Update Wednesday afternoon The links are now all correct.
The papers sent to dioceses for the Article 8 reference regarding women bishops are now available online. This is copied below.
Women bishops reference to dioceses
The Article 8 process regarding women bishops is outlined and explained in a note from the Business Committee of the General Synod. Click here.
The Business Committee has also circulated four other documents: a report from the House of Bishops (GS 1932) which includes the texts of the draft House of Bishops’ Declaration on the Ministry of Bishops and Priests (in Annex A) and the draft Resolution of Disputes Procedure Regulations (in Annex B); a background note on the new package of proposals (A8(14)1); the draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure (A8(14)2); the draft Amending Canon No. 33 (A8(14)3); and an Explanatory Memorandum relating to the draft legislation (A8(14)4).
The General Synod voted on Tuesday 11 February to suspend Standing Order 90 until the end of the Group of Sessions to be held in November 2014. This enables a shortening of the deadline for Diocesan Synods to vote on the draft legislation to enable women to become bishops. Reporting forms, recording the votes of Diocesan Synods, should be returned to the Clerk to the Synod to arrive by midnight on Thursday 22 May 2014.
A background note produced by the Business Committee in 2010 on the history of the legislative proposals can be viewed by clicking on the link below.
One of the most important decisions made, so far, in the proposed legislation for the ordination of women as bishops in the Church of England would appear to be the fact that: the diocesan bishop, whether female or male, will be considered to have assented to the requested episcopal intervention of another, male, bishop in their diocese.
This would seem to allow the diocesan to maintain their normal episcopal authority within their own jurisdiction – by an act of delegation – rather than having to surrender to any external force of legal coercion.
My concern is that though the “Act of Synod” is gone, those parishes that have been ABC will continue to have a semi-detached existence within the CofE. More so indeed since the Act of Synod allowed for extended episcopal ministry but the new Bishops declaration speaks of extended episcopal oversight, giving credence to the practice of such parishes regarding themselves as within the See of their PEV rather than within the See of their diocesan.
And therein, Paul, is the difficulty of maintaining the catholicity of the College of Bishops, whose understanding of collegiality may be different in the Church of England – from what it is in other Provinces of Ekklesia Anglicana.
My concern is that though the “Act of Synod” is gone, those parishes that have been ABC will continue to have a semi-detached existence within the CofE. Let’s face it, lots of parishes – evangelical, affirming catholic- even, dare I say it, liberal exist in a semi detached existence within the church. When I was a rural dean many many years ago, I was told by the churchwarden of a very upmarket establishment church that her loyalty was to the parish, not the diocese. Though I look on from outside now, having crossed the Tiber, my advice , for what… Read more »
Out of interest, are any of the plausible candidates to be amongst the first cohort of women bishops lesbians who are likely to marry their partners in the meantime? If the CofE is going to tear itself to pieces with conservatives claiming the world is ending, why not get a two for the price of one offer and resolve both issues at the same time?
Out of interest, are any of the plausible candidates to be amongst the first cohort of women bishops lesbians who are likely to marry their partners in the meantime?
I think,on reflection,the answer to that is likely to be no
I agree with Paul Richardson that it is worrying that the bishops’ declaration speaks of extended episcopal ‘oversight’. Charles Read, myself and others have posted many times on this site over the years pointing out that the Act of Synod allowed for extended episcopal care, not alternative episcopal oversight, even though many Res C parishes behaved as if it was alternative oversight that had been granted. It would have been much better if the bishops’ declaration had carried over the words from the Act of Synod. Use of the word oversight might well give dissenters further encouragement to believe that… Read more »