HEN THE LAST TRUMP sounds, the history of the Anglo-Catholic movement in England - and I dare say elsewhere too - will be the history of various valiant societies, struggling sometimes against the inertia of the Church and its readiness to settle for something less than the Catholic Faith, fully celebrated. These societies - the Church Union, the Catholic League, Forward in Faith and so on - will be judged by the heavenly trumpeter on the day of doom to have done enormous work, encouraging the faithful, forming priests and spreading the Gospel. But when we all appear before the Son of Man, the Judge of the nations, I should not be at all surprised if he says to us, 'But why did you spend so much time and energy on competing with each other, one society with another?'

I suspect that quite a lot of this is about the human condition, rather than about Anglo-Catholicism. Political movements and other churches all have their competitive societies. There are the ancient religious orders - calced and discalced, good habits and no habits, major and minor.

You will all know of towns where there was rivalry between the Scouts and the Boys' Brigade, the Women's Institute and the Mothers' Union. And you will all know that there are basic similarities - where sociology reveals itself as the key discipline. I discovered this when, for some reason, I found myself in the company of a Liverpool branch of the Union of Catholic Mothers for Benediction. Culturally, sociologically, I could so easily have been at a meeting of the Mothers' Union enjoying a lantern slide talk about the life and work of Josephine Butler.

I think Catholic societies - and when I say 'Catholic' now I am back into that rather specialised use of the word whereby we mean 'Anglo-Catholic' - have sometimes consumed too much of our time and attention but, at their best, they have really carried forward the mission of the Church. Think, for instance, of the enormous amount that has been accomplished by the Society of the Holy Cross, in creating spiritual solidarity amongst priests. Think, too, of the accomplishments of Cost of Conscience and Forward in Faith - winning a place for so-called 'traditionalists' and, by a mixture of negotiation and polemic, ensuring that Anglo-Catholicism has not simply disintegrated amidst the disintegrating ecclesiology of the Church of England. I shall return later to that notion of 'disintegrating ecclesiology'.

Part of the claim of these societies is that each is the society to end societies. The Society of the Holy Cross, for instance, would like to be - and in many ways is - the society for priestly formation and solidarity. Forward in Faith made a bold attempt to be the umbrella for all Catholic societies. Meanwhile the Church Union, I am sure, remains puzzled that there needs to be any other society but itself. Should not a 'union' include everyone? It now seems odd to remember that in the early 1980s Catholics in the diocese in which I worked - Southwell - marketed themselves as 'Catholic Renewal' because 'Church Union' was thought to be too extreme and hard line. I remember organising a Catholic Renewal conference at Worksop Priory at that time. Well over half the clergy of a not very Catholic diocese attended and the main speaker was a Fr Hope, Vicar of All Saints', Margaret Street. I say this not to reminisce but to show how much has changed within our own culture in just twenty years. Twenty years ago we were mainstream. The pope was visiting these islands and reunion of Anglicans and Catholics seemed very possible. In such a reunion Anglo-Catholics would be pivotal. We understood - and often used - the Roman Liturgy but within the Anglican ethos of a territorially rooted parochial ministry which related to the needs not only of practising Anglicans but the General Public.

There are enormous cultural differences between Anglicans and Roman Catholics and some of the priests who went off for a re-spray have returned to the Church of England somewhat disillusioned. We have all met one or two of them. The cultural gap was just too big, or they were too de-skilled in the process, or the material part simply did not work out for them.

I was one of those who nearly went in 1994. I went to a Midlands version of 'Irish Dancing' but moved from the fast stream to the slow stream when I discovered the number of imponderables. How would I support my family? What provision would there be for my wife if I fell under a Roman bus? More particularly, would I be one of a handful of pioneers in a basically unsuccessful project or was this indeed 'the Catholic moment' when, as it were, Keble and Pusey would finally join Newman?

My own view - in retrospect - is that it was 'the Catholic moment' but that Catholic moments - like much else in God's Church - are measured not in days and weeks but in months and years. It was the beginning of the Catholic moment and I think we are still in that Catholic moment. We can still pray and hope that, for most of the twenty-first century, Anglo-Catholics will have been reconciled to Rome. The alternative, I believe, is to go backwards, to go into ecumenical retreat which, I believe, the Church of England has done, with regard to Rome and the Orthodox.

I am not sure how the Catholic moment will develop - which of us can foretell the future? - but I am fairly sure that the arrival of women bishops on the scene will be another catalyst. We must pray that this time we are ready. We must pray that this time Rome is ready. I shall flesh out some of my expectations and hopes about unity in a few minutes' time.

Meanwhile I want to look at a phrase I used earlier, 'disintegrating ecclesiology'. Someone confirmed for me recently a theory that I had already worked out for myself. The theory goes like this: Rome is troubled by women priests but not as troubled as she is by Porvoo. Ordaining women priests is, as Cardinal Ratzinger has called it, 'a theological error' but, by taking part in the creation of the Porvoo Communion, the Church of England has moved away significantly from the Anglo-Catholic ecclesiology that undergirded all its ecumenical relationships up to and including ARCIC. It has, so to say, a 'disintegrating ecclesiology'. None of this has happened without warning: opponents of the Church of South India scheme in the late 1940s, opponents of the Anglican-Methodist Conversations of the 1960s and opponents of the Covenanting proposals of the 1970s were all warning us about this 'disintegrating ecclesiology'. The truth is, it has not been the historic ecclesiology of the Church of England that has been disintegrating but a particular version of Anglican ecclesiology: what I have called an 'Anglo-Catholic ecclesiology'. Rome has noticed this and is troubled by it.

When I say 'disintegrating', I do not mean that it has disintegrated. The Church of England is embarrassed, I think, by the emerging reality of - or, at any rate, belief in - lay presidency within itself. It is embarrassed, I think, by clear signs that the Church of Norway continues to practise lay celebration and presbyterian ordination. As a member of the Anglican-Methodist Formal Conversations, I should be surprised if, ultimately, the Church of England is less generous to the Methodists, ecclesiologically, than it has been to the Norwegian Lutherans. To be fair, supporters of Hooker and of Reformed theology might see all this not as 'disintegrating ecclesiology' but as 're-integrating ecclesiology.' But to us it is disintegration.

As a young bishop - young in years and young by date of consecration (!) - I shall permit myself to see visions rather than dream dreams. I want to now give you that vision and to look at it in five headings:

1) Catholic lifestyle
2) Catholic clergy
3) Catholic women
4) Catholic parishes
5) Catholic worship.

I shall not be spending very long on any of the five topics. I hope that the topics, briefly touched on, will amount to a vision of what it will be like to be the Church in years to come.

Catholic lifestyle
There are lots of jokes about the Catholic lifestyle - 'gin, lace and backbiting' being the comment of friendly insiders and hostile outsiders alike. There is a much more telling lifestyle that the world needs to hear about and which we almost take for granted. That is the lifestyle of 'those who belong'. Our parish communities are not based on shared belief - though, please God, that grows and develops apace- but on belonging. There are all sorts of incentives to come to Mass - the parish lunch or the parish fireworks or the parish outing - but the Catholic lifestyle is already clear. Here is a group of people who come to Mass together.

We are all aware of the dangers. It can degenerate into a social club. Those who belong can repel all enquirers - using the word 'repel' in a more or less active sense. The Mass congregation can be a gathering of the weird: saints and fat heads, as the saying goes. The Mass congregation can easily turn itself into the university of the third age, where any youngster who comes along is immediately confirmed in the prejudice that religion is for the old. The obvious opportunities for youth - serving and singing - are ministries performed by those who have grown old doing them. There may be an acute shortage of men, or of anyone in the '25-55' bracket. The music of the Mass might be Radio 3 or 4 when the clientele might be better suited by Radio 2 or Classic FM. The ceremonial might take itself as seriously as Swan Lake when the visual effect is more Morecambe and Wise.

So far I am describing how things are. I think the 'Catholic lifestyle' needs to develop not only in the form of more rounded and comprehensive congregations - more 'catholic' congregations - but also in a more committed discipleship. A couple of examples of this. I remember sitting through the General Synod when a Leicester Diocesan Synod motion was successfully carried, committing the Church to boycott Nestlé products. I remember then going to Anglo-Catholic churches which on principle served Nescafé. The irony was that the original motion had come from a Catholic parish that was taking issues of Justice and Peace seriously. The Catholic lifestyle of the twenty-first century, I pray, will not see a split between 'right wing' Catholics with rosary beads and scapulars and 'left wing' Catholics with Justice and Peace agendas. The Catholic lifestyle, I pray, will include a radical Christian response to the environment, to peace, to racial justice, to the sanctity of life, to trade, to wealth creation. It will be a lifestyle of prayer and holiness, attractive alike for its focus, its centredness on God, its spiritual fruits, its infectious love.

In short, Catholics will recover their reputation for approaching life differently. It is not so very long that everyone knew that Catholics ate fish on Fridays and disapproved of abortion. The Catholic Enquiry Centre - with its course of booklets in plain envelopes - made an enormous impact. A distinctive lifestyle is possible - as we know from looking at the Muslims - and the role of that lifestyle evangelistically can be considerable. Much to be preferred to 'gin, lace and backbiting'. Talking about the Muslims, I stopped for petrol recently at Park Royal. Just behind the garage, where you stop for air and water, I saw two Muslims - youngsters in their late teens or early twenties. They took off their smart jackets and used them as prayer mats. It made an enormous impact on me. So does a true Catholic lifestyle whenever I meet it.

Catholic clergy
As everyone knows there is a shortage of priests in Catholic Europe and North America. The Roman Catholic Church has had to choose between a celibate, set-apart, clergy and lowering its ideals. We know stories about French priests nominally looking after twenty-seven parishes. Interestingly the number of priests, worldwide, continues to rise. Meanwhile we have suspicions that some of the Church of England's non-stipendiaries are not properly formed and trained. The managerial model is to make sure you have managers in place: poorly trained managers are better than no managers at all. It has to be said that, just as there is a corrective to the perception that Catholic priests are scarce, there is a corrective to the perspective that C of E non-stipendiaries are inadequate to the task. There are stories of non-stipendiaries bringing parishes to life that have long been served by uninspiring stipendiaries.

The Catholic principle of celibacy has been under attack. There are all those paedophile stories. There is agitation for gay men to be allowed to 'marry' their partners. There is the homophobia that is suspicious of the unmarried. Meanwhile there are signs that enforced celibacy can bring great loneliness and that we should look again at a more Celtic, Company of Mission Priests model, with single secular priests living together with mutual encouragement and up-building. Perhaps the clustering of priests and parishes will lead to new models of ministry.

As for the married clergy, 'the Roman Option' has already introduced the Roman Catholic Church Latin Rite to married priests. There are indications that the burden of wife and family is at least no more of a burden for a parish than the burden of a dysfunctional single priest. The ideal of celibacy remains and the notion of a parish priest who truly loves his people, like Christ loves his spouse the Church, is likely to remain normative in the West. Married priests might have an increased role - particularly as 'the Catholic moment' develops - but it has to be realised that there are also particular problems. Anglicans know that married priests can be as unfaithful, sometimes even as cruel, as husbands in the general population can be. They know too of the particular economic pressures that a married clergy puts on church life and the problems that clergy divorce and remarriage would pose for a Church that that does not admit the remarried to holy communion.

All this notwithstanding, my vision is of a priesthood that includes both married men and single men. I see the priesthood supported financially by the parishes with an agreed pattern of corporate subsidy for clergy in mission parishes. I see the parson's freehold disappearing for Catholic clergy - the Bishop needs to be able to move his men around (you would expect me to say that) - but in exchange for the freehold there would be the Roman Catholic notion of a place at table. In other words, there would be less security as regards particular jobs and posts - though there would have to be various contractual conventions not least to protect families - but more security as regards being looked after throughout one's working life.

One very good result of this would be that Anglo-Catholics, like Roman Catholics, would lose the career notions of preferment and plum posts. It would be increasingly up to the Bishop to ensure that an individual priest was well-used and well-supported and given an interesting and varied ministry. If this vision disconcerts you, remember that, as the current Church of England model of leasehold licences replaces freehold, clergy can no longer be guaranteed an income for life. The Catholic notion of a place in the household and a place at table finally gives more security.

Catholic women
I must say something about women. Here I would say three things, alas without enough time to develop any of them. First, I believe that there is - and we must find and develop - a distinctive ministry of women. Such a role is not - repeat not - that of priest. The priest presides sacramentally at a sacrificial offering that is as innately male in its primeval brutality as it is inclusive in its saving effects. You all know this! Second, we cannot and must not be asked to take responsibility for the marginalisation of women's ministry. Those in favour of women deacons and priests have argued that they are a gift to the universal Church. My own view is that the Anglican ordination of women priests and bishops has set back the cause of women's ministry in the universal Church by decades. There is evidence, that is to say, that both Rome and the Orthodox would have cautiously introduced women deacons had not Anglicans demonstrated so convincingly that to do so is the thin edge of the wedge.

As is often the case, the modern Western secular agenda has impeded progress elsewhere in the world. Third, it is at least possible that the Holy Spirit is showing us through a shortage of priests in some parts of the Church that there is a new pastoral and catechetical ministry for women. This is at least as good a reading of the meaning of the shortage as the more simplistic reading that we should be ordaining women priests. In my vision there will be many parishes presided over by women but, as we have seen in France, and increasingly in England too, there isn't a priest for every parish. Nor do I think there should be. What did all those village parsons do all day? One I was the organist for had three small villages and a full-time job as a schoolmaster on top of his incumbent's stipend.

Catholic parish
We turn now to what the Catholic parish will increasingly look like in the twenty-first century. There is the territorial model and the more Celtic notion of the Church as a 'city set on a hill' drawing people from far and wide. With the territorial model there is a church in every part of town and in every rural settlement. The Celtic mission model has far fewer churches but each is a beacon of light and a centre of excellence. The territorial model is the corner shop. The mission model is the superstore.

In my view the territorial model of the Church is likely to become more and more ecumenical - and rightly so. The churches will become more collaborative, less competitive. In a way, this will be no more than a development of the Anglican inclusiveness. We do not insist that there is a 'high', a 'low' and a 'middle of the road' church in every part of the country. Instead we have tended to encourage the traditions to complement each other in town. The most successful village churches have been those that recognise their ecumenical responsibilities.

In purely Anglican terms, then, the Catholic parish is likely to become even more the 'city set on a hill'. The job of a Provincial Episcopal Visitor - or at least this Provincial Episcopal Visitor - is not to 'capture' as many parishes as possible for the 'traditionalist' cause but to ensure that 'traditionalists' find a sympathetic church community within easy reach, the Celtic model. The Catholic parish, in Anglican terms, would continue to play its part within an increasingly ecumenical and federal parish structure - baptising young and old, marrying parishioners, visiting the sick, burying the dead. But (here is our boast) it would retain and exemplify the incarnational approach which, traditional Anglicans believe, lies at the heart of parish ministry.

If the Church of England becomes more clearly an ecumenical federation than a confessional communion, a full territorial network of Catholic parishes will nonetheless continue to exist. That network will be the network of the Catholic hierarchy of England and Wales with whom Anglo-Catholics, as the 'Catholic moment' develops, might have a new relationship. At this point the vision becomes arguably more fanciful.

I am not as sure as some are about a 'Free Province' or 'uniate' status. As regards the first, there seems to me to be too much parliamentary time required - not too mention an unusual amount of good will. As regards the second, however culturally distinct Anglo-Catholics are, they are often not very distinct at all as regards rite used. Mind you, here I have a story. When I was a parish priest, of a church dedicated to St John the Evangelist, I used to have a Sunday night meeting for the young married couples who were part of the congregation. The group was called 'Latin Gate' and it just happened that all the married couples were of mixed religious background. Not only that but one of each couple was a Roman Catholic. (The fact that the group was called 'Latin Gate' was a co-incidence). I remember asking all the Roman Catholics whether they felt that St John's was very like the churches from which they had come. Naturally I hoped they would say that it was. I was quite upset when they all of one accord said that it was very different.

- What about the lectionary, the candles, the incense, the vestments?
- No, very different.
- What's the difference?
- Everyone at St John's is there because they want to be. In the Catholic Church people are there because they feel they ought to be.

What I should like to see is an ecumenical experiment which involves Anglo-Catholic churches and congregations remaining part of an ecumenical and mainly Anglican parish system but becoming part also of the Roman Catholic parish system. On their own they would be, as it were, Celtic. As part of the ecumenical network they would be, as it were, territorially Anglican. As part of the Roman Catholic network they would be territorially Catholic.

How we arrive at this, as regards conditional ordination and re-ordination, I am not sure, but by now we have some experience, not least through the blurring of edges in Local Ecumenical Projects. The management of buildings could be done perhaps via sharing or nominal hiring agreements, based on peppercorn rents and maintenance undertakings. The financial side would work best where congregations were self-sufficient or benefited from an agreed subsidy as missions. The biggest problem would be the status of those who were unhappy about the new arrangements or who were effectively unchurched by Roman Catholic marriage disciplines. That in itself might limit the number of churches that were able to take part in the experiment.

Increasingly parish priests will hold parishes in plurality.

As I have already said, it seems to me most important to maintain the standard of the priesthood - indeed the Catholic sense of the priest being sent to the parish rather than emerging from it. This means, in my view, that we shall be dusting down our copies of John Tiller's A Strategy for the Church's Ministry of 1983. I can see stipendiary priests becoming diocesan priests - travelling overseers, sharing the bishop's episcope. Having done quite a bit of this travelling myself, I can see the virtues of the itinerant ministry especially since, for priests, it would be travelling round a few parishes and not half the country. This seems to me to allow for local non-priestly leadership to emerge and flourish and, indeed, to encourage an authentic blossoming of women's ministry.

It is also worth stating that the model of pastoral care on offer in a multi-benefice cure would be an innately molecular one, rather like the large evangelical church where its midweek groups, each presided over by a lay pastor, come together for a Sunday service, presided over by an ordained pastor. This model is not as uneucharistic as it may seem. At the feeding of the five thousand, Matthew and John have them all sitting down together but Mark and Luke have them sitting down in companies. One of the weaknesses of the contemporary Church is that it does not provide proper support at each of the levels - individual, domestic, small group, large group. Large churches sometimes omit the domestic and small group levels. Small churches sometimes give no experience of the larger group.

Catholic worship
The last part of my vision for a vigorous twenty-first century Catholic tradition is a renewed liturgy. I believe in what is often called 'reform of the reform'. The Novus Ordo and its various Anglican equivalents are on the right lines ritually, that is to say, with regard to what is said. There is more work to be done on a good vernacular version of the Roman Catholic order but most of the work, I believe, is to be done on ceremony and music. Within the tradition there are considerable riches to be regained. No task is more urgent in an unbelieving world, if the Church really is to be a city set on a hill. Anglo-Catholics need to hang on to - in fact develop - the Missa Solemnis tradition. One of the glories of our movement is that our congregations still have a main celebration of the eucharistic feast and not a running buffet.

Throughout this talk I have been aware of skating over whole areas which demand proper examination and discussion. I hope that I have prompted some questions about the changing fortunes of Anglo-Catholicism and the emerging 'Catholic moment'. I hope too that I have said something vaguely provocative and helpful about Catholic lifestyle, Catholic clergy, Catholic women, Catholic parishes and Catholic worship as you and I become more immersed in the Church of Christ in the 21st Century.

+Andrew Burnham
Weston-super-Mare, November 9th 2002

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