Mercer had been Anglican Bishop of Matabeleland in his native Zimababwe before coming to us in Canada. When Anglican provinces began ordaining women, he left. But is seems in some circles, it is better to remain in the Anglican Communion than to be guilty of "schism" no matter how principled the reason for leaving, no matter how much courage and sacrifice it took to be true to the Apostolic faith.
One of the big disappointments for me (of countless disappointments) in the whole Ordinariate process is the silence on Mercer over the past year or so. Always a mention of five Church of England bishops "converting" but never a mention of the sixth former Anglican bishop. Mercer is a hero to us in the TAC. Long before joining us, he was a veteran of the early ARCIC process, praying and working for unity with the Catholic Church. He hosted a young John Paul II for Evensong at his cathedral in Matabeleland.
The way Mercer prayed the Mass helped me intuitively grasp the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. He made heaven palpable in our poor little cathedral with the graying linoleum and wax-spotted red indoor/outdoor carpeting. If he proclaimed one of the Epistles during the Mass, it was as if St. Paul was standing there, the words were read with such meaning they same to life. His homilies, always brief, were so rich and insightful. He made time stand still and eternity present.
In his letter resigning from his various positions of responsibility in the TAC, Mercer quoted Cardinal Newman, who said: "Catholics did not make us Catholic; Oxford made us Catholic." (a letter quoted by Dessian on p. 131 of 'John Henry Newman'.)
I hope someone is there to take photographs and give the occasion the dignity it deserves.
Meanwhile, the Telegraph has an article on the English Ordinariate, with an interview with Msgr. Newton. Here's an excerpt:
“But you can’t become a Catholic because you simply want to escape the problems of the Church of England – you have to want to become a Catholic.”
He believes the Synod vote on women bishops, at which all three "houses" of the Church's parliament must back the historic move by a two-thirds majority, is on a “knife-edge” with only a handful of votes needed to swing it either way.
However he warned Anglo-Catholics trying to oppose the change that even a victory in July would likely be short-lived.
“If anybody thinks if it doesn’t go through that the issue will go away, they’re actually fooling themselves.
“If it got to a situation, which it will, that you have a House of Bishops of the Church of England where some of the bishops are not in communion with other bishops, I just think that’s an impossibility. You could hardly call that a church.”
Mgr Newton said the provision made for opponents of women priests in the 1990s, the flying bishops of which he was one, was only a “short-term solution” that enabled traditionalists to “hang on by our fingertips” in the Church of England.
But he said none of the elaborate proposals suggested for those who do not wish to be under the care of a female bishop would be “adequate” for him, and pointed out that the Ordinariate is “exactly” what some Anglo-Catholics had once proposed as a solution but with the added feature of being part of the Roman Catholic Church.
“If you’re longing for staying in the Church of England, then you’ll stay. But if you’re actually longing for that greater goal of being in communion with the Holy See, then what is the point of waiting? I don’t quite see what is the point of hanging on.”
No comments:
Post a Comment