driving-force behind the Pope's offer of the Ordinariate.; 10:56 PM
veritas said...: I'm afraid simple raw data shoots down flyingvic's argument.

The Church of England now has appallingly low attendances and is shown by concurrent censuses to be a rapidly dying denomination. Many of its church buildings are largely empty on any given Sunday.

All this simply adds fuel to the fact that the Reformers brutally stole unnumbered Church properties from the Catholic Church in England five hundred years ago. Many of these it then simply destroyed after looting them of anything that was of monetary value. Anyone who tried to stop them was of course killed as a traitor.

I don't really understand why flyingvic keeps appearing on this Catholic priest's blog in order to complain about what Catholics believe. Let him keep his buildings by all means - I only hope they were built less than five hundred years ago and were not therefore originally Catholic property.; 5:10 AM
Anthony Brett Dawe said...: bout time too..

-an olde 'Anglican'; 7:13 AM
flyingvic said...: veritas, I wasn't making an argument. Unless of course you think I was lying, I was simply telling it how it is with the CofE in my locality from direct personal experience. Do you know better?

Whatever else the reformers did in Henry's time, they did not go round destroying parish churches. They were built for the worship of God by the local community; they stand now for the worship of God by the local community. Alleluia!

I commented here originally because it seemed to me that there were certain inaccuracies being spouted from various quarters about the church I love and a certain lack of respect shown for those, like Archbishop Rowan, whom I hold in the greatest respect. I have from time to time been challenged and questioned - mostly politely, sometimes not - about my belief and about why I am not a Roman Catholic; I have responded - mostly politely, sometimes not - always being aware that this is not my blog, and if Father does not want me here he only has to say so. I'm sorry if you have a problem with that.; 8:04 AM
A Catholic Comes Home said...: A very informative book to read on the subject of the Reformation is
"The stripping of the Altars"by Eamon DuffY.; 10:38 AM
veritas said...: Flyingvic,
Under no circumstances do I suggest that you were lying - that insinuation is nowhere in my post.

And you will notice that I talked about the stealing and destruction of Catholic Church property, not specifically parish churches. The reason most of the parish churches were left standing was because they were not suitable to be turned into stately mansions for Henry's friends and the people could be forced to attend them as "reborn" Anglican churches once anything really valuable had been looted.

I still think it somewhat strange that you constantly post on this website when most of what Fr Longenecker says seems to upset you. Your repeated jibes at the Catholic Church, which admittedly has many sinful and fallible members, of which I am one, puzzle me; when the Anglican Church, of which you are a member, is in total meltdown.; 6:28 PM
flyingvic said...: veritas, in your post you flatly contradicted what I stated to be true from my own direct and personal knowledge: it would be quite reasonable, therefore, to conclude that you did not believe what I had posted.

The reason the parish churches were left standing was that they were parish churches. Simple.

"Repeated jibes"? I think not. I'm not into playground tit-for-tat arguments. "Meltdown"? Wrong again. As a Church we are struggling to come to terms with the truth the Holy Spirit is trying to lead us into, and some, sadly, will leave. "Upset"? Only when unkind or inaccurate opinions about the CofE are voiced in the blog or the combox. A bit like you defending the Church that you love, wouldn't you say?; 5:35 AM
Séamas Seosamh said...: With sincere and total honesty, the ancient church buildings and worshipping places belong to the Catholic Church. Former Anglicans who convert to the Fullness of the Faith with all justice should be given primacy of place.; 7:51 AM