Friday, December 17, 2010

Ordinariate Watch: Anglican Church didn't abandon anybody


There is an old saying there are two sides to any story.

Susan Martinuk's column "Anglican Church abandoned its parishioners" unfortunately tells only one side of the story of the parish of St. John the Evangelist in Calgary, which has been making news with its decision to leave the Anglican fold and join the Roman Catholic Church.

I am expressing a personal viewpoint, but one as a lifetime Anglican, with Anglo-Catholic roots who experienced eight formative years as a lay leader at St. John's in the 1970s and '80s. From 1981 to 1985 I was the religion writer at the Calgary Herald.

I have kept in touch with the parish since then, and preached the sermon at St. John's Centennial in 2005.

While Martinuk suggests St. John's departure from the Anglican Church of Canada might represent a reverse Protestant reformation, that gives it far more significance than it deserves.

To read more, click here.

While I disagree with a number of things in this article, Bob Bettson does make some good points.

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