Forward in Faith
Mission
We affirm the Faith of the Church as revealed in Scripture and Tradition.
We proclaim our Faith through the Creeds, the Sacraments and the Apostolic ministry of bishops, and priests of the Universal Church.
We seek a guaranteed ecclesial structure in which we can pass the Faith on to our children and grandchildren.
We have vision for unity and truth and we are going Forward in Faith.
About
Forward in Faith is a worldwide association of Anglicans who are unable in conscience to accept the ordination of women as priests or as bishops.
Forward in Faith is opposed to the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate for three simple reasons.
- First, it is a practice contrary to the scriptures as they have been consistently interpreted by the two thousand year tradition of the churches of both East and West.
- Second, we hold that the ordination of women by individual provinces of the Anglican Communion, without inter-provincial agreement or consensus, is a schismatic act, impairing communion between provinces by subverting the interchangeability and mutual recognition of orders between them.
- Third, mindful of the unity for which Our Lord prayed on the night before he died, we are bound to repudiate an action which has willfully placed a new and serious obstacle in the way of reconciliation and full visible unity between Anglicans and the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches.
Personal Ordinariate
Keeping up to date
Much has been written and spoken about the offer of the Holy Father for traditional Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church, whilst maintaining some Anglican traditions, as part of a "Personal Ordinariate".
No decisions are being made immediately - it is of course a personal consideration to made after much thought and prayer. In order to make a proper informed decision I have included here a number of links and documents which may be useful, although the Forward in Faith web site described above is clearly an excellent place to start.
Links & documents
The original offer on the Vatican web site can be found by clicking here.
The response from the Church of England can be found by clicking here.
The response from Forward in Faith can be found by clicking here, and a fuller statement from the Bishop of Fulham by clicking here.
Bishop Martyn of Beverley took a question and answer session at the Forward in Faith celebration in Wakefield Cathedral on 7th November 2009. Bishop Martyn's thoughts can be found on his web site by clicking here.
Most recently, a group has been established, called Friends of the Personal Ordinariate, to signify interest in the Anglicanorum Coetibus. There is no commitment in joining this group, but they will send email updates of its progress, as well as keeping a list of useful documents. Click here for more information.