The See of Ebbsfleet
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The Rt Rev'd Andrew Burnham SSC
The Rt Rev'd Andrew Burnham SSC,
Bishop of Ebbsfleet

LIFE & MISSION IN THE
SEE OF EBBSFLEET

CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE'S EUCHARISTIC FESTIVAL

Brean Leisure Park
- Saturday June 7th


A great day out for young people of the See of Ebbsfleet, with worship beginning with Mass and ending with Benediction and fun during the day in Brean leisure park.

CLICK HERE to download a Booking form.
CLICK HERE to download a Poster.
NB. If you have a slow or troublesome Internet connection, the poster can be difficult to download.


EBBSFLEET EXTRA

CLICK HERE to download the May 2008 issue of Ebbsfleet Extra, a monthly newsletter for the See of Ebbsfeet, incorporating the Bishop's monthly Pastoral Letter and news about the life of the See.

This file is provided for double-sided printing and binding as a booklet. If you would like a single-sided copy with the pages numbered sequentially, please email the Webmaster.


STATIONAL MASSES

of Chrism

St Paul, Charlestown
Fri March 14th, 11.30am

Holy Nativity, Knowle
Sat March 15th, 11.30am

Pusey House, Oxford
Tues March 18th, 7.30pm

St James, Wednesbury
Weds March 19th, 11.30am

St Anne, Derby
Thurs March 20th, 11.30am

Paschal
All Saints, Weston-super-Mare
Tues April 29th, 7.30pm

Birmingham
Thurs May 1st 7.30pm

SS Mary & Giles, Stony Stratford
Sat May 10th, 10.30am
 


More Ebbsfleet Events

Bishop Andrew's Diary


The Bishop of Ebbsfleet's Pastoral Letter - May 2008

St Dunstan’s Day 2008

HOSE WHO look to the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, and other traditionalist bishops, have a variety of views on the ordination of women as bishops and priests. Some say that such ordinations are ‘for ever impossible’. Some say that they are impossible until the churches of East and West, from whom and with whom we share our Catholic Faith and Order, agree to take this step. Others cheerfully accept the orders of women bishops and priests but find coherent Catholic Faith and vigour in Anglicanism only within the traditionalist Anglo-Catholic community. Others belong to us because they ‘just do’: none of these matters concern them or interest them.

On 19th May I am asking everyone who looks to me to join in a Day of Prayer. Different parishes will do it in different ways: here a vigil before the Blessed Sacrament, there a special Mass and a good deal of praying at home. On that day, St Dunstan’s Day, the Bishops will meet at Market Bosworth to begin discussion of the Manchester Report. What will the Manchester Report tell us and how will the Bishops in May and the General Synod in July react to it? It will be an attempt to find a framework in which women can be ordained bishop in the Church of England without causing an exodus of traditionalists who cannot accept that such ordinations are possible within a Catholic framework. In other words, it will seek to provide us with an ongoing framework for Catholic Order within a rather looser Anglican family.

Was the diocesan bishop (one who himself ordains women priests) right when he said that, in 1992, the Church of England decided finally that it was a Protestant Church? Certainly much hinges on what you think the General Synod can and cannot legitimately decide. Could it alter the Bible? Could it change the Creeds? Could it modify the Sacraments? If the answer to these is ’no’, then it probably can no more admit women to Holy Order on its own authority than it could change wine for beer in Holy Communion or swap cough linctus for olive oil in the Sacrament of the Sick. It’s a matter of authority not logical argument: there are very good reasons for editing the Bible – for instance putting the books in better chronological order, or omitting a book or two altogether – but logic alone doesn’t give us authority to do it.

The Pope has publicly expressed his admiration for a national Church which, though it is ‘nonsensical’ to extend ’the majority principle to questions of doctrine’ and entrust ‘doctrinal decisions to…national churches’, ‘consciously admits bishops who are not for women’s ordination and who provide a sort of refuge for the Catholic part of Anglicanism.’ He goes on to say that ‘a strong Catholic potency has always remained in Anglicanism, and it is becoming very visible again in the present crisis’ (Salt of the Earth, Ignatius Press 1997, p 145). That this may be so and that we may discern ever more clearly our ecumenical vocation, as I said in the Chrism Mass sermon this year, we must ‘Watch and pray’. On 19th May and thereafter. May God bless us and reveal his will to us as we seek that Unity which Christ wills.

+Andrew

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

08/05/2008 - Ebbsfleet Extra - June NEW!
08/05/2008 - Pastoral letter for June NEW!
07/05/2008 - Ebbsfleet Parishes in Area V - Bath & Wells, Bristol, Gloucester and Salisbury
04/05/2008 - Home page
01/04/2008 - Ebbsfleet Extra - May
01/04/2008 - Pastoral letter for May

(Site Relaunched November 27th AD2002)

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This page was last updated on February 2nd AD2008

The Bishop of Ebbsfleet
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