John Lawson wrote on Mon, Jun 30, 2003 02:40 AM UTC:
I'm sorry, I *did* misunderstand, but referring to the Church of England
as catholic is not simply an internal matter. Because bishops left the
Roman Catholic church to join the Church of England, the unbroken line of
apostolic succession requires the Roman Catholic church to admit the
validity of sacraments performed by Anglican clergy. This recognition is
by no means automatically extended to Protestant denominations routinely.
Of course, at least one sacrament, baptism, can be performed by anyone,
even you and me.