Quote:
Originally posted by Larry_OHF:
During my mission in Mexico, I was speaking to a leader in the Catholic Church who gave me alot to think about. He told me that if the Catholic Church is the church that St. Peter set up after receiving the keys from Jesus...then anybody that does anything contrary to the word of the Pope is doing it wrong. He also expressed his thoughts on the idea that if the Catholic Church is wrong and not the church that was set up by St. Peter, then that would make the Mormon Church the right one, because of the position of the same system of Leadership and Priesthood, as the Mormons claim a restoration of that responsibility through Divinity and angelic visitation.
If I were a Catholic, and my American version church branched off to do something that the Pope had expressed his word against...I would leave the American break-off and find another church that was doing it the way the Pope had expressed. The way I see it, you cannot be Catholic and deny the Pope. Just like I cannot be called a Mormon and not believe the teachings of President Gordon B. Hinkley.
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That's cool.
The Episcopal/Anglican Church has no connection to the Pope however. It is part of the "Church of England" founded when Henry XIII of England decided to ignore the Popes refusals to marry him to his second? wife. So the English Church broke away, experienced some reforms and spread into the English speaking world. It became the "Anglican Church" everywhere but America where is is called "Episcopal" and I believe Scotland, which calls it the "Church of Scotland"
Ironically in an age of seperation between Church and State, Queen Elizabeth of England is the nominal head of the Anglican Church, although in reality the national churches are independent and a deferencial respect is accorded the Archbishop of Canterbury who is the actual head of the Anglican Church in England.
My father was an Anglican minister, and I have issues with the Anglican Church and both it's heirachial structure and some of it's practices, but all in all it's a Church that trains it's ministers VERY well (in Aust, they must learn both Ancient Greek and Hebrew for example). It also has a reformed movement within it which is Pentecostal.
But it has nothing to do with the Pope.
I believe it is the worlds second largest Christian denomination after Catholicism.