It’s called “burying the lede.”
The other day The Telegraph interviewed the general secretary of the Church of England General Synod. Paragraphs three, four and five:
… today the Church’s most senior official, William Fittall, raised the prospect of a historic compromise.
Mr Fittall, secretary general of the General Synod, said it would be “entirely possible” for those who convert to Roman Catholicism to be allowed to share their former churches with Anglicans who remain in the Church of England.Speaking ahead of a meeting of the General Synod, the Church’s “parliament”, later this month, Mr Fittall said: “It would be a matter for the local Anglican bishop concerned whether he was content for that to be the case.”
In the seventeenth and final paragraph we’re told what Mr. Fittall conisders to be the “important thing.”
“The important thing is that if people go, they are making decisions as individuals. It is not parishes that decide to go to join the ordinariate, it is individuals. It may be all the members of one parochial church council, but then they don’t go as a PCC, they can’t take the institutions, the offices, or the assets of the Church of England with them.”
Thank you to Church Mouse for pointing out that you need to read to the end.
The Church of England position is mirrored in The Episcopal Church. As The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori has repeatedly said,
While individuals have the right and privilege to depart or return at any time, congregations do not. Congregations exist because they are in communion with the bishop of a diocese, through recognition by diocesan governing bodies (diocesan synods, councils, or conventions). Congregations cannot unilaterally disestablish themselves or remove themselves from a diocese. In addition, by canon law, property of all sorts held by parishes is held and must be used for the mission of the Episcopal Church through diocesan bishops and governing bodies. As a Church, we cannot abrogate our interest in such property, as it is a fiduciary and moral duty to preserve such property for generations to come and the ministries to be served both now and in the future.