THE House of Bishops will meet informally tomorrow morning,
before the General Synod's business begins, to test its common mind
on the future of the draft legislation for women bishops.
Three members of the House will be from dioceses whose synods
have voted to ask it to reconsider the amendments. These amendments
have been criticised by a number of supporters of women bishops,
including the campaign group WATCH, and a group of senior women
clergy, since they were announced in May. The amendments cannot,
however, be withdrawn at this meeting.
The Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Revd Michael Perham, told his
diocesan synod on Tuesday of last week that it would be a
"catastrophe" if the House of Bishops did not "think again". His
synod, joining those of Salisbury and Worcester dioceses, voted
"overwhemingly" to refer the Measure back to the Bishops.
A WATCH petition has accrued more than 3500 signatures. It asks
the House to withdraw the Clause 5 amendment, which, with regard to
the selection of male bishops or priests for parishes issuing a
Letter of Request, requires guidance from the House of Bishops on
"ministry . . . consistent with the theological convictions as to
the consecration or ordination of women" which were the basis of
the request.
In a Radio 4 documentary, The
Frock and the Church, on Sunday, April Alexander, a
Southwark General Synod member, said that she would vote against
the legislation "with a very, very heavy heart" if the amendment
remained.
The Bishop of Buckingham, in Oxford diocese, Dr Alan Wilson,
said that the amendment was "a way of permanently enshrining
discrimination in the practice of the Church of England". It
appeared that "the practice of the Church is in many ways less
moral than that that operates everywhere else in civil
society."
The Rector of St James's Piccadilly, in London, the Revd Lucy
Winkett, told the Sunday
programme that the legislation was already a "big compromise", but
that the amended version "explicitly endorses" the principle that
"being male is not enough for those who object to women's
ministry".
In a letter to the Church
Times this week, 18 women clergy write that the amendment
seeks to "plant legislation where grace and generosity would have
flourished".
But pleas for accommodation have also been made. On Tuesday,
The Times published a letter
from 11 bishops, including the new Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin
Warner, asking the General Synod to find a way to "respect the
minority who are unpersuaded that this is a theological development
which they can, in conscience, embrace". Recognition of this
conviction "must benefit the Church of England as a whole".
And, on behalf of "thousands of loyal Anglican women", 11
Evangelical lay women on the General Synod, from the Proper
Provision group, wrote to Synod members on Tuesday asking them not
to seek an adjournment. The Bishops, they said, had listened to the
concerns of a "substantial minority" in the Church, and had
clarified points, but not amended the Measure substantially.
Moreover, they said, WATCH and other proponents of the Measure
had revealed how unwilling to compromise they were. An adjournment
would be expensive, and might achieve very little, except to prove
that there was "no secure place" for a body of loyal Anglicans.
On Thursday of last week, the chairman of the Synod's Catholic
Group, Canon Simon Killwick, wrote to Synod members describing the
Bishops' amendments as consistent both with the "original substance
of the Measure" and "their responsibility to hold the Church of
England together".
He welcomed the amendments as "very modest but welcome steps in
the right direction . . . though they do not go far enough. . . we
are surprised that even the little they have offered, others are
now determined to take away."
He argued that the voting of the Synod in May had shown that,
unamended, the Measure was "doomed to fail at Final Approval". The
"present agitation" suggested that, were the Measure passed, with
or without amendment, the Code of Practice would become a "new
battleground", and there would follow a campaign to whittle away
its provisions. Relying on the Code was "now looking to be an
increasingly shaky and temporary foundation for making
provision".
Public prayers are being held to coincide with Monday's debate.
The Precentor of Lincoln Cathedral, where there will be a day of
prayer, Canon Gavin Kirk, said: "The strength of feelings on both
sides mean that the debate must be conducted in the context of
prayer, and with the prayerful support of churches around the
country."
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