Monsignor Edwin Barnes
Former bishop who left the Anglican Church over women’s ordination and became a Catholic priest
MONSIGNOR EDWIN BARNES, who has died aged 84, was a highly regarded and influential Anglican priest and bishop from 1960 until his retirement in 2001. Ten years later, however, he declared his church to be no longer part of the holy apostolic church it claimed to be, and together with his wife he was received into the Roman Catholic Church.
The primary reason for his move was the ordination of women to the priesthood on which the Church of England had embarked in 1994. He was always strongly opposed to this but, as he explained later, he had been prepared to tolerate it in the expectation, or hope, that it would prove to be no more than a temporary experiment.
He was nonetheless ready to be appointed in 1995 as the first Suffragan Bishop of Richborough, one of three bishoprics specially created to provide episcopal ministry for parishes that were unwilling to accept the care of diocesan bishops who had been associated with the ordination of women priests.
The fact that these bishops were not grounded in a particular locality but travelled extensively to wherever they were needed led to the description “Flying Bishops”, and for six years Barnes carried out this task happily, earning the gratitude of the many parishes where he ministered. He was careful to cultivate good relations with the diocesan bishops on whose territory he operated, and in fact became an honorary canon of St Albans Cathedral.
Following his retirement in 2001 Barnes settled in Lymington and became an honorary assistant bishop in the Winchester diocese. It soon became clear to him, however, that women priests had come to stay and that plans to consecrate them as bishops were advancing throughout the Anglican Communion.
Relief came to him in 2011 when Pope Benedict XVI announced the creation of Ordinariates, or jurisdictions, to enable groups of Anglicans to move into the Roman Catholic Church while retaining some of their own traditions, including forms of worship and existing married clergy.
Barnes was among the first to respond and, having made the initial move, he was quickly ordained as a Catholic priest and a year later became a monsignor – an honour also accorded to other episcopal converts.
Edwin Ronald Barnes was born on February 6 1935. From Plymouth College he went as a scholar to Pembroke College, Oxford, and completed his training for Holy Orders at Cuddesdon Theological College.
From 1960 to 1964 he was a curate of St Mark’s Church at North End in Portsmouth. This was followed by a curacy at Woodham in Surrey and in 1967 by his appointment as Rector at Farncombe, also in Surrey.
The next 11 years confirmed his considerable gifts as a parish priest in the Anglo-catholic tradition – carefully ordered worship, diligent, sensitive pastoral work and strong teaching. It was on the strength of this that he was appointed in 1978 to the large and important Humberside parish of All Saints, Hessle, in the York diocese.
For the next nine years he exercised a considerable influence on the church life of the area, while also beginning the first of three stints on the General Synod, serving on its standing committee and becoming recognised as a powerful spokesman for the Anglo-catholic cause.
This led to his appointment in 1987 as Principal of St Stephen’s House, Oxford. “Staggers”, as it was commonly known, had a long and distinguished history as a trainer of Anglo-catholic clergy. Its students were, however, often disturbed by the rapid changes taking place in the life of the church and its understandings of sexuality.
Barnes was ideally suited to restoring and maintaining stability during the eight years of his principalship – recognised by his appointment as an Honorary Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.
The eight years Barnes spent as a Roman Catholic priest proved to be a happy epilogue to his long ministry. His pastoral gifts were greatly appreciated by an Ordinariate congregation in Bournemouth and by others in the New Forest areas. He often urged other retired Anglican clergy to follow his example – “Why would anyone wish to prop up a dying church?” he asked.
He is survived by his wife, Jane, and a son and a daughter