Convocations and laity say preliminary yes to women bishops
THE General Synod will debate women bishops on Monday, after the
House of Laity and the Convocations of Canterbury and York voted to
approve the draft legislation this afternoon.
While the language of the motion before Synod members today was
whether or not they approved of the legislation, many speakers
indicated they were voting in favour simply to allow a full debate
to take place on Monday.
Today a simple majority was required in the five separate
meetings; but if the Measure is to receive final approval it must
achieve a two-thirds majority in the three Houses. The votes today,
if translated to the Houses, show the measure comfortably reached
the required two-thirds majority; but there is no guarantee that
voting figures would be the same on Monday.
Joy
Gilliver (Chichester), who opposes the Measure, said
she wanted to send it to the full Synod to enable it to debate the
matter on Monday, but that "I can't, as a matter of integrity, vote
yes to approve it. I wish the motion was that it should be
discussed by whole General Synod. I could vote for that."
A number of speakers urged members to vote in favour of the
legislation today, but to push for an adjournment on Monday so that
it could be referred back to the Bishops.
Christina Rees (St
Albans), the former chair of WATCH (Women and the Church), said
that the un-amended Measure was like Ronseal: "It says what it does
on the tin. With these amendments we no longer have that."
She continued: "Let's get this to Synod and then say to the
Bishops, look at it again and give us back the carefully
scrutinised draft we had before their two amendments."
But others welcomed the Bishops' amendments. Jacky Humphreys (Bristol) said
that she'd been contacted by a priest from a parish that had passed
Resolutions A, B, and C, encouraging her to vote in favour of the
Measure. "He said he wanted more, and that this was a compromise,
but that he could now live with it [following the Bishops'
amendments]."
Mary
Durlacher (Chelmsford) said that she was "concerned
about the increased temperature of emotive language being used" in
recent weeks; while David Kemp (Canterbury) said that it
was time to "stop the megaphone diplomacy". The different campaign
groups should be "locked together in a smoke-filled room to thrash
out a compromise".
The voting figures for today's preliminary debate were:
House of Laity
For: 123; Against: 53; Abstentions: none
Lower House of the Convocation of
York (clergy)
For: 38; Against: 11; Abstentions: 2
Upper House of the Convocation of
York (bishops)
For:11; Against: 2; Abstentions: none
Lower House of the Convocation of
Canterbury (clergy)
For: 95; Against: 19; Abstentions: 1
Upper House of the Convocation of
Canterbury (bishops)
For: 27; Against: 0; Abstentions: none