Following the Sacred Synods held in Leeds and London last week, the Missionary Society of Saint Wilfred and Saint Hilda was launched “for bishops, clergy, religious and laity in order to provide a place within the Church of England where catholics can worship and minister with integrity without accepting innovations that further distance the Church of England from the greater churches of the East and West.”
According to the website www.sswsh.com “the unveiling of The Missionary Society of St Wilfrid and St Hilda reflects a determination not to accept a Code of Practice as currently suggested by the General Synod but to work for and create a more realistic approach which allows the integrity of those who cannot accept this innovation to be preserved, to flourish and grow within the Church of England. This development represents a constructive initiative on the part of those who cannot accept the innovations proposed in legislation and who are hurt and frustrated by the General Synod’s inability to provide for their theological position.
The Society has been named after two English saints with a passion for the unity of the church and is expected to attract thousands of members. It was quite clear during the gatherings that many wish to remain loyal to the comprehensive nature (within the confines) of the Church of England despite the legislation and are unlikely to join the Ordinariate at least in the foreseeable future.
…further details about the Society and its life will emerge in the comings months. In the meantime a group has been asked to do some theological reflection about the identity of the Society, its common life and the way it might have the potential for ecumenical dialogue directed towards the goal of full visible communion with the rest of the Church catholic, both Eastern and Western.”
The launch of the Society generated ‘mixed reviews’ on the Anglo-catholic blogosphere. Those who have already indicated their desire and intention to join the Ordinariate have been openly critical, whereas others continue to speculate as to what form and shape ‘sswsh’ will eventually take and what hope it may provide for salvaging an ecclesiastical solution from the ashes of the current Women Bishop’s legislation.
So, what are we to make of this? Well, aside from ignoring our subtle petitions to name the new initiative ‘The Society of Saint Gilbert and Saint Hybald’ (surely an opportunity lost?) I find myself looking to the so-called ‘Big (ecclesiastical) Society’ with cautious optimism. Firstly, I do think that drawing together the various strands of the catholic movement within the C of E is something that is both necessary and long over-due. Secondly, free from the overt politicisation and ‘one-issue politics’ that has accompanied Forward in Faith, I think that the Society stands a better chance of persuading the General Synod that a Code of Practice will, ultimately, harm the overall mission of the Church by cutting off the life-blood of the catholic movement and watching it wither and die. Certainly, there are no guarantees that the Society will carry any greater weight with the GS but a Society united in prayer, mission and celebration of the Sacraments as they have received them, is surely a positive move. Finally, although the Society is obviously a gamble (it could still all end in tears) it is also a rather shrewd and clever move in that it begins to form a potential ecclesiastical structure around the ideal and the hope of some kind of ‘catholic future’ within the Church of England (or if needs be ‘beyond’ it).
As we wait for news of the shape of the Society and see how it has been received by the wider Church press, we can do no more than pray and perhaps dare to dream that something of the future may still rest in our own hands?
To join the Missionary Society of Saint Wilfred and Saint Hilda fill in the on-line form at www.sswsh.com
Hybald
It will I think be necessary for as many members of Forward in Faith and other Catholic Societies to register their membership of the Missionary Society. If the take up is small the message sent to the House of Bishops and the new General Synod is that the Traditionalist Catholics of the C of E have given up the fight with the strong spirits leaving for the Ordinariate. Having been at the London Launch I do feel that it was a major mistake to announce and launch this initiative at a Synod for clergy only. The Society will stand or fall through the active involvement of the laity. And despite it’s many failings one thing Forward in Faith has always been clear about has been the active participation of lay men and women.
And of course I agree with my dear friend Hybald that taking the names of two such illustrious names as his and mine would have been so much better.
Gilbert of Sempringham
I hope the proposed Society will make some progress but I think that it would have been better if the ‘theological work’ had been done first.It has gone off a bit ‘half-cocked’ . I have to say that I think that we are going to struggle if the initiative is disparaged by those who have no intention of belonging to it! They needn’t justify their own diecions by rubbising the alternative! In the name of God go!
Anyone would think that the ordinariate is without its problems! Apart from those now ‘in the know’ no one has a clue as to what the ‘litugical provision’ will be, the irony being that most of those leading the caravan have never used an Anglican liturgy for years.
Then there is the question as to whether married Ordinariate ordinands will been successfully processed by the Vatican ‘washing machine.’
If anyone thinks that the ‘Anglican culture and heritage’ ( much flagged up by the Bishop of Fulham) can survive more than one generation they must be living in cloud cuckoo land (to parody Bishop Barnes).
I have to admit that the ‘caravanners’ are beginning to irriate me – if they think RITA ( Rome is the answer) why don’t they go instead of rather cynically and selfishishly taking up time and money that could be used in seeking wholeheartedly an Anglican solution.
I am not interested in joining the Society if it is become ‘Son of FiF’. FiF has become a political organisation, heavily dominated by metropolitan Catholics for whom the Church of England has provided a useful pension fund. The new Society should not be a one issue organisation with the rather unpleasant public image of FiF. It will do this if it appeals to the majority of Anglicans – people who know that in the Anglican heritage there still remains the wherewithal to worship, witness and evangelize as Orthodox Christians and who are seeking support and guidance to do that. Most people despair at the liberal ascendancy in the Church and woudl respond to a movement that looked and felt C of E. That is what I am looking for. Like others I know FiF provided the only ‘show in town’ to work for the preservation and liberation of orthodoxy in our national church. It needs to close down and move aside for a new beginning with new leadership. Not a rebranding but a new beginning.
Guthlac of Crowland
“In the Anglican heritage there still remains the wherewithal to worship, witness and evangelize as Orthodox Christians and who are seeking support and guidance to do that.”
Guthlac- I agree and think this is the crucial part of what you have to say. And F-in-F has not managed to reach out to embrace all these folk who have been formed by that heritage. But it has included all those who have had a determination to stand up and fight for it, rather than just bewailing what has gone on- and it will be mostly these folk, the fighters not the wailers, who will be the only ones to work with passion for a new Big Society.
The real concern must be that whatever the Anglican heritage has been- in a women-bishop church will it be there in any real way for the future? Nothing can be established on the sands of a compromised episcopate. The Society will really stand or fall on the matter of jurisdiction. If that’s not given, the Society as a valid way of maintaining our catholic faith and heritage will be stillborn.
Gilbert of Sempringham
I was a member of FIF for years.After the York Synod I cannot see how Anglican Catholics can remain in the C of E. I have joined the Anglican Catholic Church Diocese of the UK. I have been made very welcome.I would advocate others unsure about what to do to take a look at this way forward.Perhaps have a good read of their website.www.anglicancatholic.org UK
Neil from Cornwall
Mmmm! Didn’t quite get the web address for the ACC right. It needs another dot as in http://www.anglicancatholic.org.uk
Neil from Cornwall
I’m afraid that the new Society will be a failure like Forward In Faith unless it is prepared to take some form of direct action, as has been done in the USA where admitedly the situation is very different. Waiting for what a new General Synod might do when the elections are over will be no different from what bForward In Faith has been doing for sixteen years, and where has it got its members? Nowhere, except for a few good national and regional festivals. By direct action the Society has got to set up a church within the C. of E. and be prepared to arrange for new priests to be ordained and for new bishops to be consecrated. Anything else is a delusion. Unless steps as these are taken, we can say goodbye to any surviving catholicity within the Church, a code of practice not withstanding.
I am afraid that I am in agreement with this blog post that seems to have been doing the rounds on twitter
http://catholicgadfly.blogspot.com/
The new society will be a failure and as far as I am concerned and that is the end of it. This blog seems to have hit the nail on the head.