The Church of England’s ruling body, the General Synod, confirms that it will ordain women as bishops.
Newsnight spoke to the Venerable Christine Hardman, Archdeacon of Lewisham and the Right Reverend John Broadhurst, The Bishop of Fulham, and Chair of the tradtionalist Anglican group Forward in Faith.
Watch it all (just under 7 1/2 minutes).
Broadhurst: “If there isn’t proper provision for us to live in dignity inevitably we are driven out”
Hardman is basically saying they won’t accept anything which does not give women bishops exactly the same authority as a male bishop.
There is no via media between the two positions. The women won’t accept anything that discriminates, the Anglo-Catholics won’t accept anything that doesn’t discriminate. After the votes yesterday, its clear the majority of the bishops, clergy and laity are in agreement with the winner takes all womens position, all attempts at a middle way were voted out.
A sad day for the Church of England, and one we will look back on as marking the beginning of the death of the Church of England. An inevitable split is on the way unless someone can find a middle way soon, and I don’t think many of the Anglo Catholics will be going to GAFCON. Some will join the TAC and others, some will move to Rome, some will just slowly die within the COE. With the Anglo Catholics gone, the liberals will be free to follow their own agenda, and the conservative splits will then begin. Some will go to GAFCON, some will start independent churches, some will join other denominations. The liberal church remaining will die within a generation or so as it will have no foundations.
But the Gospel will not be lost. Other churches will rise out of the ashes and take the once proud place that the church of England held. Already, new independent churches are springing up all over England. The Catholic church is having a revival through all the Polish immigrants. The tide is turning in London – church attendance is growing there and instead of closing churches, new churches are being opened. And without the shackles of Bishops preventing new church plants, and vetting clergy to ensure only the ‘right sort’ are ordained, it will be a welcome liberation in some dioceses. The monopoly of the Church of England over Christianity in England has ended. And maybe that is a good thing. Some competition is what it needs. For the sake of the Gospel.
But still, it is a sad thing to watch…
This is the future of the Church of England, and one chosen wittingly:
http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=17-09-032-f
http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-02-036-f
— Mundus moritur, et ridet (Salvian of Marseilles)