Strong words.Dear editor, You report the primate, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison Andrew Sandford Hutchison L.Th., D.D, D.C.L. (h.c.) (born in Toronto in 1938), is a retired Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada. Prior to his election at the General Synod of 2004, he was the bishop of Montreal and metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of Canada (which, , as saying that "a two-tier church is anathema" and describing any Anglican covenant "intended ... to exclude people who don't think in a certain way" as "devilish dev·il·ish adj. 1. Of, resembling, or characteristic of a devil, as: a. Malicious; evil. b. Mischievous, teasing, or annoying. 2. Excessive; extreme: devilish heat. ." If the primate means "anathema" and "devilish" in their strict senses, these are strong words indeed. As Saint Paul Saint Paul, city (1990 pop. 272,235), state capital and seat of Ramsey co., E Minn., on bluffs along the Mississippi River, contiguous with Minneapolis, forming the Twin Cities metropolitan area; inc. 1854. uses it, "anathema" means either "cast out of the Christian community for heinous sin" (I Cor. 16.22, Gal. 1.8-9) or "accursed" (I Cor. 12.3). According to Gratian, it implies not only exclusion from the sacraments and public worship (excommunication excommunication, formal expulsion from a religious body, the most grave of all ecclesiastical censures. Where religious and social communities are nearly identical it is attended by social ostracism, as in the case of Baruch Spinoza, excommunicated by the Jews. ), but also complete separation from the body of the faithful (Decretum, Book II, canon 106). So if we take him at his word, Archbishop Hutchison seems to be denouncing anyone who suggests a two-tier Anglican Communion as a way out of our present impasse (such as the Archbishop of Canterbury The Archbishop of Canterbury is the main leader of the Church of England and by convention is also recognised as head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The current archbishop is Rowan Williams. ) or wants the church to uphold the New Testament standard of sexual morality (such as the primates of many other Anglican provinces and, at home, the membership of Essentials). Is Archbishop Hutchison planning to anathematize a·nath·e·ma·tize tr.v. a·nath·e·ma·tized, a·nath·e·ma·tiz·ing, a·nath·e·ma·tiz·es To proclaim an anathema on; curse. [Late Latin anathemat all such wayward Anglicans publicly in Toronto's St. James Cathedral with bell, book and candle? That gesture would certainly earn him some notice from the media. Whether it would help mend matters is another question. If not, perhaps he would do us all the favour of explaining what he did mean by calling half his colleagues, and a large part of his flock, diabolical heretics. William Cooke Toronto |
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