What impact will the Pope’s new poaching project have on the Anglican Communion?
“Pope Benedict’s sudden move is bound to have a negative impact on ecumenical dialogue between the two communions. It may attract some of the Catholic wing and perhaps some evangelicals, although they tend to prefer the option of Orthodoxy with its pattern of local bishops without the centralised control structure,” writes Dr Timothy Bradshaw, a Tutor in Doctrine at Regent’s Park College, Oxford, and member of the Anglican Orthodox Theological Commission. “Anything that weakens the Church of England, at a time of real embattlement with radically secularist agendas now under way, must ultimately be a bad thing for the nation from a Christian perspective.”
There is one prediction which brings a smile to my face: “If Rome does remove a significant body of conservative Anglicans, it will be left with a liberal Anglican communion with which to hold dialogue.”
Ruth Gledhill adds: “Meanwhile, the Church of England will recapture the moral high ground in the eyes of the secular, English-speaking world by consecrating women bishops. It might even liberalise its position on homosexuality.”
So the Pope’s poaching initiative might move the CofE farther toward a progressive stance by reducing the conservative opposition to women bishops and gay Anglicans. Talk about unintended consequences. Or perhaps not.
The current pope seems bent on reshaping his church, marching backward to the theological standards of the past. He seems focused on a more conservative church composed of true believers, people who will vote their faith even if elected to political office. Had this pope been in office during the 1960 campaign, John F. Kennedy would never have been elected president. By becoming the church of Conservative Catholics in the UK, the pope leaves the door wide open for the CofE to become the church of Progressive Catholics in the UK. That opportunity may be the most important effect of the pope’s move.
