But increasingly there's no home for conservatives in the Episcopal Church USA and, God knows, other territories in the Communion, thus the impetus to part ways and rejoin Rome. Speaking as a former Anglican, this offends me not.
What is interesting though is how the liberals within the Catholic Church and the Episcopal church have reacted. Put simply, neither is very happy about this turn of events.
At the core of it all is, in my opinion, the natively liberal desire to not just be the majority but to DOMINATE. Whether we speak of religious liberalism, political liberalism or liberalism of anything else, the ethos is inherently repressive and totalitarian.
Thus traditional Anglicans/Episcopalians rejoining Rome is offensive to liberal Catholics, as it even further diminishes their influence within the Church. They view incoming Anglicans as interlopers and intruders. Think about that for a minute. How freaking historic is it that so many Anglican laity, parishes and even entire dioceses are coming home? This should be cause for prayer and praise! Instead, the Catholic liberals throw fits that wayward brothers and sisters in Christ have now rejoined His Church.
As to liberal Anglicans (which is fast becoming redundant but I digress), this is cause for consternation on many levels. For one thing, there are fewer conservatives to do the sticky icky work of feeding the poor, caring for the homeless and manning soup kitchens. And this is not to speak of parish donations taking a massive hit what with conservatives taking their wallets with them when they leave. Liberals of any stripe don't believe in charity.
For decades, the liberals were able to piggyback off the conservatives in caring for those less fortunate. Now with the conservatives rapidly hitting the doors, there are fewer people willing to do the heavy-lifting in the trenches to help the needy. And this makes the liberals look bad.
But the other, sicker issue is that on paper Anglican liberals now have what on paper they say they want. There are either formal or informal blessings to be given for same-sex unions, abortion, "consecration" of gay clergy and other things. The liberals rule the roost in the Episcopal Church USA. With each passing year there are fewer and fewer people to oppose them. At this rate, can you imagine what the next Lambeth Conference is going to be like?
Shouldn't that be cause for joy? They're getting their way. They're winning by percentages even if they're losing total numbers. But they're still winning! Why are they upset about being given even greater hegemony?
As I said before, the only logical answer is that they preferred having the conservatives under their thumbs. Liberal Catholics hate that conservative Anglicans are coming home to Rome because it (further) diminishes their influence. Liberal Anglicans hate that conservative Anglicans are going home to Rome because it places them beyond their grasp.
This is foreign to conservatism, be it religious, political or anything else. This is why religious conservatives tend to be more schismatic than their liberal counterparts. Liberals are perfectly content to wait for their opportunity to take over (the South seceding from the United States prior to the Civil War is the lone major exception I can think of). Conservatives would sooner split the blanket than live at someone else's leave.
Example: It seems every six months or so, some news story comes along that some group of liberal nuns out there are ticked off that the Catholic Church doesn't ordain female clergy/bless gay unions/permit abortion/whatever the moment's heresy is, the Church has said that will NEVER change and these liberal nuns are just fed up, why, they've had it up to HERE with all these old fuddy-duddy Holy Fathers who think they can boss other people around and they should realize it's [INSERT THE CURRENT YEAR HERE] so it's time to get with the times, blah blah blah.
Now, you and I look at that and question why those liberal nuns remain with the Church in spite of the fact that the rules won't ever change. And the answers to that are quite simple.
First, they may attract enough attention to swell their ranks. But lacking that, at least they get to be on TV. Never underestimate a liberal's vanity.
Second, they WILL NEVER leave the Church. The instant they leave the Church, they're a non-story. Nobody cares what a bunch of disaffected liberal former nuns think. The networks know that and the liberal nuns know that. But if they're still active within the church? Hey, their rallies or demonstrations or protests or whatever they call them this week are NEWS.
Liberalism doesn't schism because l liberalism is tyranny.
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