Both the cardinal and the archbishop stressed that the establishment of the personal ordinariates was “consistent with the commitment to ecumenical dialogue, which continues to a be a priority for the Catholic Church”. Yet the new development marks a shift in the Vatican’s longstanding policy of discouraging the wholesale reception of breakaway groups from other denominations.

“This changes the context of ecumenism and is a new departure,” said the Rev. Dr William Franklin, an Academic Fellow at the Anglican Centre in Rome. “We, as Anglicans, will be interested to hear how the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) responds,” he said. Not a single PCPCU official ”“ including Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president ”“ was at the briefing.

“With this proposal the Church wants to respond to the legitimate aspirations of these Anglican groups for full and visible unity with the Bishop of Rome,” Cardinal Levada said.

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Bishop Hind said he would be “happy” to be reordained as a Catholic priest and said that divisions in Anglicanism could make it impossible to stay in the church.

He is the most senior Anglican to admit that he is prepared to accept the offer from the Pope, who shocked the Church of England last week when he paved the way for clergy to convert to Catholicism in large numbers.

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The Church of England could not comment on numbers likely to convert, with one source adding: “It’s all guesswork.” But Stephen Parkinson, director of FiF, said a figure of 1,000 Church of England priests, reported in the media, was “credible.” Read our news story on this here.

Estimates of laity are “much harder,” Parkinson said. “Inevitably if you say 1,000 priests you are then talking about several thousand laity.”

But he said he “would not be at all surprised at a dozen” bishops in England switching. However, in England, bishops were likely to move individually rather than take their entire dioceses, which tend to have diverse views, with them.

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The special provision for those ”˜originally belonging to the Anglican Communion’ (as they will be termed) was announced with not much notice to either the Archbishop of Canterbury or to the Archbishop of Westminster. This doesn’t mean it is intended to ”˜poach’ priest and people from the Church of England or the other Anglican Churches. While there are questions about its ecumenical communication, it was a known fact that both former Anglicans ”“ such as members of the Traditional Anglican Communion ”“ and those still belonging to Churches of the Anglican Communion have asked the Vatican to consider some group recognition as some way of retaining an Anglican identity in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican has responded to their requests. What does the Apostolic Constitution, about to be finalised, entail? What is a Personal Ordinariate for former Anglicans? What is clear is that it won’t be all such individuals or groups have been looking for. It is not a diocese or Anglican Rite Church in communion with Rome.

A Personal Ordinariate is a pastoral provision in juridical form which will allow some continuing Anglican heritage to be expressed. But it is what it says on the box, it is ”˜personal’ that is to say for a network of individuals and groups rather than the norm of a territorial diocese. The Note issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith makes this quite clear in saying that the structure of a Personal Ordinariate ”˜will be similar in some ways to that of Military Ordinariates’, that is to say the distinct jurisdiction of military chaplains. The model is that of a society. But this will not be entirely separate from the Roman Catholic territorial dioceses, and there has to be consultation with the local Roman Catholic bishops before they can be established. How many Anglicans, priest and laity, will want to avail themselves of this provision remains to be seen.

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The Vatican’s announcement this week that it will allow former Anglicans who join the Catholic Church to retain a collective identity, using many of their traditional prayers and hymns in their own specially designed dioceses, is an event with profound implications for both Anglican and Catholic life.

The decision, made to accommodate Anglicans upset with their church’s growing acceptance of homosexuality and of women clergy, is likely to transform ecumenical relations between the churches. It will also heighten the internal Catholic debate over the requirement of priestly celibacy (which is to be routinely waived for married Anglican clergy who convert under the new rules, extending an exception made on a limited basis till now).

Perhaps the most striking effect of the Vatican’s move is the likelihood that, within the next few years, Catholic priests around the world will be celebrating Mass in a form that draws largely from the Book of Common Prayer. This resonant text, in its many versions, has informed Anglican worship since shortly after King Henry VIII led the Church of England away from Rome nearly five centuries ago.

Read the whole piece.

Here is one:

Sir, The Anglican bishops of Ebbsfleet and Richborough flew to Rome to negotiate a special deal for their followers, apparently without the knowledge of the Archbishop of Canterbury (reports, Oct 21 and 22; letters, Oct 22); and Edwin Barnes, a former Anglican Bishop of Richborough, says that “the Church of England must transfer churches to us” (Thunderer, Oct 21).

The mind boggles. The Church of England has taken, by its proper procedures, some decisions about gays and women in its ministry that a minority do not like. Members of that minority are free to leave and join a church of their choice. By what principle do they demand that they take some Church of England assets with them?

A hundred years ago, in Scotland, the courts were dragged into a similar dispute. When they awarded the assets of the Free Church of Scotland to a minority faction, the result was so absurd that it had to be reversed by legislation. I doubt whether the courts would make the same mistake again in either England or Scotland.

Of course people should follow their consciences. But conscience does not look so good when accompanied by demands for money and assets.

Professor Iain Mclean
University of Oxford

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But the provision for married clergy, which the Catholic church has made on a limited basis since at least the 1980s, remains a qualified one. Only unmarried men will be eligible to serve as bishops in the new dioceses, the Vatican said, consistent with a “long historical tradition” in both the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

Other details of the new rules remain unclear pending their still-unscheduled publication, but Cardinal William Levada, head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, suggested on Tuesday that the new dioceses will not ordain married men unless they have already started their preparation in Anglican seminaries, or permit unmarried priests to take wives after ordination.

For some potential converts, those qualifications are a deal breaker.

“I find the lack of a permanent provision for a married priesthood to be a serious obstacle to unity,” said Anglican Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth, who has considered joining the Catholic church in the past.

Read the whole article.

What changed?

For years Catholic bishops in England were reluctant to open the door wide to traditionalist Anglicans, partly because their “more Catholic than the Pope” smells-and-bells churchmanship was out of step with modern Catholicism. They also did not want to upset Church of England bishops with whom they had developed strong ecumenical relations.

But then last year the Church of England’s General Synod voted to allow women to become bishops. More importantly it also voted for no special provision to be put in place to allow traditionalists to bypass a woman bishop and seek episcopal oversight from a man. The decision radically shifted attitudes in Rome.

So whose initiative is this?

It began with Anglican dissidents for whom women bishops were the final straw but who were already alarmed by women or gay priests.

Two years ago an Australian archbishop, John Hepworth, leader of the Traditional Anglican Communion which claims to represent 400,000 worshippers worldwide, went to the Vatican to seek terms for his flock to be accepted into full communion with Rome. Part of the Roman Curia received him sympathetically, but the dominant group of Vatican bureaucrats were against him.

But then came the Synod vote.

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The latest move from the Roman Catholic Church to extend an American experiment comes not a moment too soon. Two of our Church of England provincial bishops (the “flying bishops” of Ebbsfleet and Richborough) met Cardinal William Levada in Rome some months ago, and believed an offer would be made towards Anglican Catholics. The Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, had said to me more than ten years ago that Rome would have to be generous to Anglicans who could not accept women bishops.

The offer to extend the Apostolic Constitution to England and elsewhere is very welcome. In America a similar constitution allows Episcopalian priests, some married men with families, to become Catholic priests. They have been given a prayer book, the Book of Divine Worship, that takes a great deal from the Book of Common Prayer but makes it entirely Catholic. Clearly Rome now sees the need to extend this provision to England.

The Holy See has come to realise that the Church of England is so divided that it must speak to separate groups within it.

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Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, former Bishop of Rochester, responds to the announcement of the new Apostolic Constitution.

I welcome the Roman Catholic Church’s generosity of spirit and its recognition of what Pope Paul VI called the ”˜legitimate prestige and patrimony’ of the Anglican Communion.

I am unclear, however, as to whether there is agreement about the faith ”˜once for all delivered to the saints’ on which such an offer must be based.

For orthodox Anglicans, the supreme authority of the Word of God is, naturally, a basic requirement for any such agreement to be reached.

Read the whole thing.

Blog readers take note–John Allen is one of the very best and well sourced reporters on the Vatican–KSH.

In a move with potentially sweeping implications for relations between the Catholic church and some 80 million Anglicans worldwide, the Vatican has announced the creation of new ecclesiastical structures to absorb disaffected Anglicans wishing to become Catholics. The structures will allow those Anglicans to hold onto their distinctive spiritual practices, including the ordination of married former Anglican clergy as Catholic priests.

Those structures would be open to members of the Episcopal Church in the United States, the main American branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. American Episcopalians are said to number some 2.2 million.

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Bishop Peter [Price]’s subject was The Church of England: the next 25 years in the context of the Anglican Communion, the world wide Church and other faiths.

He said: “As we look ahead into the next 25 years most of what will happen to us will be formed by things that are external to the church. The crises that will face humanity in 2034 for example are already in embryo with us now.”

He referred to the predicted demise of fossil fuels, a population explosion among the world’s poorest people, water shortage brought about by climate change, increased nationalism and the risk of germ and nuclear warfare that could kill millions of people.

Bishop Peter said: “How religions respond with openness, respect and a common concern for humanity and the planet, will in many ways be the key to whether they will have any part to play in a world that has all too often learned to do without them.

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Bishop James Newcome has a mild and engaging manner and his thoughtful response to each of my questions hints that he is unlikely to be a controversial prelate ”“ as long as you don’t raise the subject of nuclear power.

On the question of same-sex marriages, for example, he firmly backs the Church of England line that they should never be allowed in Anglican places of worship.

Even on the thorny sub-ject of wind farms, which is exercising the minds of many people in his diocese, Bishop Newcome is reluc-tant to use overly divisive language.

Instead, it is he who is ”˜very torn’ on the issue.

“I am in favour of wind farms, even though they are very erratic and not hugely effective,” he says.

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One thing is certain: alongside the wish of its majority that women should be admitted to the episcopate, the Synod has also insisted on provision for those who, in conscience, could not go along with this development. It is difficult to estimate the size of this minority, but more than a third of the Synod might vote against any final legisla­tion, should this provision not meet the needs of those for whom it was intended ”” and herein lies the difficulty.

It is all too easy to categorise these groups as Anglo-Catholic or conservative Evangelical; but a variety of people from all traditions remain unconvinced that this is the mind of Christ for his Church, as revealed in scripture and tradi­tion.

Read it all (you need to scroll down a good ways, this one is the last one toward the bottom of the page).

THE news that the revision committee has chosen not to explore the option of the single clause with a statutory code of practice any further, and has gone for “certain functions to be invested in bishops by statute” will strike despair into the hearts of many. What the committee is proposing takes a step back from the position Synod thought it had reached in July 2008.

My concerns are on several levels. First, these proposals appear to institutionalise mistrust in legislation: the opponents of women’s ordination do not trust the bishops to make proper provision. Is that really what we have come to?

Second, it destroys the ecclesiology of the Church of England, making it legitimate to “choose your own bishop”. Are there to be any limits as to the grounds on which you might petition to do this?

Read it all (you need to scroll down a good ways).

Inclusive Church is deeply disturbed by the recent announcement of the Revision Committee. It has moved away from the expressed will of General Synod in July 2008 – that there should be legislation to consecrate women as bishops on the same terms as men with an additional code of practice containing arrangements for those who do not accept the authority of bishops who are women.

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SUPPORTERS of women bishops have expressed shock at a decision by the revision committee for the draft legislation not to go further down the route of a statutory code of practice. Traditionalists say that the change of direction proposed does not go far enough.

The General Synod voted in July 2008 for “special arrangements”, embodied in a statutory code of practice, to be drawn up by the legis­lative drafting group.

The Bishops supported the motion by 28 to 12; the Clergy by 124 to 44; and the Laity by 111 to 68 (News, 11 July 2008). The full Synod had its first consideration of the draft legislation last February, and voted to commit it to a revision com­mittee of the Synod.

The committee, chaired by the Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, said in a statement last week that it had received nearly 300 submissions, including 100 from Synod members.

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Plans to consecrate women bishops in the Church of England have been delayed by at least four years in an attempt to avoid mass defections by opponents of women’s ordination.

Church legislators have backtracked on a decision made by the General Synod, the Church’s governing body, last year to consecrate women bishops with minimal concessions to opponents.

The Church will now be asked again to approve the plans for “super bishops”, which were rejected in July last year and which will create a new class of bishop, operating in traditionalist zones “untainted” by the spectre of women bishops.

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The unity of the Church of England is under threat once more after a key committee agreed to automatically remove certain powers from female bishops and give them to their male colleagues.

According to the amended law, this move would allow the male bishop to perform certain functions, such as communion and confirmation, in order to accommodate parishioners and clergy hostile to female bishops.

It follows heavy lobbying from those opposed to the concept of women bishops who have demanded special care in the event of their ordination, an event unlikely to occur before 2014.

Read the whole article.

The Church of England has risked starting another damaging row over women bishops.

Leaders have promised revised Church laws to ensure that traditionalists will never have to be led by a woman if they do not want to be.

Last night’s announcement is seen as a move to appease those worshippers who will not accept female clerics.

But it is certain to anger liberals who believe it will mean women bishops being denied equal status with male prelates.

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The Church of England could restrict the powers of some women bishops under a plan designed to end a rift between traditionalists who want to keep the all-male senior clergy, and liberals demanding equality.

The proposal has reignited the long-running debate over a supposed ecclesiastical “stained-glass ceiling” that stops women from attaining the most senior roles in the church.

Along with homosexual bishops and same-sex marriages, the ordination of women is among the most divisive issues facing the Anglican Communion, which has 77 million members worldwide.

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From here:

Forward in Faith regrets that a majority of the Revision Committee has not supported the proposal for new dioceses put forward by the Catholic Group in General Synod to make provision for those conscientiously opposed to the consecration of women as bishops. We continue to believe that new dioceses would be both a better and a fairer way forward for all in the Church of England.

Nevertheless, we believe that the Revision Committee’s proposal to make provision for the statutory transfer of jurisdiction to complementary bishops could be the basis for a way forward. However, we will need to evaluate the full details of the proposals carefully when they become available in order to assess them properly.

The Revision Committee established by the General Synod to consider the draft legislation on enabling women to become bishops in the Church of England today completed the first phase of its work. The Committee has further meetings planned between now and December and is aiming to complete its task by Christmas so that its report can be debated in full Synod in February and the draft legislation begin its Revision Stage in full Synod.

The Committee received nearly 300 submissions, including more than 100 from members of General Synod. Many of these offered alternatives to the proposal in the draft legislation to make provision by way of statutory code of practice for those unable on grounds of theological conviction to receive the episcopal and/or priestly ministry of women.

In the seven meetings that it has held so far, the Committee has considered each of these alternatives: additional dioceses; the vesting by statute of certain functions in bishops with a special responsibility for those with conscientious difficulties; the creation of a recognised society for those with conscientious difficulties; and the adoption of the simplest possible legislation without a statutory code of practice.

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An English diocesan bishop has publicly revealed an occasion when he railed against God and angrily asked him: “What do you think you’re doing?”

The candid disclosure comes from the Bishop of Bradford, the Rt Rev David James, in the October issue of the Bradford diocesan monthly.

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The Church of England could restrict the powers of some women bishops under a plan designed to end a rift between traditionalists who want to keep the all-male senior clergy, and liberals demanding equality.

The proposal has reignited the long-running debate over the “stained glass ceiling” that stops women from taking the most senior roles in the church.

Along with homosexual bishops and same-sex marriages, the ordination of women is among the most divisive issues facing the Anglican Communion, which has 77 million members worldwide.

Read it all.

Basing full membership of the Anglican Communion on compliance with the text of a covenant may send unintended messages about exclusion, Dr Peter Selby, the former Bishop of Worcester, said this week.

Speaking at the Inclusive Church conference, Dr Selby offered a detailed critique of Communion, Covenant, and our Anglican Future, the statement issued by Dr Rowan Williams after the recent General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States. (News, 31 July,)

Dr Selby said that both of the main arguments made in the Archbishop’s paper had a two-edged character. The requirement that, in order to be recognisable, Anglicans needed patterns and convictions such as those proposed in the Anglican Covenant, raised the fundamental biblical question “recognisable to whom?” Being recognisable to “the least of the brothers and sisters” (Matthew 25) mattered at least as much as being recognisable to other provinces, Dr Selby contended.

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The Archbishop of Canterbury introduced the new Bishop of Dover at Chalkpit Farm in Bekesborne, where Bishop Trevor outlined ways that the church and rural communities can successfully work together.

Commenting on Bishop Trevor’s appointment, Archbishop Rowan said: “I am very pleased indeed to welcome Bishop Trevor to the Diocese. He is an experienced pastor, with a powerful vision for the Church in contemporary society, and also a wise and reflective person who will bring great depth to our conversations and plans in Canterbury. I hope he and Margaret will be very happy here, and greatly look forward to our work together.”

Read it all and watch the linked video at the bottom also.

According to informants quoted in The Catholic Herald, the Queen has “grown increasingly sympathetic” to the Catholic Church over the years while being “appalled”, along with the Prince of Wales, at developments in the Church of England.

The usually well-informed newspaper adds that the Queen, who is the Supreme Governor of the C of E, is “also said to have an affinity with the Holy Father, who is of her generation”.

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Apologies have been extended to people in the Anglican Diocese of Chelmsford in England who felt they were not consulted in process to choose the next bishop.

The acting diocesan bishop, the Bishop of Bradwell, Dr Laurie Green, sent out a letter saying: “We are really sorry that some people feel they have not had sufficient and time and warning to offer their submissions in the Vacancy in Sea process within our Diocese.”

The Rev John Richardson hosted a discussion on his blog about who the diocese should look for to follow the Rt Rev John Gladwin who retired at the end of August, after he became aware of a groundswell of dissatisfaction amongst members of the diocese who felt left consultation process.

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