Instinct for Conflict: Crossing the Thames, over the Tiber

I was reading through Damian Thompson's blog for the Telegraph, and needless to say the series of posts dating back to Saturday did much to humor me on the state of the continuing collapse of the Church of England and reclaimation of Old Blightly to Christ and His Church.

It began on Saturday when Damian reported that Dr. Rowan Williams, archbishop of the suppressed See of Canterbury, announced that two Anglican bishops, the Rt. Rev. Keith Newton, 58, bishop of Richborough and the Rt. Rev. Andrew Burnham, 63, bishop of Ebbsfleet, have decided to accept Pope Benedict XVI's invitation in the Holy Father's Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus and convert to the Catholic Church, joining the Rt. Rev. John Broadhurst, 68, bishop of Fulham, who will actually be returning to the Catholic Faith. Anglican Coetibus would set up personal ordinariates for Anglicans fed up with the extreme liberalism that is taking over the Church of England. It permits these Anglicans to maintain to a certain degree their identity as people of Anglican heritage while fully accepting the authority and primacy of the Vicar of Christ on earth. Newton is expected to lead the new ordinariate.

Then yesterday, we find that the actual number was not three, but five bishops converting to Roman Catholicism. In addition to Broadhurst, Newton, and Burnham, the Rt. Rev. Edwin Barnes, SCC, 74, president of The Church Union, an Anglo-Catholic advocacy group within the Anglican Church, and Newton's predecessor as bishop of Richborough, and the Rt. Rev. David Silk, 74, bishop emeritus of Ballarat (Australia) would also join the Catholic Church. (To see Bishop Barnes' statement to The Church Union on Anglicanorum Coetibus, click here)

The five bishops released a joint statement yesterday on their decision to convert to Catholicism:

Like many in the catholic tradition of Anglicanism, we have followed the dialogue between Anglicans and Catholics, the ARCIC process, with prayer and longing. We have been dismayed, over the last thirty years, to see Anglicans and Catholics move further apart on some of the issues of the day, and particularly we have been distressed by developments in Faith and Order in Anglicanism which we believe to be incompatible with the historic vocation of Anglicanism and the tradition of the Church for nearly two thousand years.

The Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum cœtibus, given in Rome on 4th November 2009, was a response to Anglicans seeking unity with the Holy See. With the Ordinariates, canonical structures are being established through which we will bring our own experience of Christian discipleship into full communion with the Catholic Church throughout the world and throughout the ages. 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 unity for which Christ himself prayed before his Passion and Death. It is a unity, we believe, which is possible only in eucharistic communion with the successor of St Peter.

As bishops, we have even-handedly cared for those who have shared our understanding and those who have taken a different view. We have now reached the point, however, where we must formally declare our position and invite others who share it to join us on our journey. We shall be ceasing, therefore, from public episcopal ministry forthwith, resigning from our pastoral responsibilities in the Church of England with effect from 31st December 2010, and seeking to join an Ordinariate once one is created.

We remain very grateful for all that the Church of England has meant for us and given to us all these years and we hope to maintain close and warm relationships, praying and working together for the coming of God’s Kingdom.

We are deeply appreciative of the support we have received at this difficult time from a whole variety of people: archbishops and bishops, clergy and laity, Anglican and Catholics, those who agree with our views and those who passionately disagree, those who have encouraged us in this step and those who have urged us not to take this step.

The Right Rev'd Andrew Burnham
The Right Rev'd Keith Newton
The Right Rev'd John Broadhurst
The Right Rev'd Edwin Barnes
The Right Rev'd David Silk

That takes us to today, where we find avowed Cranmerfile Diarmaid MacCullough, professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University, steaming mad over what he sees as the death of Christianity to the absurdity of Romish popery. A member of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, a UK-based organization praying for "an inclusive church", a high-profile member of British academia (do my fellow Americans see any similarities to our educators in our universities?), and a deacon of the Church of England, scoffed at the idea of a personal ordinariate that maintains Anglican elements. MacCullough is quoted as asking of the Holy Father's offer:

"Perhaps they’ll bring Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer? Not a book for which the flying bishops (the nickname of the five bishops for their visits to Rome to discuss the possibility of conversion) and their clerical mates [sic] have shown much enthusiasm in the past."

MacCullough personifies the attitude of the stubborn, arrogant left-wing, ecclesistical-socialist who vainly tries to defend a cause that is all but lost in the eyes of those observing the current religious tide. It is not reverence to God that they seek, but rather relevance to the world. Unfortunately for the liberals who seek to make Christianity a worldly, almost humanistic institution, the people of God are turning to the traditions of the Church, sacramental and moral, to seek refuge from the world cherished so dearly by the left whose morality and culture is contrary to the Gospel of Christ.

Continue to pray Our Lady of Walsingham for the full conversion of England to Christ and His Church, for the five bishops, other Anglicans, and all who seek union with the Catholic Church, and for the intentions of His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, the pope of Christian Unity.