Sunday, July 10, 2005

The third way: a third province?

Nearly a quarter of the Church of England's bishops, including several of its most senior, are likely to oppose moves to consecrate women as bishops at the General Synod in York today.
[...]
The traditionalist wing does not have the numbers to halt the proposed reform at today's vote, but they intend to demonstrate their strength.

They are threatening a mass exodus if the Church refuses to grant them a Third Province, a parallel Church with male-only clergy led by its own Archbishop and bishops.
[...]

Read the complete article Hundreds of clergy 'will leave church over women bishops' from Telegraph Online.

The 'traditionalists' want a third province. I'm assuming that this province would be without any territory, but instead would include all those parishes that don't want to be under female bishops... That's an interesting solution to the problem. But do they really think anyone would go for it?

I keep waiting for the final conflict that will lead to the complete dissolution of the Church of England and the greater Anglican Communion. How these guys manage to string along their organization when its membership is composed of such disparate factions is really amazing in a way.

In the end though, I am still of the belief that the see of Thomas Becket and many others will be in communion in Rome again in my lifetime.

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