Three traditionally-inclined Church of England bishops recently travelled to Rome for exploratory talks regarding Benedict XVI's Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, which allows Anglicans to join the Catholic Church while retaining some of their distinctive religious practices.
Bishop John Broadhurst of Fulham, Bishop Keith Newton of Richborough, and Bishop Andrew Burnham of Ebbsfleet met with officials of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Each of the three Bishops are well-known for opposing the increasingly liberal path that the Church of England has taken, including the issue of the ordination of open homosexuals, and the ordination of women. The Bishop of Fulham is head of Forward in Faith, which calls itself a "worldwide association of Anglicans who are unable in conscience to accept the ordination of women as priests or as bishops."
The ordination of women in the Church of England has caused much strife among their ranks. More women than men in the Church of England were ordained in 2006. A general Church of England Synod to be held this summer is expected to fail to provide any special provision or internal structure for Anglican believers who do not accept the ordination of women.
"I am sure this [failure] will come as a shock to many in our constituency," Bishop Keith Newton has written, "as it would herald the end of Anglo-Catholicism as we understand it."
"The general trend is not encouraging for us," he continued. "Many of us will be asking whether it is indeed possible to minister in a Church which not only fails to understand our theological stance but consistently refuses to recognise the need for an adequate provision."
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If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. Mark 3:25.
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