In an article in the St George's parish magazine of September 1916 the Rev F C Baker called upon all true sons and daughters of the Catholic Church to sternly and resolutely set their faces against the idea of the admission of women to Holy Orders, warning of the dire consequences of introducing the 'deadly sin of schism into the Church'. (Click here to see the article.)

Today the Church of England, having embraced this innovation, is no longer in communion with itself and world-wide Anglicanism is undergoing fragmentation. Geoffrey Kirk, in the November 2009 edition of 'New Directions', muses that the cause of disintegration - sex - should come as no surprise as 'the man who created the Church of England' did so 'to legitimise his desire to set aside a blameless wife and marry a strumpet, and then murdered the strumpet to marry another'. These are the circumstances in which St George's, Headstone is a corporate member of Forward in Faith and in the episcopal care of the Bishop of Fulham, the Rt Revd John Broadhurst. (A video of the Bishop of Fulham's visit on 21 June 2009 can be seen here.) 

'Forward in Faith came into being in the aftermath of the decision of General Synod to allow women to be ordained into the priesthood, as the umbrella organisation for all those groups that had grown up to campaign against it during the preceding few years. Its first Chairman was John Broadhurst, then Team Rector of Wood Green in London. When he was later appointed Bishop of Fulham he resigned from the Chair, but was unanimously and with acclamation re-appointed by the membership at the ensuing National Assembly.

With the exception of the Mothers' Union, Forward in Faith is the largest subscription organisation in the Church of England.

Members of Forward in Faith welcome and rejoice in the ministry of women in the Church, but they doubt whether the Ordination of Women to the Priesthood is consonant with either Scripture or Tradition. Certainly they do not believe that a change of such magnitude in Church Order and received teaching can be effected by a local church or even Communion. It can only be properly brought about through the consensus of the whole Church.

The next major crisis likely to face the Church of England concerns the consecration of women as bishops, which will create a whole new set of difficulties.

Forward in Faith seeks to serve catholics and evengelicals who wish to preserve and practise the Apostolic Christian faith as given by Christ and handed down by the Saints and Fathers of the Church, and to ensure a full and proper ecclesial structure for themselves, their children and their children's children.'
(From the Forward in Faith leaflet 'Forward in Faith believes in You' by John Hawthorne.)

You can read more about Forward in Faith here.