Edwin Ronald Barnes is a Catholic priest

Priest

A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

 and a former Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 bishop. He was the Bishop of Richborough

Bishop of Richborough

__noTOC__The Bishop of Richborough is a suffragan bishop and provincial episcopal visitor for the whole of the Province of Canterbury in the Church of England....

 from 1995 to 2002 and was also formerly the president of the Church Union

The Church Union

The Church Union is an Anglo-Catholic advocacy group within the Church of England.The organisation was founded as the Church of England Protection Society on May 12, 1859 to challenge the authority of the English civil courts to determine questions of doctrine...

.

Anglican ministry

Barnes was educated at Plymouth College

Plymouth College

Plymouth College is a co-educational independent school in Plymouth, Devon, England, for day and boarding pupils from the ages of 11 to 18...

 and Pembroke College, Oxford

Pembroke College, Oxford

Pembroke College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located in Pembroke Square. As of 2009, Pembroke had an estimated financial endowment of £44.9 million.-History:...

. He was ordained in 1961 he began his ministry with a curacy at St Mark's North End, Portsmouth

North End, Portsmouth

North End is a mainly residential neighbourhood in the middle of Portsea Island in Portsmouth, England. It developed rapidly after a horse drawn tram route was opened between Portsmouth and Cosham. The area is composed of mainly late Victorian to early 20th century buildings...

. After this he held incumbencies

Vicar

In the broadest sense, a vicar is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior . In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant...

 at Farncombe and Hessle

Hessle

Hessle is a town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, situated west of Kingston upon Hull city centre. Geographically it is part of a larger urban area which consists of the city of Kingston upon Hull, the town of Hessle and a number of other villages but is not part of the...

. In 1987 he became Principal of St Stephen's House, Oxford

St Stephen's House, Oxford

St Stephen’s House, Oxford , is an Anglican theological college and one of six religious Permanent Private Halls of the University of Oxford, England...

, an Anglo-Catholic theological college. In 1995 he was chosen to be the first Bishop of Richborough, a provincial episcopal visitor

Provincial episcopal visitor

A provincial episcopal visitor is a Church of England bishop assigned to minister to many of the clergy, laity and parishes who do not in conscience accept the ministry of women priests....

 in the Province of Canterbury

Province of Canterbury

The Province of Canterbury, also called the Southern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces making up the Church of England...

. He retired in 2001.

Reception into the Catholic Church

In October 2010, Barnes was interviewed by The Tablet

The Tablet

The Tablet is a Catholic international weekly review published in London. Contributors to its pages have included Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Paul VI ....

 magazine on the possibility of joining the proposed personal ordinariate

Personal Ordinariate

A personal ordinariate is a canonical structure within the Catholic Church enabling former Anglicans to maintain some degree of corporate identity and autonomy with regard to the bishops of the geographical dioceses of the Catholic Church and to preserve elements of their distinctive Anglican...

 in the Roman Catholic Church for former Anglicans (which was established as the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham

Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is a personal ordinariate of the Roman Catholic Church within the territory of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, but immediately subject to the Holy See in Rome and encompassing Scotland...

 in January 2011). He said that he wanted to join “because the Anglican Church is no longer the one holy and apostolic Church it says it is.” On 6 January 2011, Barnes announced that he intended being received into the Catholic Church. On 21 January 2011 he and his wife, Jane, were received into the Catholic Church at the Church of Our Lady & St Joseph, Lymington by Monsignor Peter Ryan, himself a former Anglican. He was ordained to the diaconate on 11 February 2011 in the domestic chapel at Bishop's House, Portsmouth by the Bishop of Portsmouth

Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth is a Latin Rite Roman Catholic diocese in England. The episcopal see is the Portsmouth Cathedral and is headed by the Bishop of Portsmouth...

, Crispian Hollis

Crispian Hollis

Roger Francis Crispian Hollis is the Bishop of Portsmouth for the Catholic Church. His parents were Christopher Hollis , the author and parliamentarian, and Madeleine Hollis .-Family life:...

. He was ordained to the priesthood on 5 March 2011 by the same bishop in the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist, Portsmouth for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.