ENGLAND: Five suffragan, assistant bishops to resign and convert to Rome
Episcopal News Service. November 8, 2010 [110810-05]
Matthew Davies
Five Church of England bishops -- three suffragans, two assistants -- will resign on Dec. 31 and accept an offer from the Vatican that will enable them to convert to the Roman Catholic Church when the appropriate mechanisms have been established.
Suffragan bishops Andrew Burnham of Ebbsfleet, Keith Newton of Richborough, John Broadhurst of Fulham, and assistant bishops Edwin Barnes of Winchester and David Silk of Exeter announced their plans in a Nov. 8 joint statement saying that they have "now reached the point ... where we must formally declare our position and invite others who share it to join us on our journey."
The decision was made primarily because the bishops disagree with the Church of England's vote in July to advance plans for women to become bishops.
Broadhurst, Burnham and Newton all have served as "flying bishops," offering oversight to parishes that did not agree with the ordination of woman priests. Although officially retired, Barnes and Silk have been serving as assisting bishops in their respective dioceses.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on Nov. 8 accepted the resignations of Burnham and Newton "with regret ... We wish them well in this next stage of their service to the church and I am grateful to them for their faithful and devoted pastoral labors in the Church of England over many years."
Williams' statement made no mention of the resignations of Broadhurst, Barnes or Silk.
The defecting bishops expressed their dismay at seeing "Anglicans and Catholics move further apart on some of the issues of the day" during the past 30 years.
In November 2009, the Vatican released an Apostolic Constitution that outlines provisions whereby former Anglicans can enter full communion with the Roman Catholic Church while preserving elements of Anglican spirituality and liturgy.
The constitution said the Vatican would establish "personal ordinariates" -- a structure expected to be similar to that of a diocese -- for disaffected Anglicans to convert to Roman Catholicism. The bishops said they are seeking to join an ordinariate once one is created.
"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 bishops said.
Burnham, speaking in a Nov. 8 BBC interview, said he had "made the decision in joy, because I think this is a fresh, new opportunity for the churches to move closer together and that has been our historic calling as Anglo-Catholics."
Williams said he will now commence the process for filling the vacancies created by Burnham's and Newton's resignations.