Church of England press release:
The House of Bishops has announced the membership of a Group established to advise it on reviewing its Pastoral Statement issued prior to the introduction of civil partnerships in December 2005. The Group will be chaired by the Bishop of Sodor and Man, the Rt Rev Robert Paterson. The other two members of the Group are the Bishop of Portsmouth, the Rt Rev Christopher Foster, and the Bishop of Dorchester, the Rt Rev Colin Fletcher. The Group will start work in December and report to the House in time for the House to reach conclusions during 2012.
The preparation of the pastoral statement was the last occasion when the House of Bishops devoted substantial time to the issue of same sex relationships. The House undertook to keep that Pastoral Statement under review and announced in July, this year, http://www.churchofengland.org/media/1289380/gsmisc997.pdf , that the time had come for a review to take place.
The House of Bishops also announced in July further work on the Church of England’s approach to human sexuality more generally. The expectation is that the membership of that Group, whose work will be considered by the House during 2013, will be announced in the next few weeks.
The original 2005 Pastoral Statement is here.
As noted here earlier this week, the announcement of the review said:
“It is now nearly six years since the House issued its Pastoral Statement prior to the introduction of civil partnerships in December 2005. The preparation of that document was the last occasion when the House devoted substantial time to the issue of same sex relationships. We undertook to keep that Pastoral Statement under review. We have decided that the time has come for a review to take place.
“Over the past five and half years there have been several developments. Consistent with the guidelines in the Pastoral Statement a number of clergy are now in civil partnerships. The General Synod decided to amend the clergy pension scheme to improve the provision for the surviving civil partners of clergy who have died. More recently Parliament has decided that civil partnerships may be registered on religious premises where the relevant religious authority has consented (the necessary regulations are expected this autumn).
“The review will need to take account of this changing scene…”
The HoB has recommended that the name of any known homosexual priest shall not be considered for episcopal ordination so as not to pre-empt any future decision. Such niceties seems to have been thrown to the wind, when one looks at the composition of this review group. Who is in any doubt about the opinions of the Bishop of Sodor & Man or the Bishop of Dorchester? Both men have been vocal about where they stand on the issue of Civil Partnerships. Do we think that the newly installed Bishop of Portsmouth ( a former pupil of Dr Williams) will… Read more »
“The HoB has recommended that the name of any known homosexual priest shall not be considered for episcopal ordination so as not to pre-empt any future decision. Such niceties seems to have been thrown to the wind”
Waitaminnit, you’re calling this discriminatory provision a “nicety”, Commentator?
Speechless now.
With ‘Lambeth 1:10 as the basis for a further review of the Church of England’s attitude towards Same-Sex Partnerships, it would seem to be only possible to reach one conclusion: No-Go!
All this: despite the fact that General Synod has already passed legislation to allow the surviving Same-Sex partner of a deceased Clergy-person in the Church of England to receive a pension. How dis-connected from reality an that be? When will this structured culture of hypocrisy cease?
Putting Robert as chair is described to me by a Welsh bishop like this: “Balance, dear boy, balance! I must talk to you about this sometime,……” I regret I have no comfort for Commentator – Robert Patterson was vicar of a parish adjoining mine and is wholly unsympathetic. He sacked a celibate gay curate, and most recently, Fr Smith take note, he was one of only two CofE bishops in General Synod to vote AGAINST extending the pension rights of civilly partnered clerics. I contacted some gay couples I know who live in Robert’s former parishes – Robert would not… Read more »
“any known homosexual priest shall not be considered”
oops, did someone forget “living in a committed relationship” or “active” or “practicing” — or is this really a parting of the veil to indicate that even a celibate and solitary gay priest is out of bounds for consideration?
}}}strains credulity{{{
No Tobias the exclusion under Rowan Williams is total.
A bit late to respond now – but the “nicety” is in the ‘not pre-empting’. It is not in the banning.