General Synod begins

Anglicans braced for - unity

General Synod begins on Mondayand the Bishop of Rochester Dr Michael Nazir-Ali will be leading the debate on the Covenant. This week I spoke to him and to Gregory Cameron who was with the Primates in Alexandria. He is about to become Bishop of St Asaph and is widely known to be the architect of the covenant. It'll be unity, perhaps, but not unity as we've known it. Read it all here. What has surprised me most are the strong signals I'm receiving that the new Anglican Church in North America is likely to be given some kind of recognition, perhaps as an extra-provincial entity. There are a number of precedents. Of the 44 churches of the Anglican Communion, just 38 are provinces. The rest are churches such as from India and China. And because of their large emigrant communities they operate parallel jurisdictions in Cyprus and the Gulf, for example. Then there are the two parallel dioceses of TEC and the CoE in Europe.

As for the Church of England itself, the focus next week will be on women bishops, on race as Vasantha Gnanadoss attempts to get the Church to adopt a policy similar to the police and ban clergy and lay staff from joining the British National Party, and on Paul Eddy's motion on the proselytism of other faiths. One of the worries on women bishops is that weeks, months and years of debate, of reports and of consultation will all be wasted when, in five years time, it falls at the two-thirds majority it will need for final approval. All the signs so far are that it will be as close as the vote over women priests. The mother church of the Anglican Communion would then, arguably, find itself in even worse trouble than its brothers and sisters on the other side of the Atlantic.

Historic plans to introduce women bishops rejected by key traditionalist leaders

February 8th, 2009 Posted in Women Bishops |

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Telegraph

Plans to introduce women bishops in the Church of England have been thrown into disarray after traditionalist bishops said they would reject a compromise solution meant to heal the rift over the issue. 
 

Under proposals to be debated at the General Synod – the Church’s parliament – a new class of "complementary" bishops will be recommended as an arrangement to satisfy both sides of the debate.

The bishops would provide support to parishes that are opposed to female clergy by performing duties such as confirmation and ordination, but would be answerable to women bishops.

Members of the Synod will vote on whether to endorse the draft legislation, which has been heralded as a significant step in paving the way for women to be consecrated.

It had been put forward as the Church’s best hope of appeasing campaigners for women bishops while preventing a mass exodus of traditionalists.

However, the Anglo-Catholic leaders who would be expected to act as complementary bishops attacked the plans as "totally unacceptable", "limited", and "theologically incoherent".

They said it was inconceivable that the current proposals will heal the rift over the issue.

Two of the "flying" bishops who currently have a legal right to serve traditionalist parishes claimed that the new arrangement would not work.

"There is no way that I could act as a complementary bishop," said the Rt Rev Keith Newton, the Bishop of Richborough.

"Under these plans, there is no future for our constituency because they are based on a woman bishop giving us permission.

"Any provision has to be long-lasting and coherent, but this is limited and is designed to cater for us until we die out."

The Rt Rev Martyn Jarrett, the Bishop of Beverley, said that he could see no way that he could act as a complementary bishop.

"It doesn’t make sense to be a bishop who acts at the delegation of episcopal authority I do not accept. It lacks theological coherence," he said.

"The present position [with flying bishops] is bearable, but the new proposals are not."

According to the report to be debated by the Synod, the "flying" bishops would no longer be autonomous, but would have to accept the authority of the women bishop.

Bishop Jarrett said: "If no common ground can be found, we must seek to defeat the proposed legislation in its entirety with all the ensuing pain and continued struggle that such a course of action sadly will generate for the Church."

The Rt Rev John Broadhurst, Bishop of Fulham, claimed that none of his colleagues would accept the plans.

"Only a twit would be a complementary bishop. We’ve all talked about this and none of us are willing to do it," he said.

"It’s totally unacceptable and totally inconceivable that we would ever accept this."

The bishop, who is chair of Forward in Faith – an Anglo-Catholic group, added: "These plans go nowhere near finding a solution to the problem. It’s clear to me that they are dead in the water."