61 And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.”I also thought about the account I had here some time ago of St Mary's in the early 1980s:62 [To him] Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Well, in July 1984, two of the parishioners -- namely my wife (Dr. Jeanne) and I -- were ready to be confirmed into the Roman Catholic Church via the Anglican Use Rite. We, in fact, were the very first from L.A. to be confirmed -- from St. Mary of the Angels (or St. Mathias). But -- we were not confirmed in Los Angeles. There was a different plan.Apparently there was some extra twist, some necessary body English, that required them to go, with Fr Barker's explicit counsel, to be received as some special kind of Catholic in Las Vegas. Just being RCIA Catholic simply wasn't the point. It had to be Catholic according to a special gourmet recipe, the macaroni and cheese version simply wouldn't make it.After discussing the matter at length with Fr. Barker, it was decided that we, who would be the FIRST, should be confirmed in Las Vegas, Nevada by Fr. Clark Tea, who was the pastor of the AUR church of St. Mary the Virgin's in Las Vegas -- under the permission of the Bishop of Las Vegas, of course. This way we could by-pass any potential problem that might arise from Cardinal Archbishop Timothy Manning in L.A. We carefully orchestrated all of the necessary arrangements.
A visitor got the same impression from yesterday's post:
Reading your last post, this song from the Pretenders sprang into my head, the one that goesI think this is spot on, and I also agree that the issues of "continuing" Catholic Anglicans tie into the larger crisis in the Church.'Cause I gonna make you seeI also thought about the fact that much of this breakaway movement was set in motion seemingly around the ordination of women to the Episcopal priesthood. Normally, the priest's conversion from this era of converts is recounted with evidence of the Episcopal church becoming more liberal, and finally, with the ordination of women, it is clear that this church is not the church that Christ founded.
There's nobody else here
No one like me
I'm special, so special
I gotta have some of your attention
Give it to meBut why? Having just come through the social upheaval of the 60's, and seeing the churches respond by adopting certain elements of the revolution, it is understandable that some could have had their eyes open, and realize that "open-mindedness" can lead to empty headedness.
But from my own observations, those that continue along in Anglicanism, waiting for the water to be just right, and even those who have come into the pool, but immediately demanded certain bathing salts - they have one thing in common. They are special. So Special.
Likewise, when one reads about the Protestant histories, and how they are told in tales with lines like "here I stand, I can do no other", it sounds marvelous. Right or wrong, they stood on principle.
But did they? A proper understanding of the Protestant revolts cannot be understood without understanding the economics, kingdoms, and taxations of the day. So I wonder how much of the conversions have factors of specialness, and allowing women into the priesthood made a crowded room even stuffier.
Don't get me wrong, I believe that a conversion, even an imperfect one, and one for imperfect motives is good, and will lead to good. But the church seems to be increasingly full of pretenders (and I refer to the grand scandals disrupting the church's highest hierarchies).
