Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Vatican expresses regret over Church of England vote for women bishops

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4294335.ece

[Times Online] 8 Jul 2008--The Church of England is facing years of bitter dissent and division after last night's vote by the General Synod offered no concessions to traditionalists.

Increasing numbers of traditionalist bishops from the Church of England are now expected to boycott the Lambeth Conference this month because of the vote, The Times has learned.

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, accused the Church of wasting its time on internal politics: "Jesus Christ is in the streets weeping. Did you see the newspaper that said the Church is navel gazing while our children are being slaughtered and killed? We confuse synodical language with governance, with parliament and everything else that goes with it. So I am praying very hard for fresh understanding in the Church."

But a statement from the conservative grouping Forward in Faith said that it intends to work with sympathetic bishops within the Church of England to secure a place for their traditions.

The group has joined forced with evangelicals, on the warpath over gays, and are drawing up joint plans to fight the liberal centre and attempt to defeat women bishops and gay ordination from within. Evangelicals predicted that some traditionalists might even opt into the care of an overseas archbishop under the new Jerusalem Declaration drawn up by conservative primates at the Global Anglican Future conference in Israel last month.

One test will be the make-up of the next Synod, which like parliament is re-elected every five years. The next elections are in the autumn of 2010 and if evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics work together instead of fighting over the same seats, they believe that they could capture enough dioceses to defeat women bishops at the final vote in 2012 or 2013.

The Bishop of London, the Right Rev Richard Chartres, who is number three in the hierarchy after Canterbury and York, is also emerging as a potential leader of the traditionalist wing. Bishop Chartres, who ordains neither men nor women to the priesthood and whose diocese is strongly Anglo-Catholic as well as the fastest-growing in terms of numbers, will at the end of the week issue a pastoral letter to all his clergy.

He is expected to outline how, in the event of the first woman bishop being consecrated in about 2014, he will invoke the "London plan" put in place in the diocese after the ordination of women priests. London has its own traditionalist bishop, the Bishop of Fulham, John Broadhurst, who cares for parishes that do not accept the ordination of women.

Bishop Chartres told The Times: "One thing we have to do is reaffirm and reinvigorate the London plan which provides an honoured place in the life of the Church of England for both those who support this innovation and those who do not see it as a legitimate development in scripture and tradition. We do have a way of living together."

The leading conservative evangelical, Paul Eddy, who is due to be ordained deacon next year, said: "This has brought Anglo-Catholics and evangelicals together. There will be a real fight now. There is no doubt that the liberal centre does not want a wide church any more. The liberal agenda is taking over."

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