The cracks are now showing in the Church of England

A parish in Kent is shifting allegiance to Rome and, with many more likely to follow, Anglicanism is feeling the strain.

Shortly after eight o'clock one spring morning in 2007, an earthquake struck the parish church of St Peter in Folkestone, bringing down the gable-end of the south transept.

Three years later, the 19th-century church, which opened as a chapel for local fishermen, has caused tremors of its own, becoming the first parish in England to declare its intention to defect to Rome.

Within hours of the news emerging last Friday, the Bishop of Fulham announced that he, too, will take up the Pope's offer to join a new structure within the Roman Catholic Church for disaffected Anglicans.

Some are now talking openly of an "exodus" from the Anglican Communion next year, with thousands following Folkestone's lead. The Archbishop of Canterbury, from whose back yard the revolt has sprung, can be in little doubt about the seriousness of the threat.

The defectors represent the most traditional "High Church" members of the Anglican Communion. They believe that there is no place for women bishops and are appalled by what they see as the imposition of liberal reforms by the Church hierarchy.

The Rt Rev John Broadhurst, the Bishop of Fulham, put it more strongly. He accused the General Synod of being "vindictive" and "vicious" in its treatment of Anglo-Catholic conservatives. 

"It has been fascist in its behaviour, marginalising those who have been opposed to women's ordination," he said. "We have not been given any space."

The defections follow a decisive meeting of the General Synod in July, at which a compromise plan, intended to placate those who oppose women bishops, was rejected.

There is no doubting the strength of feeling in traditionalist circles. Bishop Broadhurst was applauded and cheered when he announced his decision to resign by the end of the year, at a meeting of the Anglo-Catholic group, Forward in Faith, in London. 

"I don't feel I have any choice but to leave the Church and take up the Pope's offer," he said.

Almost exactly a year ago, on October 20, 2009, the Vatican announced that it was prepared to establish a new structure for Anglicans who cannot reconcile themselves to the ordination of women. 

The Ordinariate, as the new system is known, will allow those members of the Church of England – as well as Anglicans in the United States and Australia – to enter into full communion with Rome, while retaining some of their traditions and heritage.

A high-level commission of Catholic bishops is currently at work in England, tasked with reporting back to the Vatican on how many Anglicans want to follow the path to Rome. 

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – the Vatican department formerly known as the Inquisition – is expected to approve the establishment of the English Ordinariate early next year.

But major questions remain over how the new system will operate. Priests will be expected to remain celibate, although married men may be ordained on an individual basis. 

The Ordinary – who will take charge of the Ordinariate – will certainly be required to be celibate. 

Newly converted priests with families face a tough time, as they are likely to receive much less generous allowances from Rome than they are used to getting from the Church of England.

Then there is the question of what will happen to the buildings themselves. Fr Stephen Bould, the priest at St Peter's, Folkestone, said it would be "wonderful" if the parish were allowed to keep its 19th-century, earthquake-scarred church if it finally converts to Roman Catholicism next year.

But the Church of England is highly unlikely to give up its assets without a fight. 

The authorities have made it known that the buildings remain the property of the Church, regardless of the actions of those who occupy them.

And what of those parishioners left behind? Not everyone in the St Peter's congregation is convinced by the proposal to join the Ordinariate. 

The Canterbury Diocese has promised that the Church of England will not abandon those in the parish who are dismayed at the plan. 

The authorities have also moved to reassure local parents that St Peter's primary school "will remain a Church of England school".

In his sermon on Sunday, Fr Bould advised his ageing congregation that the parish was now "in a battle", inviting them to "fight it with flair, imagination and spirit". 

In keeping with high-Anglican traditions, the service at St Peter's was closer to the incense-filled rituals of Roman Catholicism than a service at a modern, liberal parish, which is as likely to be led by a woman as a man. Inside St Peter's, there were statues of the Virgin Mary, Jesus bearing the sacred heart, and rosary beads in use.

Throughout its history, the Kentish church has been firmly in the Catholic tradition within the Church of England. The prospect of it now leaving the Anglican community entirely is all the more damaging for Rowan Williams, as it lies within his own diocese.

Four and a half thousand miles away, in the heat and humidity of Nagpur, the Archbishop of Canterbury was giving a sermon to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Church of North India as news of the Folkestone decision emerged. 

The theme for his sermon could not have been more apt: unity.

Lambeth Palace has refused to comment officially on the developments, but Dr Williams's Indian sermon reads as an implicit warning to the warring factions within his Church. 

"Sometimes we have listened to the past," he said. "We have identified ourselves with our ancestors in faith. Sometimes we have listened to our own unconverted hearts and used the church of God for our own ends, welcoming people like us and rejecting those who make us uncomfortable.

"And when any of those things happens, the Church begins to fall apart. The wounds in the Body get wider and deeper, and we find ourselves giving great energy to justifying our decision not to be together."

In an impassioned plea for unity, he added: "As we stop listening to one another, we stop listening to Christ. Whether this happens in the name of nationality or tradition or pride of achievement or purity of teaching, the effect is the same tragedy."

The road to Rome is not the only option for traditional Anglo-Catholics in the Church of England. A new group is being formed – the society of St Wilfred and St Hilda – intended to mobilise support for a compromise that would allow opponents of women bishops to be led by men and remain inside the Anglican family.

But some fear that a permanent split is an inevitable consequence of decades of modernisation. 

While the Church of England has attempted to accommodate major changes in society, on issues ranging from a more liberal view of sexuality to women's rights, the Vatican has largely resisted change. It is possible that, by 2011, Anglicanism will have become simply too broad a church to survive in its present form.

The Rev George Pitcher, public affairs adviser to Dr Williams, put it starkly. Reacting to the defections in his Telegraph blog, he said: "Such departures to Rome represent an erosion, with the possibility of eventual eradication, of the catholic tradition within our established Church." 

Two more bishops are widely expected to follow Fulham into the Ordinariate when it is established next year, and senior figures in the Catholic church in England expect the new body eventually to accommodate "thousands" of converts. 

In the meantime, the once-quiet coastal parish of St Peter's in Folkestone finds itself at the centre of a potentially seismic shift in the structure of the Anglican Communion. 

Remembering that April day three years ago when the ground began to shake, Fr Bould recalled: "I never understood what Jesus meant when he said 'the stones will cry out' until I was standing on top of an earthquake. It made a noise like nothing I had ever heard."

SIC: TC/UK