UECNA Archbishop Peter Robinson: Condemnation of Anglican orders by Rome is political"

The current condemnation of Anglican Orders is largely political in origin and could be voided on the pretext of subsequent Ultrajectine participation in Anglican consecrations, according to Archbishop Peter Robinson of the United Episcopal Church of North America.

(Ultrajectine thought holds to the words of St. Vincent of Lerins: "We must hold fast to that faith which has been held everywhere, always, and by all the faithful." Ultrajectine thought rejects papal infallibility and holds to the belief that only the Church in Ecumenical Council may speak infallibly.)

In an address made available to the Congress of Traditional Anglicans in Victoria, BC, Robinson noted that the recent fiasco over the ordinariates has demonstrated that a reversal of Rome's stated position on Anglican orders is not going to occur to satisfy the relatively small numbers of Anglo-Papalists joining the ordinariates.

"I have absolutely no doubts about the validity of Anglican Orders. Our ordinal, even in the form set forth in 1559, is perfectly sufficient for the proper transmission of Holy Orders in that it contains the name of the order to which the candidate(s) is to be ordained, appropriate prayers, the laying on of hands, and the invocation of the Holy Spirit - all within the context of the Eucharist. This is all that is required according to the Biblical and Patristic witness, and sufficient to ensure the proper transmission of Orders and of the apostolic Succession," continued Robinson.

The archbishop remarked that the Roman refusal to recognize Anglican Orders boils down to a manifestation of the "not made here" syndrome. Because the Anglican Church came about, in the opinion of Rome, with an act of open defiance of the Pope, its orders must be regarded as invalid in order to reduce us to the same status as the other churches of the Reformation.

To read more, click here.