Church of England's Revision Committee on Women in the Episcopate

And so the Revision Committee on Women in the Episcopate has spoken again today, you may read it here.

This press statement shows that this committee cannot agree on how to provide for traditional Anglicans an honoured and secure place as was always promised to us. Is it a move to say that now we either go to Rome or leave the CofE? It might be. This is a sad day for the CofE that always took pride in being a broad Church. It is a day when those who are faithful to what the Church believed down the centuries around the globe are being told that almost certainly there is no place for them in the CofE. These are the people who claim to be our brothers and sisters in Christ, the separated brethren have been so more generous to us and offered us so much more. If the recommendations of this committee are approved by the CofE all the promises made by the same Church will be taken back. We heard so many times how much our contribution is valued. We hear that behind our backs this is not necessarily so. Why do such Christians plot to have us evicted or else having our consciences and faith trampled on? This is injustice if there was ever any.

We need to remain faithful and calm. We need to trust our loving God even though the hope of reclaiming the conscientious good will of some members of the CofE seems ever more hopeless. We need to pray also for those who constantly shouted that they want us out.

I can only speak for myself, I can never accept that the CofE or the Anglican Communion have the right to change fundamental matters of Faith such as Holy Orders. That might only be a matter for an Ecumenical Council to decide, East and West. I worry at what those whom I really love and serve in my parish will have to put up with. It is so wrong to unchurch them because they do not accept a very recent innovation.

On the other hand, I am confident that Mary, the Mother of the Church, will help those of us who within the CofE look like the remnant of Israel. Our road is never bleak as it is illuminated by Christ the Morning Star and Mary Star of the Sea.

If the committee was reacting to the Apostolic Constitution then their action is wholly wrong. They still have a duty and responsibility towards those who would, sadly, decide against the unity of the Church. This is exactly what Affirming catholics and others like them asked the committee for, one wonders why such small groupings are heard more than large ones like Forward in Faith. I wonder why rather than living with us they want to live without us, and yet I feel the hand of God even here, a gentle hand maybe opening our eyes to reality.