THE Bishop of Ebbsfleet, the Rt Revd Andrew Burnham, is exploring the possibility of taking a body of Anglican Catholics over to Rome, after the General Synod voted last week for the drafting of a women-bishops Measure with no more than a code of practice to provide for opponents.
He has not gone over to Rome yet, but intends to investigate a solution in conjuction with the Roman Catholic Church.
He said that he and another flying bishop, the Bishop of Richborough, the Rt Revd Keith Newton, had met Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU), and Cardinal William Levada, of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, during a recent holiday in Rome. He said, however, that no conclusions had been reached.
Bishop Burnham said that the proposed statutory code of practice could not work, as it would not deliver a structural solution that gave the flying bishops (Provincial Episcopal Visitors) jurisdiction. He said that he would like whole congregations to go over to Rome with him.
“I would love congregations to come over as a group of people living out the Catholic faith. If I go with just one or two others, that would be a bit of a failure, and my parishes would not have any oversight.
“This decision has been a failure by the Church of England. It has chosen to remove the barrier for women to become bishops, which I don’t agree with, but that’s the decision they’ve reached.
“But we can’t continue, as they haven’t provided for us in a structural sense, and to carry on would see continued conflict, which has been very unpleasant over the last 15 years, like a family row.”
He said he was looking for “magnanimous gestures” from the Pope, the PCPCU, and the RC hierarchy in England and Wales.
The Bishop also put forward the idea of shared ownership for congregations, which would come under Rome, but remain in their building. “The congregation would be Catholic, but the building could remain technically part of the diocese of the Church of England, and the rural dean could organise Anglican services as necessary.”
In a statement after the General Synod vote last week, the PCPCU said that it regretted the decision to allow women bishops, which was a “rupture in the apostolic tradition”.
Cardinal Kasper is due to speak at the Lambeth Conference. |
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