Those Anglicans with Their Nuns

From the New Liturgical Movement comes the news that ten sisters in an Anglican convent in Baltimore will be received into the Catholic Church, with two of their fellow sisters remaining Anglican. The reaction of many upon hearing such news is probably, “So who are these Anglicans with their nuns?”

Br. Stephen Treat, O. Cist., whose writings I’ve mentioned before on the blog, provides an explanation with precisely that title. Br. Treat’s mini-treatise is an instructive look at the life and beliefs of those who live on the edges of protestant churches, particularly the Lutherans and Anglicans, with close kinship to Catholicism or Orthodoxy. He focuses on Anglo-Catholicism, but I expect that much of what he says would ring true for other groups as well. If you’ve ever wondered why that committed Lutheran flew the coop or why those Anglicans bother to stick around with the exhausted project, Br. Treat might be able to give you some idea.