Fr. Al Kimel, once a priest at the Church of the Holy Communion (Episcopal) in Charleston, SC and author of the scholarly and thoughtful (if occasionally opaque to these eyes) blog Pontifications, found himself unhappy with the Episcopal Church (for plenty of good reasons), which he wrote elegantly of in his blog. He left the Episcopal Church, embraced the full Catholic faith, and later was ordained into the Holy Catholic Church. He did not have a happy time of it ( for plenty of good reasons), also writing elegantly of it in his blog.
Now comes word Fr. Kimel has left the Catholic Church and was to be ordained into the Russian Church Abroad on Pentecost. I wish Fr. Kimel well and pray he finds himself happier in the east than the west. I also pray he will not find the distress, which seems to have followed him from the Episcopal Church into the Catholic Church, has followed him along into Orthodoxy.
3 comments:
"I also pray he will not find the distress, which seems to have followed him from the Episcopal Church into the Catholic Church, has followed him along into Orthodoxy."
If his experience is like Rod Dreher's - it will.
Just google a bit and see what OCA shenanigans Dreher has been involved in this year. Make your head spin.
I always thought Dreher was a loose cannon, even when he was a Catholic, but yes, he seems to be even looser these days.
In the end, I think it comes down to this: are you embracing the new faith or fleeing the old? I suspect few of those that do the latter find any peace.
I read The Pontificator with relish. To the extent anyone can make an intellectually sound decision, Fr. Kimmel did, after looking from all the angles, in some depth--over my head, at least. What did he miss?
I always half-jokingly say to new Catholics, "Welcome aboard, now start bailing." Spiritual warfare wracks us as much as other denominations. But it has a different feel, for me at least--when suffering through some sloppy "handmade" liturgy, I can think, "This too, shall pass."
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