From the Church Times-
O FORMAL response is expected from the UK to the Pope’s offer of a Personal Ordinariate to Anglican groups until after the General Synod meeting in July, it emerged this week.
On Monday, dozens of churches, both Church of England and Roman Catholic, opened their doors for a day of prayer about the Pope’s offer. The invitation was extended last autumn to groups of Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony (News, 23 October 2009).
The Bishop of Ebbsfleet, the Rt Revd Andrew Burnham, had asked members of Forward in Faith, and others, to make Monday, the feast of the Chair of St Peter, “an opportunity to reflect, pray, and discern the way forward for each of us, our priests and our parishes”. But on his website he said that the day would not be “a day of decision”.
After the General Synod postponed until its July sessions the revision stage of the legislation for women bishops, it is thought that most traditionalists will wait until after that debate before react ing to the Pope’s offer. This means that they will participate actively in elections for the new Synod, which take place during the summer.
Bishop Burnham wrote: “The Apostolic Constitution (Anglican orum Coetibus) is not a crisis point but the opening up, permanently, of a new way into unity with the See of Peter. Decisions about how and whether this should happen for each of us will take place in different ways, and at different times.”
One cleric who spent the day in his church in prayer was the Vicar of St Mark’s, Stockland Green, Birmingham, the Revd Stuart Powell. “The Bishop of Ebbsfleet was asking for a day of discernment. I think some people may feel they want to take advantage of the Ordinariate, and some people will decide to stay. I think that I and my people will stay,” he said on Tuesday.
More here-
http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=90053
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