Church anointing stokes Internet buzz

[CTyankee]

Near the end of an ecumenical service at Sudbury United Methodist Church Sunday, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston, dipped his thumb into a glass bowl of consecrated water and made the sign of the cross on the forehead of the Rev. Anne Robertson, a United Methodist minister who was about to offer the same gesture to the overflow crowd in the church hall.

And then O’Malley asked Robertson to do the same for him.

She stood before this prince of the Roman Catholic Church, a prelate who is considered the closest American adviser to the pope, who has declared that the church can never allow women to be priests.

She traced a cross on his forehead and said the ritual words, a reaffirmation of baptism from the United Methodist hymnal: “Remember your baptism and be thankful.”

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/01/17/church-ritual-shared-between-cardinal-sean-malley-and-methodist-minister-stokes-internet-buzz/6qQ1j6Fv4pHLHv0IlaDAwL/story.html

Folks, I am not a religious person, but the photo of a woman religious anointing a male Catholic archbishop, stopped me in my tracks. Read this very balanced, intelligent news story. I guess some good things are happening...

[awoke_in_2003]

1. I grew up in a Methodist church...

my grandfather was a minister. I am an atheist now, but the thought of some Catholic ritual occuring in a Methodist church, where the most important thing is a good pot luck, is shocking.

[CTyankee]

3. I found this on Facebook. It was posted by a dear friend of mine who studied to be an

Episcopal priest and went to Yale Divinity School. She is also a strong feminist. Since I am an unchurched agnostic I couldn't judge exactly how this goes down. She seemed elated about the story...

[pnwmom]

4. "some Catholic ritual"? Anointing isn't an exclusively Catholic ritual any more than Baptism is.

The Methodist minister was about to offer anointing to the crowd in her own Church, before the Priest asked her to anoint him.

From the article:

She stood before this prince of the Roman Catholic Church, a prelate who is considered the closest American adviser to the pope, who has declared that the church can never allow women to be priests.

She traced a cross on his forehead and said the ritual words, a reaffirmation of baptism from the United Methodist hymnal: “Remember your baptism and be thankful.”

[RainDog]

2. k&r n/t

[pnwmom]

5. Interesting. Many liberal Catholics were hoping Cardinal O'Malley

would be the new Pope, because of his pastoral leanings.

But now we are seeing that Pope Francis appears to have been cut from a similar cloth.