On Oct 29 the synod of the Traditional Anglican Communion in Great Britain endorsed a resolution thanking the Pope for his “forthcoming Apostolic Constitution allowing the corporate reunion of Anglicans with the Holy See, and requests the Primate and College of Bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion to take the steps necessary to implement this Constitution.”

The assembly asked that the former Anglican Bishop of Matabeleland, the Rt Rev Robert Mercer CR be appointed the Vatican’s ordinary in Great Britain.

However, on Oct 28 the Diocese of Sydney’s synod adopted a resolution urging “all Anglicans to reject the Vatican’s proposal.” While the Communion’s largest evangelical diocese has worked closely with its Roman Catholic counterpart on social issues for many years, the doctrinal divisions between Calvinists and Roman Catholics are too great to be overcome by a common distaste for the agenda of liberal Anglicanism, a member of the Sydney standing committee told Religious Intelligence.

The Bishop of Recife, the Rt Rev Robinson Cavalcanti on Nov 2 observed the “crisis which Anglicanism currently faces will not be solved by returning to the other side of the river Tiber, but by crossing the bridge of the river Cam(bridge), to get back to the impassioned debates of the White Horse Tavern” and historic Anglicanism.

“We must become more, not less Protestant. Reformation, yes: Rome, no!” Dr Cavalcanti said.

The Rev Rod Thomas, chairman of Reform, on Oct 20 stated that Anglicans concerned about protecting the faith “need not go to Rome because we now have the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans which holds together those who want to stop the orthodox faith being eroded.”

He noted that if a clergyman was “really are out of sympathy with the C of E’s doctrine, as opposed to the battles we are having over women’s ministry and sexuality, then perhaps it is better they make a clean break and go to Rome.” On Nov 9 the Church Society released a statement saying the “proper rejection of theological liberalism” did not lead to a “turning to the Church of Rome and its unbiblical teachings and practices.

“Theological liberalism and the unscriptural teachings and practices of the Church of Rome are contrary to the Bible and to the historic doctrines of the Church of England as a Protestant, Reformed, Evangelical and catholic church,” the Council of the Church Society declared.

In his November 3 letter to the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba said: “It is hard to judge what precisely is intended by this move [of Benedict’s], at whom it is directed, or what the implications are likely to be for our own Province and people. When we know more, I will certainly write and share my response with you, though at present it seems there will be no major effect on us in Southern Africa.”

The Anglican Bishop of Spain, the Rt Rev Carlos Lopez-Lozano, criticized the Vatican for trying to take advantage of the internal debates within the Anglican Communion for its own benefit. In a statement released to the press, Bishop Lopez Lozano noted that from the 19th Century to the present “the Church of Rome has been trying to absorb the greatest possible number of Anglican faithful and churches.”

However, the defection to Rome of those Anglicans enamored with Roman Catholicism would in the end help the Anglican Church as it would “deepen our own identity and Anglican vocation.

While the Anglican Church in Malaysia had a good working relationship with the Roman Catholic Church, “merger is another question” altogether, Bishop Ng Moon Hing told the UCAN news agency.

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