The Briefing for Members of Vacancy in See Committees has been recently updated and is now dated July 2013.
There are a number of changes from the previous edition, including these.
1) Following the introduction of Common Tenure, diocesan bishops have a role profile and person specification. Details of how the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) prepare these is now included.
2) The section on the procedures of the CNC has been expanded, in particular by adding information on the interviews that are now held.
3) Under the section “The Prime Minister” there is this new sentence which requires further editing.
A medical and DBS ** [what does this mean???] are conducted prior to the [candidate’s formal nomination to the See?].
DBS refers to the Disclosure and Barring Service checks (previously CRB checks).
The following description of the role of the Bishop in the diocese includes the following: “Introduction to the Service ……the bishops are to gather God’s people and celebrate with them the sacraments of the new covenant. Thus formed into a single communion of faith and love, the Church in each place and time is united with the Church in every place and time.” Hopefully, this will mean that a Woman Diocesan Bishop will, in fact, preside over ‘a single communion of faith and love’ – This would surely indicate the unity of the diocese over which God places her in… Read more »
Look I don’t post here very often, and I hope most of you regulars at least recognise I’m one of the more “thinking” ones of those who don’t agree but when you see this: “No room here for those who doubt her episcopal jurisdiction!” Unbelievable. I’m assuming you’re agreeing here, given the lack of any indication to the contrary and the tone of excitable pleasure. I’m dangerously close to being unchurched here. And yes, I recognise the riposte about how many others have been unchurched by the actions of Trads in the past. The difference presumably is I see all… Read more »
primroseleague: The thing is that the House of Bishops made something clear in their paper of May this year: “Once legislation has been passed to enable women to become bishops the Church of England will be fully and unequivocally committed to all orders of ministry being open equally to all, without reference to gender, and will hold that those whom it has duly ordained and appointed to office are the true and lawful holders of the office which they occupy and thus deserve due respect and canonical obedience;” Doubting ‘her episcopal jurisdiction’ is not going to be an option, just… Read more »
I think I’m with primrose in finding Fr Ron’s words about “no place for those who doubt…”, grating. Part of the glory of Anglicanism is that it is a section of the whole Church of God that seeks to welcome those who would follow Jesus Christ doubts and all. Indeed the journey into deeper faith and more profound prayer is often a journey into less certainty and sureness about anything, except the one who is love. Living and worshipping in fellowship with those who have different doubts is what forms us into the People of God. In practical terms it… Read more »
‘Living and worshipping in fellowship with those who have different doubts is what forms us into the People of God.’
Well this sounds very fine until we remember that this is a church that allows some who differ to legally exclude others from their worship completely. With all respect this needs earthing a bit more for our present context.
Don’t normally agree with a bishop.
primroseleague,
I think you’re in absolutely no danger of being ‘unchurched’. Father Ron isn’t in charge here and our bishops and archbishops seem to me to be exercising a proper concern for persons such as your good self.
Is anyone else worried that someone involved in the appointments process for Bishops doesn’t understand some of the basic Safeguarding terminology?
I am more worried that the document has still not been corrected…
What needs to be corrected? I must be missing something. As for “I think I’m with primrose in finding Fr Ron’s words about “no place for those who doubt…”, grating.” There are two different aspects here, aren’t there. One is that, as Andrew Godsall’s quote shows, the church itself will have removed all doubt and that women will minister on the same terms as men. That does not mean that individuals cannot retain their doubt and that the church will not find a way of accommodating that. But I do think it’s important to recognise that the CoE will be… Read more »
Erika, see point 3 in the original article above. There is an editorial error in the document issued by the Appointments Secretary, which appears to suggest that somebody drafting the document did not know what DBS stands for.
That’s what worries David.
What worries me is that the document is dated July and this is October, and nobody has yet corrected the document.
It would be interesting to know which of the two famous David Walkers took exception to my comment about the probability of there being ‘no place for those who doubt the jurisdiction of a woman bishop – should one be appointed according to the rules’. If it is the cartoonist, then I can only say that the word ‘respect’ included in the rules would surely, in this instance, mean that a woman bishop would be respected for the fact that she is the diocesan bishop having jurisition. If it was Bishop David Walker, I could only respectfully suggest that, as… Read more »
What worries me is that the document is dated July and this is October, and nobody has yet corrected the document.
Posted by: Simon Sarmiento on Wednesday, 2 October 2013 at 10:16pm BST
Someone has now.