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Saint Peter’s Church Folkestone |
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A Forward
in Faith Parish Under the Pastoral Care of the Bishop of Richborough History
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Statement from the Federation
of Catholic Priests: July 19th, 2008 The executive of the Federation of Catholic Priests views with grave
disquiet the decision of General Synod on July 7th not only to proceed to the
admission of women to the episcopate, but also to provide no structural
solution for the continuing reality of Catholic life within the Church of
England. FCP, primarily a devotional
society, has always been an eirenic body. Equally, however, it has adhered
firmly to the Catholic inheritance of the Church of England and sought to
promote that inheritance as being the primary source, under God, of the
well-being and worship of the whole Church. We greeted the decision of 1992
to admit women to the presbyterate with dismay; we have attempted to maintain
and encourage the Catholic life from within the restricted compass of the
legitimacy granted by that year’s Measure and the Act of Synod, and assured
to Catholics by the speeches and actions that accompanied them. However, the General Synod
completely rejected any plan to provide provisions of enough substance to
permit those who maintain the Catholic identity of the Church of England to
live peacefully and with integrity within her. Our legitimacy, currently
recognised not by the disputable abstractions of a code of practice but by
expression in law and the ministry of the PEVs, will cease to exist. This
situation will be intolerable. As a matter of immediate
concern, therefore, we ask the traditionalist bishops of the Church of
England (and especially the PEVs, as those charged with the protection and
advocacy of Christians of our “integrity”), together with the Council of
Forward in Faith, and the leadership of the Society of the Holy Cross, to
meet together and set up an executive body – a cabinet, as it were – to
establish the demands of Catholics and draw up coherent policies to meet the
situation. Further, we ask that such a group should include the best legal
and theological minds that Catholics can draw upon. We press upon them the need to
negotiate forcefully with the leadership of the General Synod in order to
establish firm ground upon which Catholics may stand in order to continue
with integrity as members of the Church of England. We recognise that this is
a difficult task. We take seriously the prospect that it may prove
impossible. But while time remains to prevent the completion of Synod’s
intentions we urge that it should be undertaken, to help the Catholic
community within the Church of England hold together, and to prepare its
members to find their way forward under God. Stephen Bould Chairman (Return to Women Bishops update
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