Gummer defection s arks row

BY CRISTINA ODONE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE
Catholic Church and the Church of England were strained this week as the latest high-profile convert to Catholicism, Environment Minister John Gummer, attacked the Established Church as "little more than a sect".
In a bitter exchange of letters, Mr Gummer and the Archbishop of Canterbuty, Dr George Carey, carried the widening rift between Anglican traditionalists and reformers into.the public arena this week As the Environment Secretary, Britain's most prominent Anglican layman, moved to Rome last Sunday, he denounced the General Synod 1992 decision to ordain women as a "unilateral assumption of the power to change Catholic faith". Mr Gummer concluded that "those withshonour" could not remain in the Anglican Communion.
Dr Carey retorted that the Cabinet Minister's attack on the Established Church caused "offence to those of us who remain loyal to the Church of England".
The exchange of recriminations was deemed "very significant" by traditionalist Archdeacon George Austin of York, who told the Catholic Herald: "It must be getting more and more difficult for the Catholic Church to continue this attitude of 'nothing has changed'."
The archdeacon, an opponent of the ordination of women, went on to say that he was finding it "more and more difficult to stay" within the Anglican Church, which he saw being led by "a very strong evangelical lobby" to "return to the days of Cromwell."
Inter-faith dialogue faced great obstacles today, Archdeacon Austin said. "How can the Catholic Church continue its dialogue with a Church that is preparing to turn its back on its Catholic roots?"
But Nicholas Coote, Assistant General Secretary of the Bishops' Conference, told the Herald. "There have been clear indications on the Catholic side that it was regrettable the decision (to ordain women) was made unilaterally. On that, the point Mr Gummer was making was very relevant." But he called Mr Gummer's jibe that the Church of England was little more than a sect "a bit unkind".
Mr Gummer joined the Catholic Church in a quiet ceremony attended by a dozen friends and relatives in the Sacred Heart church in Horseferry Road, London. Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber played the organ while Fr Michael Seed, the Franciscan friar who is ecumenical officer at Archbishop's House and who has been Mr Gummer's spiritual director, welcomed the Cabinet Minister.
"I don't think the event will have come as a surprise to anyone. It has been clear for some time that Mr Gummer was to become a Roman Catholic," one of Mr Gummer's four sponsors, Paul Goodman, told the Catholic Herald.
Fr Seed stressed that Mr Gummer's conversion should be seen as a "spiritual journey" rather than a public vote of no confidence in the Church of England.
Mr Gummer's move comes in the wake of high-profile defections by Social Security Minister Ann Widdecombe and the Duchess of Kent.