ANGLICAN GROUP MULLS ROME SWITCH

ANGLICANS PONDER ROME INVITATION
TO JOIN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

BBC News - Some Anglican clergy have said they are ready to accept an offer to join the Roman Catholic Church at a meeting of about 600 conservative priests. Members of the Forward in Faith group discussed the Pope's invitation to Anglicans to convert to Catholicism but keep many of their existing practices. Many who are considering conversion are unhappy at women bishops being introduced into the Church of England. Others at the meeting, in Westminster, urged their colleagues to stay. They have pleaded with their colleagues to stay inside the Church and fight for a compromise that would allow them to live harmoniously with women bishops.

Under the terms of the invitation offered by the Vatican, those who convert could keep many of their Anglican traditions in their own special section of the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican said it was responding to pleas for help from Anglicans. Some leading Anglicans have criticised the Vatican over the move. The Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, said: "We mustn't be treated as a junior partner in this. It's got to be done in a serious way that respects each party and I was raising a question simply, 'Is that being done at the present moment?'" Father Geoffrey Kirk, is among those who said he intends to convert to Catholicism. He said: "The Church of England is, in the view of many of us, ceasing to be the church of Jesus Christ and becoming the church of political correctness, not only the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate - to which we object - but also in many attitudes to human sexuality from divorce and remarriage, to homosexuality."

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

The Supreme Lord's presence is realized in three stages. The kanishtha-adhikārī is in the lowest stage of realization. He goes to a place of worship, such as a temple, church or mosque, according to his religious faith, and worships there according to scriptural injunctions. Devotees in this stage consider the Lord to be present at the place of worship and nowhere else. ... the second stage of realization are called madhyama-adhikārīs. These devotees observe the distinctions between four categories of being ... He adores the Lord, considering Him the object of love; he makes friends with those who are in devotional service; he tries to awaken the dormant love of God in the hearts of the innocent; and he avoids the atheists, who deride the very name of the Lord. Above the madhyama-adhikārī is the uttama-adhikārī, who sees everything in relation to the Supreme Lord.

Srila A.C. BV Swami Prabhupada:
"Śrī Īśopanishad - Purport in Verse 6"