Saturday, July 17, 2010

HOBART, AU: First Traditional Anglican Communion Parish joins the Anglican Catholic Church

reported at V i r t u e O n l i n e

News supplied by Rev'd. David Gould
Written by David W. Virtue

July 15, 2010

The congregation of St. James, a parish of the Gold Coast, along with its associate priest Fr. Derek Pryde have left the Traditional Anglican Communion and its leader Archbishop John Hepworth. They have elected to be received into the Anglican Catholic Church (Original Province).

In a news release to VOL, Fr. David Gould said the Mermaid Beach parish could not agree with the stance taken by TAC to join the Roman Catholic Church.

"TAC's College of Bishops and Primate, Archbishop John Hepworth is seeking to take the TAC into the Roman Catholic Church, by route of the Pope's Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans. This will require re-ordination of those clergy that Rome accepts for re-ordination, and by extension requires acceptance of the 1896 Papal decision that Anglican orders and sacraments are null and void. For orthodox Anglican Catholics this is plain wrong.

"The Church of England as the late Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Fisher said, "We have no faith of our own, but only the Catholic faith of the Catholic Church enshrined in the Catholic creeds.

"The Anglican Catholic Church (Original Province) is the successor of the faith of Archbishops Michael Ramsey, and Geoffrey Fisher, and saintly Anglicans stretching back to St. Augustine of Canterbury.

"In this Diocese under Bishops Brian Iverach Bishop of Australia and New Zealand, (based in Sydney, NSW) and the Rt. Rev. Denis Hodge of New Zealand, TAC faithful will find fellowship, compassion, a desire for unity and a commitment to the revival of orthodox Anglican Catholic Christianity in our great nations, that are crying for the saving love and mercy of God, said Mills."

The Australian and New Zealand Missionary Diocese has accepted the parish of St. James saying that their TAC brothers and sisters who are uncertain about their future are welcome to join. "We look with hope to the Missionary Diocese of Australia & New Zealand of the Anglican Catholic Church (Original Province).

The Most Reverend Mark Haverland is the Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Anglican Catholic Church in the U.S. He is based in Athens, Georgia.

Around the world, TAC priests and faithful are wrestling with what it means to be Anglican.

8 comments:

Jack Miller said...

St. James, a parish of the Gold Coast

blessings be to them... The ACC is a good home for them; maybe the best available.

These are not easy times for many... our prayers go out for all that face difficult decisions.

Lord have mercy and guide us.

Jack

David said...

Good news!!! I hope the faithfulness of Archbishop Haverland will serve as a beacon to Anglican Catholics who can not convert to Roman Catholcism.

Anonymous said...

This article mentions the requirement of absolute ordinations for the former Anglican clergy, but does not mention the demand for Confirmation for all who convert.
A recent article on "Former Anglican" makes that quite clear.
LKW

Fr.James A.Chantler said...

Thanks be to GOD there was a loyalist Bishop(+Brian Iverarch) there to give them shelter.I pray the that the brethren at Mermaid Beach prosper and that others will follow their example both in Australia and New Zealand.

Canterbury Anglican said...

Fr. Michael Gray of The Traditional Anglican Church (TTAC)via 'The Anglo-catholic' blog:

"The consequences of choice [to join the Ordinariate] include, as I have already indicated, dissenters. The very impossibility and impropriety of the business combination model means that some institutions as well as some people will not be brought into the Ordinariate. My private expectation is that in England some of the members of The Traditional Anglican Church (TTAC) will be left behind. Unless other provision is agreed, they will retain the name, a complex and defensive constitution, and associated legal entities which are far too big for them. They will presumably be left with a small bank balance (there are no other property issues). They will be far too few to justify their own locally resident Bishop, so presumably a residual TAC, if there is one, will appoint a Vicar General for them. Or perhaps there will be some wisdom in the alphabet soup and they will be encouraged to consider… a merger with another Continuing body! (So it comes back to business combinations.) Those current members of TTAC who join the Ordinariate have no need of any of the old apparatus. Why should we struggle to keep it? It is not patrimony, merely practical arrangements which were never ideal."

AnAC

AFS1970 said...

While I would love to see the those of the ACA who do not transfer their Catholicism to Rome become one with the continuum, we really do not know who will stay and who will go yet. Thus any speculation on how big a body might exist either as the TAC or as ACA (or any other national province) is just that speculation.

I am sure there will be some reorganization, but it is too soon to tell how big or small the resulting body will be and it is frankly quite arrogant to think it will be so small as to falter quickly and fail.

Still and all, I am glad that this one parish found a welcoming new home in the ACC. I wish them the best in this new relationship.

Colin Chattan said...

RE AnAC's comments: yes, Fr. Gray is correct in noting that TTAC members who are being abandoned by their bishops and priests will face some difficulties. There is one difficulty, however, that they will not have to face, and that is wrestling with the cognitive dissonance that must arise when, having joined the Ordinariates, individuals try to convince themselves that they remain "Anglican" when they have, in fact, become Roman Catholics. To put it in business terms, they are voluntarily giving up their Anglican stock for a special share issue of Roman stock. That falls within the classic definition of "merger". Personally I prefer the old ecclesiastical/theological definition: "conversion".

RC Cola said...

Nice coincidence that the first TAC parish to join the ACC is from HOBART.

John Henry Hobart, were he alive, would surely be an ACC bishop.

(Yes, I know that Hobart, Tasmania is not named after John Henry Hobart, but it is still a swell coincidence.)