Monday, March 19, 2012

Rowan Williams to step down at end of 2012

The leader of the Anglicans will hand in his resignation at the end of 2012. 

His decision is partly the result of the lost battles fought with the liberal wing of the Anglican Church over the questions of women bishops and homosexuality.

The speculations that have been growing for some time now (given the liberals’ protests and the conservative diaspora), over Rowan William’s departure, have now been confirmed. 

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams is ready to step down after a long battle with the liberal wing of the Anglican Church, over the question of homosexuality, political sources told British newspaper The Times

The BBC reported that Williams will resign at the end of 2012.

Archbishop Williams has led the Anglican Church since 2003. Sources close to Williams said his decision was prompted by his likely defeat over the Anglican Communion treaty which aimed to establish a common position following the ordination of homosexual bishop, Gene Robinson, by the American Episcopal Church. 

Until now, about half of the 43 dioceses of the Anglican Church voted on the treaty, with 17 of these voting against and 10 voting in favour of it. 

61 year old Williams is expected to move on to an academic role, The Times said.

The Synod of the Anglican Church is due to be held in July and should give the go-ahead for the ordination of women bishops. Some Anglican provinces in Australia, the United States and Canada already have women bishops, but alongside same-sex marriages, the ordination of women and homosexuals is the most controversial question within the Anglican Communion, which has 80 million faithful throughout the world. 

The Primate of the Anglican Church, Rowan Williams is already at loggerheads with the international association “Forward in Faith” which represents those Anglicans who are against the consecration of women bishops. Work is being done backstage to find “conciliatory” solutions.
 
The apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, published in November 2009 opened the way for Anglican communities to enter the Catholic Church through the establishment of Personal Ordinariates similar to non-territorial dioceses, a new canonical structure. 

This makes it possible for Anglicans to recognise the Pope as primate whilst maintaining elements of their own liturgical and spiritual tradition. 

So far, faithful who have abandoned the Anglican Church and changed over to the Catholic faith, entering the special ordinariate established by Benedict XVI, include five bishops, about thirty priests and several hundred faithful. 

These individuals partly chose to change over so that they could return to the old Latin Mass.
 
Despite the desertions, protests and resistance shown, English women will also now be able to become bishops. 

In July, the Anglican Church in England will authorise ordinations of individuals of the fairer sex but it will also pass some measures which aim to meet the wants of the traditionalist wing which is opposed to the change. 

When the Anglican Church approved the priestly ordination of women in 1994, it lost around 500 members of its clergy who changed over to the Catholic Church.

Since the Anglican Synod of York approved the ordination of women bishops in July 2010, the decision has gradually spread throughout the Anglican Communion, against the wishes of traditionalist communities. 

The Anglican Communion consists of 38 independent provinces and one of these is England. 

A number of provinces already have a bishop. 

The haemorrhage of faithful in the Anglican Church could be greater than expected as a result of the approval of the consecration of women bishops.
 
The Catholic Church opposes the process that will lead to the introduction of a law, next July that will authorise the ordination of women bishops. The Catholic Church’s stance remains unaltered since the days of Paul VI.   

For the Holy See, agreeing to a female episcopate would equate to a break with apostolic tradition maintained in all of the Churches in the first millennium and is therefore a further obstacle for reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Church of England. 

Opening up the Episcopate to women will have negative consequences in terms of the Anglican Church’s dialogue with the Vatican. It seems pretty clear that the approval of women’s ordination will lead onto the ordination of openly gay bishops. 

This is the path the Anglican world has chosen to go down, inattentive to the ever growing communities that are choosing to return to Rome precisely as a result of this “liberal” change. 

The Archbishop of Canterbury is now paying for the internal rifts and external weakness of the Anglican Church, as was clear from the weak reaction to same-sex marriage.