Is it just me or does it seem like some of the Emergent folk are a wee bit confused on the difference between Catholic and Anglican? Take this comment for instance:
The kind of Reformation Rohr is talking about here seems to me distinctively Franciscan (Rohr is a Franciscan himself, of course) as well as Emergent, and very close to the heart of the Franciscan way within the Anglican Communion.
Having participated in both Catholic and Anglican churches and never seen anything like this I am just left scratching my head. Or is the line between Catholic and Anglican truly that blurry in other parts of the world?
Curious Christian 
Having just moved from Sydney, I can tell you that there is a vast difference between Anglicans in different places. I met a Benedictine Anglican Minister a week ago. In Melbourne Anglo-catholicism is a significant group in the Anglican Church. At times it is incredibly difficult to tell the difference between these guys and the Catholic church.
Elements of the Emerging/Emergent movement appeal to some of these diverse elements in the Anglican Communion, as it offers hope of a way forward which sees validity in various traditional forms.
However the key from my perspective is not just seeing validity in traditions but seeing potential for them to engage missionally. It is finding new ways to communicate the good news of Jesus to those outside the church that is important rather than merely affirming the validity of a given tradition.
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Or to put it another way, I think we have to ask ourselves, is our mission driving our tradition or is our tradition driving our mission? Tradition for traditions sake strikes me as a bit empty. Living tradition finds its reason of existance outside of itself.
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Roman Catholic Franciscans have the letters OFM after their names.
Anglican Franciscans have the letters SSF.
OFM = Order of Friars Minor
SSF = Society of St Francis
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Very different from our Anglicans obviously.
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“Living tradition finds its reason of existence outside of itself.”
Now there I agree with you, Matt!
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Well Matt, even on this side of the pond we’ve heard that Sydney Anglicans are something else 🙂
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Noticed same mistake (?) once I read it. Here in Dominican Republic, many Anglicans still consider themselves ‘catholic’ at least in a namely confessional sense.
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Noticed same mistake (?) once I read it. Here in Dominican Republic, many Anglicans still consider themselves ‘catholic’ at least in a namely confessional sense.
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Well, protestants of all stripes affirm the Nicene Creed which speaks of one, holy, catholic and apostolic church, but they mean a different thing by it than Catholics.
As for Sydney Anglicans being different, we Aussies still have our Anglo-Catholics, but even they don’t seem to be as Catholic as this.
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You guys do know you’ve Anglican Franciscan Tertiaries (TSSF) over there in Australia, don’t you? http://tssf.org.au/. And SSF (First Order) Brothers: http://www.franciscan.org.au/… And in Aotearoa New Zealand as well. We’re all over the place, not just in the UK!
Just saying…
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Well, I learn something every day!
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