Traditionalist Bishops Call for 'Orthodox Province'
Episcopal News Service. November 13, 1997 [97-2004X]
(ENS) Several bishops and deans, members of the traditionalist Forward in Faith movement in the Church of England, have called for a separate province or independent church within the Church of England. The plan, reportedly devised during the past year, involves setting up an independent Anglican church which would be treated the same way as the Church in Wales or the Scottish Episcopal Church, according to press reports from London, where the announcement was made in early November. Further proposals are likely to be announced by Christmas, according to reports. Bishop Edwin Barnes of Richborough and Bishop John Broadhurst of Fulham indicated the new church -- deemed the most serious potential split with the established Church of England since the Methodist movement 200 years ago -- would seek to be "independent and self-governing." They also indicated that deans are examining how church buildings and other properties could be divided. The group claims the English church's "liberal drift" has created a divide within the church, especially over the ordination of women as priests. "We have already got a schism," Broadhurst claimed. "There is now a readiness to act in the event of further crisis." The archbishop of Canterbury has been clear in past statements that separate provinces within the Church of England, or elsewhere within the Anglican Communion, would not be acceptable.