ReView: William Oddie's "The Roman Option"

Controversies in Church History

For this episode of Controversies in Church History, we are doing something a bit different. In it, we take a look back "The Roman Option: Crisis and Realignment in English Speaking Christianity" by the Catholic journalist William Oddie. Published in 1998, Oddie details how a group of Anglicans disaffected by the Church of England's decision to "ordain" women attempted the "Roman Option," to create a corporate union of these groups in communion with Rome but were thwarted by opposition, both in and outside the Catholic Church in England. We drawe some lessons about how synodal government brought radical change to the Church of England and how inertia and indifference among its bishops allowed it to happen, both of which appear to have parallels within the Catholic Church today.