TAC goes to Rome: The Church of England Newspaper, March 13, 2010

Bishop David Moyer, Archbishop John Hepworth, Bishop David Chislett of the Traditional Anglican Communion

The bishops of the American branch of the Traditional Anglican Communion have voted to accept Pope Benedict’s offer of corporate reunion with the Roman Catholic Church, and will begin work on forming a “Personal Ordinariate” for disaffected Anglicans in America.

On March 3, the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America (ACA) released a statement saying they have decided “formally to request the implementation of the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution ‘Anglicanorum coetibus’ in the United States of America by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”

Composed of 100 congregations and approximately 5200 members, the ACA is the second group to request admission to the Pope’s Anglican Ordinariate. However, unlike Forward in Faith Australia—which made its request last month, the ACA is an independent denomination belonging to the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC).

The Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall of Brisbane noted that a number of misunderstandings had arisen in connection concerning the relations between the Australian-based TAC and the Anglican Church of Australia.

TAC “is a group of people that are not part of the Anglican Church of Australia nor in communion with the global Anglican Communion,” he said in a March 5 statement given to The Church of England Newspaper.

It was not possible, he noted to be both a Roman Catholic and a member of the Anglican Communion. “My understanding is that if any Anglicans do wish to accept the Apostolic Constitution they will be able to retain elements of Anglican spiritual and liturgical heritage,” he said.

However, those joining the Ordinariate would be “required to replace all ecclesial elements with those of the Roman Catholic Church,” Dr. Aspinall said, which meant that a former Anglican priest who “wishes to minister as a Roman Catholic priest would need to be re-ordained in the Roman Catholic Church.”

The changes would also apply to lay people, he added, who “may need to be re-confirmed. All former Anglicans who choose to become Roman Catholic will have to accept all the teaching of that Church including its moral teaching, for example on contraception. People who choose to change will no longer be members of the Anglican Church or be in Communion with the global Anglican Communion,” he explained.

While there has been “movement in both directions between our churches over the years,” Archbishop Aspinall said, “this is what is involved in an Anglican becoming a Roman Catholic.”

Last week’s request by the ACA bishops must now be affirmed by its clergy and lay members, however, sources in the ACA say that they expect most members to follow their clergy to Rome.