… I have had one churchwarden who tells me he is definitely going to leave. We wish them well but I hope most people will wait until the final vote in Synod before making up their mind because there is still everything to play for and pray for.
Of course there is also two-way traffic between us and Rome. We regularly receive Roman Catholics into our congregations and ministry. Maybe we should set up our own Ordinariat for people coming in the opposite direction!
My other hope is that clergy or groups of laity who are seriously thinking of making a move to Rome should contact a member of the Bishop’s Staff and arrange a visit to the PCC by one of us; because not everything you read in the press is quite true or accurate and some congregations have not been well advised on this topic.
Certainly now is not the time to weaken the place of the Christian faith, and the Church of England in particular in our nation. It is quite moving to realise, as I did again this week, that our parliament does nothing without prayer, and that getting on for half the members turning up for prayer each day particularly in the House of Lords; is quite something.
[i]We regularly receive Roman Catholics into our congregations and ministry. Maybe we should set up our own Ordinariat for people coming in the opposite direction![/i]
Although I doubt that he makes this argument seriously, doesn’t he rather miss the point? Anglicans seeking to take advantage of Anglicanorum Coetibus wish to preserve aspects of their liturgical patrimony. Roman Catholics joining the Church of England have no such desire.
It is also rather breathtaking to hear bishops plead ‘wait till the final vote!’…. have they not had since 1992 to offer just something?
It has been my experience that the so called “final vote” is never really the final vote. His request is to hang on until it is infinitely too late; it is quite a desperate plea. Those who have set their faces toward Rome, have made the decision that the matter really ought not to be up for a vote in the first place. This is a difference that the bishop does not account for. Would that he could understand that those who accept Anglicanorum Coetibus, are working under a different set of terms. It is no longer a matter of “wish they could wait and see.” They have already seen. Furthermore, embracing Catholicism means that what they will now will be playing for and praying for is really salvageable and capable of saving Anglicanism.
It has also been breathtaking for me as an American to hear repeatedly that C of E clergy have said such things as “the Ordinariate won’t harm the good relations between the C of E and the RCC”. As if the national state really ought to command one’s religious allegiance, one’s conscience! Such a notion is entirely foreign to Anglicans in other nations such as the USA.
[blockquote] “He urged others who were thinking of going to wait until the General Synod’s final vote because “there is still everything to play for and pray for.— [/blockquote]
Interesting – hardly the triumphant liberal line we heard at the last General Synod. I want the GS in 2012 to reject woman bishops entirely for CofE; but what I suspect will happen is that most delegates will support ABC’s and ABY’s proposal for women bishops with alternative oversight. This article is a good example of why: It is dawning on the fence-sitters in CofE that this issue will cost them. Even the small numbers going to the Ordinariate (so far) hurt the CofE, because those going tend to be at the more devoted end of the spectrum, plus there is the worry of how many more will follow them. +Lichfield is starting to think that maybe a compromise would be a good idea – as others have observed above, he probably wishes he had thought of this earlier.
[blockquote] “Bishop Jonathan said he wanted clergy or groups of laity who are seriously thinking about leaving the Church of England to join the Ordinariate to invite him, or one the diocese’s area bishops or archdeacons to a meeting of the Parochial Church Council.” [/blockquote]
This sounds like a bishop with reason to suspect that other groups in his diocese are seriously thinking of leaving.
[blockquote] “and he joked: “Maybe we should set up our own Ordinariate for people coming in the opposite direction!— [/blockquote]
That is indeed no more than a joke. Committed orthodox Anglicans in South America can do that sort of thing, not the liberal CofE. Plenty of RC’s move to protestantism on a regular basis, but you can bet that less and less of them move to the CofE.
[blockquote] He told Synod that the diocese was aware that money it receives from the Church Commissioners as one of the poorest dioceses in the Church of England was likely to be cut in two years time; and that a consultation process was underway to look at parish sustainability. He said: “We are going to… look closely at our mission resources and see which churches are more vulnerable if they lose the Church Commissioners subsidy and in particular which ones we should continue to help as a diocese.” [/blockquote]
This is the wages of liberalism – orthodox parishioners are the ones who sustain the finances of the church, and in the face of liberalism they get discouraged and leave. Also, large churches in the CofE are starting to divert funds away from the liberal dominated hierarchy. So Bishop of Lichfield had better start to think about that.
As an alternative, he and his clergy could always try repenting of their flirtations with liberalism, seeking forgiveness from the Lord and turning over a new leaf. They might find that their numbers of commited parishioners leap up, and that suddenly they don’t need outside assistance. But unless it is a sincere change, from the heart, they shouldn’t bother.