If traditionalist Anglicans accept Rome's offer of the Anglican coetibus in order to enter the Roman Catholic Church, they will cease to be Anglican. "The way is open for all who seek that path. There are no barriers. It would be more honest for those so inclined to simply walk into the nearest Roman Catholic Church and begin a process of conversion," said the Rt. Rev. Brian Marsh, Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Church in America.
Addressing the Congress of Traditionalist Anglicans meeting here, Marsh stated that for Anglicans the path is clear. "We are Anglican because God has called us to this place. While we certainly pray for the unity of God's church, (see John 17), true unity is spiritual not political. "God's people are truly unified when they can affirm, as Jesus did, that God the Father and Jesus are one. That is all He asked. No less a theologian than Richard Hooker wrote that God's church is one when all affirm that God the Father and God the Son are indeed one. That is unity. That is unity with an Anglican emphasis. That is unity with a Christian emphasis.
"Where then is the gift of Anglicanorum coetibus? It is here. It means a 'group of Anglicans' or 'a gathering of Anglicans.' Well here we are. We have come together to celebrate our particular journey as the Anglican Continuum. We are bound together in a common heritage. We are bound by a fierce devotion to Scripture and the Book of Common Prayer. It is our way and God has called us here.
"Our history has included many attempts to draw us all together. There have been trial mergers, inter-communion arrangements and schemes of absorption that fill our improbable story. There has been a fair amount of sheep stealing and empire building. The cast of characters has included the saintly prelate and the thief, the godly bishop and the criminal. What a story. One wonders how we could possibly survived thirty-five years. God has allowed it to happen."
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