Journalists feasting on a Papal plot

IN RECENT ARTICLES in the Church of England Newspaper (14 January) and in The Times (29 January ), Tim Bradshaw appears to have concluded that a cabal of right-wing Roman Catholic journalists is conspiring to denigrate the Church of England, perhaps even seeking to advance the conversion of England to popery.
Like all too many Anglicans, he appears not to understand why the impending ordination of women as priests in the Church of England vvill unchurch AngloCatholics and result in the reconciliation of many with the Roman Catholic Church.
It is little wonder that Roman Catholic journalists should take such a close interest in the spectacle, and question the wisdom of the current leadership of the Church of England.
The Church of England in recent years has become dominated at all levels by a doctrinal liberalism and historical relativism which makes a nonsense of Dr Bradshaw's claim that the Church of England has remained unchanged since the Reformation, that it is a Church under Scripture.
The outward appearance may retain a passing resemblance, but the Declaration of Assent made by Anglican bishops and clergy these days has been rendered virtually meaningless by the failure of the Church authorities to ensure that those who make the Declaration actually believe what they arc saying.
The effect of the creation of the General Synod in 1969, according to the judgement of the High Court last year, anyway permits the Synod to redefine or alter whatever it chooses.
It is the decision of General Synod in November 1992, to break with the tradition of Scripture and apostolic order, to admit women to the priesthood in the Church of England, that is driving Catholic Anglicans either into
internal exile, or into exodus. Soon there will he women bishops, against the conscience of a further constituency of Anglicans. Lay celebration of the Eucharist is just around the corner.
The parish system is being radically undermined by' financial crises, driving the Church into gathered, suburban congregations.
Ecumenical progress with other Catholic Churches is stillborn. BBC religion is supplanting the Eucharist increasingly, as Family Services take over.
The Church's leaders seem unable or unwilling to call a halt to the alienation of more and more sections of a Church which has hitherto prided itself on its diversity.
The Oxford Movement sought from the beginning to emphasise the Catholic nature of the Church of England's ministry. John Keble's Assize Sermon of 1833 may stand as the manifesto for the Anglo-Catholic revival which followed, calling upon Anglican priests to take their stand upon the spiritual authority which their share in the Apostolic Succession had conferred on them at ordination.
That slender, but unbroken link with the undivided Church has remained the inspiration and the justification for Catholic Anglicans, in their witness in the Church of England to a restored Christendom.
The Anglo-Catholic claim to exercise a fully Catholic teaching and sacramental ministry has depended on maintaining the validity of the Church of England's Holy Orders, which the ordination of women has finally brought into question.
There is in fact no need for a Popish Plot by Roman Catholic journalists: the realignment of the various parties within the Church of England is taking place as a result of the development of a synodical system which derives its authority from the force of law, from an Erastian form'of Establishment, rather than from the apostolic tradition and from the Scriptures.
The irony is that synodical government was first conceived and brought into being by Bishop Charles Gore and others, who wanted the Church to have spiritual, rather than temporal authority, for its system of government.
The uneasy alliance which was the Church of England will certainly not survive the present upheaval, for the two central pillars of AngloCatholicism have been torn
away irretrievably, the claim to apostolic orders and the vision of communion restored with the rest of Catholic Christendom. Without its Catholic constituency the Church of England is no longer what it was.
Catholics who remain will ultimately be forced to conform. The haemorrhage of those departing has already begun in advance of the Synod's promulgation of its new Canon, No one in the Catholic movement likes to see the Church of England in the throes of such division and sadness.
Anglo-Catholics have put up a long debilitating fight to preserve what they believe in, often at great personal cost, and on the receiving end of considerable abuse from liberal bishops, theologians and journalists.
The sympathy and interest which their plight has aroused from Roman Catholic journalists has been very heartening, as has the warmth of welcome now emanating from the Roman Catholic bishops, rightly anxious not to cloud good ecumenical relations, but pastorally anxious to find an honoured place at the table for those arriving now at their doors.
It would be a sign of tremendous charity if those who have now succeeded in their ambition to include women in the ministry of the Church of England would at least allow to those who arc seeking a fresh life and ministry elsewhere, the right to do so in peace, without recriminations and the settling of old scores. And allow to those who are making them welcome the right to do so.
A genuine realignment need not be a threat to anyone, but may indeed release afresh the vision and energies of all concerned, to convert England not for one side or
another, but for Christ.
The Rev Stephen Trott is the rector of Pitsford with Boughwn in the diocese of Peterborough.