The villages of the ancient parishes of Broughton, Marton and Thornton nestle in a corner of North Yorkshire that is perilously close to the Lancashire border. And even closer to Rome.

For the rector, the Rev Canon Nicholas Turner, editor of the traditionalist magazine New Directions, the Pope’s decree was the fulfilment of a long-held dream. But he must now decide whether to be reordained as a Roman Catholic priest. And if he does, what will happen to the churches and his parishioners?

To visit the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Thornton is to enter a Norman building that gives every appearance of being Catholic already. There is a statue of the Madonna and Child. There are candles and incense. Father Nicholas celebrates Mass, occasionally in Latin, hears confession and grants absolution.

The three parishes in the united benefice voted in the 1990s for resolutions granting them distance from the Bradford Diocese. Now the three parochial church councils may face a further vote: whether to join their priest and defect en masse to Rome, albeit a version of Roman Catholicism that would allow them to maintain much of their Anglican identity.

If it came to that, though, a hurdle would remain. Their three churches would still belong to the Church of England; unless a deal were reached, where would the new Catholics worship? In Father Nicholas’s ideal world, one church would pass into the control of the Anglican Catholics while the other two remained with the Church of England.

His world is not ideal, however, because his wife, Canon Ann Turner, is the local deacon and the Roman Catholic Church does not accept female deacons. Some tough decisions lie ahead.

“The Pope’s decision is a wonderfully generous move to unity,” he said. “It would be wonderful if the Church of England could return to full communion with Rome while still being the Church of England. But I can’t just abandon over 30 years of ministry as though they never happened. These are exciting times, but one can’t ignore the history of a village church. It is at the centre of the community and I hope we can forge a path that allows all of us to stay together.”

In Walthamstow, East London, Father David Waller sits on a green chair, a black and white cat draped across his knees, and offers a cup of tea. “This could be the most significant thing to happen to the English Church since the Reformation,” he says.

His cat is named Joseph — after Cardinal Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI, and there is a picture of the Pope on the wall. The Anglican priest is one of the hundreds considering defecting to the Roman Catholic Church after the Pope decreed that he would introduce a structure for accepting Anglicans. The 120-strong congregation of the parish of St Saviour is one of several considering moving over en bloc.

“It is the best news I have heard all year,” says Marcella Kaikai, 55, a lay reader who has attended the church for over 25 years. “I would support it 150 per cent because this is the faith to which I belong. The Church of England doesn’t seem to stand for the genuine, God-given doctrines.”

The congregation is almost wholly willing to unite behind Father Waller, should he choose to place St Saviour under Rome’s banner, Ms Kaikai says. “I doubt you will have that many, if at all, moving from St Saviour because we trust the head we have. He is our shepherd and we are the sheep following.”

Sandra Mussington, 48, who has been attending for 14 years, says that “privately there might be some concern. For some people it is just about their own personal worship and they don't want to get involved in the politics.”

“When Pope John Paul was here in 1982 we thought unity was around the corner,” Father Waller says. “But changes in the Anglican community make that impossible. The ordination of women bishops makes that move permanent.”

Whether ex-Anglican congregations could keep their buildings has yet to be addressed, but he says he intends to stay put.

The 19th-century Church of St Saviour, with its aroma of incense, would be unlikely to change much. The Stations of the Cross line the walls and the altar is flanked by statues of the Virgin Mary and the Sacred Heart. A stall offers rosary beads, pictures of Padre Pio, and a book on St Thérèse.