Madam, – Paul Kokoski commends the three Anglican bishops who have converted to “Catholicism” and says that Anglican traditionalists are “always welcome to the fullness of truth that resides . . . inside the Catholic Church” (January 18th). The fact that anyone could write such a provocative letter reminds us that there are those in the Roman church, fortified in their beliefs by official formularies, who have not given up on the idea that Christian unity is about returning to the arms of “mother church”.
Similarly, there are people in the ranks of the Protestant churches who believe that a Roman Catholic cannot be a Christian and who draw comfort from unrepudiated documents, speaking of the “sacrifices of masses” being “blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits”.
The Roman Catholic church in England and Wales has acted in a triumphalist and decidedly unecumenical manner in the setting up of the Anglican “Ordinariate”. The Anglican Communion would be rightly criticised if it was to similarly publicise the conversion of the large numbers of clergy and laity who have left the Roman church to join its ranks. To speak frankly, the Roman Catholic church is welcome to the three Anglo-Catholic bishops and the relatively small number of misogynistic and homophobic people who may follow them. The Anglican Communion is better off without this disloyal fifth column of malcontents.
Christian churches will continue to have profound disagreements with one another and individual believers will move across denominational boundaries.
Anyone who believes that there is one “mother church” is misguided and anyone who thinks that there can ever be one “super-church” is deluded.
Unity does not imply uniformity. We are united by one Lord, one Faith and one Baptism and the Catholic Church, while it is segmented into different denominations, is one in Christ Jesus.
It is possible for us to have unity in diversity and we should be able to debate our differences in a spirit of openness and tolerance. When we disagree, we should avoid being disagreeable. – Yours, etc,