Mixed reactions to appointment of flying bishops

The Rev Jonathan Baker and the Rev Norman Banks will be consecrated as Bishop of Ebbsfleet and Bishop of Richborough respectively at a service at Southwark Cathedral on June 16.

Part of their responsibility as episcopal visitors will be to ensure that “the integrity of differing beliefs and positions concerning the ordination of women to the priesthood should be mutually recognised and respected".

Their appointment follows the departure of the previous flying bishops, Keith Newton and Andrew Burnham, who joined the ordinariate in the Catholic Church in January along with 900 other Anglicans disillusioned with the Church of England over its commitment to women bishops.

Announcing the appointment of Baker and Banks today, Dr Williams said: “They are taking up a very demanding pastoral ministry at a time of much upheaval and uncertainty, and will need our prayers and friendship as we work in the Church of England for a future in which there is full mutual respect and constructive work in mission to be undertaken together.”

Forward in Faith welcomed the appointments in a statement, saying they would lay the foundations of a “permanent and equitable provision” for traditionalists in the Church of England.

“Forward in Faith is particularly grateful that the Archbishop of Canterbury has, by these appointments, demonstrated his confidence in a real future in the Church of England for traditionalists who are unable in conscience to receive the ordination of women as priests or bishops,” it said.

Anglo-Catholic group the Society of the Holy Cross said the appointments of Baker and Banks would bring “joy and a renewed sense of confidence to many, who will look to them to give to the whole of the Church of England an understanding and recognition of its Catholic identity”.

“We are grateful to the Archbishop of Canterbury for all the trouble and care he has taken over recent months to secure this happening. The Church of England will indeed be fortunate to have two such good pastors in its episcopate,” it said.

Women and the Church (WATCH) said, however, that it was “deeply disappointed” by the appointment of Baker and Banks.

“They will be bishops who do not recognise women as priests, and oppose the appointment of women as bishops,” the group said in a statement.

“The vast majority of people inside and outside the Church of England want to see the Church led by women as well as men.

“The risk of these two appointments is that they will haul us back to a position where women priests and bishops are ‘nearly but not quite’ on a par with their male colleagues.”