My conversion.

This is another instalment in our converts series.--Editor

I was a cradle Anglican for some 76 years. I was raised Anglican both culturally and spiritually by my family. After so many years I was able to recite from memory the prayers, the collects, the creeds-in fact almost all of the Communion service, as found in the Book of Common Prayer. During those years in the Anglican Church of Canada (AC of C), I filled most posts: server, usher, secretary, treasurer and delegate to synod. Marjorie, my wife, converted to Anglicanism from the Baptist faith when we were married.

All seemed to go along swimmingly until 1977, when the AC of C decided that the ordination of women was acceptable. This bombshell caused a few of us, and I do mean few, to contemplate what we might do, as we did not believe this could possibly be right. So in 1978, with a few others we left the Anglican Church of Canada and formed the continuing Anglican Church under the banner Anglican Catholic Church (ACC). While I was a member of the ACC I was ordained, and was a clergyman for 17 years.

During the years after the split from the Anglican Church of Canada, and especially during my reading for ordination, I began to question Anglicanism. I struggled to understand why the ACC tried by ceremonies and ritual to be what it thought was Catholic. I had a deep feeling that something was not right, and it was a great worry to me.

In my reading of history and the Elizabethan Settlement, I realized for the first time that the Church of England had been "excommunicated" by the Church in Rome during Elizabeth's reign. The question then in my mind was how could any of the sacraments of the Church of England be valid, and how could the sacraments of the Anglican Catholic Church be valid?

This was the first and main point which started my path to conversion. Also, the scripture passage in Matt.16: 19; "And I will give unto you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

This very powerful charge to Peter by Our Lord Jesus Christ, this very power of heaven, cannot be put aside. It cannot mean that everyone, everywhere has received this power from Christ. Only Christ's Church from that very moment received this power.

So of course this leads to another part of scripture which had and has me thinking, and that is the statement by Our Lord; "I am the vine and ye are the branches". I am not able to believe that a branch broken from the vine is able to receive the necessary nourishment for life.

These two scripture passages plus other thoughts which nagged at me came to a head a few years back when the Church of England also allowed the ordination of women. At this time a group in England split and formed what they called, "Forward in Faith", a group that would not allow women clergy, but still stayed in full communion with the Church of England.

It was not long until I found out that the Anglican Catholic Church in Canada was in full communion with "Forward in Faith" in England. I could not understand how we could be in communion with that which caused our leaving in the first place.

I asked one bishop, and his answer was, " Well, it does seem dishonest but we don't talk about it." I asked another bishop and was advised, "You just don't understand the Englishness of it." I asked a clergyman and was told, "We are in it, but not of it."

So there is much dishonest teaching going on within the ACC, or at least, much dissimulation. I found this to be something I could not live with. So it was time to depart Anglicanism. It would be the second time in my church life when I had to leave friends and parishes. It is not easy at all. When your friends are told or find out it is harder still, as some are never heard from again.

I did not leave right away, as Marjorie was still hesitant and did not wish to leave the people we had known, some for over twenty-eight years. However, she would not accept this hypocrisy and we made the move.

First we went to see the Catholic priest at St. Anthony's Parish, as it is the church closest to where we live. Appointment made, and in 2003 the bridge was burnt.

Father Tesfu made us feel at home right away, and asked many questions and made copies of many documents. We were asked to do some reading and remember questions to ask him on the next visit. We had about five or six visits all told, after which we were accepted into the Catholic Church.

George Mealey writes from Edmonton, AB.