THE secret ballot by which diocesan bishops are nominated could be removed under changes intended to restore trust in the processes of the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC).
In the wake of the failure of the CNC to appoint on two occasions in the past nine months, faith in the process has deteriorated to the extent that candidates across a range traditions are refusing to have their names added to longlists, a paper by the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, warns.
Others are “openly questioning the integrity of the process”, while “allegations of politicking in the Vacancy in See process are commonplace”.
Bishop Mullally chairs the Advisory Group for Appointments and Vocations, which provides advice and support to the Archbishops’ Advisers for Appointments and Vocations. Besides ending the secret ballot, the paper proposes changing the threshold required for a nomination, giving the presiding archbishop an additional vote in the event of a deadlock, and the mandated resignation of the Central CNC members should they fail to make a nomination on three occasions during a five-year term.
The paper was produced in response to a request by a group of bishops for an “urgent meeting” of the House of Bishops “to consider the current challenges facing the Crown Nominations Commission”. In the 15 years to the end of 2022, the CNC failed to appoint just twice in 55 processes. But, in December, the CNC announced that it had been unable to reach a consensus for Carlisle (News, 22 December 2023), followed by failure for Ely seven months later (News, 19 July).
The paper reports that the “deeply disappointing” results for the two dioceses have “knocked significantly” confidence in the CNC. Both candidates and CNC members have raised concerns “about how the process works in practice and the way that underrepresented groups appear to be less likely to be nominated”.
The paper is not intended, Bishop Mullally writes, “to impugn or question the individual decisions of individual members”, but to respond to questions about “whether the CNC process is meeting the needs of the Church and enabling the proper flourishing of discernment under God”.
For the CNC to work well, and enjoy trust, “those participating must have confidence that it is a discernment process under God and not one of pre-judgements, tribalism or politics, which is now the perceived fear across the breadth of traditions in the Church, but particularly from those who are under-represented in senior roles.”
The paper records that, since 2018, 15 of the 22 names put forward by the CNC have been men, 19 of whom were white. The Bishop of St Albans, Dr Alan Smith, told the House of Lords this week that the Church had “made slower progress than we had hoped when it came to ensuring that our senior clergy are representative of the diverse congregations we serve”.
Currently, the secret ballot, the paper says, “allows members of the CNC who are not wishing to make a nomination from those interviewed able to conceal the fact, and ensures the process is not open or transparent. The most commonly expressed concern about the CNC is that members could participate in blocking candidates while being able to deny the fact due to the secret ballot.”
The last review of the CNC was debated by the General Synod in 2018 (News 16 February 2018). Chaired by the Revd Professor Oliver O’Donovan, the review group recommended “tackling the culture of excessive secrecy”. The secret ballot “encourages CNC members to be suspicious of one another”, it concluded, and “may actually encourage the dysfunctional syndromes it is meant to guard against. . . It may also be a better defence against the temptation to breach confidence, simply because it allows members to talk more openly to one another.”
A proposed change to Standing Orders to remove the requirement to vote by secret ballot fell in the House of Laity (News, 1 March 2019). Also rejected was a call to lower the threshold that a candidate would need to achieve, from a two-thirds majority to two-thirds of those present and voting.
The new paper proposes that the threshold required for a nomination be lowered from “at least two-thirds” (ten of the 14 members) to “at least 60 per cent” (nine members). If abstentions were no longer counted towards the threshold, an agreement of at least half of the members would still be required.
Another proposal would give the archbishop chairing the commission for a particular see one extra casting vote, should the CNC reach a point that it was unable to secure a nomination.
The paper reports that concerns have been expressed about “whether members elected to the CNC are representative of the range of traditions within the diocese” and recommends changes to regulations governing vacancy-in-see committees. These are the committees in each diocese charged both with preparing a statement of needs upon a vacancy arising and electing six diocesan representatives to the CNC.
The committee comprises both ex-officio and elected members. The paper proposes that “there is a reserved place among the clergy places for one priest who is female, should a priest who is female be standing for election. This would also extend to lay representatives, ensuring at least one place for a female lay person should one stand for election.”
A longer-term review of the CNC elections may be necessary, the paper says, “to address more widely held concerns about the operation of the CNC and representation amongst the Central Members”.
Changes were last made in 2021, giving the Synod the power to elect three pairs of members from the House of Clergy, and three from the House of Laity, to the CNC (News, 16 July 2021).
The new proposed changes would need to be agreed by the Synod. The paper recommends that a formal proposal be developed for consultation with the CNC central members at their next meeting with the Archbishops, in November, before being submitted to the Standing Order Committee for it to report to the Synod in February 2025.
In addition to Ely and Carlisle, there are currently three vacant sees. Fourteen diocesan bishops, in total, are due to retire in the next five years.
In February, the Archbishop of Canterbury told the Synod that the CNC had been “comprehensively reviewed in the previous quinquennium of the General Synod” and that there was no further formal review planned (News, 19 January 2018).