400,000 former Anglicans worldwide seek immediate unity with Rome
Pastor Dale Morgan
From The Times
October 22, 2009
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400,000 former Anglicans worldwide seek immediate unity with Rome*
Ruth Gledhill, Sophie Tedmanson, Giles Whittell and Richard Owen
Leaders of more than 400,000 Anglicans who quit over women priests are
to seek immediate unity with Rome under the apostolic constitution
announced by Pope Benedict XVI. They will be among the first to take up
an option allowing Anglicans to join an “ordinariate” that brings them
into full communion with Roman Catholics while retaining elements of
their Anglican identity.
The Pope’s move is regarded by some Anglicans as one of the most
dramatic developments in Protestant christendom since the Reformation
gave birth to the Church of England 400 years ago.
Archbishop John Hepworth, the twice-married Primate of the Traditional
Anglican Communion, who led negotiations with the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, said he was “profoundly moved” by the
Pope’s decision and would immediately seek the approval of the group’s
400,000 members worldwide to join.
He described the development as “a moment of grace, perhaps even a
moment of history”.
As fully-fledged Anglicans also seek refuge from liberalism in the
shelter of Rome, it is feared that the proposal could deal a deadly blow
to the 77 million-strong Anglican Communion, which already faces schism
over homosexual ordination.
Up to 500 members of Forward in Faith, the traditionalist grouping that
opposes women bishops, are meeting this weekend to debate the Pope’s
offer of a home for former Anglican laity and married priests.
Many are waiting for the publication of a code of practice by Rome to
flesh out what is on offer before deciding whether to go.
Insiders believe that Rome’s new canonical solution to the Anglican
crisis could tempt entire dioceses and possibly even a province.
More than 440 clergy took compensation and left the Church of England,
most for Rome, after the General Synod voted to ordain women priests in
1992. More than 30 returned.
The Pope has made it significantly more attractive for Anglicans to move
over this time by offering a universal solution that allows them to
retain crucial aspects of their identity and to set up seminaries that
will, presumably, train married men for the Catholic priesthood. But any
serving clergyman would face a marked loss of income. A job as a
clergyman in the Church of England comes with a stipend of £22,250 and
free accommodation. Catholic priests earn about £8,000, paid by their
parish and topped up by a diocese where the parish cannot afford even that.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, indicated that there
would be no compensation this time. It was only introduced at the last
minute previously as a way of getting the whole women’s ordination
package through the General Synod with the necessary two-thirds majorities.
Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Catholic who retired this year as the
Anglican Bishop of Rochester, welcomed Rome’s “generosity of spirit” in
its recognition of Anglican patrimony. But he made clear that many
issues needed to be resolved before decisions could be made. The two
“flying bishops” appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to care for
opponents of women priests also said that this was not a time for
“sudden decisions”.
Andrew Burnham, the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, and Keith Newton, the Bishop of
Richborough, who went last year to Rome to begin talks with the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said: “Anglicans in the
Catholic tradition understandably will want to stay within the Anglican
Communion. Others will wish to make individual arrangements as their
conscience directs. A further group will begin to form a caravan, rather
like the People of Israel crossing the desert in search of the Promised
Land.” In the US a writer for the Jesuit magazine America expressed
fears that some newcomers would be “nostalgists, anti-feminists and
anti-gay bigots”.
At Notre Dame University in Indiana, scholars forecast a migration of
Catholics into the new Anglican Catholic rite because of the sudden
freedom to marry that it would grant. Professor Lawrence Cunningham
called the Vatican’s move a “stunning” endorsement of the married
priesthood, adding that it would have immediate repercussions for
Catholics. It would “raise anew the question, ‘If they can do it, why
can’t the priests of Rome?’ ”
Archbishop Robert Duncan, of the Anglican Church of North America, which
broke away from the Episcopal Church over the ordination of the gay Gene
Robinson as the Bishop of New Hampshire, said: “We rejoice that the Holy
See has opened this doorway, which represents another step in the
co-operation and relationship between our Churches.”
In Rome, Vittorio Messori, who has co-written books with the Pope, said
that the Anglican Communion was already losing followers because of
female and gay priests. “More Muslims go to the mosques in London than
Anglicans go to church” he said. “The exit of half a million Anglicans
to Rome will only confirm a trend.”