WORSHIPPERS at an Anglo- Catholic church will enrol in a new branch of the Catholic Church next year after opting to defect.

Following a public meeting after a Sunday mass last month, many in the congregation of St James the Great, in Darlington, have decided to join the Ordinariate.

Father Ian Grieves, priest at St James, who had already declared his plans to leave the Anglo-Catholic church, said it justified his decision.

The Ordinariate is a new branch of the Catholic Church set up for Anglicans wishing to leave the Church of England in protest at the decision to ordain women as bishops. Numbers at the mass on February 13 were swollen because of interest in the plans. Father Keith Newton, a former Anglican bishop who was ordained as a Catholic priest to head the Ordinariate, addressed the congregation afterwards.

Fr Grieves said that in the month since, dozens of people had decided to take up the offer to defect.

They are expected to be among the second wave of Anglicans across the country to leave the church on Ash Wednesday next year. They will spend Lent preparing to convert before joining the Ordinariate in Holy Week.

Fr Grieves said: “The majority of people want to take advantage of this.

“This is growing every week. Every week we see more people coming forward.”

St James the Great, in Albert Hill, Darlington, has been an Anglo-Catholic church for more than 100 years.

Fr Grieves has been at the church for 22 years, increasing the number of followers from only 18, and helping to fund hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of improvements to the church.

However, the future of the church building and members of the congregation who do not defect remain unclear.

The congregation may need a new church and Fr Grieves a new home.

The Reverend Canon Jon Bell, press officer from the Church of England’s Durham Diocese, said: “Because it is a new situation, it is all in discussion.”

A Darlington Ordinariate has been established for people across the area who want to defect. Completed forms should be returned to Don Ross at 7 Glaisdale Road, Yarm, TS15 9RN.

For details of Ordinariate events, call Nicola Reeves on 01325-367357.