Letter: Anglican flocks leaving the fold
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: Peter Stanford's article ('For whom the Angelus bell tolls', 22 April) quite understandably sounds out notes of caution to the Catholic bishops of England and Wales about the possibility of their offering some accommodation for disaffected Anglicans.
If Rome were to accept some married men to be priests, I have no doubt this would be very hard to accept for most lifelong Roman Catholics who have had to choose between marriage and a priestly ministry. Mr Stanford is right to point this out, and I have no doubt that the bishops will have considered this very carefully, although I understand that there are already eight married Catholic priests (ex-Anglicans) in this country and others elsewhere.
Mr Stanford, however, does us Anglicans an injustice by his implications that we simply want to become Roman Catholics in name alone. The crisis in the Church of England is a crisis about authority, not women priests. We do not believe that the General Synod has the kind of authority it has taken to itself, and that, in doing so, it has cast serious doubt on the Church of England's claim to be a part of the Catholic Church.
Mr Stanford also makes the mistake of characterising all 'Anglo-Catholics' as 'acting out a ceremony which was abandoned by many Catholic churches in the late Sixties'. Most Anglican Catholics are not so backward-looking as he thinks, but it has to be said that many Roman Catholic lay people yearn for greater dignity in the celebration of the liturgy. We have some very liturgically able priests. Maybe we could actually contribute something.
Yours faithfully,
STEPHEN L. JONES
Blackpool,
Lancashire
22 April
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments