In case your mind may have wandered on to higher more noble things like the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church obtaining a DD from the University of Huron where she famously proclaimed, "The faithful are all on that kind of journey into the unknown. We're like the explorers who went looking for the places on old maps beyond the known world labeled, 'There be dragons.'" If so, Hepworth's rant might look only half crazy.

Hepworth should have taken deeper note of what Fr. Aidan Nichols OP had to say in his address to the Anglicanorum Coetibus conference in Canada where Hepworth was present. Here are his words, "So conceived, the 'Noah's Ark' quality of Anglicanism makes it difficult to give a blanket endorsement to the Anglican tradition in a comprehensive way, since too many internal contradictions lie within."

Apparently, Hepworth didn't get the point or was simply not listening.

Hepworth also doesn't read history all that well either. He blasted Collins, "It is just on thirty years since these Canadian Anglicans left the Anglican Church of Canada in support of Catholic teaching and the continuation of the ARCIC dream. After so many years of sacrificial work, the wonton destruction of their communities, the absolute disregard for their ecclesial integrity, and the brutish manner in which these edicts are being communicated, are powerful disincentives to unity, in stark contrast to the clear language and intent of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus".

If Hepworth is referring to the St. Louis Affirmation, he has really missed the ecclesiastical bus. Those who left The Episcopal Church had no intention then or now of ever going to Rome. They wanted an authentic Anglicanism seen through catholic eyes.

The Affirmation of St. Louis is the founding document of the Continuing Anglican Movement churches. It was first presented to the Congress of Saint Louis at a 1977 meeting. Former members of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America and the Anglican Church of Canada and most Continuing Anglican churches consider it to be an official statement of their faith. These Continuing Anglican churches consider themselves to be the legitimate replacements for those Anglican churches which, in their view, broke with Apostolic order by authorizing the ordination of women priests.

The Affirmation has several general tenets:

Dissolution of Anglican Church structures: That the churches to which the delegates had previously belonged ceased to have a valid ministry through the act of ordaining women to the priesthood. Continuation of Anglicanism: That Anglicanism could only continue through a complete separation from the structures of the Episcopal Church in the USA and the Anglican Church of Canada.

Invalidity of Schismatic Authority: That the churches to which the delegates had previously belonged had made themselves schismatic by their break with traditional order and, therefore, ceased to have any authority over them or other members.

Continued Communion with Canterbury: That communion with Canterbury would continue because the Church of England had not, at that time, ordained women to the priesthood. This article of the Affirmation became inoperable with the ordination of women by the Church of England in the 1990s.

In none of these statements is unity with Rome either talked about or even envisaged or desired.

It is Hepworth who is now attempting to hijack the Anglo-Catholic movement while authentic Anglo-Catholics like bishops Jack Iker, Keith Ackerman, John-David Schofield, William Wantland, Mark Haverland, Brian Marsh and others have no interest whatsoever in crossing the Tiber. If Hepworth really believes Rome is home, he should do what Cardinal John Newman did and jump ship, by announcing to the entire world that he is done with Anglicanism. Perhaps in the distant future, when his first marriage has been annulled, can he be looked upon as a saint standing with Bishop David Moyer by his side (but only after Moyer has done time in Purgatory for suing his attorney John H. Lewis Jr., who remarkably kept PA Bishop Charles E. Bennison at bay for over eight years thus allowing Bishop Moyer to continue at his post at Good Shepherd).

Hepworth wants his Catholic cake and to eat it, too. But he can't and now he has apparently sabotaged TAC's future and himself with this line to Archbishop Collins, "I warned you last July that the English Ordinariate may well be the first and the last. That outcome is now more certain."

If that's the case, Hepworth can kiss his Catholic cassock and future goodbye and see his flock scattered to the four winds. The truth is neither the vast majority of Anglo-Catholics in Canada nor the US (and perhaps now Torres Strait) are remotely interested in joining him on his rickety journey to Rome.

Since he blasted Collins (a decidedly stupid thing to do if what you are looking for is an entrance ticket through the Vatican pearly gates), the Toronto archbishop issued a statement that can only be described as irenic. "I have asked certain priests in different regions of Canada to serve as "mentor priests", to work with these small groups of Anglicans in their geographical area. These mentor priests have been asked as their first task to visit the communities, to get to know them, to respond to any questions, and to get a sense of the number of people who are interested."

Perhaps sensing that he had overplayed his hand, Hepworth wrote a letter http://tinyurl.com/3bf2dag advising the TAC bishops of Canada to resume the mentoring visits by local Catholic priests.

Collins in his remarks said the ACCC is not the only grouping of Anglicans in Canada looking to implement the Anglicanorum Coetibus. What he did say is that all groups of former Anglicans be equal within the new ecclesial structure, and each individual Anglican considering entering full communion with the Catholic Church through Anglicanorum Coetibus be fully informed and freely decide whether or not to proceed. The truth is the vast majority of the ACCC don't want the trip across the Tiber, it is a bridge too far.

On the surface Collins appears to have been very gracious in his response to Hepworth's rip. Hepworth has had to eat humble pie and make nice to the Canadian Catholic archbishop. Perhaps he can excite his American disciple Bishop David Moyer to do the same with his former attorney John Lewis. It might be the beginning of healing even as Moyer is shown the door at the Church of the Good Shepherd by the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania.

END