19 febrero 2007

UNA BUENA NOTICIA

The Times of London, pasa por ser el periódico más serio del mundo. Por ello la información que publica hoy en portada, la considero fiable y es muy buena para la Humanidad, y creo que no exagero. Además, esta noticia aparece al dia siguiente de nuestra visita a Canterbury, sede "primada" de la Iglesia de Inglaterra. Aunque esto es, evidentemente, una mera casualidad, lo prometo.
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Como resumen de lo publicado, se puede decir que la Iglesia Anglicana se plantea seriamente unirse de nuevo a la Iglesia Católica y acogerse al Magisterio de Roma.
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Entre otros motivos, pesa el hecho de que el número de católicos supera por primera vez en 400 años a los anglicanos. El proceso será largo y difícil, pero... Mnatengamos la esperanza y recemos por la vuelta al redil pontificio de este pais antes de que Camila Parker, se convierta en "Papisa consorte".
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El texto original de la noticia dice así:
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CHURCHES BACK PLAN TO UNITE UNDER POPE
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Ruth Gledhill - The Times - February 19, 2007
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Radical proposals to reunite Anglicans with the Roman Catholic Church under the leadership of the Pope are to be published this year, The Times has learnt.
The proposals have been agreed by senior bishops of both churches.
In a 42-page statement prepared by an international commission of both churches, Anglicans and Roman Catholics are urged to explore how they might reunite under the Pope.
The statement, leaked to The Times, is being considered by the Vatican, where Catholic bishops are preparing a formal response.
It comes as the archbishops who lead the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion meet in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in an attempt to avoid schism over gay ordination and other liberal doctrines that have taken hold in parts of the Western Church.
The 36 primates at the gathering will be aware that the Pope, while still a cardinal, sent a message of support to the orthodox wing of the Episcopal Church of the US as it struggled to cope with the fallout after the ordination of the gay bishop Gene Robinson.
Were this week’s discussions to lead to a split between liberals and conservatives, many of the former objections in Rome to a reunion with Anglican conservatives would disappear. Many of those Anglicans who object most strongly to gay ordination also oppose the ordination of women priests.
Rome has already shown itself willing to be flexible on the subject of celibacywhen it received dozens of married priests from the Church of England into the Catholic priesthood after they left over the issue of women’s ordination.
There are about 78 million Anglicans, compared with a billion Roman Catholics, worldwide. In England and Wales, the Catholic Church is set to overtake Anglicanism as the predominant Christian denomination for the first time since the Reformation, thanks to immigration from Catholic countries.
As the Anglicans’ squabbles over the fundamentals of Christian doctrine continue — with seven of the conservative primates twice refusing to share Communion with the other Anglican leaders at their meeting in Tanzania — the Church’s credibility is being increasingly undermined in a world that is looking for strong witness from its international religious leaders.
The Anglicans will attempt to resolve their differences today by publishing a new Anglican Covenant, an attempt to provide a doctrinal statement under which they can unite.
But many fear that the divisions have gone too far to be bridged and that, if they cannot even share Communion with each other, there is little hope that they will agree on a statement of common doctrine.
The latest Anglican-Catholic report could hardly come at a more sensitive time. It has been drawn up by the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission, which is chaired by the Right Rev David Beetge, an Anglican bishop from South Africa, and the Most Rev John Bathersby, the Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, Australia.
The commission was set up in 2000 by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, and Cardinal Edward Cassidy, then head of the Vatican’s Council for Christian Unity. Its aim was to find a way of moving towards unity through “common life and mission”.
The document leaked to The Times is the commission’s first statement, Growing Together in Unity and Mission. The report acknowledges the “imperfect communion” between the two churches but says that there is enough common ground to make its “call for action” about the Pope and other issues.
In one significant passage the report notes: “The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the ministry of the Bishop of Rome [the Pope] as universal primate is in accordance with Christ’s will for the Church and an essential element of maintaining it in unity and truth.” Anglicans rejected the Bishop of Rome as universal primate in the 16th century. Today, however, some Anglicans are beginning to see the potential value of a ministry of universal primacy, which would be exercised by the Bishop of Rome, as a sign and focus of unity within a reunited Church.
In another paragraph the report goes even further: “We urge Anglicans and Roman Catholics to explore together how the ministry of the Bishop of Rome might be offered and received in order to assist our Communions to grow towards full, ecclesial communion.”
Other recommendations include inviting lay and ordained members of both denominations to attend each other’s synodical and collegial gatherings and conferences. Anglican bishops could be invited to accompany Catholic ones on visits to Rome.
The report adds that special “protocols” should also be drawn up to handle the movement of clergy from one Church to the other. Other proposals include common teaching resources for children in Sunday schools and attendance at each other’s services, pilgrimages and processions.
Anglicans are also urged to begin praying for the Pope during the intercessionary prayers in church services, and Catholics are asked also to pray publicly for the Archbishop of Canterbury.
In today’s Anglican Church, it is unlikely that a majority of parishioners would wish to heal the centuries-old rift and return to Rome.
However, the stance of the Archbishop of Canterbury over the present dispute dividing his Church gives an indication of how priorities could be changing in light of the gospel imperative towards church unity.
Dr Rowan Williams, who as Primate of the Church of England is its “focus for unity”, has in the past supported a liberal interpretation of Scripture on the gay issue. But he has made it clear that church unity must come before provincial autonomy. A logical extension of that, once this crisis is overcome either by agreement or schism, would be to seek reunion with the Church of England's own mother Church.

NORMANDIA, DONDE LA GENEROSIDAD SE MIDE EN CRUCES

Esta foto que ven aquí no corresponde al Reino Unido sino a Francia. Se trata de un cementerio norteamericano a pocos kilómetros de la Playa Omaha, en Normandía, donde, en Junio de 1944, miles de jóvenes yankees dieron sus vidas por una Europa justa y libre. 76.000 americanos murieron en esas semanas, de los que cerca de 10.000 descansan en la tierra que les vio morir.
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En algunas cruces figuraba la inscripción que se ve en esta segunda foto. Se podría traducir como: "Aquí descansa en la Gloria un Camarada de armas conocido sólo por Dios"
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Para ellos mi tributo de gratitud, mi admiración y mi oración.
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God bless America

11 febrero 2007

TOWER BRIDGE


El puente de la Torre, Tower Bridge en inglés, llamado así por estar justo al lado de la Torre de Londres, es una construcción que se ha ganado el ser, junto a la torre donde está el Reloj del Parlamento, o Big Ben, la imagen de Londres.
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El puente se ha ganado este status en el imaginario de los londinenses y de los millones de turistas que recibe esta ciudad por lo vistoso que es y por haber sido en los tiempos de su inauguración, allá por 1894, un prodigio de la tecnología de la entonces indiscutible primera potencia mundial.
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Si foto encima se toma, en un domingo inusualmente soleado de enero, el puente ofrece una imagen que incrementa, como pueden ver, su brillo.

10 febrero 2007

EL HMS BELFAST, MUSEO FLOTANTE SOBRE EL TÁMESIS

Ahí lo tienen, orgulloso de su pasado como crucero pesado de la Royal Navy, el HMS Belfast es, junto al Victory de Nelson, el único buque de guerra británico no desguazado tras haber sido dado de baja para el servicio.
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Los visitantes se pueden hacer una idea de lo que era la vida en un barco durante la II Guera Mundial mediante una buena recreación de lo que era en verdad la "dura vida" en el buque.
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Y los brtánicos lo han fondeado donde ven, en el centro de Londres, cerca de la Torre de Londres, que se ve en la orilla de enfrente y muy cerca del Tower Bridge, el famoso puente levadizo que veremos en detalle en la siguiente foto.