NEWS from the Church of England
PR 87.10
05/10/2010
For immediate release
Women in the episcopate: working group for preparation of draft statutory code of practice
The membership has been announced today of a working group established by the House of Bishops’ Standing Committee to advise the House on the preparation of a draft statutory code of practice.
The members, three of whom served on the former Revision Committee on the legislation, are:
The working group has been asked to conclude its report for the House by next autumn having consulted the House and the legislative Steering Committee first.
The expectation is that the House will bring a draft of the code to Synod in February 2012, though the final version of the code cannot be drawn up by the House and approved by Synod until the legislation itself has received Royal Assent (which cannot in practice be before 2013).
ENDS
It still seems very odd to me that the draft Code is not going to be available before Diocesan Synods vote on the legislation.
And is Martin Warner’s illness going to delay the start of the group’s work?
It is also worth noting that, once again, there is a liberal bias to ensure that block voting would ultimately ensure who calls the shots…
But as an optional Code of Practice is about as useful in reality as a waterproof sponge it would make no difference if it were written by Pope Benedict himself.
Anyone doubting me explain why a group to rescind the code of practice was never set up.
Cart before horse – Cart before horse!
Good to see Jane Sinclair (our archdeacon, not to mention acting Rural Dean) on the group – very highly rated round here.
“once again, there is a liberal bias” Ed Tomlinson
Maybe – but the panel also includes Angus ‘women are to submit to their husbands in everything’ MacLeay.
http://www.loonwatch.com/2010/02/britain-pastor-tells-women-to-be-silent-and-submit-to-their-husbands/
My point was that Angus and Warner will be outvoted at every turn….just as happened in the revision committee. Indeed the block voting was all rather predictable. Stack the odds and make it look like democracy!
‘Bishops’ is just a form of church government –one among many — that’s all.
Not sacrosanct. What a shame that it has become inflated in my life time. With a freight of anglo-catholic romance which it can’t carry, can’t sustain. Not fit for purpose on the ground, in the real world.
I’d love to see us experimenting with other ways of doing things. I know it’s not going to happen -yet — so many vested interests and a surfeit of that romance.
“…so many vested interests…”
-Laurence Roberts
Yup, it’s the ones in vestments, alright. 🙂
“Stack the odds and make it look like democracy!”
– Ed Tomlinson –
Ed, there is no such thing as ‘democracy’ in the Church – as you should know quite well – being an admirer of the Papal Magisterium. At least , in the Anglican system, there is some appearance of collegial consultation.
I suppose your main worry might be that there are an equal number of women and men on the newly-announced working group. That certainly could never happen in your preferred world of Roman Catholic ‘orthodoxy’.
n.b. “Male and female created He (God) them”.
How does someone like MacLeay get appointed to any sort of position of responsibility in the CofE? Do his retrograde views have that much currency?
MacLeay has a constituency certainly but as I have said before on this site: in what sense are his views( male headship etc) simply permissable within the Church of England and in what sense are these views the DOCTRINE of the Church of England. This is something that has troubled me for a long time and I found it particularly difficult when I was a Director of Ordinands. What does one say to a woman candidate for priesthood who says she believes in male headship and could not serve under a woman incumbent for instance? We ask clergy at ordination… Read more »
There are some conservative evanagelical women who train for the church of England diaconate, and they act like the old lay deaconess!
It’s a bit late for that ! – doctrinal singularity and steadfastness in the C of E. On the other hand it does give different folks scope for their faith / inner journey. I think of it these days as more like poetry and colours on a palette — many palettes in fact ! The Society Friends does without Creeds but does have certain convictions called Testimonies (Peace, Equality, Simplicity, Truth)and certain practices such as silent, waiting worship (unprogrammed worship), priesthood of all, Quaker business method which is itself a form of worship as well as a ‘committee'(no Voting). Also… Read more »
Fine Laurence. If I wanted to be a Quaker I would become one, similarly Baptist, RC etc.But while I value the comprehensiveness of the Church of England and do not see it as a confessional Church on ,say,the classic reformed or Lutheran model,I believe there should be rather more to it than comprehensiveness defined simply as fruitful tension between opposite points of view out of which somehow truth will eventually emerge. That is part of the mix to be sure but not enough, I think.
To reply to Maggie’s comment from Tuesday, Martin Warner doesn’t think his illness is a problem and feels able to take on the pressures of being a minority on the working group. He is back at work. He is supposed to taking things gently!
The group looks well balanced to me and has an able membership. The group looks a good size to take things forwards.
ah Perry, I liked what you said –but then noticed you saw it as not enough.Can’t we be informed by other denominations and traditions, and learn from them a bit ? I am not how far your ‘something extra’ can happen in an anglican, or any other context. Not sure it would be a Good Thing, really. ~Truth emerge ? Or truths ? Or we jsut find we can sometimes do something good- ‘do the truth’ perhaps. I suppose I belong in a meaningful way, to 3 Christian bodies which hold mutually exclusive theologies at one level. I can live… Read more »