The Pope's Anglican Division
The Apostolic Constitution setting out the terms on which Anglicans may convert has been published
Fulcrum Newsletter, November 2009
Co-published with permission, with Comment is free belief, Guardian online, 9 November 2009
by Graham Kings
Bishop of Sherborne and theological secretary of Fulcrum
 In planning the momentous service in Canterbury Cathedral in 1982, a key question was who would sit on St Augustine’s chair - Pope John Paul II or the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie?
The Dean, Victor de Waal, solved the issue with great insight. The Canterbury Gospels, given by Pope Gregory the Great for the mission of St Augustine, who arrived in Kent in AD 597, would be placed on the chair. The Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury would sit on either side – under God’s Word.
During the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005, the wind kept ruffling another gospel book, placed on his coffin, turning its pages. This was in the full view of Cardinal Ratzinger, who presided at the service and succeeded him, as Pope Benedict XVI, and of Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
In 2009, relations between Rome and Canterbury have recently lurched to a new level. Pope Benedict has authorised ‘Personal Ordinariates’ for groups of Anglicans who wish to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church: the details have just been announced. The offer is an extension into England and elsewhere of a variant of a model already in place in the United States of America for many years.
But it comes after the General Synod of the Church of England decided to begin the process of legislation to consecrate women as bishops, and has new elements: Rome is changing its Canon Law to recognise a special status for some former Anglican bishops, even if they are married, and to allow group provision for disaffected Anglicans with the promise of some continuity of Anglican liturgy and spirituality. The other novelty is the astounding lack of consultation with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The current context of Vatican departments is illuminating. It is right to question both the wisdom of bypassing the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and its President, Cardinal Walter Kasper, who was not even present at the press conference in Rome, and the depth of knowledge of Anglican tradition in the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, led by Cardinal William Levada.
The debates in the Church of England in the 1940s concerning the validity of orders of the Church of South India were too often an externalization of an internal debate between Anglican traditions: the same may well be happening in the Vatican’s varying responses to the Anglican Communion.
Monsignor William Stetson, the secretary to the Ecclesiastical Delegate of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for the Pastoral Provision for former Anglican priests, is also a priest of Opus Dei and has recently given a significant interview, elucidating the new scenario. He did not mention that Opus Dei itself is a ‘Pastoral Prelature’, which has features similar to the ‘Personal Ordinariates’.
What are the implications for Anglicans who may be tempted to move over to Rome? Lay people will be required to be reconfirmed and clergy would have to be reconfirmed and reordained. From the Roman Catholic perspective, this would be confirmation and ordination for the first time. Although, in the past, some of these individual ordinations have included recognition of some sort of past sacramental ministry, from the Roman standpoint they had never fully been ordained nor effectively celebrated Mass before. This, it seems to me, will deter many.
The ‘Personal Ordinariates’ will have to be ‘self-financing’. From the Church of England, special financial provision for the clergy who may take up this offer will not be made available and there must be strong doubts whether church property or parsonages legally can be transferable.
There is an irony embedded in the promise of continuity of tradition. Anglican doctrine is characteristically expressed in liturgy, but among those who may take up this offer a large proportion, at least in England, currently use the Roman rite rather than authorised Anglican liturgies.
This annoucement has already produced division. It has put considerable strain on the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in the UK and Ireland, which is led by Conservative Evangelicals and has sought to include traditionalist Anglican Catholics, and it will divide further the latter group between those who become Roman Catholics and those who remain as Anglicans. The Global South Anglican response to the offer is negative and positively prefers the model of the Anglican Covenant to safeguard Anglican tradition.
A Catholic journalist has suggested that the name of the ‘Personal Ordinariate’ in England and Wales may be linked to John Henry Newman, a famous former Anglican priest and theologian whose beatification is expected in 2010 when Pope Benedict XVI visits England. Other reactions have been very mixed: from many Anglicans of anger and from some atheists of protection and protest. Perhaps the atheists in England deep down are Protestant atheists?
The long term consequences of this announcement are difficult to see at the moment, but the achievements of the dialogical approach of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) and of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM) need to be safeguarded. The profoundly reconciling legacy in Liverpool and England of the friendship between Bishop David Sheppard and Archbishop Derek Worlock needs remembering and developing.
It may well be that the number of Anglican Catholic bishops and other clergy in England who take this up is likely to be low, and the number of congregations in England will be even lower. It may apply more readily to groups of former Anglicans, no longer in the Anglican Communion, known as ‘continuing’ Anglican churches eg the ‘Traditional Anglican Communion’.
Lord Carrington, in his memoirs Reflect on Things Past (1988), relates Harold Macmillan’s remark to him during the enthronement service of Robert Runcie as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1980. Macmillan was watching Cardinal Hume in the procession in Canterbury Cathedral and murmured, ‘He looks like the landlord, coming to see whether the tenants have kept the place in order!’
Observant wit is worth balancing with the significance of two symbols. Pope Paul VI gave Archbishop Michael Ramsey his episcopal ring and Pope John Paul II gave Archbishop Rowan Williams a pectoral cross. Much prayer for wisdom is needed for the Archbishop of Canterbury as he prepares to give a lecture in Rome on 21 November and helps to guide developments in the coming months.
Dr Graham Kings is Bishop of Sherborne and theological secretary of Fulcrum
Discuss this Article on the Fulcrum Forum
Forum Posts About This Article:
Posted by: Graham Kings
Thursday 18 February 2010 - 11:24am
There have been various reports concerning the Personal Ordinariates recently. These include:
Andrew Brown, 'The cloak and dagger Catholics', - referring to Andrew Burnham's email - Andrew Brown's blog, Comment is free belief, Guardian site, 16 February 2010
Damien Thompson, 'Anglo-Catholic bishop in talks with CDF to stop English bishops 'smothering' Pope's Anglican plan', Daily Telegraph blog, 16 February 2010
Damien Thompson, 'Church of England bishop converts to Rome' - referring to Paul Richardson, former Assistant Bishop of Newcastle, and a former Anglican bishop in Papua New Guinea and diocesan bishop of Wangaratta in Australia - Daily Telegraph blog, 17 February 2010
Bonnie Malkin and Martin Beckford, 'Australia's traditional Anglicans vote to convert to Catholicism', Daily Telegraph 17 February 2010
Looking forward to your comments.
Posted by: Tony
Monday 23 November 2009 - 09:06pm
Dream on, David -- and note well User 2198's views! Tony
Posted by: Deleted user 974
Monday 23 November 2009 - 05:22pm
'Having just found your site, I am amazed at the "woolly" language of the Bishop of Sherborne when he writes about Anglicans being 'reconfirmed' and 'reordained'. As we know these sacraments, like baptism, cannot be repeated. What the Bishop should say is that, as baptised Christians, by entering into full communion, they will receive these Sacraments in the Catholic Church for the first time. '
Well your attempt is inadaquete in the extreme. They received 'these Sacraments in the Catholic Church for the first time' when they received them in the Anglican setting -- the C of E being the Catholic Church of this land.
Posted by: DavidR
Monday 23 November 2009 - 11:39am
I have just received my latest copy of Third Way and within it a leaflet produced by something called the Women Leadership Campaign - and organisation campaigning for ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church. It is very professionally produced, robustly presented and is, on this evidence, a well resourced and mobilised outfit.
For those who missed the leaflet their website is: www.womenpriests.org
It reminds us of an intriguing future possibility that should be included in the present mix.
Posted by: Deleted user 2198
Saturday 21 November 2009 - 07:36pm
Having just found your site, I am amazed at the "woolly" language of the Bishop of Sherborne when he writes about Anglicans being 'reconfirmed' and 'reordained'. As we know these sacraments, like baptism, cannot be repeated. What the Bishop should say is that, as baptised Christians, by entering into full communion, they will receive these Sacraments in the Catholic Church for the first time.
Posted by: Dave
Thursday 19 November 2009 - 06:51pm
Rogelio Prieto,
As you are happy to identify yourself, you may wish to choose a nickname see https://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/login/admin_myaccount.cfm?menuopt=6 . New members are given a number, that's computers for you, and it can get quite confusing.
David
Posted by: Rogelio
Thursday 19 November 2009 - 02:51pm
Isn't it fascinating that in the CofE we have qualms about the very un-catholic solution of a Third Province, while Benedict XVI is happy to offer a parallel jurisdiction personal quasi-presbyterian ordinariate with special dispensations and privileges?
As a former RC I suppose I should not be so surprised. But I am.
Rogelio Prieto
Posted by: Graham Kings
Wednesday 18 November 2009 - 11:30pm
Andrew Brown has published 'Backlash' on his blog, Guardian online, 18 November 2009. The subtitle is 'As the details of the pope's offer to disaffected Anglicans sink in, hostility grows to the proposals'. Well worth reading.
Posted by: Deleted user 2149
Wednesday 11 November 2009 - 11:29pm
I would just like to point out that my earlier comments were with specific reference to the Church of England.
Posted by: Graham Kings
Tuesday 10 November 2009 - 07:29am
Many thanks for these comments. Great to hear from you Bishop Andrew.
I mentioned in the newsletter the suggestion from a Catholic commentator that the name of the Personal Ordinariate be linked to John Henry Newman. Yesterday, the day of the publication of the Apostolic Constitution, Vincent Nichols, the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, chaired a press conference in London. He introduced Jack Sullivan, the American deacon who was healed following Sullivan's prayer to Newman, after seeing a television programme about him. Riazat Butt has written an article in The Guardian today, 10 November 2009, 'US deacon claims miracle cure by 19th century British cleric'.
Posted by: Martial Artist
Monday 9 November 2009 - 11:06pm
DC,
What you say may be true in England amongst Anglo-Catholics. As an American, who left TEC a bit more than a year ago, the situation here, at least in many parts of the U.S., is quite different.
I left at the end of September 20008, and went directly to a Dominican Catholic parish in the area. She remained in her parish because she had committed to the choir director that she would be there through Easter, after which she began attending a small Reformed Episcopal parish a few blocks off my route from home to my parish. After about 5 months, it became apparent that there was little, if any, prospect of a serious musical component at the REC parish. Because she had been invited to sing in the choir with me at my parish, she began attending the two on alternate Sundays. After a month or two of that, an incident occurred which clearly indicated that there were serious internal problems in the REC parish.
She is now attending Mass and RCIA with me. What is causing her the most difficulty as a cradle Episcopalian is the loss of the linguistic (liturgical) and musical patrimony of her Anglican heritage. God had brought both of us to a clear understanding of how sacramentally catholic we each were. But the errant theology and overbearingly tyrannical behavior of TEC were no longer tolerable from the perspective of our consciences. There are no significant doctrinal issues to keep us from becoming Catholic. But she to a great extent, and I to a lesser, both miss the language and music of Anglican worship. Even the Dir. of Liturgy & Music at the Catholic parish we attend frequently expresses his love for the music coming from the Anglican tradition, and he was born and raised in the Phillipines.
So I must politely disagree with your conclusion, at least from an American perspective.
Pax et bonum.
Posted by: Deleted user 2149
Monday 9 November 2009 - 09:33pm
The idea that those who seek to go over to Rome can at the same time retain something of their Anglican traditions, seems to me to be completely incomprehensible, particularly given the fact that there remain serious theological disagreements between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church. As Bishop Graham rightly points out, though, many of those who would be considering accepting the pope's invitation are probably using the Roman Rite anyway, and are presumably, therefore, in agreement with the doctrines expressed therein. For these individuals, the Roman Catholic Church is probably their natural home. In fact, it does raise for me the question as to whether there is any legitimate place for them in the C of E at all. After all, some of the most prominent figures of the Oxford Movement eventually came to the realisation that their position in the Church of England was untenable, and thus defected to Rome!
Posted by: Art
Monday 9 November 2009 - 09:23pm
One of the better readings, in my view, of this now (in)famous papal announcement comes from George Weigel in Newsweek: http://www.newsweek.com/id/219050
The reason for my selecting this from amongst the plethora of reactions is this: if indeed Runcie’s rationale for women’s ordination is at base sociological, then we are most surely in strife. To be sure, nothing in his small book Authority in Crisis? An Anglican Response (1988) gives me personally much hope that it might be otherwise.
However, none of this means that there is no sure theological premise for the ordination of women to the priesthood or their consecration as bishops. I am persuaded that a good theological case has been made for both. Rather, Weigel’s comments should highlight our need to avoid at all costs such reductionist thinking and arguments as Runcie’s - and especially when engaging with the rich theological tradition of the Roman Catholics or the Orthodox.
In this light, we are most fortunate to have the present incumbent of the See of Canterbury visiting Rome in a few days time. And as Graham Kings now says: May his entire visit be saturated with much prayer and our Good Lord’s rich blessing as the participants engage in robust discussion.
Posted by: WATERANGEL
Monday 9 November 2009 - 08:21pm
Thankyou Graham for explaining everything so clearly. I understood everything you said, i cannot promice to remember everything but i will remember enough so as to have caught the essence of what you are describing. With it written like this it does not sound like anything for people to be worried about one way or the other ie sometimes division temporarily can cause unity permanantly.It is the way of history we are supposed to be the family of God and the longing for the complete personal relationship internalised is the aim of all who love the Lord it is the angst of growing pains. The beauty of handed down gifts of rememberence as with the archbishops keeps the history alive and gives individual and corporate christianity the sense of continuity.
I Pray for Rowan that that sense of continuity of the unity of Faith can be maintained, whilst at the same time people have the opportunity to have their personal expression of faith fulfilled.Amen
In Peace
Waterhaven
Posted by: + Andrew
Monday 9 November 2009 - 06:52pm
I enjoyed this article and it raises legitimate concerns and shows good perspective on what might happen. I should take issue, however, with the developing notion that, somehow, Cardinal Kasper and the PCPCU have been out-manoeuvred or excluded. The competence of the PCPCU is with dialogue between churches, and thus the pursuit of a particular kind of ecumenism. The competence of the CDF is with doctrinal questions and with individuals or groups who adhere to the Catholic Faith and wish to be reconciled with the Holy See. Thus, this has been an exercise of the CDF and not of the PCPCU. Also, before saying that Cardinal Kasper has been out-manoeuvred or excluded, I should want to be sure that he isn't himself a member of the CDF. (Cardinals often belong to more than one dicastery, just as C of E bishops often sit on more than one board or committee). My impression is that he is on the strength of the CDF. Certainly when we went to Rome we saw both Cardinal Kasper and Cardinal Levada, as is a matter of public record (and, to quell a piece of distortion elsewhere, I should say that we discussed our visit with Lambeth beforehand and produced a report afterwrards).
What we are seeing, I think, is a new and different kind of ecumenism in Anglicanorum coetibus, responsive rather than proactive but much less long-winded than some of the ecumenical ventures of the past, where ecumenicacs could safely dream dreams that would never be realised in their lfietimes.
Quite how we shall all react, I'm not sure, but I think there is an onus on those who pray for the pope in the eucharistic prayer, use Roman liturgy in a sort Lund principle way, and express longings for unity with Rome, to explain themselves if they don't explore this new ecumenical possibility very seriously.
My prayers for you all.
+ Andrew
Posted by: 3 Gen Rev
Monday 9 November 2009 - 06:51pm
In our area there is a desperate shortage of Catholic priests, they're shutting down Churches to try to cope... do you think the Pope thinks he can fill some holes with dissafected anglicans?
Posted by: Graham Kings
Monday 9 November 2009 - 02:56pm
The Vatican has published today the awaited Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus, concerning terms on which Anglicans may convert to the Roman Catholic Church.
The Guardian has just published on its Comment is Free Belief site, with Fulcrum, this afternoon, 9 November 2009, my newsletter for November, 'The Pope's Divisions'.
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