Southwark Vicar Appeals Removal of Licence Following Controversial Ordinations

The vicar at the centre of the Southwark diocese row following ‘irregular’ ordinations by a South African bishop has decided to appeal the decision by the Bishop of Southwark to remove his licence.

|TOP|Bishop Richard Coekin, minister of Dundonald Church in Wimbledon, was stripped of his licence by the Bishop of Southwark, the Rt. Rev. Tom Butler, after the ‘irregular’ ordinations of Andy Fenton and Richard Perkins by Bishop Martin Morrison from the Church of England in South Africa.

Mr Coekin said in his appeal to the Archbishop of Canterbury that his decision to ordain the men was justified on the grounds of a now existing Anglican sense of being in ‘impaired communion’ rather than ‘out of communion’, reports The Church of England Newspaper.

He added that he did not refuse canonical recognition to the Bishop of Southwark, but claimed that his authority was limited by canon.

“I have always recognised that he is the properly consecrated Bishop of Southwark which is why I have been writing to him,” wrote Mr Coekin.

“It needs to be recognised that if the removal of my licence is sustained then mine has been removed while other clergy, whose teaching is far removed from the 39 Articles to which I still hold, still hold theirs,” he argued.

|AD|The ordinations came as a result of differences with the Bishop of Southwark over his support for the House of Bishops’ Statement on Civil Partnerships. Speaking on behalf of himself and the two men, Rev. Coekin said, “it is obvious to us that this Bishops’ new statement on Civil Partnerships assumes the legitimising of gay sex.”

Rev. Coekin further defended the decision to ordain the men after failed requests to Rev. Butler to distance himself from the Bishops’ statement and to ordain the men himself.

He said: “If earlier he had found a way of ordaining our staff, we would not have needed to go further. Now, however, with our communion impaired, we looked elsewhere for the ordinations needed.”

The ordinations were attended by a number of evangelical leaders and supported by the conservative group Reform at their National Conference. The move was also supported by 500 in the congregation.

Rev. Coekin said: “I didn’t recruit all this support – it was volunteered because other evangelicals feel so strongly against the Bishops’ Statement on Civil Partnerships and agree with our stand.”

He added: “I have been asked to explain how I can, in conscience, disobey my diocesan bishop. I have done so with great reluctance and sadness.”

Rev. Coekin explained: “My obligation, as a Christian, is first to God and his Word and I feel bound, in conscience, to disobey my bishop where he asks me to do something contrary to the plain meaning of Scripture and especially where my interpretation is supported by history, by scholarship and by the vast majority of the Anglican Communion.”

Bishop Tom Butler said in a letter to Southwark clergy that church law requires bishops from outside a diocese to seek permission from the diocesan bishop to carry out any Episcopal acts. He said this was the primary reason for revoking Rev. Coekin’s licence.

Bishop Butler added that the situation was made more complicated by the fact that the CESA Bishop is outside the Anglican Communion.

The action was deemed “un-Anglican” by the Rev. Richard Jenkins, secretary of the liberal grouping Affirming Catholicism.