Quincy: ¿qué?
I know it’s none of my business and Quincy gets the standard line from me that I say about the Episcopalians: they have the right to govern themselves.

That said, I’m not sure what that abbey’s about: my guess is it’s like St Dunstan’s jointly under Bishop Grafton and the Old Catholics 100 years ago, broadly speaking orthodox (with an earnest corniness; the gin-and-lacers would eat them alive) but disgruntled with Rome about something or other (see also St Anthony’s, Hackensack’s history — my impression from reading a former curate there is it long was a nice free-for-all of Catholic folk religion).

I’m not at all clear why on earth these seemingly orthodox puertorriqueños became Episcopalians! Obviously not for the typical reason Miami’s Padre Alberto did — priests who wanted to get married. The Italians’ reason at St Anthony’s in the 1920s was understandable if muddled: they wanted a neighbourhood church they could walk to, the Irish bishop said no, they formed and built their own church, snagged a priest to staff it and were sort of under the Polish National Catholic Church until the priest ran off somewhere and they ran out of money so they became Episcopalians in name.

My guess is these men were charismatic-tinged folk who really thought God and Our Lady wanted them to start a monastery but the local bishop disagreed. So like the Italians in Hackensack they found an accommodating flag of convenience with the Piskies until the Piskies took a hard left turn.

Labels: Anglicanism, history, the Catholic faith