Five U.K. Anglican Bishops will Become Catholic and be Ordained as Priests

Five Anglican Bishops announced they will resign their Episcopal office

Five Anglican Bishops announced on Monday November 8, 2010 they will resign their Episcopal office and enter into full communion with the Catholic Church through the Anglican Ordinariate. They will seek and receive ordination to the Catholic priesthood and then serve as priests in the new Ordinariate. The Bishops, Andrew Burnham (Ebbsfleet), Keith Newton (Richborough), John Broadhurst (Fulham), Edwin Barnes (assistant bishop, Winchester) and David Silk (assistant bishop, Exeter)

P>LONDON, U.K. (Catholic Online) -  I have followed the movement of Anglican Clergy and lay faithful toward the safe harbor that is found in the Bark of Peter and written extensively about it. I have grieved along with many Anglicans as their own Christian community was torn asunder by the rejection of both orthodoxy and orthopraxy. It is my conviction that the influx of these Anglican Christians into the full communion of the Catholic Church through the Anglican Ordinariate is a work of the Holy Spirit, a gift to the Catholic Church and marks the beginning of the coming full communion of the whole Church.

The Anglican Community is fracturing, splintering and falling apart. Some within it are abandoning the ancient faith handed down to us from the apostles. To many Anglican Christians, this is a tragedy. So, led by the Holy Spirit, Pope Benedict XVI, the Vicar of Christ and successor of Peter, has offered a juridical structure which provides a place within the full communion of the Catholic Church where they could maintain their Anglican Ethos and become a part of a new missionary age in a restored Catholic Church, thereby finding a safe harbor.  That is precisely what this Anglican Ordinariate provides. It is entitled the "Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus" and explains in its subtitle what it offers "Providing for Personal ordinariates for Anglicans Entering into Full Communion with the Catholic Church." 

Anglican Christians coming into full communion with the Catholic Church will be a leaven. They will help us rediscover the legitimate diversity within the unity we have in fidelity to the Magisterium, the teaching office, of the Catholic Church. We must embrace orthodoxy (right teaching) and orthopraxy (right practice). However, we are a Church of many expressions. I have attended "Anglican Use" Liturgies in the Catholic Church. I think they could help to raise the water level of liturgical practice throughout the whole Catholic Church.  There are "Anglican Use" parishes in existence within the Catholic Church right now. They came into being under what was called the "Pastoral Provision", the precursor to the Apostolic Constitution.   

The Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans seeking full communion - and the norms which accompany it - will integrate our brethren into full and visible unity with the One Catholic Church while allowing them to bring their gifts with them. It will dramatically affect the ecclesial landscape of our Church going forward. This is the beginning of a new missionary age and the coming reunion of the Church. Breathing with both lungs, East and West, she will lead us into the future.

In the United States, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the faith named Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, DC to oversee the reception of Anglicans into the full communion of the Church through the Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans. Now there is an Australian report, released  this weekend, which indicates that "The Bishop of Richborough, the Right Rev Keith Newton, 58, is expected to become leader or the Anglican Ordinariate, set up to provide Catholic refuge to Anglicans who leave the Church of England over the issue of women bishops"

If accurate, this will be an example of a provision within the guidelines of implementation which allow for a priest to serve as an Ordinary without being consecrated as a Bishop. After all, although married men will be accepted for ordination to the diaconate and the priesthood within the Ordinariate, they will not be chosen for the episcopacy. This is in keeping with the ancient practice, both East and West. In its explanatory release preceding the release of the Apostolic Constitution the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith explained that the Constitution "provides for the ordination as Catholic priests of married former Anglican clergy. Historical and ecumenical reasons preclude the ordination of married men as bishops in both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The Constitution therefore stipulates that the Ordinary can be either a priest or an unmarried bishop."

I am happy to report some more historic news from the United Kingdom. Five Anglican Bishops announced on Monday November 8, 2010 they will resign their Episcopal office and enter into full communion with the Catholic Church through the Anglican Ordinariate. They will seek and receive ordination to the Catholic priesthood and then serve as priests in the new Ordinariate. The Bishops, Andrew Burnham (Ebbsfleet), Keith Newton (Richborough), John Broadhurst (Fulham), Edwin Barnes (assistant bishop, Winchester) and David Silk (assistant bishop, Exeter), released this statement:

"Like many in the catholic tradition of Anglicanism, we have followed the dialogue between Anglicans and Catholics, the ARCIC process, with prayer and longing.  We have been dismayed, over the last thirty years, to see Anglicans and Catholics move further apart on some of the issues of the day, and particularly we have been distressed by developments in Faith and Order in Anglicanism which we believe to be incompatible with the historic vocation of Anglicanism and the tradition of the Church for nearly two thousand years.

"The Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum c˝tibus, given in Rome on 4th November 2009, was a response to Anglicans seeking unity with the Holy See.  With the Ordinariates, canonical structures are being established through which we will bring our own experience of Christian discipleship into full communion with the Catholic Church throughout the world and throughout the ages.  This is both a generous response to various approaches to the Holy See for help and a bold, new ecumenical instrument in the search for the unity of Christians, the unity for which Christ himself prayed before his Passion and Death.  It is a unity, we believe, which is possible only in eucharistic communion with the successor of St Peter.

"As bishops, we have even-handedly cared for those who have shared our understanding and those who have taken a different view.  We have now reached the point, however, where we must formally declare our position and invite others who share it to join us on our journey.  We shall be ceasing, therefore, from public episcopal ministry forthwith, resigning from our pastoral responsibilities in the Church of England with effect from 31st December 2010, and seeking to join an Ordinariate once one is created.

"We remain very grateful for all that the Church of England has meant for us and given to us all these years and we hope to maintain close and warm relationships, praying and working together for the coming of God's Kingdom.

"We are deeply appreciative of the support we have received at this difficult time from a whole variety of people: archbishops and bishops, clergy and laity, Anglican and Catholics, those who agree with our views and those who passionately disagree; those who have encouraged us in this step and those who have urged us not to take this step."

Upon receiving the news, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the United Kingdom immediately expressed their warm welcome in these words: "We welcome the decision of Bishops Andrew Burnham, Keith Newton, John Broadhurst, Edwin Barnes and David Silk to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church through the Ordinariate for England and Wales, which will be established under the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus.

"At our plenary meeting next week, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales will be exploring the establishment of the Ordinariate and the warm welcome we will be extending to those who seek to be part of it. Further information will be made known after the meeting."

This is the beginning of a new chapter in Church history. We invite our readers around the world to pray for these five Bishops, for all Anglican Christians who will respond to this extraordinary moment of grace, and for the whole Church.

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