c. 1997 Religion News Service
LONDON _ Opponents of women’s ordination in the Church of England _ like their counterparts in the Episcopal Church in the United States _ are moving toward trying to establish an independent and autonomous province, or jurisdiction, within the denomination.
Some 500 Anglican traditionalists, gathered for the national assembly of Forward in Faith Sept. 26-27 to map out plans for their future, adopted a resolution seeking”by the end of this millennium … an alternative ecclesial structure”that would link parishes opposed to women priests in a separate Anglican province.
The group has some 7,000 members, and about 750 of the Church of England’s 10,000 full-time priests are members. Its leader, the Rev. John Broadhurst, last year was named bishop of Fulham and given the responsibility of episcopal oversight of women’s ordination opponents in the dioceses of London and Southwark.
In urging approval of a resolution committing the organization to establishing a separate, non-geographical province, Broadhurst said the present arrangement the Church of England has with its dissidents _ they are served by three so-called”flying bishops”_ is inadequate.”We have not established a long-term solution,”he said.”We all know this (flying bishops) is an interim arrangement. We look for a parallel jurisdiction. (The Church of England) looks for our extermination.” In another resolution, underscoring Broadhurst’s remarks, the assembly protested what it called”wasteful discrimination”by church authorities in refusing to consider members in the organization for church positions. Church of England officials dispute the charge.
Broadhurst said the movement should ignore parish and diocesan boundaries in spreading the gospel, including their view that the Bible opposes women’s ordination.
He was particularly scathing of the U.S. Episcopal Church, and especially its General Convention held in July in Philadelphia.”I have never in all my life been at such a horrendous meeting,”he said.”If you want to see what is in store for us, go and look there,”he told delegates.”It is the next stage in the degradation of Christianity.” In London, the assembly”unreservedly”welcomed the dissident Episcopal Synod of America’s statement, issued after the General Convention, that it is working to establish a separate, non-geographical jurisdiction in the United States. The English dissidents pledged that Forward in Faith would do”all in its power”to help the U.S. body establish”an orthodox province of the Anglican Communion in America.” But establishing a separate, recognized province may be difficult.”Any `Third Province’ (the existing provinces are Canterbury and York) would have to be approved by general synod (the church’s top decision-making body) and, since the Church of England is an established church, the proposal might have to be agreed to by the British parliament,”a church spokesman told Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency.”It might also have to go to the Anglican Consultative Council (an international church body) if the province is to be part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.” If establishing a province within the Church of England does not work, some of the dissidents said they would favor what Stephen Parkinson, the group’s executive director, described as”an UDI”_ unilateral declaration of independence _ under which schismatic congregations would continue to use Anglican rites but affiliate with another denomination, such as the Orthodox.
The Forward in Faith assembly also endorsed the so-called Kuala Lumpur Declaration on Human Sexuality issued in February by a group of Third World Anglican bishops. The statement firmly rejected any moves toward ordaining practicing homosexuals or blessing same-sex unions _ practices it said were”totally unacceptable.”
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