If today was April 1st, I would be sure this was a hoax. An article in today’s Times suggests that the Anglican Communion may sweep hundreds of years of history (and the little matter of the Reformation) under the carpet and go back to Rome. Quite how they propose to take a union that is at the brink of collapse over issues that the Catholics are quite clear on and steer it intact back to what they call the Mother Church is beyond me. Phil Johnson is, of course, right—doctrine comes before unity.
There are so many ways that this idea of reuniting with the Roman Catholics is a bad idea that I do not even know where to start. Quite simply, I do not believe that our lack of organizational unity—even among evangelicals—is even a bad thing. But, I don’t have time to explore this further tonight, so I will let you read the article and make your own conclusions.
UPDATE
Al Mohler has also covered this story and had the following insightful observations:
The more liberal wing of the Church of England could certainly find much common ground with the Roman Catholic Church on issues of social justice, ecology, and peacemaking, for example. On the other hand, what would the liberal Anglicans think about joining a church that denies the ordination of women and steadfastly opposes the normalization of homosexual behavior? This makes no sense.
The more conservative wing of the church finds itself in the opposite position — agreeing with the Roman Catholic Church on many of its most controversial social and moral teachings, but hardly in agreement on other grounds of concern.
The Anglo-Catholics, long favoring a more Roman Catholic form of Anglicanism, will likely find themselves encouraged by the proposal. The Evangelical wing will surely be steadfastly opposed.
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