All it took the other day was hearing pop star Olivia Newton-John\u2019s<\/p>\n
recording of the \u201cAve Maria\u201d for Father Paul Zahl to feel that old,<\/p>\n
familiar tug at his heartstrings.<\/p>\n\n
Then came the voices in his head asking those nagging questions that many<\/p>\n
weary Episcopalians have pondered in recent decades: \u201cWhy keep fighting?<\/p>\n
Why not join the Roman Catholic Church?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Every now and then, Zahl feels another urge to \u201cswim the Tiber.\u201d This is<\/p>\n
somewhat problematic because he is dean of the Trinity School for<\/p>\n
Ministry in Ambridge, Pa., a post that makes him a leader among<\/p>\n
Evangelicals in the embattled Episcopal Church and a strategic voice in<\/p>\n
the broadly Protestant, low-church wing of the global Anglican Communion.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI could become a Roman Catholic in a heartbeat,\u201d said Zahl. \u201cBut the<\/p>\n
minute I say that, I stop and think about it and I know all the reasons<\/p>\n
that I am an Evangelical and why my spiritual home is in Anglicanism. \u2026<\/p>\n
But that doesn\u2019t mean that I don\u2019t understand why so many people \u2014<\/p>\n
people I love and respect \u2014 have fled to Rome and why many more will<\/p>\n
follow them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Many Episcopalians, stressed Zahl, are seeking what he called a \u201ctruly<\/p>\n
objective form of church life\u201d that provides authoritative answers to the<\/p>\n
moral and doctrinal questions that have \u2014 for at least a quarter century<\/p>\n
\u2014 caused bitter conflict and declining statistics in the American branch<\/p>\n
of Anglicanism. Their complaints run much deeper than mere discontent<\/p>\n
over the 2003 consecration of a noncelibate homosexual as the Episcopal<\/p>\n
bishop in New Hampshire.<\/p>\n\n
But if they want that kind of church structure they are going to have to<\/p>\n
join that kind of church, he said. The Anglican approach, built on a<\/p>\n
unique blend of compromises between Protestantism and Catholicism, will<\/p>\n
never be enough.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cAnglicanism can only give you an ersatz form of that kind of church,\u201d<\/p>\n
said Zahl, a Harvard man whose graduate work took him to England and<\/p>\n
Germany. \u201cIf you want the kind of authority that comes with Roman<\/p>\n
Catholicism then you should run, not walk, to enter the Church of Rome. \u2026<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where you have to go to find it. You either become a Catholic or<\/p>\n
you simply stop asking the big questions about ecclesiastical structure.<\/p>\n
You move on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
This will be a painful step for some Episcopalians to take, in an age<\/p>\n
when newspapers are full of reports about legal and theological cracks in<\/p>\n
the foundations of the mother Church of England and its bickering<\/p>\n
relatives around the world.<\/p>\n\n
The big news on this side of the Atlantic Ocean is that eight<\/p>\n
congregations in Northern Virginia \u2014 including two of America\u2019s most<\/p>\n
historic parishes \u2014 have voted to leave the Episcopal Church to join a<\/p>\n
new missionary effort tied to the conservative, rapidly growing Anglican<\/p>\n
Church of Nigeria.<\/p>\n\n
Meanwhile, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams faces a revolt in his<\/p>\n
own backyard, with Evangelical leaders saying they will revolt if he does<\/p>\n
not allow them to answer to conservative bishops, rather than to<\/p>\n
liberals. And then there was that Sunday Times report claiming that Pope<\/p>\n
Benedict XVI has asked officials in his Congregation for the Doctrine of<\/p>\n
the Faith to research ways to reach out to disaffected Anglicans.<\/p>\n\n
The temptation, according to Zahl, is for Episcopalians caught in these<\/p>\n
conflicts to assume there is \u201csome church body out there, some<\/p>\n
supervising entity or person, which, when we find it, will be seen<\/p>\n
definitely to be \u2018The One.\u2019 The question of \u2018Whither?\u2019 is based on the<\/p>\n
idea that there is, at this point in time, a verifiable protecting safe<\/p>\n
place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Instead, those committed to Anglicanism must embrace another image of the<\/p>\n
Christian life found in scripture, argued Zahl, in a missive to<\/p>\n
supporters of his seminary. While it will be hard, they should see<\/p>\n
themselves as the \u201cwandering people of God\u201d who must spend a long time in<\/p>\n
the wilderness as they \u201cseek the city which is to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
It will be hard to find clarity and unity during the years ahead, he said.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI hold out exactly no hope of a safe haven in the Church of England,\u201d<\/p>\n
said Zahl. \u201cIf you have any hope of finding safe answers for the big<\/p>\n
questions of church identity within Anglicanism, then you are going to<\/p>\n
need to be patient because that is not going to happen anytime soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
All it took the other day was hearing pop star Olivia Newton-John\u2019s recording of the \u201cAve Maria\u201d for Father Paul Zahl to feel that old, familiar tug at his heartstrings. Then came the voices in his head asking those nagging questions that many weary Episcopalians have pondered in recent decades: \u201cWhy keep fighting? Why not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[58,154,168,330,439,753],"class_list":["post-1417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anglican","tag-canterbury","tag-catholicism","tag-episcopalians","tag-homosexuality","tag-rome"],"yoast_head":"\n