Anglicans are Coming Home to Rome--Anglicans Give Up Christian Identity

I was briefly in the Episcopal Church (the US franchise of the Anglican Church) on my way back to Holy Mother Church, so I have some sympathy for those who toughed out their sojourne longer than I did.  Now, I never really had anything invested in that organization (being Irish Catholic by identity, if not by practice), so I don't necessarily understand why people have chosen to cling to this particular sinking ship as long as they have, but I do understand the desire to avoid saying 'I was wrong.'

This was my largest difficulty with accepting God in my life, having to admit that I was, in fact, wrong.  I was wrong about many things and my entire world-view had to change.  I remember my wife and I dealing with the consequences of returning to the Church, particularly with regard to birth control (for the record, my wife was all for NFP... I was the one that was kind of freaked out about it).  I had been an atheist for quite a while and had become quite comfortable creating my own 'morality.'It really sucks being forced by circumstances to acknowledge that you are wrong.  That is a huge part of most conversion experiences, it was in my case.  For the Anglicans, they have to admit to themselves that not only were they wrong, but all their antecedents in the faith were wrong going all the way back to Henry.  For me, this would have made things easier, as I could simply blame the culture I was raised in; however, I can see that for some the idea of bringing into question their entire culture up the point of their conversion would be deeply unsettling. 

I pray that this process is made easier by Pope Benedict's attempts to develop a Catholic Anglican Rite.Anyway, the Anglican Church seems to want to make sure that those leaving feel good about their decision, as they have opted to rewrite their baptismal ceremony without reference to Christ. 

I think that this is a very good decision on the part of the Anglican Communion; if they eventually depart completely from their claims about being Christian, I suppose that they can no longer be accused of leading people into error.  It also will make their position eminently clear to those Anglicans and members of the Anglican Communion who are 'holding out' for some return to sanity in that church.  Considering the origins of the Anglican Church, I am not completely sure what sanity they would be returning to. 

Pray for our erring brothers and sisters!