After 29 years in The Episcopal Church (23 of them as a member of the clergy), he became part of the Continuing Anglican movement in 2002.  Presently he is a member of the Anglican Church in America’s Diocese of the Eastern United States and serves as Vicar of Saint Peter’s Church in Waynesville.

Fr. Edwards’ ministry has a strong focus on teaching.  He is the author of numerous articles on religious, social, historical and political topics, both in church publications and secular newspapers.  He has also written two books (neither published as yet) – Constitution and Institution on the renewal of ecclesiology (the doctrine about the Church) and The Pondering Heart: A Rosary for all Christians. He is also engaged in a long and intermittent project of organizing his instructional material into another book with the working title, Faith and Life: Basics of Christian Teaching and Practice.

At this writing, Fr. Edwards is a contender for a seat in the North Carolina General Assembly’s House of Representatives in the General Election of 2010.

Fr. Edwards and his wife, Kay, have been married for over 30 years.  They have two adopted children.  David, the elder, is a Private in the North Carolina Army National Guard, currently serving in Iraq.  Rachel, the younger, lives with her husband in Waynesville.

I am pleased to announce that Fr. Edwards has accepted our invitation to join the staff of The Anglo-Catholic.  Kindly join me in welcoming him to the team.

But Splintered Sunrise, prompted by an article in The Tablet, has done an admirable job putting the event — a pointed disagreement between Bishop Malcolm McMahon of Nottingham and Bishop Keith Newton of Richborough — into its proper perspective, echoing concerns that we have expressed here on The Anglo-Catholic since last November.

Unfortunately, there are troubling signs that this sort of local episcopal interference is not restricted to England and Wales.  Similar posturing seems to be occurring in North America as well.  Of course, on this side of the pond, the bishops are not beholden to ARCIC and ecumenical dialogue with the Established Church, but there prevails in some quarters a spirit of resistance to unwelcome dictates from the CDF (as they are perceived) and a desire to decelerate and compromise the process of implementation of Anglicanorum Coetibus insofar as might be possible (if only out of ignorance and a prejudicial impulse that prevents some bishops from thinking creatively).  While the resistance in the United States and Canada is not as organized — or yet as bold — as in the UK (most bishops still seemingly oblivious to the Apostolic Constitution and its ramifications), the Holy Office and the Holy Father would do well to be on guard against it.

* * *

The gist of the thing is that some wiseacre asked whether, under the Ordinariate, married men could be ordained. [Bishop Malcolm McMahon's] short answer was no. Well, he said, married Anglican priests could be ordained as Catholic, and this might be stretched to married ordinands. But married laymen becoming Ordinariate priests, absolutely not. No way, Pedro. Married priests in the Ordinariate would be a stopgap measure and would naturally die out.

At this point, Anglo-Catholic Bishop Keith Newton of Richborough made a most unhelpful intervention. Check this out:

This was, however, challenged by Bishop Newton, who after the meeting questioned whether Bishop McMahon had the authority to pronounce on the issue. The Bishop of Richborough said: “I want to hear what the CDF has to say; they are in charge of the ordinariate, not Bishop McMahon.”

Ouch! And it only got worse, as +Keith was inconsiderate enough to actually quote what Anglicanorum coetibus had to say on the matter:

§ 2. The Ordinary, in full observance of the discipline of celibate clergy in the Latin Church, as a rule (pro regula) will admit only celibate men to the order of presbyter. He may also petition the Roman Pontiff, as a derogation from can. 277, §1, for the admission of married men to the order of presbyter on a case by case basis, according to objective criteria approved by the Holy See.

That seems fairly straightforward to me. Celibacy will be the norm for entrants to the priesthood, but exceptions can be made on a case-by-case basis contingent on the approval of the Holy See. So married laymen may be admitted as candidates if the Ordinary can make a strong enough case for the individual concerned; what we’re not sure about is just how liberally the CDF would interpret that in the future. So, Keith was right and Malcolm was wrong. QED.

I do like, though, this bit at the end:

Bishop McMahon replied that while [Newton's] reading was “correct”, he stood by his earlier answer.

At which point you slap your forehead. This is the sort of thing that could lead poorly informed observers to draw the erroneous conclusion that the Bishops’ Conference is not very keen on the Ordinariate. Malcolm had better start pulling his socks.

Fr. Pinnock currently serves as Vicar of St. Mary-the-Virgin, Kenton, a Forward in Faith parish in northwest London under care of the Bishop of Fulham.  An American citizen born in the Unites States of British parents, he received his theological training at St. Stephen's House, Oxford, and was ordained to the diaconate and the priesthood by the Bishop of Ebbsfleet.  He served his title at St. Mary & St. Giles, Stony Stratford before taking up his present ministry at St. Mary-the-Virgin, where has has labored for nearly four years.

Fr. Pinnock is already well-known in the Anglo-Catholic blogosphere as the author of onetimothyfour and we are honored to have him on the team.  Please join me in welcoming him to the site!

Here is a compendium of Deborah Gyapong's posts on the recent General Synod of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada.

Here on The Anglo-Catholic:

• Greetings from the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada Synod
• ACCC Synod: Tuesday Morning
• ACCC Synod: Wednesday Morning
• ACCC Synod: Wednesday Afternoon
• ACCC Synod Passes Historic Resolutions
• More ACCC Synod Pictures
• Bishop Robert Mercer's Intervention at Synod

At Deborah's personal web site:

• The Anglican Catholic Church of Canada Synod
• The Anglican Catholic Church of Canada Synod (2)
• News from the Anglican Catholic Synod
• I'm baaaaack from Synod
• More Synod video and pictures
• The Magnificat and Sing of Mary

We know that in critical moments, so many thoughts go through our minds; sometimes they even nestle in our heart. And in the confusion that sometimes besets us, we are tempted to make accelerated decisions, to make decisions in the time of darkness without consulting. In the time of confusion, we only need to recover our serenity, we need to discover God's presence, believe in a new way in his love, and then return to the path of fidelity. With our presence, we celebrate the eternal fidelity of God's love. God never fails in his love. The one who has called you continues calling you still, and he awaits a new response, but a deep response, on the path of fidelity. To the Lord's eternal fidelity we must respond with our "Yes," our fidelity.

In this time of uncertainty, as we wait for Holy Church to guide us into the peace of her communion, as the demands of our consciences cause us to despair of the expeditious advent of that relief we so desperately require (and impelling us to consider paths of lesser resistance to our goal), and as we struggle to endure in our present ecclesial circumstances (undermined from within by faithless shepherds and assailed from without by the perfidious carrion crows of the Continuum), fighting to maintain our cohesion against the many and dreadful assaults of the Enemy, we would do well to mark the Archbishop's words.

May we persevere on the path of fidelity and may the Holy Father once more hear the cries of his faithful Anglo-Catholic remnant!

The reasons assigned at the beginning of this Mass for the origin of the Saturday in commemoration of our Lady, are — 1st. That at Constantinople the veil before her image was drawn aside every Friday evening at Vespers, and replaced at the same hour the following night; 2nd. That when all the disciples forsook our Lord and fled, she only who had borne him without pain, and knew that He was God, remained; 3rdly. Because the Sabbath is a day of rest, and she is the door of Heaven; 4thly. Because the Feast of the Mother should follow that of the Son (i.e. Friday); 5thly. For that on the day our Lord rested from labour the Service should be more joyous.

Our Lady of Spring Bank is a small Abbey of the Order of Cistercians, generally known as the “Common Cistercians,” located on 600 acres near La Crosse, Wisconsin.  The monks of Spring Bank divide their day between prayer, study, and manual labor, going to the oratory seven times each day to sing the Divine Office in Latin with English translations that would be familiar to most Anglicans.  The Abbey supports itself through LaserMonks.com, a leading provider of computer printer ink and toner cartridges and reseller of monastic products from around the world.  LaserMonks has received significant attention in the US press both as an entrepreneurial success story and as a pioneer in the area of socially responsible business practice.

At the Abbey, Br. Stephen is the assistant to the Conventual Prior, a student for Holy Orders, and drives a mean snowplow during Wisconsin’s long winters.  His interests include apologetics, Cistercian history, and the re-enchantment of culture.  He blogs at Sub Tuum and has been a supporter of the Apostolic Constitution since its announcement.  As someone who still has a great love for the Anglican Patrimony, he agrees with the great 19th Century convert, Fr. Basil Maturin, that our goal should be “to hold on to all that was good and true in the past, and to engraft the new upon the old."

The Anglo-Catholic is now very proud to count him amongst our staff of distinguished contributors.  Please join me in welcoming Br. Stephen to the team!

Perhaps our commenters will encourage Br. Stephen to seriously consider joining our staff as an official contributor?

* * *

Fifteen years after becoming a Roman Catholic, The Rev. Basil Maturin wrote The Price of Unity, in which he states his case for the Roman Catholic Church to Anglo-Catholics. In his first chapter, there is a wonderful warning against being the sort of convert who, before the chrism has dried, takes up the vocation of criticizing not only the body he has left but also the one he just entered. We have probably all known or been this convert and Fr. Maturin clearly knew him well.

In the months to come there will be much temptation to denounce what has gone before or to speak as if the Catholic Church has waited 2000 years for one's own entrance to complete its fullness. The mental and emotional strain will be great, passions and tempers will run high, and people will long for the cathartic release of a good rant. In the excerpt below, Fr. Maturin encourages those who are tempted along these lines to look first to their own souls.

1. There are those whose endeavour it will be to hold on to all that was good and true in the past, and to engraft the new upon the old.

2. And there are others who delight to make the breach with the past as complete and sweeping as possible. They speak with contempt and ridicule of their past beliefs, and minimize or deny all the good that was in them, and all that God had done for their souls. The moment they entered the Catholic Church was the beginning of their religious and spiritual life, nothing that went before counts for anything. I am not, of course, speaking of those who really had no religious experiences before, but of those who were religious and faithful according to their lights. They imagine that they have experienced a kind of spiritual revolution, and passed from a state of things that was utterly corrupt and rotten to one that is full of light and peace. They will make merry over their efforts at what was good, and talk of what they once reverenced, and what at the time was to them intensely real, as ridiculous and absurd. Any approaches to truth that they experienced were simply caricatures, diabolical efforts to mislead.

All this is to be ruthlessly swept away, memories, results and everything else, the past is to be forgotten except as a bad nightmare, everything is to be erased, and the future is to be written upon a clean slate.

I have met not a few converts to the Catholic Church who seem to think that all this kind of talk proves to the world what good Catholics they are, and helps to commend them as such to those whose lot has placed them in the Church from the first. They out-catholic Catholics, they run riot in their new home. They often seem like people who are under bred and find themselves amongst their social betters, and in their efforts to adopt their manners and ways, and to show themselves thoroughly at home with them, defeat their aim and only advertise their vulgarity and lack of breeding.

Such an attitude is, to say the least of it, utterly wanting, not only in good taste, but in humility and sincerity, which are always the conditions of any real spiritual life, and I am sure fails in commending these people to those whose approval they desire. On the very lowest grounds of expediency it would be better for them to hold their tongues and keep in the back ground. I do not believe that any decent-minded Catholic likes to hear a newcomer abusing all he once held, or ought, if he was in earnest, to have held dear. It sounds insincere as well as vulgar a kind of spiritual snobbery and makes them wonder if he really ever did believe in what he once professed.

There is something that has an element of the ridiculous in a man who has but lately become a Catholic, announcing to the public, and to his late co-religionist, what he thinks of religious things in general, and especially of the unreasonableness and anomalies of the system he has abandoned, and his trite and undigested opinions on the very superficial glance he has as yet had time to take over the great and world-wide Church into which he has been admitted. It is like a man who for the first time has left his native village and travelled over to Calais, and comes back to tell his friends his impressions of the Continent, and how they live and what they do abroad … One would imagine that to the religious world in general, and to those with whom he has all his life been associated in particular, he is the last man on earth whose opinions on such a subject were worth hearing, and that, just in proportion to his readiness to give them.

If the very serious crisis through which he has passed has meant to him all that it ought to mean, he must feel raw, wounded, bleeding at every pore. The wrench from old friends and associations, from the old round of his religious ways which had woven itself into his life and gone deep into his soul, must surely leave him for the time crushed and humbled. The very feeling of being under the strong hand of God, who has given him grace to see and to do what is utterly beyond his own strength; the sense of the need of time, of prayer, of solitude, of deep thought, before he can focus his eyes to see things in their new relations and proportions, cries aloud to him to with draw and be alone with God, and get as far as he can from the strife of tongues and the clash of controversy through which he had to pass to reach his haven of peace. Surely it is not the moment for a man, grasping in the agonies of death to what he has broken from and of new birth into a new religious world upon which he has but just entered, to begin at once to show up the inconsistencies and anomalies of the system which he has only just left, and to sing the glories of that upon which he has, by the mercy of God been allowed to enter, as the newest and youngest, and, he must feel, the most unworthy member. Such a light and airy way of meeting the most serious moment of his life does not beget confidence in the public mind, and betokens neither seriousness, sound judgment, nor good taste.

– Excerpt from The Price of Unity, 1912

• Keynote Address by Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta (June 11, 2010)
• Dr. William Oddie [delivered by Fr. Allan Hawkins] (June 11, 2010)
• The Sacred Heart and the Anglican Pilgrims by Fr. Jeffrey Steenson [Homily at Solemn High Mass] (June 11, 2010)
• Charles II and James II: Two Royal Converts by Dr. Anne Barbeau Gardiner (June 12, 2010)

* * *

Like you, I was very disappointed at the outcome of last weekend’s debate at General Synod in York and appalled at the intransigence of some feminist clergy and their supporters.  What kind of a church is it that is willing to ignore the leadership of its Archbishops and to renege on a solemn promise given to Parliament about an honoured and permanent place for us?

We now face a most serious situation, made all the worse by the refusal of the Synod to pass the Archbishops’ amendment. Resolutions A & B – which provide the basis in law on which the ordination of women can be opposed – are to be removed.  This means that any opposition which might be tolerated will be based on the recognition of supposed prejudice rather than the respect of theological principle.  Further, the abolition of the PEVs is proposed, which will leave our constituency in an intolerable position.  All we would be allowed under the draft Measure as it now stands is access to a male bishop, whose own beliefs need not coincide with ours.  That is sexism writ large.

Despite the dreadful result in York, we owe a debt of gratitude to the Catholic Group in General Synod, along with all those who supported them in the debate.  In the coming weeks, a new Synod is to be elected and it is vital we all do all we can to ensure the return of as many orthodox candidates as possible, in order that a Catholic presence on the Synod can be there to continue to represent the interests of Catholic Anglicans throughout this divisive and unnecessary process.

That these are very difficult times for all of us goes without saying;  we need, above all, to take time to pray, to consult together and to support one another, as we try to discern our respective ways forward – not just in faith, but also of course in hope and in love.

Every blessing,

+John Fulham

[U]nity within diversity is something I used to think we had in the Anglican Church.  I thought that because we had Charismatics, Evangelicals, Anglo-Catholics and we had a world wide communion with many different cultural expressions.  However, we did not really have unity because within the diversity there were huge and irreconcilable differences.  The only unity we had was a willingness to agree to differ with one another.

The diversity and unity within the Catholic Church is something far stranger and more beautiful and more difficult to describe.  This is something I feel passionate about sharing with our Anglican brothers and sisters who are considering the Anglican Ordinariate.  Some of them feel they will be gobbled up by the bigness of Rome.  I have found just the opposite.  There is an extraordinary amount of freedom within the different expressions of Catholicism.  Whether they are religious orders, dioceses, parishes or Eastern Rite Churches, or one day the Ordinariate for former Protestants… within the diversity there is an underlying unity that sets us free.

If you really do 'profess to believe all that the Catholic Church teaches as revealed by God' then you belong to the Catholic faith.  You are one with the Catholic faith.  You may not be perfect.  You may not be a saint.  Christians who are outside the Catholic faith may be better Christians than you, but you are a Catholic.

This summer I have shared at a much deeper level than I have ever thought possible my identification with my fellow Catholics.  I was the brother of Salvadorian peasants, a Spanish priest, an Indian nun, a French Carmelite, an Italian-American casino operator, a Polish priest who knew Pope John Paul the Great, a Vietnamese seminarian, an old man from Lebanon, a child from Mexico and American middle class high school kids.

My plea to Anglican Christians is, "Please, be bold.  Respond to the Pope's offer of an ordinariate.  Work with us to make this happen, and so join the great family of the Catholic faith throughout the world.  Bring Anglicanism with all its riches and traditions and holiness to the great table at the marriage supper of the Lamb.  You will not be swallowed up.  Instead all the great things you bring into full communion will be amplified, multiplied and made more real, concrete and dynamic in the Lord's service."

Read the entire article here.

* * *

It seems we are seeing what may be the beginnings of differing responses taking shape among the C of E's traditionalists as the dust begins to settle from General Synod.

The Catholic Group in Synod, headed by the Master-General of the Society of the Holy Cross, has issued this statement:

The Catholic Group in General Synod is encouraged by the remarks of the Archbishop of Canterbury that there is still ‘unfinished business’ and that ‘the Church is only part of the way through the process’ of determining the way forward for women bishops legislation.

The Group was, however, disappointed that there was a lack of support for financial hardship where clergy feel by conscience that they need to resign from the Church of England. The onus now is on the Church of England to provide for its clergy to remain within the Church for which we have always fought as loyal Anglicans.

We remain committed to both the process and our Church, and would wish to play a major part in helping the Church in its ongoing journey in a spirit of unity that is Christ’s way.

Bishop Edwin Barnes, retired flying bishop, offers his thoughts on this statement at Ancient Richborough (and here on The Anglo-Catholic).

Meanwhile, The Catholic Herald has this to say about the meeting of traditionalist clergy with the Roman Catholic Bishop of Nottingham that took place during Synod to discuss the Ordinariate:

On July 5, Bishop Malcolm McMahon of Nottingham met about 70 Anglican clerics at Holy Cross priory in Leicester to discuss the possibility of an English Ordinariate.

He told the Sunday programme that he discussed “the details of the Apostolic Constitution and the complementary norms which were published last November”.

He said he was answering Pope Benedict XVI’s request to the English bishops “to offer warmth and a welcome and to facilitate their questions and their general direction, their impulse, if you like, to come into the Catholic Church”.

He said the main concerns at the meeting were “practical … about property, wages and how they would live and so on. What came through more than anything was their genuine desire to do what God has called them to do”.

(HT to Fr. Gollop at Let Nothing You Dismay)

On a more personal level, Fr. T. E. Jones, SSC, of St. Peter's London Docks, one of the most famous churches in the Anglo-Catholic world, has announced he is ending his blog with these words:

I have decided to end the Peterite Blog. It has run for just under four years, some 198,000 of you have visited (over 600 yesterday), which is a goodish score for what never purported to be other than a parish diary online. I can see little future for a blog of this sort and thus it is a kindness to you all to end it.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has made some cryptic comments on the end process being undecided, faint hope I think, he must know, as do I, that the new anti-elitist elite in the Church of England intend that there will be no place for traditionalists to grow and flourish, even those with sympathy and understanding for our position in the Synodically controlled Episcopate have short remaining shelf life and after them…? Thus only a twilight half-life as the best possible option. Not good enough.

My own future, about which I am calm and resolute, will not be lived out online.

It seems a good day to remember the closing of Newman's "The Parting of Friends":

And, O my brethren, O kind and affectionate hearts, O loving friends, should you know any one whose lot it has been, by writing or by word of mouth, in some degree to help you thus to act; if he has ever told you what you knew about yourselves, or what you did not know; has read to you your wants or feelings, and comforted you by the very reading; has made you feel that there was a higher life than this daily one, and a brighter world than that you see; or encouraged you, or sobered you, or opened a way to the inquiring, or soothed the perplexed; if what he has said or done has ever made you take interest in him, and feel well inclined towards him; remember such a one in time to come, though you hear him not, and pray for him, that in all things he may know God's will, and at all times he may be ready to fulfil it.

* * *

How would you define an Anglo-Catholic?

The Church of England contains many varieties of Christians. Those who are nearer to the Catholic understanding of Scripture, Tradition and the Church, and who express this in their language (speaking, for instance, of the Altar, rather than the Holy Table) and their practice (celebrating the Eucharist regularly and frequently, in many churches not simply every week, but every day) would be called ‘Anglo-Catholic’.

You have been an Anglican bishop for the past fifteen years. What has been your role as a ‘flying bishop’?

In 1992 the central Council of our Church, the General Synod, decided that women might be ordained to the priesthood. In doing so it also said that those who did not accept this innovation must have provision made for them to enable them to continue as faithful Anglicans. For this purpose each Archbishop (there are two in England) consecrated one or two bishops, themselves opposed to women’s ordination, to minister to individuals and congregations who voted to ask for such extra provision. They were suffragans of the Archbishops, and so known as Provincial Episcopal Visitors (PEV’s) or, colloquially, ‘flying bishops’. My remit, for six years from 1995-2001, was to travel the length and breadth of the Eastern half of the Canterbury Province. I was consecrated to the See of Richborough – a title taken from the site where St Augustine set foot in England on his mission from Pope Gregory. On my retirement I became simply a super-numerary and honorary bishop in the diocese where I live, Winchester. My successor as Bishop of Richborough is Bishop Keith Newton.

Did the creation by Pope Benedict XVI of new Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans who wish to enter full communion with the Catholic Church come as a surprise for you?

The Holy Father’s initiative, directed at Groups of Anglicans, came as a great and very welcome surprise.

Many people ask “why now?” If Anglo-Catholics wish to seek communion with the See of Rome, why have they waited until now? Is it just a matter of women bishops or something deeper?

Many of us have believed that the Church of England was moving, for the past century at least, in an ever more catholic direction. With the international conversations between the Anglican Communion and Rome (the ARCIC Conversations) we believed and hoped there would be corporate reunion for us in our lifetime. Since the ordination of women to the priesthood, and now the likelihood of their consecration as bishops, that has faded as an impossible dream.

What are the main elements of the Anglican Patrimony you would like the Ordinariates to preserve?

Our fathers in the faith spoke of “reserve” in matters of faith. That is, a sort of quiet and simple spirit in the best of Anglican use. It has seemed to me a religious voice, a tone, in keeping with our national character. The language of our Prayer Book which introduced the vernacular into our worship five centuries ago seems to catch something of this plain, undemonstrative but deeply felt religious sensibility. But in truth, I think we cannot discover our Patrimony until we see it in a completely Catholic context.

Do you expect the Anglican Ordinariates to attract many people in England and Wales? Will whole parishes take the plunge?

It is difficult at present to see how it will be possible for entire parishes to join the Ordinariate, simply because the Church of England is very territorial, and will not readily part with, for instance, its buildings. For all that, there are several priests I know who are preparing their congregations, and who will take the first opportunity of belonging whether they can retain their parish churches or not.

Do you believe some Anglican Bishops will enter the Ordinariates? Are you personally planning to avail yourself of this opportunity?

Certainly I know of several Bishops who are exploring the possibility, as I am myself. I can see no other future for catholics in the Church of England than this.

Would you be willing to seek ordination in the Roman Catholic Church? Would you consider ordination or whatever your role is in the Ordinariate a denial of your pastoral work in the Anglican Communion or rather a culmination of that work?

Because the Holy Father’s appeal is to Groups of Anglicans, I believe my personal future is unimportant compared with what is offered to us all. If it is decided that my ministry can continue, and that I may be ordained a Priest in the Catholic Church, then I should be delighted – but I should join the Ordinariate unconditionally, and let others decide whether there might still be something for me to undertake. I am sure that the simple fact of joining the Ordinariate will be the crown and completion of my ministry up to this point.

What are the main difficulties you envisage in this adventure, both for yourself and for most Anglo-Catholics? Will the need to accept the faith of the Roman Catholic Church as proclaimed by the Catechism be an obstacle for many Anglo-Catholics?

I think for some Anglicans there are stumbling blocks within the Catechism. We have been separated from the Catholic mainstream for five hundred years, and there have been developments in doctrine with which we are unfamiliar. As a frequent visitor to Fatima, I have no difficulty with the Marian dogmas. There was a time when I found it hard to accept the Immaculate Conception (for I did not properly understand it) and Papal Infallibility. Others may still find these to be difficulties for them – I do not. And I hope and believe the Church will be very understanding and patient in explaining these matters. Far more important for me is the readiness of the Holy Father to accept and ordain men who have been married Anglican clergy. My wife has been a great help and adornment to my ministry, and I am glad there is the possibility that, should I be ordained a Catholic priest, this would continue.

Some members of the Ordinariates will come from the Anglican Communion, while others will come from different groups, such as the Traditional Anglican Communion, or even from Anglican Use parishes? Do you think that diversity will be a problem?

I believe that Anglicans in North America and elsewhere have been in such difficult situations that for them actual schism from the Anglican Communion has been necessary. I know several such priests and parishes, and have no doubt that we shall learn from one another and come to value one another. One of my greatest friends is a Priest of the Anglican Use in Texas, and I think he and I have more in common than I do with most of those in England who call themselves members of our church.

Do the Anglican Ordinariates have a future in the Catholic Church? How do you envisage them in, say, one hundred years?

I believe the Catholic Church is very patient; and I am sure she will want to learn from this experiment. I hope, personally, that the experience of a married priesthood might at some future date enable the Church to recognise that it is possible to have a double vocation, to the priesthood and to holy matrimony. I am greatly impressed by the way the Holy Father has introduced Anglicanorum Coetibus, making it clear that this is not a short-term solution to present-day problems, but a generous open offer for many years, perhaps centuries, to come. So who knows, it may be that eventually the Church of England will indeed return to her roots and become part of the One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church which she has always claimed to be.

How will the leaving (maybe we might say expelling) of Anglo-Catholics affect the Anglican Communion? Would it mean the end of its claim to be a branch of the Catholic Church? Do you expect the Anglican Communion to change much in the following years or decades?

It seems to me we are witnessing the break-up of the Anglican Communion – which was always a rather anomalous fruit of Empire. Gradually individual national churches will, I think, either join the Catholic Church, or dwindle into some amorphous protestant body, incapable of making any real witness to society.

What will the Roman Catholic Church gain by the ‘coming home’ of the Anglo-Catholics?

I hope we shall all gain enormously from this home-coming; it will be a reunion of friends, to replace the Parting of Friends of which Newman spoke.

How is Card. Newman regarded by Anglo-Catholics? Will you attend his beatification in September? Would you like to see him as one of the patron saints of the Ordinariates?

I believe John Henry Cardinal Newman has had a hand in what is happening in England today. Many of us are very glad to have him as a fellow-countryman. If I were permitted to be at his beatification I can think of no greater honour; and whether or not he is named as a patron of the Ordinariates, I am sure we should all be seeking his prayers at this wonderful time.

It is now 40 years since the Church of England General Synod came into being. It was an exciting new development, replacing an even more cumbersome system of dual control by Convocations of Clergy and the Church Assembly. The laity at last had a full and effective voice in the government of the Church of England. There were some safeguards in place. Certain matters had to be passed by two thirds' majority and there could be a call for a vote by Houses, even when one was not strictly required. That meant that there needed to be majorities in each of the three Houses, Bishops, Clergy, and Laity.

It was this last safeguard which torpedoed the attempt of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to introduce an amendment to safeguard the ministry of traditionalist bishops. (As far as the democratic process is concerned, the archbishops are simply two members of the Synod). The amendment was voted down by five votes in the House of Clergy. This followed an earlier vote, where only 34% of the Synod supported new dioceses. Finally the whole draft Measure was approved, the only safeguard for traditionalists being the promise of a Code of Practice. The matter now moves from the General Synod, whose quinquennium has now ended, to the dioceses. It will return from there to the new General Synod. In 18 months' time, November 2012, the hope of supporters of women bishops is that the Measure will be finally passed by the necessary two-thirds majority in each House, the hurdle which the Ordination of Women to the Priesthood Measure cleared on November 1992. Thereafter it must pass muster in Parliament, receive the Royal Assent, and be promulged as a canon. Last time, all of that took another 15 months, which would take us to February 2014, with the first consecrations of women bishops soon thereafter.

Traditionalists have been beaten four-square. When (though, strictly, it is still 'If') the Measure comes into force, there will be no more Resolution A and B, no more 'petitioning parishes'. There will be no more 'flying bishops', no more Beverley, Ebbsfleet, and Richborough. There will be again the assurance of good behaviour: no one will be over-faced by women priests and bishops ministering where they are not wanted. But there will be no guarantees (and, increasingly, no likelihood) that male bishops and priests ministering to us will share those convictions, or derive their orders from an unbroken apostolic succession of bishops in the Catholic line. Avoiding women ministers will become not a conviction about Catholic Order, shared throughout the ages, but a matter of sexual discrimination, abhorrent to all of us. In a very short time, it will have become unacceptable to invoke a sexist Code of Practice.

It is important for us all to understand how momentous all this is and what the implications are for our life together. I was never very hopeful of the Archbishops' amendment, though it was good that it was debated. It would not have brought a clear and certain place for the Catholic understanding of Faith and Order. But it would have allowed a new generation of Provincial Episcopal Visitors — flying bishops — to try to work out, with the Archbishops, some sort of corporate life for our priests, people, and parishes. It is fair to say that both Archbishops wanted that. Moreover 60% of the bishops in Synod (though not two thirds) were prepared, more or less enthusiastically, to support the Archbishops and accept their spiritual lead.

Come the final judgment when, as the Prayer Book says in the Marriage Service, 'the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed', some will have to account for the broken promises of the early 1990s. Traditionalists were then assured of a permanent and honoured place. Great store was set by the doctrine of reception (whereby no change in Holy Order would finally thought to be 'received' until it was accepted by the ancient churches of East and West). It was on the basis of these promises — both now very hollow — that Provincial Episcopal Visitors were appointed, ordinands and their families exchanged comfortable life styles for theological college, curacies, and what promised to be a lifetime of ministry, and parishes set to work energetically with the task of evangelism and catechesis. However honourably these promises were made, there were liberal pressure groups intent on destroying them. These liberal pressure groups are not full of bad people: the women and men concerned were always exasperated that the Church made such high-sounding, but undeliverable, promises. In their view -the view that has prevailed — we all simply needed to get used to the new 'inclusive' way of doing things. In their view, twenty years is quite long enough for that to have happened. But there have been broken promises indeed and some supporters of the women bishops' project recognise that and seek forgiveness, healing, and reconciliation.

For Ebbsfleet, the critical vote came when nearly two thirds of the General Synod rejected the creation of new dioceses. The only sense we have been able to make of the whole Ebbsfleet project these last sixteen years (of which I have been bishop for nearly ten), is that the See of Ebbsfleet is an 'Apostolic District'. That is, it is an area of the vineyard which seeks to grow into, and become, a 'local Church', a 'diocese'. To that end, we have had our Stational Masses of Initiation, our Ordinations, and our Chrism Masses. We have had our Area Deans and Deaneries, our Council of Priests, our Lay Council, and our Lay Congress. We have also had parish evangelism weekends and research into resources for catechesis and formation. We have had clergy retreats, festivals of faith, and the annual Children and Young People's Eucharistic Festival. Our churches have been as well-attended as most, with, if anything, more than our share of men, children, young families, and other endangered categories of church-goer. Here was a new kind of diocese, not without its problems, but with promising signs. 'In house' there has been very little discussion of 'church issues' and that in itself has made us vulnerable. We have never been attacked by anyone who got to know us and experienced our corporate life. It has always been fear of who we might be, what we might represent, rather than what we actually are.

For now, the prescription is for some serious summer rest and to get some praying and thinking done. I shall be addressing these issues further in the September Pastoral letter, at a Sacred Synod for clergy, and at the Ebbsfleet Lay Conference, but, for now, at least we know where we are. It is time to stop trying to make bricks without straw.

May God bless you as you seek to discern, obey, and trust his will.