The news stories and statements by traditional Anglo-Catholics since the Church of England voted to allow women bishops have begun to show differences in their reactions and probable future plans.
The Forward in Faith initial reaction, signed by Simon Killwick (Chairman, Catholic Group in General Synod), Geoffrey Kirk (Secretary, Forward in Faith) and Stephen Parkinson (Director, Forward in Faith) spoke of a period of "prayerful contemplation" and said that "actions have consequences."
Yesterday, a further reaction appeared on the Forward in Faith website with no name at the bottom, saying "We will in the coming days continue to explore all possible avenues which might secure our corporate ecclesial future and look to our bishops to facilitate this." The further reaction sounded, to me, as if some of the Anglo-Catholics would remain Anglican, while the earlier reaction sounded, to me, more like Cardinal Kasper's statement.
The latest statements and news stories make references to the Catholic Church, but not all seem directed toward the same way forward. While sad, it reflects that those who will probably seek to enter the Catholic Church will do so because they are truly ready to become Catholic and not because it is what everyone else is doing.
On the one hand, Forward in Faith's Bishop John Broadhurst today issued a statement of his own that expresses a wish that "whatever we do needs its timing to be agreed by us all so that we can act together." His statement mentioned conversations "between some of our Bishops and the Holy See" (indicating that he was not among those bishops who have recently met with the Vatican) and asked whether those conversations would lead to a way forward. Yet he also expressed concerns remaining since earlier conversations with Rome in 1992 over the lack of an offer of "ecclesial reconciliation." Today, he released a proposed pastoral letter for parishes in his diocese of Fulham this Sunday, saying that he "will be calling a Lay Assembly in the Autumn so that together we can look at this matter as well as the implications of the Lambeth Conference."
The concept of a meeting in the Autumn sounds to me too much like the series of meetings among Anglicans in the U.S. and globally over the past 5 years, with an increasingly clear Protestantism among most conservatives remaining in the Episcopal Church. I am wary of a promise of future meetings that hold out hope, but without a real resolution that is lasting.
On the other hand, also today, Catholic World News reported that Anglican Bishop Andrew Burnham of Ebbsfleet, another long-time Forward in Faith "flying bishop," has already expressed a desire to enter the Catholic Church, and that Anglican Bishop Keith Newton of Richborough, a relatively young and impressive Forward in Faith "flying bishop", may do the same. In an article published in the Catholic Herald, Bishop Burnham said, "Codes of practice are shifting sands. The sacramental life of the Church must be built on rock." His hope for Rome is this:
"What we must humbly ask for now is for magnanimous gestures from our Catholic friends, especially from the Holy Father, who well understands our longing for unity, and from the hierarchy of England and Wales. Most of all we ask for ways that allow us to bring our folk with us."
Similarly, Bishop Edwin Barnes also issued a statement in The Church Union saying that it is no longer "possible for members of the Church of England to claim to be part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. . . Now catholic Anglicans are looking to the future without any real chance of remaining members of the Church of England."
In the U.S., the hope for Anglo-Catholics to move in unity after the Gene Robinson vote was not a realistic hope in the end. Different people had a different way forward in mind. Over time, some became Catholic, some became Greek Orthodox, some became Protestant, and some moved toward a more Protestant/Evangelical form of conservative Anglicanism.
In the end, I was left to sort things through on my own, eventually entering the Catholic Church with a group of people I had met for the first time at my new parish. Among them were 2 or 3 other former Episcopalians, none of them from my former Episcopal Church parish. Around the same time, I heard from a few others I had known as an Episcopalian that they had become Eastern Orthodox. I knew when I left that some were leaning more toward Protestant churches or toward a more Evangelical form of Anglicanism.
In the process, I realized that the need to sort things through for myself, in itself, differed from the pattern of the Early Church described in Acts 15. The process itself entailed "a matter of one's own interpretation" of Scripture (II Peter 1:20) that an individual, in the Early Church, was not supposed to have to do. The process itself made clearer the value of the Church's magisterium and the papacy, and the Church's greater similarity in that respect to the way the Early Church resolved conflict. Once that became apparent, the other issues faded in importance.
Father Dwight Longenecker has a good checklist for Anglican Tiber swimming (or walking on water, if you prefer) and a clever T-shirt suggestion.
It still saddens me to watch the fracturing and the loss of a sense of home among those who were shocked at the clarity of this week's voting at synod. In my own experience of moving toward Rome, while some other people chose a different route a few years ago, it sometimes reminded me of the final scenes of Fiddler on the Roof, thoughts that come back to me now:
Tevye: Where are you going?
Lazar Wolf: Chicago. In America.
Tevye: Chicago, America? We are going to New York, America. We'll be neighbors.
I hope, for the sake of all, that those in the Church of England whose faith is basically Catholic will find that in listening to the Holy Spirit, they can come, together, into full unity with the Catholic Church without more delay than is really needed to work through the issues of faith that are essential to Catholic initiation. If a personal prelature or some other option is quickly offered to help Anglicans entering the Catholic Church, then that is for the better. But I really hope that those whose faith now leads them to Rome will act on that, and not delay for more meetings than are really necessary.
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