YOUNG traditionalist ordinands with more than 40 years of ministry before them are one sign that their tradition is not ossifying, the Bishop of Fulham, the Rt Revd Jonathan Baker, said this week, at the chrism mass for parishes to which he ministers.
While expressing a reluctance to “engage with any controversy”, Bishop Baker addressed towards the end of his sermon remarks made by the Bishop of Croydon, Dr Rosemarie Mallett, during last month’s WATCH conference (News, 4 April). Within the Church there had been, she said, an “ossification, if not growth, of the viewpoints purported by those who feel unable to receive the ministry of women bishops or priests or those male bishops who have ordained them”.
“I have to say to my sister in Christ and fellow bishop who used that term — not by name, but by association — of me and all of you — very firmly: No!” he told the congregation at St Andrew’s, Holborn, in London, on Tuesday. “Why? Because the life of the Church Catholic — her scriptures, her sacraments, her creeds, her ministry — embodies and expresses the Spirit-filled, Spirit-led living Tradition received and handed on in every generation — living water, ever fresh, ever renewing itself.”
Among a series of examples, he spoke of the 50 young adults who had attended the launch of Fidelium, a new lay-led network of Anglo-Catholic Christians aged 18-35 in London under his patronage earlier this year. And of candidates for ordination with “40 — 45! — years of full-time ministry to give to this Church”.
“There is no ossification here,” he said. “The Spirit of God is at work, breathing life, renewing the Church. To all who love the Church, and the Church of England in particular, but who see some things differently from the way we do, I say: Let us be partners: we do not desire, and there is no reason, for us to be at enmity.”
Among those who attended the mass were three women priests from the diocese of London, including the chair of WATCH, the Revd Martine Oborne. In an account published online, “Making the pain of our exclusion present”, she wrote: “we were pleased that we were greeted with smiles, despite wearing clerical dress that indicated our priesthood. Nonetheless, it is hard to feel truly welcome when we were not able to robe for the service, nor to process into the church with our male colleagues, nor to sit with them — as priests together. We sat instead in the congregation at the back of the nave.”
During the renewal of ordination vows, she and the other women priests had stood with the male priests to affirm their vows, “even though only ‘Beloved sons’ had been invited to do so. We also extended our hands with theirs during the blessing of oils and concelebration, as one would normally do in such a service, though painfully aware that our actions may have been viewed there as either hostile or ridiculous.”
It was a “beautiful service”, and they had been “warmly invited to stay for drinks” and “engaged in a number of pleasant conversations”, Ms Oborne wrote. “My two colleagues and I came away from the service pleased that we had attended but, at the same time, deeply saddened that women and men are not treated equally in the Church of England and that we are out of communion with our male ‘Fulham’ colleagues who will not receive the sacraments from female clergy or from clergy ordained by female bishops.”
Also in attendance was the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally. On Wednesday, she said that she was “committed to the flourishing of all our clergy” and spoke of a “close and positive partnership with the Bishop of Fulham in the spirit of the Five Guiding Principles”. Her attendance at the mass was “a visible witness to this partnership and, of course, its personal cost for myself and others”. She looked forward to the diocesan chrism mass on Maundy Thursday, attended by the Bishop of Fulham and others who had attended the service on Tuesday, “in a wonderful celebration of our shared calling to bring hope to the world”.
Bishop Baker also spoke of looking forward to this service, and said that he had been “delighted” by Bishop Mullally’s attendance at the Fulham service.
Speaking to BBC Woman’s Hour last week, the associate director of the Church Society, Dr Ros Clarke, said that many conservative Evangelical churches were “really thriving and flourishing”, with the average number of under-18s in these churches standing at 33. Ms Oborne told the programme that many churches were not transparent about their position (News, 4 October 2019).
