THE membership of a working
group given the task of helping the House of Bishops to resolve the
deadlock on women bishops was announced on Wednesday. Two of its
ten members - the Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, and the
Chair of the House of Laity, Dr Philip Giddings - voted against the
legislation at the Synod last month (
News, 23 November).
The group, which is drawn
from all three Houses of the Synod, is expected to have two initial
meetings in January, a Church House statement said. It will
"arrange facilitated discussions in February with a wide range of
people with a variety of views", and will "assist the House [of
Bishops] when it meets in February and in May to come to a decision
on the new package of proposals it intends to bring to the Synod in
July".
The working group's members
are: the Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, the Rt Revd Nigel
Stock (chair); the Bishop of Coventry, Dr Christopher Cocksworth;
the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Revd James Langstaff; the Bishop of
Chichester, Dr Martin Warner; the Dean of York, the Very Revd
Vivienne Faull; the Archdeacon of Lewisham & Greenwich, the
Ven. Christine Hardman; the Revd Dr Rosemarie Mallett (Southwark);
Dr Philip Giddings (Oxford); Dr Paula Gooder (Birmingham); and
Margaret Swinson (Liverpool).
The House of Bishops met at
Lambeth Palace on Monday and Tuesday of last week (
News, 14 December). After the meeting, the Bishops said that
new legislative proposals would need to offer "greater simplicity",
but also a "clear embodiment of the principle articulated by the
1998 Lambeth Conference that those who dissent from, as well as
those who assent to, the ordination of women to the priesthood and
episcopate are both loyal Anglicans".
The Catholic Group in the
General Synod has said that it is "fully ready to assist in the
process of agreeing fresh legislation to provide for the religious
convictions of all loyal Anglicans". It has asked that women "who
do not support the consecration of women bishops" contribute to the
discussions.
Laity
meeting. Church House published the agenda, on Monday, for
the meeting of the House of Laity, on 18 January, at which Stephen
Barney (Leicester) will move: "That this House have no confidence
in Dr Philip Giddings as Chair of this House."
In an explanatory note
accompanying the agenda, Mr Barney writes that Dr Giddings's speech
against the Measure had "followed directly" a speech in favour of
the legislation by the Archbishop-designate, the Rt Revd Justin
Welby, and therefore "directly undermined" Bishop Welby.
Dr Giddings's intervention
"did not support the views of the House of Bishops as a whole", and
"speaking as the Chair of our House, his speech was instrumental in
convincing some of the undecided members of the House to vote
against". Mr Barney writes that Dr Giddings's speech "was therefore
a significant contributor to the reputational damage the Church of
England is already suffering at the hands of the press".
Mr Barney concludes: "I have
always been one of the first to say that individuals must vote
according to their consciences; however, leaders have other
responsibilities and accountabilities. . . [The leader] must show
wise and good judgement, and I do not believe that this has
happened."
Question of the week: Should those
opposed to women bishops have more representation on the
group?