The Magdalene Mystique - The Path Inward

The church never ceases to amaze me.

Recently, within Catholicism, 30 theologians have been meeting for several years to study the doctrine of Limbo. This week the Vatican announced that the commission has decided to let go of this doctrine that had given rise to much pain in the past for unbaptized babies not allowed to be buried in consecrated ground. See Vatican Panel Discounts Limbo for Unbaptized.
But there are those (would you believe it?) within Catholicism that object. One traditional Catholic declared that the recent decision was heretical since it suggests that salvation is possible without baptism. He fears that this new change announced by the Vatican will undermine the church’s advice to parents to baptize their children within the first 10 days of their life.

A commission member, however, defends the decision and suggests that this change shows that Benedict is not afraid to look at something that has been taught in the church for centuries and to say what is central to our faith and what is peripheral: “what can change and what can’t.”

It’s one thing for the Pope (and a theological commission) to say within Catholicism what can change and what can’t. But here’s a more troublesome case: Another group of thirty (30 Epsicopal congregations in America in this case) have decided what can change and what can’t.

But for whom are they making these determinations? And by what authority? As far as I can tell, they have made these decisions for themselves.

For more information about this matter, see the New York Times Sunday article “U.S. Bishop, Making It official, Throws in Lot with African Churchman.”
For whom has this been made official? Am I missing something here? As I understand the situation, Archbishop Akinola of Nigeria crossed boundaries (over against ancient practice) by installing Bishop Martyn Minns of Virginia as the new leader of a diocese for those congregations who want to leave the Episcopal Church. And all this in spite of letters from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the Episcopal Church in the United States and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams urging that his visit not take place. The celebration went on as scheduled during which Akinola handed the pastoral staff to Bishop Minns as “a true apostle of Christ.” The hope within this group, so the article reports, is that the new dicocese (CANA) will eventually replace the Episcopal Church as the rightful representative of the Anglican Communion in the United States.

The church continues to amaze me. But it’s getting more difficult to suspend disbelief.

If the church wants to spend its time arguing on these matters, so be it. But it certainly makes me see why the church is thought by so many to be irrelevant. One close friend said recently: there’s nothing going on in the church. Period. I’m beginning to see what he means. ecusaanglicanepiscopalakinolaCANAmartyn minns