Forward in Faith has two items: General Synod Vote – Initial Reaction
Forward in Faith and the Catholic Group in General Synod note with regret that, despite the clear advice of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Durham, the Bishop of Winchester, the Bishop of Exeter and other Bishops, the Prolocutor of the Province of Canterbury and the Chairman of the House of Laity and the obvious lack of consensus, the General Synod today resolved to make no meaningful provision for those in conscience unable to receive the ministry of women bishops.
There must now be a period of prayerful reflection. However, members of both the General Synod and of the Church of England will understand that actions always have consequences.
and General Synod vote – further reaction
The consistent behaviour of the General Synod compels Forward in Faith and the Catholic Group in General Synod to recognise that, without intervention by the House of Bishops, there is little prospect of gaining a synodical majority which would provide a structural solution that would meet the needs of those who, out of obedience to scripture and tradition, are unable in conscience to receive the ordination of women to the episcopate. We will in the coming days continue to explore all possible avenues which might secure our corporate ecclesial future and look to our bishops to facilitate this.
Vatican Radio has Vatican Regret at Anglican Vote to Ordain Female Bishops.
WATCH has this:
Synod votes in favour of women as bishops, with a Code of Practice
We are delighted that General Synod after many hours of debate, voted to proceed to the consecration of women as bishops with arrangements for those who will not accept their ministry simply in a Code of Practice. This was the stance proposed by the House of Bishops and supported by WATCH, and in the final voting there were clear majorities in each House in favour of taking this step. The voting figures were:
Bishops: 28 for, 12 against, 1 abs
Clergy: 124 for, 44 against, 4 abs
Laity: 111 for, 68 against, 2 abs
The Legislative Drafting Group will now prepare the relevant legislation, along with a Code of Practice, to be brought to the next meeting of General Synod in February next year.
Reform has a statement Reform predicts Synod vote will “further rouse the ‘sleeping giant’ of evangelical Anglicanism”
Reform members who took part in the Synod debates are very disappointed that no legal provision has been made for those who cannot in conscience receive oversight from a female bishop. We note that the opinions of four out of the five most senior bishops on both the content and timing of this measure were swept aside in the course of the debate.
We will scrutinise the proposed code of practice in February’s debate carefully, but remain very sceptical as to its usefulness.
By giving no legal provision Synod has effectively said: “We don’t want people like you in our Church of England.” This message will no doubt further rouse the ‘sleeping giant’ of orthodox and evangelical Anglicanism in the UK and around the globe.
Interfax reports Russian Church alarmed by Anglicans’ decision to ordain women.
Update A further Interfax report has Anglican Church decision to consecrate women-bishops challenges Orthodox-Anglican dialogue – Bishop Hilarion.
While I wholeheartedly agree with the General Synod decision, I am sorry that the Forward in Faith members of the C of E are distressed and hurting at this time. And I appreciate the sense of betrayal many may feel after what they believe was promised in 1993. I do think part of the pain may stem from the systemic separation of ‘no-go’ areas and ‘women allowed’ areas in the church. For many of us in the majority, we live in parishes and dioceses where 25% of the clergy and 50% of the ordinands are female. I wonder if even… Read more »
“By giving no legal provision Synod has effectively said: “We don’t want people like you in our Church of England.” “
Once again, I don’t understand how any reasoning person could read things this way. What it IS saying is “we will not treat others as we would not be treated ourselves.”
The outcome at Synod today was the best anyone on any side could have hoped for. Those who are talking to Rome should now be broaching the question of conversion rather than inviting ecclesial interference from another province (that’s what the English Reformation was ultimately about, after all). Those who are inclined to FOCA should now commit to that and stop talking schism and set up in greenfields sites. Stop treating the CofE and the Anglican Communion as a convenient boat to fish from — if you’re convinced of the rightness of your cause, then God will vindicate you.
The Synod has been ungenerous and risks unchurching people as a result of their actions. They should be ashamed. What is profoundly depressing is that many priests who are opposed to women priests have been friendly and accomodating in as generous a spirit as they could. And grown fond of women priests whose ministry nevertheless remained a theological impossibilty in their eyes. This, many of us thought, had been reciprocated, respected and understood. And then, thanks to the house of clergy now being loaded with representation from women and liberals…this is how they are treated. Utterly shameful. Shame. Shame. Shame.… Read more »
I welcome the new legislation which opens the way for women to become bishops. The women priests I’ve been priveleged to meet are convincing in their true vocation. They are getting on with the job, totally fit for purpose, a gift to the church and a generation which has lost its spiritual direction. This does not berate my Anglo-Catholic friends. They have taught me much about the unchanging,everlasting love of God,the dignity of worship,the discipline of prayer, the communion of saints who have inspired us down the ages creating a powerful link with past and present. I do hope they… Read more »
The choice was between handing the extreme catholic and evangelical alternative structures on a plate, or letting them make the effort to set them up. The Synod chose the latter, and that must be right: a Church ought not to organise its own schism.
Since Anglican orders are “absolutely null and utterly void” why does the Vatican “regret” the Synod’s decision? Why would they even care if the Church of England decided to consecrate cats as bishops? Can somebody explain this?
Hmmm, sorry to say that it looks very like the traditionalistic believers who once upon an olden time found women alarming, thought people of a different skin color or physiognomy to have been created inferior by deity, suspected anybody who appeared to be a stranger of any sort to any degree, knew the earth was flat and placed at the cosmological center around which a sun revolved, and of course, were deeply alarmed by queer folks – now continue to be properly alarmed by the thought of women – and highly educated/trained/committed women at that. Imagine. Horrors. What is the… Read more »
So the Russians are alarmed by “Anglicans'” decision to ordain women [to the episcopate]? Have they not been paying attention? The Anglican churches in the US, Canada, and New Zealand have been consecrating women to the episcopate for years. The Australian church consecrated their first two women bishops a few weeks ago. What are we — chopped liver?
“… very disappointed that no legal provision has been made for those who cannot in conscience receive oversight from a female bishop.”
Please explain what this is other than a refusal to “receive oversight” from anybody!
“… rouse the ‘sleeping giant’ of evangelical Anglicanism”.
More threats from school yard bullies into numbers games.
I think the Churches who object need to Get With The Program, because eventually (and eventually is coming soon) they will have the same ideas infiltrating their religions.
Just another “obstacle”…a lot different and more moderate than what Cardianl Kaspar said when he addressed the Cof E bishops…no mention of downgrading the dialogue.
The fact is , and Rome cannot face the reality of this…the ordination of women deacons was the key issue. Once you admit women to Holy Orders in any degree the ministries cannot be reconciled.
Incidently FIF , the flying bishops all have women deacons!
Amen Pat!
Why do the Russians rage and the Romans imagine a vain thing? Because this decision of the C of E is a big propaganda boost for the cause of women’s ordination, rattling the bastions of patriarchy.
Pat, “I don’t understand how any reasoning person could read things this way.” Pat, while I don’t agree with “Traditionalists” on this, I understand precisely how they feel, I once felt the same. Here is a group who sincerely believe that based on Scripture and Tradition, a woman can’t be a priest or a bishop. Thus, any sacraments she celebrates are no sacraments at all, except baptism. Most importantly, any ordinations she performs are not ordinations. Thus, there will be, in their eyes, an ever growing number of people, both men and women, who are not priests and whose sacraments… Read more »
How can Neil write like this? No one is being unchurched at all. But the Church of England has simply put its money where its mouth it – we decided quite a long time ago that there were no theological objections to the ordination of women and are simply completing the long drawn-out process of making that a reality. If people don’t want to be part of a Church that has decided to treat men and women on an equal basis in its ministry then there are two possibilities: one is to stay (and no one is telling anyone that… Read more »
Ford: I understand that–but as I said, I don’t see how a “reasoning” person can believe that. It’s an emotional argument for the most part. And it denies the words of scripture that so many of them would otherwise declare sancrosanct: In Christ there is no male or female…. It denies the fact that the first witnesses to the resurrection were all women–at a time when the apostles, the “first priests and bishops”, were hiding in a locked room, scared to death that Jesus’s fate would soon be theirs. And it denies the belief that the Spirit still moves among… Read more »
What Ford Elms states, I can second. At my very first paid gig in a suburban parish in central Ohio, I experienced for the first time a female celebrant in the mid-1980’s. It was a strange experience hearing a treble voice during the (said) sursum corda and to receive communion as well. I was honestly not comfortable, and it took it a while to understand that it was the aesthetics of a changed environment. Indeed my men and boy choir upbringing was being invaded, and the hairs on my back were surely being raised. But the other side of my… Read more »
If there was a lack of “meaningful consensus” it concerned providing an anomalous division in the church for those who cannot accept women in orders. The consensus is that women can be ordained, and that there is no theological objection that stands close examination. (One reason the Roman Church imposed a gag order on the subject altogether… her slip was showing in previous efforts to “argue” the matter — as even she acknowledged concerning the “rationales” given at Trent.)
ddf, do you really care about womens’ rights, or are you just trying to conflate behavior and immutable characteristics? As Sartre noted, you’re condemned to be free, as much as you may dislike the notion – it’s never too late to repent.
“I do understand the pain of being told, essentially, that what one believes with all one’s heart just doesn’t matter, and if you don’t “get with the program” we don’t really care if you end up deprived of sacraments as a reasult.” Well of course, Ford: you understand, and so do I. EVERY queer Christian has been told the same at some point. …but then the claims of queer Christians aren’t MERELY based upon what we “believe in our hearts”, is it? We expect—nay, invite!—other Christians to not only do the work of examining Scripture, Tradition, and Reason (where Christians… Read more »
It all seems like a no-brainer to me. If you truly, deeply believe in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, then how in God’s name can you stand every Sunday and say that you believe in “One, Holy, Catholic & Apostolic Church” and applaud the ordination of women and all the pain this causes? A vote for women’s ordination/consecration is a betrayal of the Creed. This will divide the Anglican world from Rome & the Orthodox FOREVER, rend the Body of Christ, destroying the very idea of “One church”. To tamper with 2000 years of accumulated Wisdom based on little more than trendy… Read more »
JCF, I know that not from being gay, but from having a very conservative position on OOW at a time when Canadian Anglican leaders seemed to think of the issue only in political terms and actively sneered at anyone who was not “with the program”. Frankly, I have never felt the scorn as a gay Christian as I felt as someone who opposed OOW all those years ago. I’ve never been told it in relation to being gay. And, Frankie, if you haven’t learned yet that OOW is NOT based on nothing more than trendy thinking, you are just as… Read more »
“PLEASE remember the Catholics within the C of E. Their PAIN is REAL.” I’m sure it is, Frankie. But so is their Joy. You see, there tremendous numbers of “Catholics within the C of E”—and Catholics within the rest of the AC (e.g. TEC, where I am)—who rejoice at this decision of the General Synod. Faithful Anglicans, all around the world, who “truly, deeply believe in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed”, and rejoice at this decision to uplift Imago-Dei-made-female, to be Christ’s holy bishops. I understand that you aren’t one of the joyful, Frankie. But please don’t WRITE ME OUT of Anglo-Catholicism,… Read more »
Frankie, It seems to me that “a Holy, Catholic & Apostolic Church” is not, and cannot be, the actual (accidental ;=) churches in their Splendour – or whatever 🙁 Only The Church of Christ. Even less “a betrayal of the Creed”, to “rend the Body of Christ,” “destroying the very idea of “One church”, “2000 years of accumulated Wisdom” (Academic Neo Platonism, Gnosticism, wisdom?), “trendy thinking”, “misguided philanthropy”, “heterodox at best”, “merely a pantomime”, “demolished the bathroom”, “totally irrelevant”, “the very validity” & c., & c., & c. Oh, but for the Hyperbolä, the Accusations! We have heard them so… Read more »
The majority “yes men” among the Lambeth Fathers (and the new “Mothers” as well) currently gathered together in Conference should be encouraged to approve other “reforms” to the historical Anglican credo. As one example, Article 19 of the 39 Articles (1549, 1562, 1571 versions) is an ideal place with which to commence: the text of that Article should be formally modified/modernised to include the Church of England (and its spiritual offspring abroad) alongside the Churches of Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch and Rome as having “erred, not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies, but also in matters of FAITH”. Pax… Read more »