Mark+

Lowly deacon?  Even the Archbishop of Canterbury is still a deacon.  :)

I thought all the incoming clergy are now re-ordained.  That's not correct?

MLW+

-----Original Message-----
From: mark.mary@... [mailto:mark.mary@...] 
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 4:14 PM
To: faithandlife@...
Subject: RE: [FaithandLife] Anglo Catholics and Evangelicals in the new
Church RSVP 2

Fr Mike:

I'm only a lowly deacon, so you can address me as Mark.  I have no problem
w/Fr X (in fact, I prefer it) for priests.

As far as I can tell, the straw that broke the camel's back concerning
breaking w/PECUS was the requirement that one must be ordained in apostolic
succession to serve the Eucharist.  Bishop Cummins was castigated
specifically for participating in a Eucharist w/presbyterians.  In the REC
we specifically require all our clergy to vow that no ordained person is a
priest in any way different than any layman.  We do not reordain even
Baptists that become REC clergy.  The clergyman is an elder, not a
sacerdotal priest.  Since high ritual was tied w/apostolic succession, we
rejected a lot of things came w/apostolic succession.   However, we take no
such vow, nor was it required even at the beginning, that we reject high
church ritual.  Therefore, we are allowed to change ritual, which we have
done to a certain extent.  The 4 Declaration of Principles, one of which
contains the part about the priest, areunchangeable.

mw