I have been reading the odd articles here and there about the decision yesterday of the General Synod of the Church of England to put off the final decision to go ahead with women bishops until November 2012. It was predictable and frustrating for those who feel they want to “move on” – in one way or the other.
I remember Monsignor Broadhurst’s analogy of the frog in water being slowly heated until the frog would die of hyperthermia. Next week, the whole thing will be forgotten and no one will be talking about consecrating women bishops. Then it will all be back in the media a few weeks before the November Synod, and then the bickering and arguing will be the same as in July. Would it be any different in March 2013 or at some later date. If it is a war of attrition or guerre d’usure, then we need to think about who is going to leave out of frustration. Most clergy will not leave until it happens.
For those who have gone to an ordinariate, are continuing Anglicans or who have given up on churches, it is simple. One becomes cynical, which is understandable. The cancer patient gets another shot of morphine and the undertakers and embalmers are told to come back another day! Fiddling while Rome burns, or the gambler in the hole playing his last card? Who knows?
Roman Catholic triumphalists want “it” to go ahead as much as the protagonists of women bishops. Perhaps the stragglers can be herded and goaded into the ordinariate. Who wants to be “herded” or “goaded” any more than assailed by telephone salesmen? I could go on forever. I wrote some time ago about the kind of Catholic who advocates the hypothetical political regime that offers shooting, gassing and garrotting as an alternative to being “herded”. I don’t expect to educate anyone or win them to my point of view. I’m just done with it all!
Strangely, the proponents of women bishops seem to be of the same mindset. They need more time to convince their adversaries or wear them down. If the Church is about being herded, one way or another, then it is understandable that the only kind of people who will be in it are those with practical or financial attachments or who have abdicated their personalities. The totalitarian dictator’s dream! Of course there are those who will say I lack sound judgement for comparing the Church to totalitarianism! It is just a matter of degree… The principle is the same. The State lays down laws for what you are allowed or not allowed to do and say, not what you think. Churches claim authority over the internal forum and the conscience.
Some of my readers belong to the Church of England, and they have my sympathy, not triumphalistic taunting or bitter reproaches. Perhaps there is still hope that the entire agenda of female clergy would be rolled back for the purpose of stemming the haemorrhage and continuing a meaningful ecumenical dialogue with Rome and the Orthodox. The pragmatic mind at Lambeth, Westminster or York University may come to the conclusion that consecrating women bishops would be so costly and destructive to the Church, in view of the opposition, that it would be better to scupper it indefinitely. But is this realistic, or am I thinking too much like when “messing about in boats”? Is the Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical opposition going to get stronger and more articulate, or is it weakening? That is a question I am not qualified to answer.
Of course, if women bishops are rolled out, it will be the end of tolerance and comprehensiveness in the Church of England. It would be a church with a razor-edge “orthodoxy” like so many other churches and religious expressions. Most of us would just vote with our feet, and the institution would get no support of any kind from us. That is the dilemma Archbishop Williams has unsuccessfully tried to conciliate.
Experience shows that innovations of this kind, and other innovations that have characterised Roman Catholicism over the past forty years, or even the past four centuries, are more divisive than just carrying on as before. People feel they have to be “in the driving seat” or otherwise in control to prevent the Church going wrong, and they jostle and compete. Can the Church not be like nature? Is not a primary forest in South America (what little is left of it) more beautiful and pure than the finest French garden? But, of course, most religious people can only conceive of their churches in terms of leaders and authority – rather than communion, spiritual life and letting what is good in humanity thrive and prosper, and be fashioned and perfected by divine grace.
I certainly would be happy if they pull back from the brink, so that something of what many of us have known may remain – that happy sense in ongoing life and balance rather than oscillating between the two extremes of an insoluble dilemma.
Separation of Church and State, disestablishment, following a “train wreck” at Synod? It seems the only way. As a little boy, when I heard about bishops in the house of Lords, I could only think of my brother’s game of chess with the king, the queen and the two bishops to the knights and pawns. What has all that to do with the Gospels and the simple message of interiority and love? I have been out of the Church of England for a little over thirty years, and have never really found a spiritual home ever since.
That is not quite accurate – I have found the sea.
The Blue Flower 
… and have never really found a spiritual home ever since. That is not quite accurate – I have found the sea.
The desert fathers, St. Anthony among them, were certainly members of the Body of Christ, but found no spiritual home in the visible Church. They found the desert. I’m not sure that any committed Christian soul can ever be truly comfortable in the wranglings and wanderings of an institution formed of fallible men. It’s a fallen world and even the Church is formed of fallen human beings. Perhaps the visible Church can never truly be home this side of the Parousia. Thank God for the sea, the desert, the other places “outside” where we can be home with Him.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if “mainstream” Anglicans would return to the Faith once delivered! I’m afraid it’s gone too far for that now already, even before the CofE follows the American lead in consigning the church to female ‘bishops’. The glorious tradition has become a dead horse that won’t respond to the whip any longer. That leaves us, Continuers and “Odinaryites” alike, to muddle along as best we can to preserve and live what we have been given, and to do so in imperfect and sometimes contentious. It will always be uncomfortable, sometimes desperately so, but He says “Come unto me … and I will give you rest.” In the desert, on the sea, in the quiet of our own house, wherever we find a place of shelter, He is there, waiting for us to meet Him. Fill us, God, with the silence of thy peace.
This is worth considering, log into http://www.bettertogethercampaign.co.uk and go to the Media heading.
Ian
I’m sorry, Father, but I cannot see this as worth considering. There are totally false assumptions, chief among them being that a majority is able to alter doctrine. If that be granted, every doctrine is up for grabs and the church is no longer effectively the Church. Having female ‘priests’ is bad enough, but at least those who feel that such a thing is not only undesirable, but theologically impossible, are able to know who it is that they have to ignore. Female bishops are another matter. The episcopate is at the heart of the structure of the church, both regard to its operation in real time and with regard to the continuance if its ministry. It would be a very short period of time before there would be male “priests” “ordained” by female “bishops”. How would one committed to Apostolic Succession traditionally understood know what was the rightful authority under which he or she attempts to be part of the Church, or, even more crucially, whether the sacraments are being administered by a real priest?
Shouting and anger are out of place and ineffectual anyway, but coexistence in one body ceases to be a viable possibility.. The only answer seems to be as amicable as possible a separation. Instead of trying to hold together something that can’t hold together, why not work for some kind of solution to the vexing property issues of a separation?
Not everybody is in ordinariates or continuing churches. For some people, the Church of England is their livelihood, their home and their job – and what they grew up in? Why should they leave rather than the people who want innovations? For those – unlike you and I – who are in the Church of England, they have to find some kind of modus vivendi.
A lot of Russians left their country in 1917, knowing that their freedom had come to an end. They were the heroes. Most stayed and knuckled under. Were they any worse? Who are we to judge?
You try talking with the Church Commissioners about a solution to the “vexing property issues”! You might as well talk to the wall… If you want to “defect”, you leave it all behind. It’s as simple as that.
I don’t want to be harsh. I understand the tenor of these discussions, whether church people are principled Christians. The only thing we can do is look after ourselves.
Ed
Everything is worth considering when we work for the good of the Gospel, reaching out to all people.
I am one of those that received my ‘nulla osta’ from Rome and after deep thought and prayer decided not to follow it up and informed the Ordinary of my decision. It was not taken lightly and I went through a period of loneliness and sadness for I too believe in the Apostolic succession and the Church and its teaching. I have returned to the Church of my Baptism, where I was welcomed with kindness and with a deep feeling of God’s Church alive and well, here in the Church of England. I have come to realise that our unity in Almighty God and his Church here on earth lies in, and through, our Baptism.
I no longer worry about whether or not there may be female Bishops, if that is the way it will go for the C of E then I will accept it as it is – but, there are a great deal of people here in the Church of England who are good Catholic men and women who are not wanting to go to Rome, who do not want a Woman as their bishop, and who wish to safeguard a way forward in securing a Catholic Faith in their Church, I can no longer abandon such people, in my book that would be a denial of my priestly ministry to give comfort to those in need. I stay to help, in finding a way forward that secures a legitimate path for Catholic minded Christians.
For the past 20 years or so, I have lived with both sides of the argument being played out daily on the net and other various avenues of communication, it is time to stop listening and to act on my ordination vows. To those who think the path to Rome is their path to God, I will support all I can, but equally I shall support those who do not wish to make that decision.
We are all God’s children and whatever path we choose I just know and believe that we shall all end up in the same house, that’s the promise we have from the Master.
Thank you, Fr Ian, for this candid message. I have kept the fact you had returned to the Church of England quiet to avoid polemics and the usual kind of bitter unpleasantness. One comes to a point of realising that the only way to please everybody (I mean the church people constantly voicing their opinions) is to abandon religion and do nothing. I deduce many things by reductio ad absurdam.
Keep going and do what you can on your little bit of earth God has given you. At a level of ideas and high-profile politics, the Church of England looks hopeless, but it must be very different in the parishes. Maybe, continuing churches are the right thing in America, when they’re not killing each other off – but this side of the Atlantic, anything outside the “official churches” is “vagante” and has no potential for pastoral ministry with ordinary layfolk – only the ones who are “screwed up by churches” and consciously persevering in the Christian faith. Very few are disposed in this way.
I remain a priest and continue to do what I can, but I will never be able to do parish work in something like the conditions as when I helped out in a parish as a deacon. My earlier vocation has reawakened, and how well it will go with marriage, goodness knows. And so I did my “novitiate” in dinghies, and my “simple profession” will be getting my boat licence this autumn, and going to navigation and radio classes. My goal is to learn to be able to handle a 30-foot yacht alone and sail the oceans – until my soul finds its rest. One step at a time is enough!
Yes, we are God’s children and we are all called to hear his voice as we sing in the Venite:
Or as St Benedict said, and today is the Feast of the translation of his relics:
And, Father Anthony, I would hope that you are spiritually at home every time you stand at the altar. I know I am.
Yes, of course, I belong at the altar as I do each day. I was thinking more about the various institutions I have been in or near where I was unable to sink roots.
I do believe that God called me to the priesthood, but he also called me to the sea from my childhood, and that vocation went largely unheeded. Sailing a dinghy has been very helpful, but I now need to get my navigator’s licence and learn things like navigation (not just using a GPS but doing it the old-fashioned way with sextant, chronometer and calculation tables), meteorology and radio operating. I have a long way to go.
You indeed belong on the sea. I should follow your example, in spite of all difficulties, and pursue my own similar vocation to be in the air as a pilot, one that I have failed to follow.
Ever considered hang gliding, as long as you are reasonably fit?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAGS3d4i-DE
You can turn the sound off if you don’t like the “thump, thump, thump!”
But there are levels for beginners too. I did a week’s gliding in Yorkshire when I was 16 with a friend. That was great. We had an old wartime Polish pilot as an instructor. We were winched into the air by an old bus engine! My friend went to the Royal College of Music (organ) and then became an airline pilot. He had to take early retirement from being made quite ill from the toxic oil vapours that go through the air conditioning systems of modern aircraft.
Never forget the still, small voice – of the Power greater than the entire universe – and infinitely greater than the World, the Flesh, and the Devil: 1 Kings 19: 1 – 18 (in the KJV, of course). “My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
Fr. Anthony,
I would give you some words of wisdom and encouragement like those of other commentors, however in all honesty I myself have grown rather cynical. As you know, our church also petitioned Rome (before Anglcanorum coetibus) and we have been dealing with nothing but bureaucratic flotsam and jetsam ever since. If one were to map out the way our petition has been bounced from one office to another, it would look like the path of a ball in a pinball machine. I am amazed we have any remaining members at all, clergy or laity.
Surely the Christian faith is of God and not of man, otherwise our foolishness would have caused it to expire long ago. I do think we all need to go back and re-read the blueprints though, and think seriously about rebuilding.
+Ed Steele
I would think that the ALCC and the Nordic Catholic Church would be a natural fit.
I would say so too, if their respective Bishops get on together.
Perhaps. 😉
+Ed
Fr. Anthony, I may well begin with hang gliding.
Great, but be sure to go to a school and get proper lessons. Otherwise you can get very badly hurt. However, they say that modern hang gliders are very safe.
a response to Frs. Ian and Anthony above.:
Thank you both for wise words and for the example of a struggle to follow Jesus in adversity. I may have been a bit too blunt. I have no intent of second-guessing anyone else in his efforts. I merely meant to speak for myself (and perhaps for some others) as to matters I have considered in great detail. I find nothing in the statement that I have not thought and prayed about. I share a desire that these churches be restored to sanity, but have sadly come to the place where I’ve felt a need to go on and wipe the dust from my sandals. Barring a miracle (for which I still pray) that I know well I cannot engineer or even influence, I don’t see a possibility of a return, all the more especially once women are bishops and succession is thus broken.
As to property issues, there are certainly obstacles and probably most cases will end up requiring an abandonment by those moving on — but that is not certainty. Church buildings have indeed been secularized and some few of them have been returned to spiritual use by various denominations outside the C of E. Even in the USA, where property battles have been fierce, a few congregations still possess their buildings even after moving on, while others have left property and still thrive in new premises.
All I meant to convey is that, for me, this approach seems a waste of effort and spiritually dangerous. For someone else? Well, we all have to do the best we can with the situation in which we find ourselves. Far be it for me to judge. It really is in God’s hands.
Ed
You are so on the nail
‘It really is in God’s hands’.
Amen
I really do understand the things you are saying, but I come back to my analogy of Russia in 1917 or France in 1793 when the guillotine was working overtime. A Frenchman or a Russian had to ask himself – Is this my country? Many went into exile, expelled or voluntarily emigrated as refugees. Others stayed in spite of the French Republic and Soviet Communism respectively.
What are the alternatives? Fr Ian and I belonged to the TAC. He has left. I have simply been informed by Archbishop Prakash that I am under the English jurisdiction. That seems to be my canonical situation as a priest. I wait and see what will come of the rebuilding resolutions. But, honestly, I see little viability in continuing Anglicanism, at least east of the Atlantic. There is the Ordinariate. Fr Ian has the honour of having received a nulla osta letter from Rome and having decided as a matter of principle not to go that way. Orthodoxy? Perhaps, but I have found no solution that convinces me of its long-term viability.
So I think we have to wait. There are things to do in the meantime in our own lives and our “duties of state” to coin an old-fashioned expression. We just have to get on with life, and discern the signs of God’s will. God’s will seems to be at present that we are screwed up in ecclesiastical terms, the various church institutions are screwed up and it is time for them to close down and be replaced by something more healthy. What? We don’t know.
So, like St Peter, we go to our boats (metaphorically or literally, as in my case) and we just get on with our business. Then, one day, someone special will tell us when to cast the nets over the other side of the boat – and catch lots of fish!
Well, like everyone here, I’m standing on the outside looking in on this debacle knowing that it doesn’t affect me. Yes, I do miss the grand buildings of the CofE and the glorious choirs. However, one must consider the damage that the established church is causing.
Apparently, a few people from my old church have come into my nieces’ school with an invitation to come to church coupled with a voucher for a McFlurry at the Greenhithe McDonalds.
That is what the establishment believes will bring people back to church. An appeal to the prevalent culture is all they now understand.
Ubi caritas, Deus ibi est.