Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Welcome to the 14th Forward in Faith National Assembly, the 9th at the Emmanuel Centre. As usual, apart from our own members we welcome guests from across the world.
From Forward in Faith Australia we are delighted once more to welcome Bishop David Robarts and two members of its Council, Bishops David Chislett and Bishop Harry Entwistle. From Forward in Faith North America we greet our old friend, Bishop Jack Iker, Council member and bishop of the brave diocese of Fort Worth. We have received greetings, too, from Bishop David Moyer, who cannot be with us but who awaits the court proceedings in his dispute with the Bishop of Philadelphia.
We welcome back Fr Dennis Kayamba from Malawi, who brings us, no doubt, news of a troubled and disintegrating province. Many will here will know ot the tragic death in suspicious circumstances of Fr Kyamba’s friend and colleague Fr Rodney Hunter. We offer Fr Kyamba and Fr Rodney’s family our sympathy and good wishes. May he rest in peace.
Forward in Faith has always rejoiced in its close association with the Continuum in the United States, and today we welcome Bishop Paul Hewitt of the Diocese of the Holy Cross. From among our co-belligerents in Scandinavia we greet Bishop Goran Beijer of the Mission Province in Sweden, and bishop-elect Roald Flemstad of the Nordic Catholic Church.
The welcome we offer to our overseas guests is not and cannot be a mere formality. Each one of them has a tale to tell which affects us intimately. We have long talked about the realignment taking place in the wider Church. They are in the thick of it. They will tell us of the breakdown of the National Churches in Scandinavia,of the establishment of the Network and the Common Cause Partnership in the United States, of the imaginative and some times costly liason between the TAC and traditional Anglicans who remain within the Anglican Church of Australia. We need to listen to them: what is happening in their Churches may well determine future developments in the Church of England.
The truth is that we traditionalists are interdependent. What happens in our individual provinces and Churches, affects us all. It is with that truth in mind that we give an especial welcome to our friends from Wales, and Fr Alan Rabjohns as the Chairman of Credo Cymru. They have before them, in Wales, legislation for the ordination of women to the episcopate which is effectively a one clause measure. If it were to be passed unamended it would surely give the green light to a similar attempt in the Church of England to remove the safeguards which we have won by hard corporate effort and which we confidently expect to be extended and not whittled away.
Many here will have shared with the Community of the Holy Cross the marvellous celebration in Southwell Minster of its 150th anniversary of foundation. So it is an especial joy to have Mother Mary Luke with us. She will deliver the devotional address later today.
As well as welcoming guests and visitors I want this year to offer a word of thanks as we begin our assembly. This National Assembly would never take place, if it were not for the unstinting help which a troupe of usually un-sung volunteers give us each year. There are always members of Fr Brandie’s parish to be seen, doing his bidding and often brandishing their walkie-talkies, and of course there is the team which Colin Niblett gathers around him to run the reception desk and cope kindly with those of you who, like me, turn up without our badges, or our papers, or both. To Fr Beau, and to Colin, and all who assist them we offer our most hearty thanks.
One face is missing this year, though. For many years, the reception desk has been brightened by the infectious smile of Kay Maddox, a member of Forward in Faith from S.Michael, Abbey Wood in South London. She died in August, on the eve of what would have been her 44th birthday, after a courageous 20 year battle with cancer. In a moment of silence, we commend her soul to Almighty God
‘Rest eternal grant unto him, O Lord. . . ‘
Last year, in my opening address I threw out a challenge. Forward in Faith I said should begin to structure itself in a way that would allow it to function as the additional Province it strives to be. I am delighted to say that such a programme is already well developed. At this meeting you will be hearing from both the Structures Working Party chaired by Bishops Andrew Burnham and the Working Groups convened by the College of Deans under the chairmanship if Fr. Brandie. The Report on structures is the buff leaflet in your folders – read it carefully – you will be voting on its recommendations tomorrow afternoon in Resolution 07. Just before that Fr Brandie will be leading a small team to outline the on-going work of the Deans. In the closed plenary earlier this afternoon discussions began about the reform of local structures which we hope will bear fruit in proposals which may be brought to next year’s Assembly.
That, Mr Chairman, concludes my opening remarks…except for one item.
I have heard complaints in the past that the Forward in Faith Assembly is orchestrated to the last word – not unlike the five yearly gathering of the Chinese Communist Party which is presently in session. But not so. And to prove it I want to introduce an item, un-orchestrated, un-announced and entirely mine own
When I first began to observe the deliberations of the General Synod, there was one man on whose words I hung. A master of the English language, he was also the undoubted star of the Catholic Group at a time when there were other giants in the land. He was an architect of the Synodical system, who sought to teach it, in the days of its youth, the ways of wisdom and self-restraint. He was unfailingly courteous, always courageous, and above all else clear, precise and to-the-point. He eloquently defended the position of those who opposed the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate over many years. More recently he served as one of the external assessors who offered trenchant but constructive criticism to the authors of Consecrated Women?
I refer, of course, Chairman, to Mr Oswald Clarke.
This Assembly and this movement owe more to him than I could ever express. I hope you will not think it out of order for me at this early stage in the Assembly’s deliberations to propose a heartfelt vote of thanks to him. I cannot move it myself – but you could. And can I suggest at the same time that we determine to give him a small gift as a sign of our affection and respect? Something elegant in glass – something Irish and eighteenth century would do the trick – and something equally elegant to put in it?
He is my hero of the faith; but he should be hailed as the hero of us all.
