Letter: Implications of re-ordaining Anglican priests

Monday 26 April 1993 23:02 BST

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Sir: Michael Gedge's suggestion (Letters, 24 April) that it would be noble and generous for the Pope to offer 'conditional' reordination to all convert Anglican priests, without investigating in each case the validity of their previous priesthood, demonstrates the confusion inherent in much of the current debate about the Church.

If one accepts the spiritual significance of priestly orders at all, either one believes that those of the Church of England are 'utterly null and void' or one does not. To suggest that the problem Father Gedge identifies can be solved by a legalistic fiction constructed just to avoid having to confront awkward questions smacks of hypocrisy.

Yours faithfully,

MARTIN WOODRUFF

Barton, Cambridgeshire

24 April

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