Sad news ... the See of Ebbsfleet is being handed over to 'Complementarian Evangelicals' (I think this means what we used to call Conservative Evangelicals ... in other words, Anglicans subscribing to the dogmas of Master Calvin).
When 'Provincial Episcopal Visitors' were invented to pastor Anglicans in the Province of Canterbury who refused the ministry of women claiming to be Priests or bishops, these two 'Flying Bishops' were given Ebbsfleet and Richborough as their sees. I thought this was beautiful, because those are both places associated with the beginning of the English Mission under S Augustine.
In other words, these two places were resonant of authentic Roman Christianity before S Augustine even reached Canterbury ... expressions of the Romanita of our English Catholicism.
Eventually, the Ebbsfleet district acquired Bishop Andrew Burnham as its Pontiff. He reorganised it along Romeish line, calling it "the Ebbsfleet Apostolic District".
Among other things, he raised the festival of the Presentation of our Lady, 21 November, to the rank of a FESTUM.
I wonder if we can rely upon the Evangelicals to continue the celebration of that (very Byzantine and Ecumenical) festival in its enhanced status. And to observe S Gregory as their Patron.
I suppose they don’t want yet another Bishop of Ebbsfleet going over to Rome. Old Oswestry was abandoned at the time of the Roman Conquest.
ReplyDeleteVery sad but inevitable. The last incumbent of the See was an Anglican of the highest pedigree who is now a Catholic priest in Westminster. Ironically, he trained at Wycliffe Hall but he was from the outset of Catholic and indeed Orthodox sensibilities, and after a distinguished career in the Established church he took the brave step, not a youngster, of converting to the One True Church. It was a glorious Ordination in the Cathedral with four Anglican bishops gawping in the sanctuary like gasping goldfish outside the bowl.
ReplyDeleteApropos of not much... There's this stupid thing going around, where the pro-abortion folks are pointing to some of the weirder medieval Irish saint stories, where people like St. Brigid and St. Ciaran apparently make pregnancies unhappen. I'm not sure what's going on there, but of course they're sure it's "holy abortions" and they've got weird academics to point to.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm still not sure what's going on, but the wording in both Vita Sanctae Brigidae I and II apparently refers to Seneca's Consolatio of his mom Helvia, and there might also be a Hosea reference. Both of which are very anti-abortion. (My new theory is that fetal resorption happened.)
I hate not having enough Classics or Bible knowledge to have these connections pop up in my head, as they were meant to; but maybe somebody will invent a large scale search engine for suspicious phrases.
https://suburbanbanshee.wordpress.com/2022/06/30/this-is-not-a-description-of-pregnancy/
Stream of consciousness blogpost here -- maybe you can do something with it, or maybe you know somebody who can. It's a very stupid pro-abortion take.