THE President of the Church Union (CU), Fr Edwin Barnes, is to stand down because the majority of its Council opposes \u201cassisting those who join the Ordinariate\u201d\u009d. Last month, the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament (CBS) provoked anger among some of its members when it donated \u00c2\u00a31 million to the Roman Catholic Ordin\u00c2\u00adariate…<\/p>\n
Fr Barnes, who joined the Ordin\u00c2\u00adariate earlier this year, wrote in a statement posted on the website of the CU, which says that it seeks \u201cto promote and renew Catholic Faith and life within the Church of England\u201d\u009d, that the group received a legal opinion from a QC suggesting that, although the organisation\u2019s Constitution had been altered to include those outside the Church of England, \u201cthe foundation docu\u00c2\u00adments had not, and they trumped whatever the Constitution might intend.\u201d\u009d The legal opinion \u201cseemed to say this was a Society for Church of England members only\u201d\u009d.<\/p>\n
Fr Barnes said that he sought another legal opinion, which \u201carrived at a different conclusion\u201d\u009d, and suggested that the CU \u201cmight indeed function ecumenically\u201d\u009d.<\/p>\n