There has been considerable discussion lately about whether or not the Lords Spiritual supported the Civil Partnership legislation.
Richard Chapman, Secretary for Parliamentary Affairs for the Church of England has compiled a memorandum, which can be found in its original form here, and which we have transcribed as a web page.
His introduction:
The Lords Spiritual and Civil Partnerships Legislation
The following is a timeline that summarises the speeches and votes of bishops in the House of Lords on civil partnership legislation from 2002 – when a Private Member’s Bill was first brought before the House by Lord Lester of Herne Hill – to the passing of the Government’s Civil Partnership Act in November 2004.
The bishops, consistent with their place as independent and non-whipped members neither spoke nor voted as a bloc on these issues when they were before the House. The Government’s 2004 legislation that resulted in the introduction of civil partnerships was welcomed at Second Reading by the Bishop of Oxford and with more qualification, by the Bishop of Peterborough. More critical speeches followed from the Bishops’ Bench during the Bill’s subsequent stages. Six bishops voted in favour of (and one against) what was widely considered to be a ‘wrecking amendment’ to the Bill at Report stage; however when the Commons removed the amendment and returned the Bill to the Lords in November 2004, eight bishops voted in support of the decision taken by the Commons (two voted against). Extracts from speeches by the Lords Spiritual and links to the parliamentary record of the speeches and votes are below.
Our transcription is here.
This document confirms what had earlier been pointed out by both Richard Harries and myself: viz., that in the main Lords debate on what is now the Civil Partnership Act 2004 “Six bishops voted in favour of (and one against) what was widely considered to be a ‘wrecking amendment’ to the Bill at Report stage”; indeed, the then bishop of Winchester co-sponsored this wrecking amendment. The Commons rejected the amendment in the names of Lady O’Cathain and the Bishop of Winchester. When the Lords briefly considered whether to accept the Commons’ rejection of their amendment, Lady O’Cathain offered a similar… Read more »
Good letter in the Times today from Canon Bob Reiss of Westminster Abbey highlighting the defensiveness of the C of E statement…and this is just more of it? I remember 40 yrs ago when doing doctoral work spending time amidst the theological conflicts that beset the C of E in the mid/late 19c and thinking”Good grief good /sincere Christian folk get so worked up about things that within even 50 yrs were absorbed or even affirmed in normal christian circles…what an extraordinary waste of energy in “doomed causes” that were the wrong side of history so to speak…” I just… Read more »
It was breathtaking to hear the bishop of Oxford not only supporting the Bill in the Lords but supporting the brief prepared by Ian Buist and saying that the Bill was hugely deficient in not allowing civil partnerships to take place in religious buildings and in having no words of commitment. Bishop Harries was the “lead bishop” in the House that day. It is interesting to see how the spin works in this case. But as he and Iain and all of us remember so well the wrecking amendment in the name of the bishop of Winchester and Barononess O’Cathain… Read more »
They won’t be able to hide behind unsigned legal documents in the Lords. The legislation will sail through the Commons, proving to be a populist cause as shown by recent opinion polls, so we’ll see whether all twenty-six bishops turn out to attempt to wreck it.
If Members of the Lower House are taking responsibilty for the moral, social and spiritual welfare of gay people, then what need have we for the legalistic nit-picking of the Lords Spiritual?
Speaking of ‘Wrecking Amendments’ to the Same-Sex Civil Partnerships Bill, and the damage that this did to members of the Church who would have liked a ‘Same Sex Blessing’ by the Church – in addition to their legal Civil status; this no doubt has led to the need for consideration of Gay Marriage! Is this not in some way analagous to the current situation of ‘Wrecking Amendments’ provided by the House of Bishops to the Draft Measure for the Ordination of Women as Bishops in the C.of E.? One wonders, again, what might be the outcome for credibility of the… Read more »
I wonder if the hierarchy of the Church of England are now wishing they had been more accommodating of those Gays in the Church who were only asking them to Bless their Civil Partnerships.
Meanness can sometimes lead to the need for enforced largesse.