The House of Laity and the two Convocations (the clergy and bishops) met separately this afternoon to debate the legislation to allow women to be bishops.
The votes below are for the main vote on the approval of the draft measure. There were also votes (all in favour) on the consequential draft amending canon.
The bishops of the Canterbury Convocation approved the legislation by 27 votes to nil. The Canterbury clergy voted 95 for and 19 against with one recorded abstention.
In the York Convocation the bishops voted 11 for and 2 against. The clergy voted 38 for and 11 against with 2 abstentions.
The House of Laity voted 123 for and 53 against with no recorded abstentions.
Since all votes were in favour the draft legislation can now go to the whole Synod for the debate on final approval on Monday.
Many members will have voted to approve the legislation not because they are in favour, but to allow it to be debated in full Synod on Monday.
The Church of England website has this press release Latest on women bishops legislation from General Synod 06 July 2012 which starts “Convocations and House of Laity approve draft legislation”.
If “many members” voted not because they are in favour but in order to enable synodical debate, this legislation is in trouble because it will not need many laity who voted in favour today to vote against at final approval for it to fall.
Sorry, Simon (and everyone), but is this a vote on whether to adjourn and send the legislation back to the HoB? Or can that still happen on Monday (I need to read my synod papers more carefully!).
In response to Scot’s question, it is not a vote about sending it back to the HoB, but simply to confirm the go ahead for the Final Approval debate. It is during that debate that a motion for adjournment will surface. God forbid, however, that this be carried, as WATCH and GRAS would wish, since it will lead to yet more internal wrangling, division and squabbles, and will probably end in the legislation being voted down anyway, given the arithmetic of previous debates on the unamended Measure. The Church needs to move on, and WATCH and GRAS are simply prolonging… Read more »
Scot,
This was the vote on whether to approve that the Measure come before Synod. It needed to gain simple majorities in the House of Laity and each Convocation, so will now come before Synod on Monday for finall approval. It is then that Synod can either vote for or against the legislation, or vote in favour of an adjournment to refer it back to the House of Bishops.
What Benedict says about WATCH and GRAS can equally well be said about the HoB which has adopted ‘unseemly tactics’ in the extreme and risks bringing the House into disrepute. ‘They will have only themselves to blame in the end for yet more strife in the Church’, as Benedict would say.
Is his ‘truth’ more incontrovertible than that of WATCH and GRAS?
Benedict,
This site is called *Thinking* Anglicans. Scot asked a point of information. One of the characteristics of thoughtful courteous debate is that we can answer one another’s questions, and generally inform the debate without using every opportunity to score points off one another. That shuts down the debate, and feeds into the very strife you are maintaining you would like to avoid.
I’m not sure what Benedict means by “moving on”?