
The Rt Rev'd Andrew Burnham SSC,
Bishop of Ebbsfleet
LIFE &
MISSION IN THE
SEE OF EBBSFLEET
EBBSFLEET & RICHBOROUGH LENT APPEAL
Diocese of Ho, Ghana
Our Lent Appeal this year is for the very poor Diocese of Ho, Ghana, whose bishop, Bishop Matthias, has links with Ebbsfleet and Richborough. Please be generous: we are trying to provide them with a Four-Wheel Drive vehicle to cover very difficult terrain. Canon Bernard Dagnall formerly of Newbury is Bishop Matthias’ Commissary.
Please make cheques out to the Bishop of Ebbsfleet’s Mission Fund and write Ho Lent Appeal on the back of the cheque to ensure that transactions are properly accountable and audited.
In the media ...
January 20th - Bishop Andrew interviewed for the BBC
News web site
EBBSFLEET EXTRA
CLICK HERE to download
the February 2010 issue of Ebbsfleet Extra, a monthly newsletter for the
See of Ebbsfleet, incorporating the Bishop's monthly Pastoral Letter and news
about the life of the See.
(B&W version)
February 22nd Day of Prayer on the Feast of the Chair of St Peter
Resources
General Information & Prayers
Morning & Evening Prayer (with Benediction) (BCP texts)
These can be obtained as booklets from the Additioanl Curates Society. They are free of charge but cost the See of Ebbsfleet 60p per copy requested. Please keep your requests to what is absolutely necessary. Supporting donations should be sent to the Bishop's Office.
Ebbsfleet Chrism Masses 2010
Saturday March 27th @ 11.30am
Holy Nativity, Knowle
Tuesday March 30th @ 11.30am
St John, New Hinksey, Oxford
directions
Wednesday March 31st @ 11.30am
St James, Wednesbury
Priests and people in the South West are invited to attend the Plymouth
Chrism Mass which is to be celebrated by Bishop John Ford, Bishop of Plymouth
on Wednesday March 31st at 7.00pm at St Peter, Plymouth
Paschal Stational Masses
Tuesday May 4th @ 7.00pm
St Mary, Bathwick
Wednesday May 12th @ 7.00pm
St Paul, Charlestown
Tuesday May 18th @ 7.00pm
Coventry
Thursday May 20th @ 7.00pm
Birmingham
Ebbsfleet Young People's Eucharistic
Festival
Saturday June 12th
Brean Lesiure Park, Somerset

CLICK HERE for further details
Press Release from the Holy See on the Publication of
Anglicanorum Coetibus
FULL TEXT
Anglicanorum coetibus
Apostolic Constitution Providing for
Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans Entering into Full Communion with the
Catholic Church
FULL TEXT
Complementary Norms
Complementary Norms for the Apostolic Constitution
Anglicanorum coetibus
FULL TEXT
The Significance of the Apostolic Constitution
Anglicanorum Coetibus
Fr Gianfranco Ghirlanda SJ, Rector of the
Pontifical Gregorian University
FULL TEXT
Statement by the Bishops of Ebbsfleet & Richborough on
the Apostolic Constitution on a Personal Ordinariate for former
Anglicans
WE WARMLY WELCOME news on Tuesday 20th
October of the forthcoming publication of a Apostolic Constitution outlining a
fresh initiative in the search for Unity with the Holy See which many Anglicans
in the Catholic tradition have prayed for and pursued. ...
CLICK HERE to read more
More
Ebbsfleet Events
Bishop Andrew's Diary
|
The Bishop of Ebbsfleet's Pastoral Letter - February 2010
Anglo-Catholics & the See of Peter
NGLO-CATHOLIC is one of those labels which proves so tricky to define. It nearly always gets changed to 'high church' by the media, who mean by it people who like 'smells and bells', 'fancy' worship rather than 'plain' worship. The first people to use the term, however, the 'Tractarians', were not especially interested in bells, and would certainly not have burned incense. Back in 1838, the first use of the term in English, the emphasis was on the continuity of the Church of England with the Church of apostolic times. The Church, the Tractarians said, was a divine society and not an instrument of the state. The ministry of the Church and her sacraments were holy, catholic, and apostolic.
There was an early division among the Tractarians, what was called a 'parting of friends'. Some, notably John Henry Newman, were led by their theological explorations to become Roman Catholics. Others, notably John Keble and Edward Bouverie Pusey, took refuge in the 'Branch Theory', the idea that Rome, Constantinople (the Orthodox), and Canterbury were all ancient churches, sharing the ministry of bishop, priest, and deacon, descended from the apostles, and the sacraments, ordained by Christ. Tragically divided, in human terms, these 'branches', the Anglo-Catholics said, were nonetheless branches of the One Vine, in a way that Methodists and Baptists, say, were not (because they have no bishops and a different view of sacraments).
Throughout the twentieth century there was a continuing exploration of what it might take for the main 'branches' to recognise one another. Rome have talked to the Orthodox. Anglicans have talked to Rome, and to the Orthodox. In addition there have been extensive dialogues and conversations with churches of the Reformation, what we tend to call 'nonconformists'. Since 1966, when Archbishop Michael Ramsey and Pope Paul VI met in Rome, there has been particular enthusiasm for ARCIC - the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission - and we were never more optimistic about reunion in the West than in 1982, when Pope John Paul II and Archbishop Robert Runcie knelt together to pray in Canterbury Cathedral. In 1995 the Pope issued an Encyclical Letter, Ut Unum Sint ('That they may all be one' [John 17]), inviting Christians separated from Rome to explain just what they required to change before they were re-united with the Holy See.
The latest initiative, Anglicanorum Coetibus, this year, is yet another invitation from the Holy See to Anglicans to return in groups. Our day of prayer on 22nd February, the Chair of Peter, is our opportunity to think about this, in the company of Our Lord himself, and, where possible, with Roman Catholics. It is not a day of decision but a day of prayer. Though it is addressed to Anglicans in general, the particular focus of Anglicanorum Coetibus is, of course, Anglo-Catholics. We are the ones who have longed for the re-union of the Catholic Church. We are the ones who, with candles, and devotions, and incense, and music, and prayers, and vestments have got as close as we can to Roman Catholic practice. That's the 'high church' bit. More important, we are the ones who in matters of faith and morals - what we believe about the Gospel, the Creeds, the Ministry, and the Sacraments - and how we live - have always claimed to be 'Catholic'. Do we mean it? And, if we do, what
do we do about it? Individually and in groups. That's what we are saying our prayers about.
May the prayers of Our Lady of Walsingham, St Thérèse and John Henry Newman assist us as we seek to discover and build unity in the Church of Jesus Christ.

This pastoral letter may be downloaded as a PDF file for display purposes by
clicking here,
or as an RTF file for easy copy-and-pasting into pew sheets and parish
magazines by clicking
here.
Pastoral Letters from previous months can be accessed by clicking here.
Most-recently
updated pages
03/02/2010 - Forthcoming events of interest
03/02/2010 - Home page
02/02/2010 - Brean Children & Young People's Eucharistic Festival 2010 
02/02/2010 - Bishop Andrew's Pastoral Letter for March 2010 - Sing a New Song to the Lord 
02/02/2010 - Ebbsfleet Extra - March 2010 (B&W version) 
02/02/2010 - Plainsong Gospel Acclamations for Lent - PDF (courtesy NLM) 
(Site Relaunched November 27th
AD2002)
NB. This panel refers only to new and updated
content, and does not include amendments to the coding of the
site.
SITE MAP
|