Is there room on the bench?

Women in the episcopate - House of Bishops’ statement

18 May 2010

At its meeting in York on 17/18 May, the House of Bishops discussed the Revision Committee’s report on the draft legislation to enable women to become bishops.

The House noted that the forthcoming meeting of the General Synod in July would be a key moment in the legislative process when all 470 members of Synod would have the opportunity to debate the report and proceed to a clause by clause consideration of the draft Measure and Amending Canon. The House believed that the Synod would be helped in its task by the clarity and thoroughness of the Committee’s analysis.

As previous debates have shown, a majority of the members of the House strongly support the admission of women to the episcopate. At the same time there remains a strong commitment on the part of the House to preserve an honoured place within the Church of England for those unable to receive this development. There continues to be a variety of views within the House over the best way of achieving that, while enabling women fully to exercise their new ministry.

The July Synod has the potential to be one of the most demanding meetings of the Synod for many years. It will, in the view of the House, be an occasion when all concerned will need to listen with particular care to those with views that differ from their own and to acknowledge the passion and sincerity with which those views are held.

The House is aware that there are those who believe that the present legislative process does not have the potential to lead to a satisfactory conclusion and that a better outcome is more likely to be achieved in some years’ time. Most members of the House consider, however, that it is crucial to keep faith with the present process. They see no grounds for believing that the issues with which the Church is grappling will become significantly easier to resolve with the passage of time.

The July debates will provide the chance for the full Synod to decide whether it wishes to make significant changes to the draft legislation, including whether to retain an approach based on a statutory code of practice or to support amendments giving effect to some other approach. What happens thereafter will depend on what Synod decides. On any basis it will be at least another two years before the mind of the Church of England can be determined at the final approval stage.

The House accepted the recommendation of the Revision Committee that, if the proposal for a statutory code of practice is retained in July, work to develop a fresh draft of the code should start soon thereafter. The House will, in those circumstances, establish a group, constituted consistently with the Committee’s recommendation.

Any room at the inn?

(article from this month's parish magazine)

By majority voting at the General Synod the Church of England has decided that it wants women priests and bishops. The debate now is whether it still wants those who, in conscience, cannot accept this development.

Last July the Synod voted in favour of 'a statutory code of practice' and asked the Legislative Drafting Group ('the Manchester Group') to produce proposals consistent with resolution 111.2 of the Lambeth Conference 1998 ' that those who dissent from, as well as those who assent to, the ordinationof women to the priesthood and episcopate are both loyal Anglicans'. A further report from the Manchester Group has now been published and will be debated when the General Synod meets this month.

The issue is about the future of the Church of England.

At the end of the 16th century Richard Hooker produced the classic defence of the Elizabethan settlement in his Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, a work which sought to defend the Church of England against those who wanted further changes to make it more like the churches of Geneva and Scotland. The distinctive identity of the Church of England is often described as being 'both catholic and reformed'. The recent synodical decisions seriously undermine the claim of the Church of England that changes at the Reformation did not cut it off from the apostolic succession and sacramental integrity of the 'one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church'. Misogyny is not the problem of those opposed to women priest and bishops in the Church of England. They only ask room to maintain ecclesial and sacramental catholicity within their part of the Church of England, A code of practice alone ( with no transfer of jurisdiction ) will not provide the security which tens of thousands of faithful and loyal Anglicans need in order to live with integrity in the Church of England.

An Anglican layman, Mr OWH Clark, in a recent letter to The Church Times stated the position well:

"I am ready to be part of a C of E that admits women to the priesthood and episcopate. I can accept that the ordination of such women is 'valid in legal terms' and that they are the lawful occupants of the sees and offices to which they have been duly appointed. Certainly I would expect to work with them with mutual respect, and as closely as possible. But I cannot accept the capacity of women bishops to confer authority and jurisdiction by delegation. In honesty, I cannot account them 'truly bishops and priests'."

It is not too late for the Church of England to preserve its historic identity.

We pray for an outcome which will enable all to say, 'It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and us.'

If Catholic Anglicans are told, 'Sorry, there is no room for you at the inn', they will have to find an outside 'stable' or'cave' in which to live and thrive.

February Synod

Agenda and Papers February 2009

Major debates concerning the Church’s ministry and relations with other Churches, the financial crisis and the Church’s engagement with wider society will be on the agenda at the General Synod when it meets at Church House, Westminster from Monday to Friday, 9-13 February. The Synod will be debating a considerable amount of legislative business, including the first consideration stage of the draft women bishops legislation and the International Financial Crisis.

Anglican-Roman Catholic Relations
The Synod will be addressed on its first day by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster. His address, together with an introduction by the Archbishop of Canterbury, will provide an opportunity for the Synod to reflect on relations between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church. This will lead to a debate, requested by the Synod, on the report by the Second Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission on Church as Communion.

Women Bishops
Last July, the Synod agreed that draft legislation be prepared, including special arrangements for those who would not be able to receive the ministry of women as bishops (or priests) in a statutory national code of practice. The Women Bishops Legislative Drafting Group (chaired by the Bishop of Manchester) has completed its work on this basis and the Synod will be giving First Consideration to the draft legislation required to admit women to the episcopate.

It will not be possible to move amendments to the draft legislation at this Group of Sessions; the issue before the Synod will be whether to agree that the draft Measure and draft Amending Canon be referred for consideration by a Revision Committee.

Synod agenda

WHEN the General Synod debates women bishops next month in York, it will have before it a motion that offers a code of practice rather than any structural protection for traditionalists.
The motion was agreed by a majority at a House of Bishops meeting last month. It reads:

“That this Synod:
(a) reaffirm its wish for women to be admitted to the episcopate;
(b) affirm its view that special arrangements be available, within the existing structures of the Church of England, for those who as a matter of theological conviction will not be able to receive the ministry of women as bishops or priests;
(c) affirm that these should be contained in a national code of practice to which all concerned would be required to have regard; and
(d) instruct the legislative drafting group, in consultation with the House of Bishops, to complete its work accordingly, including preparing the first draft of a code of practice, so that the Business Committee can include first consideration of the draft legislation in the agenda for the February 2009 group of sessions.”

In a formal note, the Archbishops, writing as the Synod’s presidents, describe the motion as a “starting point”. They go on: “It does not represent a consensus within the House on what the conclusion should be, but rather the view of the majority on the best place for Synod to begin examining the options.”

The Manchester report posed two questions: does the C of E wish to continue to accommodate the present range of views about women’s ordination? And, does it wish to continue to make special arrangements for those who, on grounds of theological conviction, have difficulties over women priests and bishops?

A majority in the House of Bishops answered both questions in the affirmative, say the Archbishops.

They write: “A significant minority within the House was prepared to contemplate the possibility of a small number of new dioceses, or, alternatively, mandatory transfer of functions within existing dioceses. . .

“A majority of the House, however, was not persuaded that it would be right to pursue either a structural solution — in terms of setting up new dioceses, or a legislative scheme that involved the dividing up of a diocesan bishop’s functions and powers in a way that could be seen as radically altering or indeed undermining the nature of episcopal authority within the Church of England.”

As a consequence, the existing legal arrangements for parishes that object to women priests would be repealed, and the Act of Synod 1993 would be rescinded. Instead, provision for such parishes would be made under the new code of practice.

A key issue is how binding the code might be. “The House of Bishops noted that a code of practice included a spectrum of possibilities between, at one end, an entirely informal code and, at the other, one secured by legislation.”

Synod faces seven-and-a-half hours of women debate

DEBATE about women bishops will dominate the General Synod agenda next month. In all, the Synod will spend about seven-and-a-half hours discussing the various ways forward.

The General Synod will meet on the York University campus from 4 p.m. on Friday 4 July until 1 p.m. on Tuesday 8 July. The chief item on the agenda is the consideration of the recent Manchester report which outlined the various options for introducing women into the episcopate in the Church of England, and accommodating those who find women bishops unacceptable.
The matter first comes up on the Friday evening, when the Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, introduces the issue and briefs the Synod on the plans for the following morning. These involve an hour-and-a-quarter in group discussions, beginning with prayer. These are followed by a two-hour “take note” debate, in which the general concerns of the different positions in Synod can be aired.

Controversial matters are customarily avoided on a Sunday during the York sessions, and the Synod returns to women bishops on Monday afternoon, spending three-and-three-quarter hours debating the motion proposed by the House of Bishops: no legislative security for traditionalists, but, instead, a code of practice. The Archbishops have said that they expect amendments to this motion in order to test the mind of the Synod. These can be submitted as late as Sunday afternoon; so it will be impossible to predict until the day what choices the Synod will be faced with.

Apart from this, the agenda is full. There are two ecumenical matters for consideration, covering relations with the Orthodox and Methodist Churches.

Two diocesan-synod motions will be debated: one, from St Albans, on the importance of Christian values in economic life; and one from Guildford, asking for a report from the House of Bishops clarifying the relationship between the different strata of the Anglican Communion. The only private member’s motion to be debated is in support of tourism in churches.

After a presidential address from the Archbishop of York, Dr Sentamu, Sunday afternoon is given over to legislative business, to which the Synod returns on Monday. There is also a certain amount of housekeeping, including discussion about the 2009 budget and a debate on the levels of fees charged for funerals and weddings.

In addition, the Synod will debate Readers’ ministry, and the challenge of climate change.

Senior Appointments

Monday in Synod
Senior Church Appointments

After lunch, the Synod went on to debate the Pillling report on senior church appointments, and debated a motion that had been redrafted in order to respond also to the Government's Green Paper, published last week.

The Synod welcomed the prospect that the Church would receive the "decisive voice" in the appointment of bishops for which the Synod had voted in 1974, and affirmed its willingness for the Church to have the decisive voice in the appointment of deans and canons appointed by the Crown, given the Prime Minister's commitment to a process of constructive engagement between the Government and the Church.

A number of amendments were lost, including two that sought to overturn the Pilling recommendation that bishops should seek conservative Evangelicals and traditional Catholics for senior appointments. They are currently under-represented in proportion to the their numbers among the clergy in general.

Yesterday in Synod

Synod: Sunday 8 July
Anglican Covenant debate

The Archbishop of the West Indies, the Most Revd Drexel Gomez, urged the Synod on Sunday afternoon to vote to proceed with the Anglican Covenant process.

"In a situation which is becoming increasingly overheated, we need to hear a voice of calm. We need to identify the fundamentals that we share in common, and to state the common basis on which our mutual trust can be rebuilt."

His address was followed by a debate on a motion from the Bishop of Chichester, the Rt Revd John Hind, committing the Synod to engaging "positively" with the Covenant.

An amendment from Tim Cox (Blackburn) sought a simpler declaration of communion only with provinces that were wholehearted about scripture, upheld the historic formularies, and believed that "sexual intercourse belongs solely within the lifelong commitment of a man and woman in marriage".

This was lost. But more support from the floor was forthcoming for an amendment from Justin Brett (Oxford) which sought to tone down "affirm its willingness to engage positively with" to "note", in case the Synod did not like the final result of the drafting.

There was another amendment, too, which would have required the Archbishops' Council's response to the consultation about the draft Covenant to be brought back in November or February for the Synod's approval. The Synod was warned that any text that had been approved by the Lambeth Conference was likely to be presented to it on the basis "Take it or leave it."

But after strong speeches against the Covenant, and expressions of doubt that it would achieve what it had set out to, the Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright, almost dared the Synod not to go along with it. It mattered to millions of Christians in a less fortunate position, he said; the Synod had voted "massively" in favour of the Covenant in 2005; no classical Anglican would have embraced the contemporary idea of inclusivity; and if the Synod voted against it, it would be undermining the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Archbishop of York, Dr Sentamu, also sought to reassure the Synod that the two Archbishops could be trusted, and it was not signing up to a "confessional document".

The chairman of the House of Laity, Dr Christina Baxter, advised that someone should bring a private member's motion about the Covenant which would go "straight to the top of the list" at the next group of sessions, and so ensure that a further submission could be made, without holding up the official response, which had been requested before the end of the year.
The amendments were lost, and Bishop Hind's motion was carried.

On Sunday, the Synod also debated the Anglican-Methodist Covenant, and participation in the Church by ethnic minorities.

Synod in York

The General Synod will be in session from Friday 6th - Tuesday 10th July 2007, at the University of York's campus in Heslington.

There are two important debates which will allow contributions on the proposals for women bishops in the Church of England and dealing with liberalism throughout the Anglican Communion.

Senior Church Appointments
Synod will consider the report of the review group established by the Archbishops’ Council in response to the Synod’s resolution in February 2005, to consider the law and practice regarding the appointment of suffragan bishops, deans, archdeacons and residentiary canons.

Anglican Communion Covenant
All provinces of the Anglican Communion have been invited to express their views on a possible Anglican Covenant, aimed at encouraging common understanding between the provinces of the Communion. Synod will therefore be invited to affirm its willingness to engage with the process for producing a covenant. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have invited the Archbishop of the West Indies (the Most Reverend Drexel Gomez), the Chair of the Covenant Design Group, to address the Synod before the debate is introduced by a member of the House of Bishops.

Catholics and Conservatives

The following report by Jonathan Petre in today's Telegraph is relevant:

Church of England coalition to tackle liberals

Senior Church of England conservatives are plotting a new coalition to mount their biggest offensive yet against their liberal opponents over issues such as gay priests.

The scheme emerged after the consecration of Gene Robinson.

According to insiders, they are planning talks at this week's General Synod aimed at uniting a broad spectrum of evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics to act together during crucial debates.
Supporters of the new movement believe that it could gain the backing of up to half of the Synod, the Church''s "parliament", frustrating the efforts of liberals to promote their agenda. Its leaders are expected to include prominent clergy and lay people within the Synod and the Archbishops' Council, the Church's managing body.

Although it will also have the support of a handful of sympathetic bishops, it will unsettle the majority as it is certain to challenge their leadership. There are already a number of smaller groups within the Synod but conservatives believe that this "seismic shift" will boost their power significantly.

One Synod member said that many conservatives were dismayed by the failure of the bishops to enforce their own guidelines against clergy who are openly in active gay relationships, in defiance of Church policy. "The bishops are totally pathetic. They are abject cowards. The Archbishop of Canterbury does nothing but sit on the fence," she said.

But liberals dismissed the latest initiative, predicting that the new coalition would fall apart because of internal squabbling.

The move reflects deepening divisions in the Church, which is being torn apart by the acrimonious dispute over homosexuality.

Splits will surface most clearly when the Synod, which begins a five-day meeting in York today, debates whether the worldwide Anglican Church should be bound by a new covenant, aimed at preventing liberals acting unilaterally.

The scheme emerged in the aftermath of the consecration of the American Gene Robinson as the first openly gay Anglican bishop in 2003, and it has been strongly supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

He has appointed an international group to draw up a draft version that should be finalised at next year's Lambeth Conference, the 10-yearly gathering in Canterbury of almost all the bishops of the worldwide Church which has 70 million followers.

It will set out broad parameters of acceptable doctrine, and suggests that those who stray outside will be effectively expelling themselves from the worldwide "Communion".
Although some see the covenant as academic because the Church is likely to have split irrevocably before it can be introduced, the matter will be debated by the Synod on Sunday.

Several conservative Archbishops have already threatened to boycott the Lambeth Conference.

The liberals, including the Bishop of Lincoln, the Rt Rev John Saxbee, are strongly opposed to the covenant because it would curb the autonomy of the provinces, the 38 self-governing Churches that make up the worldwide Anglican "Communion".

But supporters, including most conservatives, say that Anglicanism will implode if liberals are allowed to continue defying official policy by introducing "un-Biblical" innovations such as officially sanctioned same-sex blessings.

The Synod ends and the Church moves on

Synod rejects church's gay 'marriage' advice
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:11am GMT 01/03/2007

The Church of England was in disarray over homosexuality this evening after the General Synod refused to endorse the bishops' controversial policy on gay "marriages".
The House of Bishops issued pastoral guidance in 2005 saying that gay clergy could enter into civil partnerships, but only if they first assured their bishops that they would abstain from sex.
But conservatives and liberals unexpectedly united today to reject a description by the bishops of their guidance as a "balanced and sensitive attempt" to apply Church teaching to civil partnerships. Instead, the Synod supported a motion acknowledging deep splits over the issue and encouraging the bishops to review their policy.

The Synod decision will be seen as a slap in the face for the bishops, who presented a unified front in defence of their guidance today even though they are themselves profoundly divided.
But the Synod also rejected criticism of the bishops by conservative evangelicals that their policy undermined heterosexual marriage by effectively condoning gay "marriage".

In an often passionate debate, dissatisfaction with the bishops' guidelines was voiced by a range of speakers, and even several bishops expressed unease. A number of gay clergy and laity spoke openly about the value of their own sexually active relationships, although such behaviour is supposedly in breach of Church teaching.

The Rev Paul Collier, from south London, who is in a civil partnership, argued that the bishops' guidance was too intrusive.
Mr Collier, a chaplain at Goldsmiths College, asked married members of Synod how they would feel if their bishop asked them if they were having sex, as he and his partner had been. He said that a physical sexual relationship was very important in helping love to develop between two people.

Dr Julian Litten, from north London, said that when he had entered a civil partnership recently a friend had asked him whether that meant that he was a practicing homosexual, to which he had jokingly replied that he was a fully qualified one.
He said that he and his partner had been together for 31 years, longer than many heterosexual marriages, and the Government had been "more Christian" towards gays than the Church.

The Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Rev John Gladwin, insisted that civil partnership legislation had not changed Church teaching on marriage, as conservatives argued.
He said that he had recently attended the civil partnership ceremony for two churchwardens, and felt that the Church must offer pastoral support for such couples even if it could not bless their relationship formally.

The Bishop of Worcester, the Rt Rev Peter Selby, said that such partnerships showed commitment, and they were "one of the finest tributes to marriage of this generation".
But conservatives attacked the bishops' guidance saying that it undermined Church teaching because it appeared to be condoning what was widely perceived as gay "marriage" among the clergy.

The Rev Paul Perkin, an evangelical vicar from south-west London, said that the bishops appeared to have no means of enforcing discipline if clergy refused to assure them about their sexual abstinence. "There is no clear statement as to how assurances are to be sought, or what is to happen if they are not forthcoming," he said.
"It has been suggested that it is debatable whether the pastoral guidelines could have provided clear means to ensure its teaching was enforced - however this should have been foreseen and addressed."

In an earlier debate on homosexuality, the Synod toned down a liberal motion on homosexuality amid fears that it could upset delicate negotiations within the Anglican Communion.
Church of England bishops said they were concerned it could send an "ambiguous" message to the wider world, especially just after last week's meeting of the Anglican primates in Tanzania.
The Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Rev Michael Perham, said there were "better moments and worse moments" to face an issue where there was "no consensus".

Lesbian and Gay Christians

Today at Synod the debate continues on one of the crisis issues of contemporary Anglicanism:

PRIVATE MEMBER’S MOTION: LESBIAN AND GAY CHRISTIANS (GS Misc 842A and B)
Following debate, an amendment to the original motion was moved by the Bishop of Gloucester; this was further amended, and was carried by the Synod in the following form:
'That this Synod
(a) commend continuing efforts to prevent the diversity of opinion about human sexuality creating further division and impaired fellowship within the Church of England and the Anglican Communion;
(b) recognise that such efforts would not be advanced by doing anything that could be perceived as the Church of England qualifying its commitment to the entirety of the relevant Lambeth Conference Resolutions (1978: 10; 1988: 64; 1998: 1.10); and
(c) welcome the opportunities offered by these Lambeth Resolutions, including for the Church of England to engage in an open, full and Godly dialogue about human sexuality;
(d) affirm that homosexual orientation in itself is no bar to a faithful Christian life or to full participation in lay and ordained ministry in the Church and acknowledge the importance of lesbian and gay members of the Church of England participating in the listening process as full members of the Church.'

CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS (GS Misc 843A and B)
Following debate, an amendment to the original motion was moved by the Bishop of Liverpool; this was further amended, and was carried by the Synod in the following form:
‘That this Synod
(a) acknowledge the diversity of views within the Church of England on whether Parliament might better have addressed the injustices affecting persons of the same sex wishing to share a common life had it done so in a way that avoided creating a legal framework with many similarities to marriage;
(b) note the intention of the House to keep their Pastoral Statement under review.’

We shall have to wait until tomorrow to catch the flavour of the debate that produced this outcome and to review church and media reaction.

From Tanzania to Westminster

The debate about the Anglican Communion and the Church of England transfers from the Primates meeting in Tanzania to the General Synod at Westminster today.

The February Synod, to be held in the newly refurbished Assembly Hall*, at Church House, Westminster, from February 26 to March 1, has a full and challenging agenda, with a substantial amount of legislative business, including clergy terms of service and marriage law, and a major debate on clergy pensions. There are two high profile private members’ motions on different aspects of issues in human sexuality. The agenda also offers outward-looking debates on Trident, criminal justice issues, and the effect of media standards on individuals and society.

Trident
The Synod debate takes place near the end of the three months’ period of public debate initiated by the Government’s White Paper on The Future of Trident, which will culminate in a debate in the House of Commons in March. The debate will be informed by the statement made by the Archbishop of Canterbury when The Future of Trident was published and by a submission from the Mission and Public Affairs Council to the House of Commons Defence Select Committee. The motion raises serious questions about whether the Government is right to proceed in the way proposed, given the underlying ethical issues.

Criminal Justice
The debate gives the Synod the opportunity of considering the major challenges to the criminal justice system as a result of prison overcrowding and changes in the system of supervising offenders with the amalgamation of the prison and probation services. It takes place at a time of considerable public anxiety about dangerous offenders and anti-social behaviour. It highlights opportunities for Christian service and initiatives in the criminal justice system and in working with offenders in the community. The debate will be preceded by an address from Mr Phil Wheatley, Director General of the Prison Service, after which the Bishop of Worcester (the Bishop to HM Prisons) will move the motion for debate.

Schools
Lord Dearing’s report The Way Ahead: Church of England schools in the new millennium was approved by the Synod in 2001. Over the past five years, it has driven the Church of England’s schools strategy. The present debate will allow the Church to endorse further strategies for the development of its work with schools, up to 2011 when the Board of Education’s sister body, the National Society, celebrates its bicentenary. These initiatives include new developments in links between schools, and their parishes and wider communities. This is particularly timely, as the Education and Inspections Act (which comes into force this year) offers substantial new opportunities for the Church in education. This has triggered fresh public debate about faith schools and their admissions policies, and the debate gives the Synod an opportunity to engage in this.

Media Standards
The motion from the Lichfield Diocesan Synod arose out of concern that debate about standards of taste and decency in the media tended to be focused on personal choice rather than dangers and consequences. The increase of ‘reality television’ programmes has taken this debate to a new level of concern. The motion seeks to address concerns about media standards and their impact on individuals and society.

Issues in Human Sexuality
Two private members’ motions, from the Revd Mary Gilbert on lesbian and gay Christians, and the Revd Paul Perkin on civil partnerships, will be debated. They have collected the most signatures and will be debated on the Wednesday morning and afternoon of the Synod. The first motion seeks to clarify the position of lesbian and gay Christians in the Church, and the second motion is critical specifically of the House of Bishops’ statement on civil partnerships.
The House of Bishops has produced two factual notes as a background resource for the debates, in addition to the usual notes from the movers of both motions. In these it signals that a member of the House will be tabling substantial amendments on its behalf in the two debates. The last time that the Synod debated this subject was in February 2004, when it considered Some Issues in Human Sexuality: A Guide to the Debate.

Clergy Pensions
This debate is the culmination of a major consultation exercise within the Church on the report of the Archbishops’ Task Group Clergy Pensions: the Way Forward. The Synod is being asked to endorse the recommendations in the report now presented by the Archbishops’ Council, which reflects the results of the consultation.

Legislative Business
As regards new legislation, the principal items give effect to the recommendations in the Review of Clergy Terms of Service (the ‘McClean Group’). The draft legislation will introduce, in the form of ‘common tenure’, a new framework of rights and responsibilities under which both freehold and licensed clergy will hold office within the Church, as well as making significant changes in relation to clergy housing.
The draft Church of England Marriage Measure returns to Synod for its Revision Stage. The legislation will make it easier for people to get married in a particular church. The previous General Synod agreed in principle that the right to marry in a Church of England church should be extended to those having certain types of qualifying connection with the church in question. At the moment, people have a right to be married only in the church of the parish where they live or are entered on the church electoral roll.
The draft Dioceses, Pastoral and Mission Measure returns to Synod for Final Approval. This significant piece of legislation aims to improve the Church’s structures and processes in a way that will enable it to further its mission. In particular, it develops the process for diocesan re-organisation, at present to be found in the Dioceses Measure 1978, so that the Dioceses Commission can take a more proactive role and improve the prospects of bringing projects that are in the Church’s interest to a successful conclusion; it helps to simplify, devolve and make more flexible the procedures for pastoral re-organisation and closure of churches for regular public worship in the Pastoral Measure 1983; and it provides a new legal framework for mission initiatives.

Other business
The Synod meets just over a week after the end of the meeting of Primates of the Anglican Communion in Tanzania. The Archbishop of Canterbury will, on the first afternoon of Synod, brief the Synod on the outcome of that meeting by means of a Presidential Address.
There will be a debate on the next steps for implementing the Synod’s decision in principle to adopt a system of electronic voting.
There will be a presentation on Fresh Expressions, an initiative by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, which has been exploring new ways of developing the Church’s mission and presence in the community.


Note
*This will be the General Synod’s first meeting in the newly refurbished Assembly Hall. The renovation returns it to the original 1939 design of architect Sir Herbert Baker, with flat floor, reinstatement of Gallery up-lighters and replacement of 1970s broadcasting booths.
The floor of the Hall will be furnished with new chairs for all attendees, a new stage with improved disabled access and new tables for those working on the stage. Other improvements include new paint and carpet, improved acoustic design and audio provision and the introduction of improved communications.
Built in 1939, the Assembly Hall had been altered in 1958. These alterations included the provision of a dished floor and fixed seating, which had come to the end of its useful life by the time the current refurbishment was being planned. Audio-visual technology had been updated every decade but the current refurbishment allowed for a complete overhaul of the entire sound and communications infrastructure.

PRIVATE MEMBER’S MOTION
LESBIAN AND GAY CHRISTIANS (GS Misc 842A and B)

The Revd Mary Gilbert (Lichfield) to move:

11. ‘That this Synod acknowledge the diversity of opinion about homosexuality within the Church of England and that these divergent opinions come from honest and legitimate attempts to read the scriptures with integrity, understand the nature of homosexual orientation, and respect the patterns of holy living to which lesbian and gay Christians aspire; and, bearing in mind this diversity,

(a) agree that a homosexual orientation in itself is no bar to a faithful Christian life;

(b) invite parish and cathedral congregations to welcome and affirm lesbian and gay Christians, lay and ordained, valuing their contribution at every level of the Church; and

(c) urge every parish to ensure a climate of sufficient acceptance and safety to enable the experience of lesbian and gay people to be heard, as successive Lambeth Conferences in 1978 (resolution 10), 1988 (resolution 64), and 1998 (resolution 1.10) have requested.’

PRIVATE MEMBER’S MOTION
CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS (GS Misc 843A and B)

The Revd Paul Perkin (Southwark) to move:

13. ‘That this Synod, deeply concerned that

(a) in an understandable desire to remedy injustice and remove unjust discrimination, the Government’s Civil Partnership Act undermines the distinctiveness and fundamental importance to society of the relationship of marriage;

(b) the House of Bishops’ Pastoral Statement, while reiterating the Church’s basic teaching on marriage, has produced a recipe for confusion by not stating clearly that civil partnerships entered into under the CP Act would be inconsistent with Christian teaching;

(c) the House of Bishops’ Pastoral Statement has given to bishops the task of ensuring that clergy who enter into these partnerships adhere to church teaching in the area of sexuality without giving the bishops the clear means to do so; and

(d) by declaring that lay people who enter into such partnerships should not be asked about the nature of their relationship, in the context of preparation for baptism and confirmation, as well as for the purposes of receiving Holy Communion, the Bishops’ Pastoral Statement has compromised pastoral discipline at the local level:

declare its support for bishops, clergy and other ministers who continue to minister the godly discipline required by the scriptures and the canons and request the House of Bishops to set up a study of the ways in which that discipline is being applied and the implications thereof for future pastoral guidance and bring a report to Synod by the July 2007 Group of Sessions.’

The Telegraph reviews the coming week with the following article in today's paper:

Anglicans to review stance on gay clergy

By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent

Church of England leaders are to re-examine their policy on civil partnerships following criticism that they have unwittingly given moral support to gay "marriage".
The House of Bishops issued guidance in 2005 allowing gay clergy to enter into such partnerships if they abstained from sex, arguing that this was compatible with its traditional teaching on marriage.
But a number of bishops have since complained they were misled by the Government about the true nature of the civil partnership legislation, which they fear has too many parallels with marriage.
They are angry that the Government, which claimed it had no intention of creating gay marriage, refused to give similar legal protection to that afforded by civil partnerships to brothers or sisters who share a home.
Moreover, some bishops were infuriated that at least one minister referred to civil partnerships as the equivalent to gay marriage, and a Government website briefly spoke of "wedding bells".
Although the bishops do not want to retreat from their guidance, they will tell the General Synod when it meets in London this week that they will "keep the matter under review".
They face a highly-charged debate on homosexuality on Wednesday when the Synod votes on two contrasting private members' motions, one liberal in tone and the other conservative.
The debates come just days after Anglican leaders gave the liberal American Episcopal Church seven months to prove that it had reversed its pro-gay agenda or face expulsion from the worldwide Communion.
The four-day Synod, which begins today, will debate a range of issues from the future of the Trident nuclear weapons to Church schools, but the motions on Wednesday will dominate the agenda.
The first, more liberal, motion, which has been tabled by the Rev Mary Gilbert, a Synod member from Lichfield, Staffs, urges the Synod to agree that homosexual orientation, as opposed to practice, "is no bar to a faithful Christian life".
The second motion, tabled by the Rev Paul Perkin, an evangelical, criticises the bishops' guidance on civil partnerships as a "recipe for confusion".
The guidance requires clergy entering into such partnerships to assure their bishops that they will remain celibate, and bars clergy from formally blessing couples in a civil partnership.