The Anglo-Catholic is honored to welcome to its staff Bishop Edwin Barnes, formerly Bishop of Richborough, one of the provincial episcopal visitors in the Province of Canterbury.
Bishop Barnes read theology for three years at Oxford before finishing his studies at Cuddesdon College (at the time a theological college with a rather monastic character). He subsequently served two urban curacies in Portsmouth and Woking. During his first curacy, and after the statutory three years of celibacy, he married his wife Jane (with whom he has two children, Nicola and Matthew). In 1967, Bishop Barnes received his first incumbency as Rector of Farncombe in the Diocese of Guildford. After eleven years, the family moved to Hessle, in the Diocese of York, for another nine years as vicar. In 1987, he became Principal of St Stephen's House, Oxford. In 1995, he was asked by then Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, to become the second PEV for the Province. He was based in St. Alban's and charged with ministering to faithful Anglo-Catholics spread over the length of Southern England, from the Humber Estuary to the Channel Islands. After six years of service as a PEV, Bishop Barnes retired to Lymington on the south coast where he holds the Bishop of Winchester's license as an honorary assistant bishop. On the retirement of the late and much lamented Bishop Eric Kemp, he was honored to be asked to succeed him as President of the Church Union, which office he still holds.
Bishop Barnes has dedicated the better part of his career to the defense of Catholic Faith and Apostolic Order in the Church of England and, even now, whilst looking forward to a future in the Anglican Ordinariate, as President of the Church Union, he continues to defend the rights of priests against the abuses of overweening prelates and their minions. I invite all of our readers to join me in welcoming him to The Anglo-Catholic!
Be sure to follow our Moderator at Eccentric Bliss, his personal blog!
A warm WELCOME! your grace!
An honor most welcome, Your Grace.
A wonderful addition to an already stellar crew! I look forward to your contributions your Excellency.
Glad to have you here your grace!
Welcome!
I have just read this on the Church Union website:
It is obvious we are on the same wavelength. A warm welcome to you, Bishop.
Welcome Bishop Edwin. I am pleased to tell my friends at The Anglo-Catholic that Bishop Edwin is coming to Scotland on the 25th March, 2010 to celebrate the Chrism Mass for traditional Anglican clergy. We are being given the use of the convent chapel at Kinnoull, Perth by the Redemptorists. Holloway tried to ban Bishop Edwin on his last visit to Scotland. This will be the first proper Chrism mass in Scotland since Bishop Sessford retired. We need your prayers for Scotland. The legacy of the evil Holloway is still around.
Fr. Crosbie,
I would be interested in any information you might be able to share about the gift of the RC convent chapel. You may contact me via email with any particulars. We have already reported on a similar gift in Edinburgh:
http://www.theanglocatholic.com/2009/12/first-fruits-of-anglicanorum-coetibus/
and I would love to share your story on The Anglo-Catholic.
All best wishes to His Lordship! May I ask, why will this be the first "proper" Chrism mass for the SEC for a while – have there been strange goings-on?
A very warm welcome to a much respected bishop. Looking forward to reading your contributions bishop.
May I add my warmest welcome. I have learned much from Bishop Barnes, and greatly admire his tenacious grasp on ecclesial reality. May God grant him strength for the times! A great deal of the success of the "Flying Bishop" concept in England in the dark days of the mid-nineties was due to the creativity and pastoral gifts of the first bishops who turned a concession into a viable movement fit to receive an Apostolic Constitution!
And while I am at it, I would note that the TAC is often criticised by other parts of the so-called Anglican Continuum for continuing to have sacramental and other dealings with people still in the Anglican Communion. One has only to look at leaders of the status of Edwin Barnes to appreciate the wisdom of that policy. Not that it needs justification – the Gospel command is to preach the Gospel to the nethermost ends of the world. I have occasionally wondered whether Australia or the Anglican Communion was what Our Lord had in mind when he said "nethermost". Perhaps it was the Continuum blog…..
Thanks for all those kind words; 'I've not found so great a welcome, no, not in Israel' – well, England really. Thank you all. +E