Women Bishops
Members of Forward in Faith will wish to do what they can in the coming struggle to achieve equitable provision in the Church for those unable in conscience to accept the ordination of women as bishops.
The task of preparing proposals as to the shape of the legislation to be brought to the General Synod to enable the ordination of women as bishops has been delegated to a small working party of the House of Bishops under the chairmanship of the Bishop of Guildford, the Right Reverend Christopher Hill. Forward in Faith priests, PCCs and lay people are now encouraged to write to Bishop Christopher, in order to advise him that any suggestion that the needs of traditionalists might be satisfied by a Code of Practice (as was suggested a number of times by proponents of women bishops in yesterday’s Synod debate) will fall very wide of the mark. Only a structural solution, of the kind set out in part two of Consecrated Women?, will be able to meet the needs of those in conscience unable to accept the ordination of women as bishops.
The bishop’s address is:
The Right Revd the Bishop of Guildford
Willow Grange, Woking Road, Jacob’s Well, Guildford, Surrey GU4 7QS
Consecrated Women?
Fr Jonathan Baker’s book, along with four accompanying pamphlets, is now available from Forward in Faith at Gordon Square. The book is £17 and each pamphlet £2∙50, all including p & p. Or you can order all five for the inclusive price of just £25.
Payment with orders, please, to Colin Niblett at the Forward in Faith Office.
National Assembly
The 12th Forward in Faith National Assembly will take place at the Emmanuel Centre, Marsham Street, SW1 on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd October 2005. Book the date in your diary now! Full details have now been sent out to all Registered and Affiliated Parishes and to all FiF Diocesan Organisations. Many thanks to all who have submitted the names of their delegates already, and thus made our task at Gordon Square so much simpler. We look forward to hearing from the rest of you any day now!
Forward in Faith Australia . . .
is holding its National Assembly from Thursday, 10th November at 7:30 pm until Saturday, 12th November at 3:30 pm at Christ Church, O’Halloran Hill, South Australia. New Directions readers Down Under might want to be there – readers elsewhere will want to pray for FiF Australia at this taxing time.
Forward in Faith North America
Hard on the heels of FiF Australia’s Assembly comes FiF North America’s National Assembly on Sunday, 13th to Tuesday, 15th November in Pittsburgh. American New Directions readers will want to be there, and all the rest of us will want hold FiFNA in our prayers over these days.