Britain could have an Ordinariate by the end of the year, it emerged today.
Sources
say that the Rt Rev Keith Newton, the flying bishop of Richborough and
the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, the flying Bishop of Ebbsfleet will take up
the special canonical structure, which allows groups of Anglicans to
come into full Communion with Rome without losing their Anglican
identity, before the end of the calendar year.
Groups of Anglicans
are already forming across the country in preparation for joining an
ordinariate, according to the blog of the retired Bishop of Richborough,
the Rt Rev Edwin Barnes.
In his October pastoral letter, Bishop
Burnham wrote that ordinariate groups would likely be small
congregations of thirty or so people.
Traditionally-minded
Anglican clergy from the South of England were gathering at a Sacred
Synod in Westminster today to discuss the future direction of the Church
of England.
The meeting was called by the Rt Rev John Ford, the
Anglican Bishop of Plymouth.
He invited the signatories of a 2008 open
letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams and the
Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, which expressed reservations over
women bishops.
The meeting was being held only days after Pope
Benedict told Catholic bishops in England and Wales and Scotland to see
the offer made in the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus as a
“prophetic gesture”.
The apostolic constitution was a topic discussed at the Synod, according to Bishop Burnham.
In a statement Bishop Burnham said that Anglicanorum coetibus
offered “Anglo-Catholics the way to full communion with the Catholic
Church for which they worked and prayed for at least a century and it is
a way in which they will be ‘united and not absorbed’.”
He said
that discussions were under way about how the “vision of the Apostolic
Constitution” could be implemented” and said the first people to take up
the initiative would require vision and courage.
He quoted Pope
Benedict’s speech to the bishops of England, Wales and Scotland, saying
the Holy Father set his offer to Anglicans “firmly within the developing
ecumenical dialogue” and said it was an “an exciting initiative for
those for whom the vision of Anglican Roman Catholic International
Commission (ARCIC) of corporate union has shaped their thinking over
recent years”.
The issue, he said, was “the ministry of the Pope
himself, as the successor of St Peter. Anglicans who accept that
ministry as it is presently exercised will want to respond warmly to the
Apostolic Constitution”.
He said: “Those who do not accept the
ministry of the Pope or would want to see that ministry in different
ways will not feel able to accept Anglicanorum Coetibus.”
Bishop
Burnham added: “The decision to respond to the provisions of the
Apostolic Constitution is not dependent on the decisions of the General
Synod or on any particular issue of church order. The initiative should
be judged on its own merit. It will require courage, and vision on the
part of those who accept the invitation, particularly amongst the first
to respond.
“Although there are few practical details at present
in the public forum, discussions have already been taking place as to
how the vision of the Apostolic Constitution can be implemented. It is
expected that the first groups will be small congregations,
energetically committed to mission and evangelism and serving the
neighbourhood in which they are set.”
In the pastoral letter, the
third in series about the ordinariate, Bishop Burnham described two
reasons for taking up the offer made in Anglicanorum coetibus and said
that it taking up the offer was not a matter to be considered lightly.
He
wrote: “Joining the Ordinariate is not a matter to be considered
lightly. Clergy who do so put their stipends and pensions, their homes
and their security at risk. In some cases the response of laity will be
so enthusiastic that whole congregations might be able to move together,
with their parish priest. In most cases, the Ordinariate groups will be
church-planting new congregations, congregations of perhaps only thirty
or so people to start with, but thirty enthusiasts nonetheless.
“Such
congregations of activists will probably grow rapidly, but there, of
course, lies another risk. There are many clergy and laity who would
love to possess the courage for this pioneering venture but they simply
do not. Not everyone is at heart a risk-all pioneer. Not everyone can
be: we all have real responsibilities to families to balance against the
radical demand of the Gospel.”
There is some speculation that
October 9, the feast of Blessed John Henry Newman, Britain’s most
prominent Anglican convert to Catholicism, could be the date on which an
ordinariate will be announced.
Pope Benedict XVI announced the
Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus in November 2009.
It came
as a response to requests from prominent Anglo-Catholics and offered a
new canonical structure, similar to military dioceses called personal
ordinariates in order to allow groups of Anglicans to enter into
communion with Rome without losing their Anglican identity.
The personal
ordinariate covers a geographical area but has its own leadership and
answers to the Pope.
Bishop Alan Hopes, an auxiliary of
Westminster Archdiocese and Bishop Malcolm McMahon of Nottingham are in
charge of the Bishops’ conference commission dealing with Anglicans
wanting to take up the ordinariate.
SIC: TCB/UK