What a Knob!

What a Knob! The erection of Personal Ordinariates is the means by which Anglican men who are rumoured to be ordained can be confirmed and ordained as Roman Catholics inside a lookalike Anglican shell.

These Anglican types can continue to be as Anglican types, though many now appear within Anglicanism to be Roman types, as the ecclesiastical reporter to the world and Bishop of Sherborne Graham Kings notes in his virtually neutral piece (extended on Fulcrum, unless reduced online at the The Guardian). So it is good then that Roman Catholic liturgies are not excluded within, otherwise these newly Roman Catholics might have to retrain as Anglicans.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is the managing organisation for these Personal Ordinariates, which will negotiate with local bishops but also effectively bypass them. The reason for this is not liturgical problems or external relationships with other ecclesiastical communities but potential doctrinal problems within, and making sure these new folks conform. Given the bypassing of the Roman Catholic locals and their hierarchies, money from the bishops around and about might be a bit tight. The ex-Anglican priests might have to work for a living, cleaning windows or toilets for example (I'm just reading about a more interesting ordained individual who did just the latter for six months - watch this space).

So what are the options. There is clearly a new spectacle coming up. This will be Anglican Catholics using Roman rites and prayers to the Holy Father within Anglicanism who haven't joined a Papal ordinariate where Anglican Catholics can be Roman Catholics using Anglican rites (non-exclusively). Perhaps they will invent and 'erect' their own Anglican Ordinariates under themselves, dodging and weaving male and female priests and eventually male and female bishops on the basis of an extensive autobiographical interview as to whether they have ever been contaminated by a woman through magical supernatural means. Forget statues and codes of conduct, whether these come or not from the General Synod. By such an extensive interview, cleansiness can still be established. This is entirely different from any ongoing homosexual preference that is to be carried on in secret, or as if in secret whilst well and truly known by anyone who cares to look. By this means, money and congregations will still be provided, and the happy fantasy mysteries can still be observed by those who have likened the Charles Gore tradition of liberal Catholicism (which wants full male and female ministry and more honesty regarding gay relationships) as the equivalent of the creation of pus.

By the way, as I become more semi-detached than I was from Anglicanism, I'm finding this stuff less interesting than I did. It's a bit like tying up loose ends.