Nov 19, 2010 / 12:41 pm
Five Anglican bishops who announced earlier this month that they are quitting the Church of England, will be the first to join a new “personal ordinariate” established by the bishops of England and Wales this coming January.
The bishops unveiled their plans for the new ordinariate, or jurisdiction, in a Nov. 19 statement.
They said that Pope Benedict XVI will formally establish the ordinariate and name a bishop to lead it in early January 2011.
Pope Benedict invited Anglicans to join the Church last year under special provisions that would enable them to retain their own forms of worship and their tradition of permitting married priests.