SEVEN Church of England lay ministers were ordained deacon in May by a bishop of a South African Church that is not a member of the Anglican Communion, it emerged last week.
A bishop in the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa (REACH-SA), the Rt Revd Martin Morrison, conducted the ordinations in an unpublicised service in east London.
News of the ordinations emerged last week in a post on the Law & Religion UK blog, written by the Professor of Modern Anglicanism at the University of Oxford, the Revd Dr Andrew Atherstone. He described the service, held in the East London Tabernacle, a Baptist church in Mile End, as a “joyful, celebratory occasion”.
“The service was entirely under the auspices of REACH SA, but the congregation of about 150 were mostly members of the Church of England, including senior incumbents, retired bishops, and members of General Synod,” he wrote.
The names of the seven people ordained deacon at the service had not been announced, so as to “shield them from online trolls or ecclesial recriminations”, Professor Atherstone wrote. “In a Church of England context, they will not exercise any of the functions reserved for the clergy.” Instead, they would continue to minister “in a lay capacity” in their C of E parishes.
Bishop Morrison wrote to the Archbishop of York, and the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, on 21 May, to inform them that the ordinations would take place. The Church Times understands that the letter did not say exactly when they would take place; in fact, they were due to take place the next day, and had already occurred by the time Archbishop Cottrell and Bishop Mullally replied on 23 May.
Their letter cast doubt on the status of those who were ordained deacons. They expressed concern that “any individuals ordained by you might mistakenly think that they would then have the status of clerks in holy orders under ecclesiastical law and be eligible to hold office in the Church of England.”
Archbishop Cottrell and Bishop Mullally wrote that, although “the orders of REACH-SA are recognised and accepted by the Church of England for the purposes of the Overseas and Other Clergy (Ministry and Ordination) Measure 1967”, the granting of permission to officiate was “discretionary and involves a process of discernment as to an individual’s suitability for ministry in the Church of England.
“It should not be assumed that an individual ordained in the circumstances outlined in your email would be granted such permission.”
In an excerpt of their letter published on Professor Atherstone’s blog post, Archbishop Cottrell and Bishop Mullally also warned that use of a Church of England building for the service would leave the incumbent “liable to ecclesiastical discipline”.
They told Bishop Morrison that the “course of action you describe would not be a helpful act at a time when we are in the process of discernment in the Church of England.
“At the very least we would consider your proceeding in that way ecumenically discourteous. It could also be inflammatory and we consider it to be unnecessary. In the Church of England we are keen to keep all shades of Anglican church tradition valued and active within the Church, and are exploring how we can do that within our own Church.”
Ordinations have become a point of contention in the continuing disagreements over the Church of England’s authorisation of blessings for same-sex couples (News, 23 February 2024).
Last year, seven men were “commissioned” at a service in St Helen’s, Bishopsgate (News, 2 August 2024). The Rector, the Revd William Taylor, said that the decision to avoid formal ordination was because the Church of England had taken a “pathway of self-serving and divisive schism” in the Living in Love and Faith process.