One suspects that the decision of five bishops from the Church of England to become Roman Catholics is less significant than the media will have us believe, if only because these men’s theological views–if not their intentions–were already well known. On the other hand, one is not English, so one can’t be sure. Anybody care to weigh in on the following, which comes to us via the Associated Press?
Five Church of England bishops announced Monday they are converting to Catholicism following an invitation to disaffected Anglicans from Pope Benedict XVI — the highest-profile defectors among conservatives opposed to gay bishops and female clergy.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales said Bishop of Ebbsfleet Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Richborough Keith Newton, Bishop of Fulham John Broadhurst — as well as retired bishops Edwin Barnes and David Silk — have decided “to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church.”
Burnham and Newton are “flying bishops,” who minister to Church of England parishes where congregations have voted not to allow a woman priest to preside at services.
Thinking Anglicans has more.
Meanwhile, Bishop Alan Wilson, writing at Comment is Free, says:
Younger people than me just don’t understand how avoiding women ministers can be disconnected from gender discrimination. Busmen went on strike in the 1960s against black people being allowed to drive buses, protesting that this was not racial discrimination. Yeah, right. Unfortunately, back on planet Earth, discriminatory is as discriminatory does. You can say your tradition mandates this discrimination, but not that it isn’t what it manifestly is. Why should anybody wish to be deceived?