Behold, how good and joyful a thing it is,
brethren, to dwell together in unity!
It is like the precious ointment upon the head,
that ran down unto the beard, even unto Aaron's beard,
and went down to the skirts of his clothing,
like as the dew of Hermon,
which fell upon the hill of Sion.
For there the Lord promised his blessing,
and life for evermore.

Psalm 133 Ecce, quam bonum!

WHEN I WAS a cathedral chorister, I was intrigued by the installation of canons. One ritual was the putting on of the ermine-trimmed mozzetta, a curiously high church custom in a rather low church cathedral. Another ritual was the singing to plainchant, in a dark Chapter House, of Psalm 133. For a small boy, 'precious ointment upon the head, that ran down unto the beard, even unto Aaron's beard' was mysterious and unintelligible. And, as for 'the skirts of his clothing', that made Aaron sound like some kind of transvestite, an Old Testament Danny La Rue. The dew of Hermon sounded very poetic but it was only years later that I realised that the dew from Mount Hermon, on the border of Lebanon and Syria, a plentiful source of water in a dry land, was unlikely to fall on 'the hill of Sion', if by 'Sion' is meant Jerusalem. And why would Psalm 133 mean 'Mount Sirion (that is, Hermon)' as its called in the Book of Deuteronomy (4:48), if this a Song of the Ascents, sung at the Jerusalem Temple? Does 'ascents' refer to the Temple steps where the levites sang? Or is it about musical pitch? Or is it about Jews returning from exile in Babylon and 'ascending' to the Temple?

But let us emerge from schoolboy reflection and nerdish exegesis and see this psalm as expressing the unity of priests and levites, with Aaron the High Priest. That is, in the New Covenant, the unity of priests and deacons with their bishop. The anointing of hair and beard was customary grooming for prosperous men in the ancient world, a declaration of his gentility, his 'anointedness'. For us, a sealing with chrism is an anointing with the perfume of the Christ, the Anointed One. As John Chrysostom says, it is the oil for the athlete in the Lord's service.

Behold. how good and joyful a thing it is, brethren, to dwell together in unity! So, to cut to the chase, how united are we? Priests and levites with the High Priest? Priests and deacons with your bishop? I fear that we are in some disarray. The good ship Ebbsfleet has hit something of a sandbank. Let me try to recover for you the vision, before I speak a little about how I see the horizon. This is my tenth Chrism Mass homily and something of a landmark on the voyage. Bishop John Richards, first Bishop of Ebbsfleet, pursued a particular policy, bringing in as many priests and parishes as he could into the care of the PEV, and counting every resolution passed - A, B, or so-called C - a bonus in the battle for the Church of England and every resolution lost a set-back in the recovery of Orthodoxy. That was the strategy - for the first four years. And the constituency certainly grew. We were still hoping for the Church of England to live up to its promises, to appoint men from our midst to high office. As we know, such appointments were small in number, and, with the honourable exception of the present Bishop of Manchester, almost always made by bishops who themselves held traditionally Orthodox positions.

By the time Bishop Michael Houghton began work in 1998, it was clear that the future for Ebbsfleet would never be that of a pressure group, restoring Orthodoxy to an erring Church. What was needed, and the rhetoric of the 'Free Province' increasingly supported this, was the re-launch of Ebbsfleet - and the other flying bishoprics - as embryonic local churches, dioceses-in-the making. Michael had done some work on this but he was taken tragically from us in December 1999, barely a year after he began his wonderful ministry. It was an itinerant ministry with many early mornings and many late nights. Bishop John came out of retirement after Michael died, to keep the show on the road, and, pursuing his old policies, I think his exhaustion contributed to his early death too. When I began work in November 2000, and after crash landing on Christmas Day, going from Midnight Mass almost straight to hospital and not recovering any energy until midway through 2001, it seemed important - a matter of life and death even - to pace things slowly. Go for a longer game. Not to rush hither and thither but steadily and systematically cover the area, supporting the travel, three or four days a week, with good modern electronic communications. But, more to the point, I saw the need to continue Michael's vision of Ebbsfleet as the embryo of a diocese, a local church in the making.

We called it, as you know, an 'apostolic district'. Those with a historical hinterland knew that an 'apostolic district' - nowadays called in Catholic Canon Law an 'apostolic administration' - is an area looking to develop into a 'local church', a 'diocese'. I deliberately avoided the term 'apostolic administration' because the very thing we have lacked was jurisdiction, responsibility for our own affairs. The 'See of Ebbsfleet', as Bishop Michael began to call it, has been constantly attacked. Affirming Catholicism campaigned against us calling ourselves a 'See'. One bishop, told how well Ebbsfleet was organising itself for ministry and mission, said 'we'll soon put an end to that'. We were attacked for organising ourselves into area deaneries, with Council of Priests, Lay Council, and Lay Congress. It had to be explained that this strategy had been encouraged by successive Archbishops of Canterbury, who recognised that the more coherent we were, and pastorally well-placed, the more we would be able to get on with evangelisation and catechesis. And in these areas too there have been things to be proud of. We have had our successes with Alpha and other courses, with significant numbers of adult converts. We have given away well over 500 handsome copies of the slightly modernised Second Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version to those confirmed in the last couple of years.Money has never been in short supply for this.We have gathered together children and young people in large numbers, year after year, for the Ebbsfleet Eucharistic Festival at Brean Sands, and every year until now run a Parish Evangelism Weekend for a new generation of leaders.We have gathered catechetical resources on our internet site and the proper use of teaching materials is beginning to replace the chat in the Vicar's study as a way of catechesis.Yes, Ebbsfleet was beginning to sail fair, after nearly sixteen years, ten of which I have been privileged to be in post.

At the time of writing, there are stories that the Legislative Drafting Committee, which is to report to the General Synod in July 2010, will be seeking to abolish the See of Ebbsfleet. We have reached a point where trust has never been in such short supply and it is at this moment that traditionalists are being asked to forego formal structures in a future with women bishops and trust the Church of England. In the meantime, we have all been wrestling with a new situation, the offer of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, of an Ordinariate for England and Wales, to which we could belong. This is uncharted water, and has understandably provoked much anxiety and hasty reaction - uncritical favour 'for' and bilious anger 'against'. In one sense, it is exactly what Forward in Faith was asking the General Synod for: a 'free province' with the freedom to pursue its own ecumenical future, a future that the Church of England as a whole had made secondary to its determination to open the episcopate to women. The Ordinariate would be an 'advance party', a group of pioneers, seeking to build on the Catholic movement of these last hundred and fifty years and build bridges from Canterbury to Rome. None of us knows quite how all this is going to play out, and what its impact will be on ARCIC, about to enter its third phase.

What we seem to be facing is a choice between re-investing in the Church of England, our present home, and 'going home to Rome', believing in RITA, that Rome IS the answer. Being in the Church of England means abiding by its canons, being faithful to its liturgies, and accepting whatever provision is made for traditional believers, however unsatisfactory it may seem. It means paying the quota, taking part in deanery chapters, and continuing to invest time and energy in the synodical processes, not only this July but, more crucially in the next quinquennium, starting with the elections for General Synod this autumn. That is a direction in which many of us will steer, for good and conscientious reasons, and I want to enable and encourage this, while ever I can.

And what about the other direction in which some will choose to steer? As I said in my April pastoral letter:

'the questions every Anglo-catholic need to ask are (1) 'is our understanding of the Church, her Faith, her Orders, and her Sacraments possible within the Church of England? and (2) is it possible (however unlikely it may seem) that the whole of the Church of England will embrace that understanding of the Church, her Faith, her Orders, and her Sacraments? If the answer to either question is 'no', then the Church of England is not part of the Catholic Church as we understand it to be and we Anglo-catholics ought to do all we can to become 'Anglican Catholics', that is, sign up one by one, but in our natural groupings, for the emerging Ordinariate.'

It may well be that the vision of the Good Ship Ebbsfleet this last ten years is now coming to an end - not brought to an end by us, but by Anglican agony and Roman response. I pray that, when I go, I shall have a successor, someone who can give a different vision and lead those who remain in a different direction. I pray too that those who respond to the Ordinariate invitation never forget the Ebbsfleet experience, of learning to live a coherent Catholic ecclesial life within the See of Ebbsfleet. I pray they will never forget their Anglican roots and maintain their friendship with, and support for, those who remain in the Catholic movement of the Church of England. In short, here is a new opportunity for charity, an opportunity to celebrate and respect difference. There have always been two views amongst Anglo-catholics: the so-called Cyprianic view, shared with the Orthodox, that every diocese is complete in itself, with the fullness of the apostolic ministry. Many Anglo-catholics have seen that - and some continue to see it - as a reason not to seek unity with Rome as that Church organises itself. The other view is that the ministry of Peter, the ministry of the Pope, is of such fundamental importance that an invitation from Peter to come into full communion cannot be ignored. Whichever of these views you hold - and many of us are still thinking things through - I hope that the traditional Maundy Thursday text with which I shall end will serve as a reminder of the need for us to love and support one another, however things turn out.

Where charity and love are, there God is.
The love of Christ has gathered us into one flock.
Let us exult, and in him be joyful.
Let us fear and let us love the living God.
And from a sincere heart let us love each other (and him).

Where charity and love are, there God is.
Therefore, whensoever we are gathered as one:
Lest we in mind be divided, let us beware.
Let cease malicious quarrels, let strife give way.
And in the midst of us be Christ our God.

Where charity and love are, there God is.
Together also with the blessed may we see,
Gloriously, thy countenance, O Christ our God:
A joy which is immense, and also approved:
Through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

Ubi caritas et amor

The Bishop of Ebbsfleet
Bishop's House, Dry Sandford, Abingdon, OXON OX13 6JP
Tel: +44 (0) 1865 390746

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