virtually regular?

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Nov 04, 2005

The glacier is calving. The Times reports new cracks in the C of E over "valid but irregular" ordinations.

A new battle over homosexual clergy erupted in the Church of England yesterday after a South London church imported an African bishop to conduct an ordination service. The ordinations are seen as an act of defiance against the Bishop of Southwark, the Right Rev Tom Butler, who normally performs all ordinations in his diocese but who some conservatives regard as too liberal on the issue of homosexuality in the Church.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is expected to be drawn into the row over the "valid but irregular" ordinations, which could mark the beginning of the formal split in the Church over gays. Significantly, the ordinations have the backing of the conservative evangelical grouping Reform, which endorsed them at its conference this week. Reform insiders are predicting that many similar actions could follow in the dozens of Church of England parishes aligned with Reform throughout the country.

The ordinations of three men by Bishop Martin Morrison, from the Church of England in South Africa, signify a crumbling of the formal parochial and diocesan structures of the established Church because of the crisis on homosexuality.

After all, what does it matter if the Church shatters into one-person denominations, as long as each is inclusive?