Help, we're drowning!

The traditionalist Bishop of Ebbsfleet has asked the Pope, as well as Catholic leaders in England and Wales, to help him and his parishes defect to Rome.
The Right Reverend Andrew Burnham said objectors within the Church of England were feeling "shipwrecked".
He said: "We are floating in the water looking for someone to rescue us." (BBC NEWS)

Bishop to lead flock to Rome after synod vote
By Anna Arco11 July 2008 (Catholic Herald)

A senior traditionalist Anglican bishop has urged the Pope and the hierarchy of England and Wales to help Anglo-Catholics convert to Rome following the General Synod's vote to ordain women bishops.

The Bishop of Ebbsfleet, the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, called for "magnanimous gestures from our Catholic friends, especially from the Holy Father, who well understand our longing for unity and from the hierarchy in England and Wales" as he prepares to lead his flock to Rome in the aftermath of the Church of England's General Synod."Most of all we ask for ways that allow us to bring our folk with us," he wrote in an article explaining his position in The Catholic Herald.

Bishop Burnham, one of the "flying bishops" administering to Anglo-Catholics who cannot in conscience accept women priests, has said that codes of practice - the measures granted by the General Synod to traditionalists opposed to women bishops - were "shifting sands" and that "the sacramental life of the Church must be built on a rock".He said: "How could we trust a code of practice to deliver a workable ecclesiology if every suggestion we have made in our inclusion has been turned down flat? How could we trust a code of practice when those who are offering it include those who have done most to undermine and seek to revoke the code of practice in force for these last 14 years?"

The General Synod voted for women bishops and a code of practice on Monday, rejecting amendments tabled by traditionalists which would have allowed them to have separate legal structures within the Church of England, safeguarding their consciences. Both the suggestions to have "super bishops" and to create new dioceses to accommodate traditionalists were rejected. Instead a statutory code of practice with unspecified terms was pushed through. Bishop Burnham, together with another "flying bishop", has been discussing the reception of Anglo-Catholics into the Catholic Church with Cardinal William Levada, head of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Walter Kasper, who heads the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The bishop said he hoped that Rome would be able to make special provisions so that former Anglicans could remain in their parishes guided by Catholic bishops. Most parishes already use the Roman liturgy but allowances may be made for Anglican prayers.

Following the General Synod's vote on the provisions for the ordination of women bishops, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity issued a statement which said the decision represented a "rupture in the apostolic tradition" and would pose another obstacle for reconciliation between the two communions.The statement said: "We have learned with regret the news of the vote of the Church of England that opens the road to the introduction of legislation that leads to the ordination of women to the episcopate. The Catholic position was expressed plainly by Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II."Such a decision means a rupture in the apostolic tradition maintained by all the Churches of the first millennium, and so this is a further obstacle to reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Church of England. "This decision will have consequences for future dialogue, that up to now had borne good fruits, as Cardinal Kasper made clear when on June 5, 2006, he spoke to all of the bishops of the Church of England at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury."Cardinal Kasper is still due to speak at the Lambeth Conference, the meeting of the worldwide Anglican Communion which will meet later this month.

Large numbers of traditionalists left the Church of England for Rome after the 1992 decision to allow women priests The 1993 Act of Synod established a legal structure for the traditionalists, which included the Provincial Episcopal Visitors, the official term for "flying bishops".

Ex-Anglicans will bring new life to our Church
This time, former C of E traditionalists must be allowed to stay together, says Damian Thompson
11 July 2008(Catholic Herald)

"Most of all we ask for ways that allow us to bring our folk with us." Well, you can't put it plainer than that. The Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Ebbsfleet and one of the Church of England's three "flying bishops", wants to lead his people to Rome. And - this time round - Rome seems ready to provide the "ways" that will allow the exodus to consist of more than simply a mass of individual conversions.On Monday night the General Synod of the Church of England, meeting in York, voted to consecrate women bishops without offering objectors anything more than a flimsy code of practice. "Make no mistake," wrote George Pitcher in the Daily Telegraph, "the Anglo-Catholics were done over." But with love, mind you: as Pitcher nicely put it, the Synod is like a mafia movie "where the luckless are stabbed in the back while they're being hugged".

Bishop Burnham - whom I remember from my religious correspondent days as one of the nicest and wisest Anglo-Catholics - saw this coming. So did the Rt Rev Keith Newton, Bishop of Richborough, Canterbury's other Provincial Episcopal Visitor (as flying bishops are officially known). That is why they travelled to Rome to talk to Cardinal William Levada, the Pope's successor at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican's head of ecumenism.The situation is confusing, because there have been two meetings between Anglican bishops and the Vatican: one involving the flying bishops, and a more mysterious one attended by Anglican diocesan bishops, not necessarily with a view to converting, but with the aim of sorting out the almighty mess in Catholic-Anglican relations.

The really good news, from the Catholic point of view, is that Rome and the two flying bishops seem to have agreed on the bare outline of a deal between Romeward-bound Anglicans and the Vatican. If it seems presumptuous for Anglicans to ask for a deal, remember this: in the mid-1990s, after the Church of England ordained women priests, many Anglo-Catholics drew back from union with the Holy See because the Bishops of England and Wales were so unwelcoming, and because they were so depressed by the low standard of liturgy in our parishes.The situation now is very different. Pope Benedict XVI is an old friend of conservative Anglo-Catholics in England and America; he shares their dismay at the shoddy state of the liturgy in many churches, and he is seeking to renovate the vernacular Mass by exposing Catholics to the treasures of pre-1970 Latin worship. All this would have been inconceivable in 1994, as would a Ratzinger papacy, and old-fashioned "Sandalista" liberals are still hoping to wake up from their bad dream. The cheering from the Anglo-Catholic sidelines at these developments has been hearty and loud - much louder, I'm sorry to say, than that from the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales. Yet it is now looking less likely, thank God, that our diocesan bishops will dig in their heels and refuse to allow special measures for former Anglicans. Roma locuta est, I suspect - quietly and diplomatically, but decisively. (One thing I do know, though it is a different issue, is that Ecclesia Dei has instructed the English and Welsh hierarchy to implement the Motu Proprio.)

So what might an agreement between Rome and former Anglo-Catholics look like? Here are some informed guesses:
1. Rome will set up an "apostolic administration" under a Catholic bishop to offer pastoral care to former Anglican priests and their parishioners.
2. The ex-Anglicans will form an umbrella organisation called something like the Fellowship of St Gregory the Great. The Fellowship, under the guidance of their new Catholic bishop, will consist of former Anglican priests who have been ordained into the Catholic priesthood. Their parishes, though open to anyone, will consist largely of ex-Anglicans.
3. Some Fellowship parishes will occupy their former church buildings, though this will require an unprecedented degree of co-operation with the Church of England.
4. Former Anglican communities may - if they wish - be allowed to use parts of the Book of Common Prayer adapted for Catholic use, as in a few American parishes. In practice, there will be little demand for this concession, I suspect.
5. Former Anglican priests will undergo an accelerated programme of study allowing them to be swiftly ordained. (Conditional ordination is unlikely to be on offer.) Marriage will be no bar to ordination, but no actively gay priest will be knowingly ordained, and this will be strictly enforced.
6. However there will be no question of married lay former Anglicans becoming priests, since this would effectively abolish the rule of celibacy in the Western Church.
7. There will therefore be no Uniate Anglican-Rite Church; there is not enough demand for it, and it raises too many questions about celibacy and jurisdiction.
8. That said, there could well be a future for the Fellowship of St Gregory once its original supply of ex-Anglicans has died out. The treasures our new brethren will bring with them - a poetic and contemplative spirituality, glorious prayers, fine music - will permanently enrich the Catholic Church in England; they belong to us all.

As I say, these are just informed guesses.
I have only one plea to the Vatican and the Catholic bishops:
Please, get it right this time.