Five Ways – Feb 24

February 21, 2024

Many thanks to those who commented on the January 12 Five Ways e-letter.

Although the attached article from the national Jesuit edited journal America is long, I think you will find it very readable.  The Episcopal Church in the USA (Anglican in other countries) and the Roman Catholic Church were very close following the Second Vatican Council, in 1965.  Then the decision by the Episcopal Church to ordain women priests and bishops, and their approval of certain moral questions seemed to put a roadblock towards further union.

As the America article explains, the symbolic actions by Pope St. Paul VI and Pope Francis, along with the twinning of Episcopalian and Roman Catholic Bishops, indicates that progress is not dead, but still continuing.

I hope to hear from the Oblate bishop in Sri Lanka who is twinned to an Anglican bishop there.

My thanks to former regional counsellor for the USA and Canada, Father Warren Brown, O.M.I., for sending me this article.

As we continue in the first week of Lent, is there an urgent dimension of evangelical ecumenism in Lent? On Ash Wednesday, our churches saw many people come for ashes who do not attend Sunday Mass. And it is more and more evident that many Catholics are no longer marrying Catholics, but members of other Christian Churches. Can we invite these spouses, sometimes non-practicing Eastern Orthodox or Protestants, to join us for Sunday Mass and/or Stations of the Cross during Lent?

The hymns during Lent, the emphasis on our baptism and what it means for spiritual growth, and above all the Cross of Jesus joined to our daily cross, do attract people.  Let us share our experience with those around us, of Jesus carrying our cross.

May our observance of Lent bring us closer to Jesus and each other.

In His love,

Father Harry Winter, O.M.I.

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America Magazine – A short history of Catholic-Anglican relations—and the last roadblocks to unity