There is no need for a “Flying Bishop” for Welsh traditionalists, the Archbishop of Wales told members of the church’s Governing Body last week, as the pastoral care offered by the current bishop’s bench is sufficient to meet the needs of all Welsh Anglicans.Responding to a question from a member of the Governing Body during is April 22 session in Llandudno, Dr Barry Morgan said the bishops were offering “pastoral and sacramental care to every member of the Church in Wales, without exception.”
He added that there was “room in the Church in Wales for those who in conscience cannot accept the ordination of women.”
However this latitude did not extend to episcopal oversight.
The bishops would not “perpetuate a system whereby conscientious objectors may avoid not only the ministry of ordained women but also the ministry of male bishops who have ordained them. That leads in the end to fundamental division and a denial that things are other than they are - that we do live in a church that ordains both women and men,” he said.
Dr Morgan’s comments follow upon his Sept 17 announcement that no successor would be appointed to succeed the Rt Rev David Thomas - the Church in Wales Provincial Assistant Bishop.
Following the introduction of women priests in the Church in Wales in 1996, the position of provincial assistant bishop was created to offer delegated episcopal oversight to those who could not accept the innovation.
September’s decision to end alternative oversight was greeted with regret by the Rev Alan Rabjohns, Chairman of Credo Cymru, Forward in Faith Wales.
Last year he stated the group rejected “the claim that such an appointment is unnecessary and do not regard what was said yesterday as the final word on this subject.”
However, Dr Morgan last week said the issue was closed as matters of personal conscience could not trump church law, he argued.
“There is a difference between recognising the fact that some individuals hold personal views that are at variance with what the Governing Body has decided about the ordination of women and reflecting those views in the structures of the church as if the Church in Wales as a whole had doubts about women’s ordination and the bishops who ordained them. That to my mind would be a real act of injustice – to ordained women, bishops, indeed to the whole church.”
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