On Monday, Candlemas, Revd Philip North will be consecrated as the Anglican Suffragan Bishop of Burnley, a week after the consecration of the Revd Libby Lane as Suffragan Bishop of Stockport, both in York Minster. Perhaps non-Anglicans should not comment about Anglican ordinations, but now that the Church of England has begun to ordain women to its episcopate, others can reflect on what has happened in terms of sacramental theology and ecclesiology as part of ecumenical dialogue.
Anglican bishops, with Dr Sentamu (centre left) celebrate with Libby Lane after her episcopal ordination. Photo: PAThis is prompted by the arrangements made for the consecrations by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu : at the first he presided at the liturgy and was the principal consecrator, along with many other bishops; at the second he will not be, although he will be present – only three bishops are to lay hands on the new bishop, while the archbishop and others are to exercise what he has called "gracious restraint" by not doing so. He has written that he was not influenced by a "theology of taint".
Non-Anglicans recognise that this is motivated by love and the wish to remain in the same communion. But, as has been true for over 20 years, there are serious problems in for traditional sacramental theology, a theology which Anglicans have often claimed to share with the Catholic and Orthodox churches. A sacrament is a binding "pledge", rooted in how the word was used in the ancient world: by its very nature it has an objective reality, something definite and unambiguous.
The "theology of taint" to which the archbishop referred is a device which enabled some Anglo-Catholics after 1994 to remain Anglicans: they avoid for sacramental purposes bishops who ordain women, while remaining under their jurisdiction, and the Anglican authorities have acceded to this by supplying "untainted" prelates, of whom Philip North is the latest. Quite apart from the disturbing use by some of the word "taint", this has been as much a departure from traditional theology of ministry as the decision to ordain women: and surely in spite of his protests Dr Sentamu is really subscribing to it. He could preside at the second consecration as he did at the first, but has chosen not to do so; surely he is conceding the opponents’ view of his hands as being somewhat tainted, and what is in effect a challenge to his authority. The bishops playing the key role in the two ceremonies are not the same bishops.
Catholics in northern England will want to work with both new Anglican bishops and will wish them well. But this theological question will not go away. In what sense are Bishop Lane and Bishop North bishops of the same Church? A bishop is by definition a focus for unity: how can bishops function if they do not accept each other’s ministry? Mutual love does not make these questions go away; and if all of us are still seeking real unity we need to face them.
Ashley Beck is Assistant Priest of Beckenham in the Archdiocese of Southwark and a lecturer in pastoral ministry at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. He was an Anglican clergyman from 1985 until 1994
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User comments (16)
"those who have not yet come to that understanding"
How outrageously patronising. I'd far rather believe that Dr Sentamu is trying to respect the two integrities promised by Dr Habgood, even though precious few others do these days.
Thank heavens I'm no longer an Anglican.
Sarah, the Church teaches that reception of the Sacraments is an essential part of the path to salvation. If women purport to be priests - notwithstanding the impossibility of this - then the Masses they celebrate will be invalid, and so will the absolutions they purport to confer. How could souls not be lost as a result of this?
Ashley Beck, you are both graciously Christian and somewhat misguided in your assessment of the intentions of archbishop Sentamu. Perhaps another way of considering his action is to see that the archbishop is displaying one of the three great virtues, that of HOPE.
Clearly, his view is that the desire of God, revealed in both creation and scripture, is being better understood by humanity as being for the equal coexistence of men and women, in all aspects of life including the leadership within God's church. Not all members of the body may agree with him, but he is moving forward in the hope that the whole body will come with him and others to that understanding.
One might describe him as similar to those who moved the church's mind over the abolition of slavery in previous centuries. The whole body, Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox, has now come to understand that slavery is evil, but only because they remained within the church and took it forward.
So the archbishop is being hopeful for the work of the spirit in the church, yet respectful to those who have not yet come to that understanding. He acts in hope that, in time they will, make that step.
Others may wish to label that as accepting the theology of taint, but there is a more hopeful way to see this decision.
Martin: With regard to your last sentence, ending 'the loss of souls', it looks from my view point that you are setting yourself in judgement. I thought that was God's prerogative or have you been promoted in some way we wot not of?
"I hope we can communicate with each other with respect and love in the Roman Catholic Church"
Forked tongues. What you espouse - what you have espoused on this site many, many times - is the heretical notion of female ordination which can never be. We cannot have a "respectful dialogue" about this because this is not a matter on which there can be legitimate disagreement. What you espouse is impossible and its effect would be to invalidate the sacraments and cause the loss of souls.
GS:
Marriage is not necessarily a cure for loneliness, surely? As a single man, I can see that all too plainly.
If 10,000 former priests left to get married simply as a cure for loneliness, then they are greatly to be pitied. Loneliness finds its cure in sacrificial living for Jesus Christ alone. A lonely priest (and there aren't, frankly, so many of them, despite what the secular press would have us believe) need to man up and find authentic moral and virtuous ways of dealing with their loneliness. Celibacy is a great blessing and can bring the celibate deep deep joy in Christ.
Father Ashley Beck says" A bishop is by definition a focus for unity: how can bishops function if they do not accept each other’s ministry?"
My understanding is that Bishop Libby Lane accepts Bishop Philip North's ministry but many of the Anglo-Catholics do not accept hers. The Anglicans are divided between Anglo-Catholics (Traditionalists) and Liberals. They are however, transparently open about it and try to accommodate the differences, hence Archbishop John Sentamu's "gracious restraint."
I am a Liberal Roman Catholic and wish to remain in my Church and love its sacramental vision, but we too are divided between Liberals and Traditionalists. However there are no General Synods or diocesan fora where this can be acknowledged, explored and discussed. If collegiality is established, which Pope Francis indicates he wishes, we may be able to do so with respect for each other.
I do not see Bishop Libby's consecration as a bar to unity. However it strikes me that the Traditionalists in the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches have increasingly more in common with each other, similarly the Liberals. As a Liberal Catholic I sometimes think that the Traditionalists in my Church are, these days, beginning to speak a different language and think differently from me and other Liberals. I hope we can communicate with each other with respect and love in the Roman Catholic Church, the way the Anglicans try to do in theirs.
Revd. Beck: You write, "If there has been resentment I have not encountered it". And that is how it should be, but behind closed doors it is a different story.
Onlythelonely: I am glad that you are experiencing joy and fulfilment. One must wonder then why the support group Advent estimates that in the last 50 years as many as 10,000 priests in England and Wales have left ordained ministry in order to marry. I'm sorry you reduce this loss to the attraction of "having sex every five minutes".
GS: Married priests can be lonely too, I would have thought ... I am a single priest. Not at all lonely. If I am fulfilling my vocation there is no loneliness, only joy! It's too easy (and, frankly, lazy) to characterise priests as 'lonely'. Generally, it's simply not true and panders to the liberal secular ideology of the impossibility of being happy unless you're having sex every five minutes.
I just commented on the Editor's call for dealing with the "woman" problem in the C of E and the RCC as a professor of the Humanities and as a keen biblical scholar and historian of Western Civilisation. Sameness and equality of genders are not at all alike. As I experienced Anglicanism in the USA they are biblically and theologically and in moral theology in a bottomless pit of rank confusion with no exit except to restore union with Rome and many are already renewing it with the Ordinariate
I'm beginning to think there is some '-ology' confusion around: I always thought 'Theology' had to do with God and things spiritual whereas gender, it seems to me, would fall more accurately into the area of 'Biology'.
A response to GS: I wrote an article in The Tablet a few years back in which I indicated that (like other married priests) I (and my wife and daughters) had received nothing but kindness from celibate colleagues; not only that, I had received nothing but kindness from men who had left the priesthood and got married. If there has been resentment, I have not encountered it. I have also remained in touch with Anglican friends, on both sides of the argument over the ministry of women. I hope I am fully committed to the search for unity, but as I tried to indicate in my piece, we should be able to raise questions with our Anglican brothers and sisters about what they think episcopacy and priesthood actually mean in their own Communion - if we are to have any hope of reaching a common mind.
Revd. Beck: As a married Catholic priest - formerly Anglican - you must have had to adjust to the ministry of your brother colleagues, the faithful, celibate, often lonely, ageing priests in your diocese. You must have come up against clerical resentment as you share an authentic life with a woman and possibly daughters. Yet, this has failed to enlighten you to true unity...that all are one in Christ.
I am happy with the criticism made by JJ of my sentence; the problem I had was trying to explain rather a lot within a strict word count of 500 words
'A sacrament is a binding "pledge", rooted in how the word was used in the ancient world: by its very nature it has an objective reality, something definite and unambiguous.'
Minor quibble perhaps but I am having a hard time making sense of this sentence. Surely there were heretics in the ancient world who used a word we might translate with the English word "sacrament" or "pledge" to refer to something which did not have an objective reality. So it cannot be rooted in ancient usage alone. Better perhaps to say "it is an objective reality which certain ancients referred to with a word that came to be translated in English as. . ." and "when discussing that particular reality these ancients also described it as such..." and then explain why those particular ancients had the proper perception of the reality.
I understand this argument completely, having been an Anglo-Catholic once myself, but the truth is that this no longer runs. Anglicans of a Catholic disposition have for many years been reconciling with Rome and have now even been offered a special structure in which to do so. This is the extent to which unity can ever now be achieved as one presumes the Anglicans will never consent to admit their error and deny the ordinations of these women. Those Anglo-Catholics who cling on, notwithstanding the avowed intentions of groups such as WATCH to oppose any concessions to their objections, have made in my view a choice that cannot plausibly be defended. The internal contradictions of the Anglican entity are destroying it: ignoring the clear disunity within Anglicanism, which seems to be the official position, will not make it go away. I am glad Mr North is being appointed to care for Anglo-Catholics, but ultimately his and their cause is hopeless. The liberals want to drive them out of existence and appear to be pursuing a policy of delegitimising them until they die out. They ought to come to Rome.