Anglicans in Conflict: Can a Freemason be a Christian?

London (kath.net/KAP) After the naming of a Freemason to Bishop the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, is once again coming under criticism.[He once apologized to them] From a report at the "Sunday Telegraph", the leading members and clergy of the General Synod of the Anglican Church criticized the decision to name Jonathan Baker as the Bishop of Ebbsfleet. There have been "serious conflicts between the organization and the Anglican Church", he said.

Baker would be a "flying Bishop" to care for the faithful, who are opposed to women's ordination and are still in the Anglican Church. According to information from the newspaper Baker let it be known shortly after his naming to renounce his membership in the Masonic Lodge this Sunday. He gave his grounds as being his desire to concentrate on his new appointment. Yet previously, he affirmed that his membership with the Freemasons are compatible with his Episcopal Office.

Williams has indicated in the past on various occasions that he has serious reservations about the compatibility of Freemasons and Christianity, for example, at a General Synod in 1987. The bout then, however, did not come to a conclusion.

Link to the original, kath.net...