“OVERSEERS” to provide pastoral support to Evangelicals who oppose the introduction of blessings for same-sex couples were commissioned in a service in London on Friday.
The move is part of the “alternative spiritual oversight” being co-ordinated by the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC). It announced its intention to do so late last year (News, 18 November 2023).
One of the 20 overseers commissioned at All Souls’, Langham Place, on Friday is the former Bishop of Willesden, the Rt Revd Pete Broadbent. On Monday, he told the Church Times that being an overseer was “not pretending to be a bishop”.
Instead, the job involved being “a senior friend”, offering advice and prayers where they were requested, and “helping people who are thinking about leaving to stay in the Church of England”, he said.
The lead bishop for Living in Love and Faith (LLF), the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Martyn Snow, was asked on Radio 4’s Sunday programme whether the commissioning of overseers amounted to the start of a “church within a church”.
“I don’t see it that way,” he said, and characterised it as “an alternative support structure . . . and we’ve had plenty of those historically, in one form or another.
“I really don’t want to overplay what they’re doing, while at the same time taking very seriously their concerns,” he said.
One of the new overseers, a former Suffragan Bishop in Europe, the Rt Revd Henry Scriven, likewise seemed to play down the significance of the CEEC’s step, saying that he “didn’t see it as a massively big deal” in terms of its impact on the existing structure of the Church.
Honorary assistant bishops, such as Bishops Broadbent and Scriven, are already permitted to conduct confirmations and ordinations, but only with the permission of the relevant diocesan bishop. Both emphasised that the newly created overseers were not intended to provide a substitute for such aspects of episcopal ministry.
The liturgy and accompanying notes used at Friday’s service made this clear, with a statement that “this liturgy makes no pretence to be a service of ordination or consecration”.
Bishop Broadbent, who was the chief author of the liturgy, said “nothing we have done is in any way non-canonical: it’s all within the parameters of the Church of England’s existing structures.”
Those being commissioned were asked to assent to a number of charges, including: “Are you determined to hold to the faith revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and to teach it faithfully in the face of all distortions and error?” and “Will you accept and minister the discipline of this Church, and respect authority duly exercised within it?”
Only two out of the 20 overseers commissioned on Friday were women. Bishop Broadbent said that the CEEC is hoping to address the gender imbalance, and were committed to providing overseers from a range of traditions within the Evangelical movement, including complementarians, who do not allow women to take leadership positions.
The overseers were selected after a process of interviews and references, he said. All of them had undergone safeguarding checks, and the majority have never been bishops. Only one of the overseers is a serving C of E bishop: the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, Dr Rob Munro (News, 9 December 2022), who ministers to complementarian parishes around the country.
The new arrangements for spiritual oversight are a “stop gap”, Bishop Broadbent said, pending “structural differentiation” in the Church — a step which the CEEC says is necessary, especially in the aftermath of last week’s General Synod vote to proceed with stand-alone services of blessing for same-sex couples (News, 8 July)
After the vote, the national director of the CEEC, Canon John Dunnett, said: “We are committed to remaining within the Church of England, and hope that the bishops will come to the table to negotiate an acceptable settlement” (News, 10 July).
On Friday, Canon Dunnett said that the vote in Synod had been a “watershed for many in the Church of England.
“The blessing of same-sex partnerships and further possible provision for same-sex marriage — including allowing clergy to enter a same-sex marriage — mean that there are clergy and congregations who now regard themselves as in impaired fellowship with those bishops who have supported these innovations.”
The Alliance, an umbrella group which comprises representatives of the CEEC along with figures from New Wine, Holy Trinity, Brompton, and other groups, including Forward in Faith, released a statement last week expressing the view that the Synod vote amounted to “a decisive moment”.
“We need a structurally secure space for the over 2000 clergy supporting the Alliance, and the churches they represent (some 37% of total C of E church attendance and 57% of attendance of those under the age of 18),” the statement read — although the form on the organisation’s website for registering one’s support states: “We will not assume you speak on behalf of your whole church.”