Why, who hasn't dreamed of flying off to another country in a few seconds? Imagine that? No long lines and no excess baggage!
So as a fan, I was spending a few...ehm, hours surfing the web researching anything about the Man of Steel. I was reading the history of the character, the film franchise, the so-called Superman curse and those involved in the movies. By the way, Superman creators have implicitly characterized our hero as somewhat like our Lord. Only son came to save the world and stuff like that. Read more here to see my point.
I particularly read about Christopher Reeve, the actor who played Superman in 1978 and probably defined how Superman should look like in the movies. He broke his neck in a horrible accident that left him a quadriplegic. He advocated embryonic stem cell research for spinal cord injury regeneration which I was not a fan of, obviously. I also learned that he is a good friend of comedian Robin Williams. So one thing led me to another and so I also read the profile of Robim Williams, who is among my favorite comedians of all time. By the way, he was married to a Filipina.
I learned that Williams is an Episcopalian. In a comedy routine, he described his religion as "Catholic Lite —; same rituals, half the guilt."
Well I am trying to be a stand-up comedian...in the company pantry among my co-workers... so here is my rebuttal, as a Pinoy Catholic, to Mr. Williams' joke.
"Episcopalian Church - looks Catholic, but get half of the benefits."
Jordan, drives, shoots and scores! That's all she wrote, folks!
What do you mean "half the benefits"?!?! Anglican/Episcopalians have no real benefits since what "benefits" they enjoy have no guarantees.
ReplyDeleteExample: An Anglican priest celebrates the Eucharist and dispenses the sacraments. We don't exactly know if it is valid or not. While some Anglican priests are validly ordained, we can't expect the Vatican to vet their ordination every time they celebrate the Mass. BTW, Archbishop Rowan Williams IS LIKELY to have VALID ORDERS according to Vatican insiders Anglicans and even the most traddie of Catholics of the EF persuasion who can't dispute the reason why he was allowed to preach at Mass in Lourdes and celebrate the Anglican Eucharist at a Papal basilica in Rome. But still if Rowan joins the Ordinariate, he will have to be at least CONDITIONALLY ordained by a Catholic bishop with indisputably and guaranteed valid orders.
Rowan as I have said has LIKELY valid orders. That's the problem of Anglicanism, the via media has resulted in everything being likely but still improbable.
With the majority of the Anglican communion going on the female ordination bandwagon, from deacons to bishops, we can expect this likelihood of having valid orders will be even less.
In a way that's good. We then know with more certainty that the Anglican Communion isn't Catholic.
And the Catholic minded among us Anglicans should be certain that the Ordinariate will be truly Anglican if only under the pastoral care of the Bishop of Rome, who sent first sent Augustine to Canterbury.
Well in some aspects Ben like in the celebration of the liturgy. High Church Episcopalians and Anglicans are more "catholic" in LOOKS than our present Catholic Church. Other denominations like the Lutherans have more traditional Catholic churches than what we Latins have.
ReplyDeleteNow those are some benefits but not the REAL benefit you would look for in the TRUE Church.
I remember a friend telling me of the time he went to a High Church liturgy and he thought he was at an SSPX church! Hah!
ReplyDeleteA minority of Anglo-Catholics are more traddie than those who attend Mass at Sikatuna Village. But the majority have Mass in the "Novus Ordo" style, but are more reverent than their Catholic counterparts here. Anglicanism has so much to remind Catholics of what they have lost.
ReplyDeleteFunny!!!!
ReplyDeleteFYI it's THE EPISCOPAL
ReplyDeleteCHURCH not Episcopalian Church. A person that is a member of the Episcopal Church is an EPISCOPALIAN. and I am a proud one. We don't need to be or care to be the "one true church" but we are a great faith.