For the background to this, see previous posts:
Waddington amendment upheld in Lords July 2009
bishops oppose repeal of Waddington amendment May 2009
Anglican and Roman church bodies comment jointly November 2007
incitement extension proposed October 2007
Today, the UK government finally accepted, with reluctance, the amendment supported repeatedly, by the House of Lords and rejected, also repeatedly, by the House of Commons.
See today’s news reports:
The Bishop of Winchester spoke in one of the debates, and you can read what he said here.
“The Lord Bishop of Winchester: ‘My Lords, I shall say very little because virtually everything I wished to say has been said by the noble Lords, Lord Wasddington and Lord Dear, and by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay’ “ On Lordy. Lordy! When are the Bishops of the Church of England going to surrender their thrones in the House of Lords? It really is about time this anachronistic situation is put to the sword! My Lord of Winchester is scarcely upholding the common law of justice when he aids and abets the entitlement of the Upper House to… Read more »
The Anglican Communion receives another black eye from the CofE!
No wonder everyone regards Anglicanism as a joke when you’ve got the likes of Winchester.
Exactly. The Church, as ever, places itself on the side of bigotry and prejudice.
Humanist groups took the opposite view.
The CoE is quickly becoming something with which no decent person would want to be associated.
The Waddington business ensures that things will have to get even worse – particularly for the fondly targeted queer folks in UK – before anybody will consider not trash talking them with high Anglican religion, especially of the evangelical and AngloCatholic varieties. I would sadly guess it has to get really nasty, as in the USA killing of Matthew Shepherd and so many others, before anybody thinks twice before trash talking queer folks who are the lowest neighbors on the church life evangelical or catholic rankings. Silent nods, Rubbing shoulders with this sort of Anglican believer is really getting deeply… Read more »
If someone is still looking here:
I know very little about the workings of the British Parliament, but my understanding is that the House of Commons can override opposition by the House of Lords.
If so, what’s the procedure for this to take place, and is there any chance that the Government might employ this during a future session of Parliamentt?