THE P RTAL
July 2015
Railway
patrimony
Page 12
Anglican
News
The Revd Paul Benfield tell us about a recent ordination
Being an
Anglican clergyman I am interested in railways – this is Anglican patrimony! - and this
year I was determined to ride on the Welsh Highland Railway from Porthmadog to Caernarfon. Plans
were going well until I was informed of an ordination to take place in the very week that I was to be on holiday.
However, by a little rescheduling I was able to arrange a stopover in Liverpool on the way to North Wales, and
so attend the ordination to the priesthood of Daniel Howard.
It was a happy and wonderful evening and showed
the Church of England living out the Five Guiding
Principles and, in particular, the fifth principle which
states that pastoral and sacramental provision for the
minority within the Church of England will be made
without specifying a limit of time and in a way that
maintains the highest possible degree of communion
and contributes to mutual flourishing across the whole
However, since that Declaration states that ordination Church of England.
services should be planned and conducted in a way
This was a newly ordained priest being allowed to
that is consistent with the Five Guiding Principles
enshrined in the Declaration (which accept the flourish by being ordained in a manner which did not
legitimacy of the traditional Catholic understanding offend his conscience. This was a diocese flourishing
of Holy Order), and since the deacon to be ordained by acknowledging that we could not do everything
priest had theological convictions which led him to together, but that with thought and sensitivity we could
request that he be ordained by a bishop with whom be together, even if not in unimpaired communion.
he was in full communion, the Bishop of Liverpool
Of course, similar things were often achieved using
agreed that the Bi ͡