Five Church of England Bishops to join Catholic Church

Five Church of England bishops have announced that they are to move to the Roman Catholic Church in protest at liberal Anglican reforms.

The decision was made by the Bishop of Fulham, the Rt Rev John Broadhurst; the Bishop of Richborough, the Rt Rev Keith Newton; the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham; and two retired bishops, the Rt Rev Edwin Barnes, honorary assistant bishop of Winchester, and the Rt Rev David Silk, honorary assistant bishop of Exeter. About 25 groups, each typically containing approximately 20 converts, are expected to follow the path to Rome with them.

The decision was welcomed by the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Pope Benedict XVI announced last year that he would create a new body, known as the English Ordinariate, for those in the Church of England who wished to switch allegiance to Rome whilst maintaining some Anglican traditions.

In a joint statement the bishops expressed their “dismay” and “distress” at recent liberal reforms to the Church, in particular the ordination of women priests and plans for the consecration of women as bishops.

Rt Rev Andrew Burnham likened the Church to a chain of coffee shops that is losing customers while Rt Rev Newton accused it of adopting an increasingly “lax” attitude towards issues of morality, such as homosexuality and abortion.

Rt Rev Burnham said that worshippers no longer know what they will find when they walk into an Anglican church, with some offering highly traditional services and others employing women as priests.

“The Church of England has decided that it can make its own mind up about what it can do. There are signs it is forgetting and losing a sense of where it came from,” he said.

“If Costa Coffee, every time you went to a branch, did something different and you didn’t know what the product was, they would go out of business. We have got to the stage now in the Church of England where there are so many different products that you don’t know what you’re going to get.”

Bishop Newton said the issue of the ordination of women was not the only one he was concerned about.

“There has been a more lax attitude towards moral issues: the whole question of blessing gay marriage – there is a lot of pressure for that to happen in the Church of England – abortion, and life and death issues.

“You are never sure what the Church stands for any more,” he said.

Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said he accepted the decision “with regret” and wished the bishops “well in this next stage of their service to the Church”.

Sources

Daily Telegraph (Commentary)
BBC News
Guardian
Press Association