Updated to add two links below the Archbishop’s statement
The Ely CNC failed to nominate a bishop at its meeting last week. Details are in the Archbishop of Canterbury’s statement copied below. Readers may recall that the Carlisle CNC similarly failed to nominate a new bishop when it met last December.
Statement on Crown Nominations Commission process for next Bishop of Ely
15/07/2024
Very sadly, at the conclusion of a lengthy process of discernment, culminating in two days of interviews on 11 and 12 July, the Crown Nominations Commission considering the nomination of the next Bishop of Ely has not been able reach the level of consensus required to nominate a new Diocesan Bishop.
Over the course of the next months, the Crown Nominations Commission will need to reflect, and make a decision about which stage it wishes to re-commence the discernment process. This is not likely to be before the Spring of 2025. Together with the Archbishop of York and others, there will also need to be a period of reflection on the implications of this decision on the Church of England more generally.
I will be speaking with Bishop Dagmar Winter, the Bishop of Huntingdon, in order to understand from her the best way of supporting the Diocese of Ely and her episcopal ministry in the coming months.
Please continue to hold the Diocese of Ely and the discernment of the Crown Nominations Commission in your prayers.
Background information
A Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) considers vacancies in Diocesan Bishoprics in the Provinces of Canterbury and York, and candidates for appointments to them.
Under the Standing Orders of the General Synod, a nomination cannot be made to the Crown to fill a vacant see unless it has received the support of at least two-thirds of the total number of the voting members of the Commission (10 out of 14) in a secret ballot.
The voting members of the Crown Nominations Commission for a vacant see are the two Archbishops (or a Diocesan Bishop acting on their behalf), 6 members elected from the Vacancy in See Committee of the Diocese and 6 ‘Central Members’ elected from the General Synod. The Archbishops’ Secretary for Appointments and the Prime Minister’s Appointments Secretary are non-voting members of the Commission.
Church Times Questions asked after Crown Nominations Commission fails to agree next Bishop of Ely
Diocese of Ely An update on the next Bishop of Ely
I suppose neither Carlisle nor Ely are cosy billets. Carlisle is known to be on the bones of its backside and Ely has Cambridge with an eclectic mix of college chapels and churches; but the rest of the diocese is not too different from Carlisle.
College chapels are peculiars, and have little to do with the diocese. Given how wealthy Cambridgeshire is, I would be surprised if the problem with Ely was money.
Much flatter, though!
As a matter of fact Carlisle doesn’t have the financial problems that many dioceses face as it lives modestly and plans prudently. Its greatest challenge is persuading stipendiary clergy to imagine ministry beyond London and the South East. However the issue in this case is not the perceived plumminess of the two Sees but the inevitable outworking of the church pressing ahead with change for which there is not yet a solid enough consensus. The wafer thin votes on LLF in Synod and determination not to wait for the salutary two thirds majority before forging ahead ought to ring alarm… Read more »
Jane. Greetings. I am not sure this fully summarises what is going on. Over the last few decades the traditional co-ordinating agencies for evangelicals in the CofE have been steadily taken over by conservatives. They introduced a change in the Basis of Faith to require the belief that marriage is between a man and a women. This summarily exiled a significant number of long term Anglican Evangelicals. There has effectively been a power grab by agencies like CEEC who have very large budgets and resources and have worked very effectively at filling vacancies when they come – including CNC. But… Read more »
Indeed. Honesty and clarity – transparency – is really important. We’ve seen this over women’s ministry, and some churches not being up front about their position, so people get drawn in and tithe before they find out what the leaders actually think. I do wonder if some of the alleged 2000 priests signed up for CEEC have been open and transparent with their parish communities? Do they all agree? CEEC in March 2023 said they would publish a list of supporters of their Declaration – https://declaration.ceec.info – and said “In due course we will publicly issue the names of supporters”. That was 16… Read more »
Hi David
The pairs of Central CNC members were elected by Lay and Clergy General Synod members at York either 1 or 2 years ago so they were largely elected by the same group of laity and clergy as have just voted in the LLF debates. Hopefully the CNC members were elected on their merits and not on party lines. I honestly dont think that it was a power grab by CEEC but a genuine democratic process.
In the recent Parliamentary General Election I suspect few MPs were elected on their merits ahead of their party. Indeed, appointment of a bishop is, inevitably, now as much about giving someone a vote in the HoB as anything else. This will eventally filter down to PCC elections.
They introduced a change in the Basis of Faith to require the belief that marriage is between a man and a women. This summarily exiled a significant number of long term Anglican Evangelicals.
So they are stating Canon B30 in their Basis of Faith, this seems fairly mainstream.
David, yes, I recognise the dynamic you’re describing and it’s not a new one. Liberals, in the belief that all sensible and right thinking people must share their views, have historically not exerted themselves much when it come to elections. Conservatives, aware that their position is not the natural default, have worked harder at getting into positions of influence. What could be done about this or even what should be resented about it is less clear. In the context of Church Representation Rules everybody has the same opportunity to make their voice heard and their opinion count if they are… Read more »
Is this analysis really right? Doesn’t the voting in the HoB suggest that those of a more liberal leaning have more successfully “exerted” themselves into positions of influence?
I have a friend who moved from the South East to minister to a parish near Carlisle. She reckoned she shrank several sizes because of the prevailing climate.
aye, I’ve been in Carlisle nigh on 20 years and I’m struggling to make 10 stone dripping wet… perhaps we should make more of the apparent weight loss potential in our adverts.
Yes indeed – very much a North-South divide in Ely Diocese. The Fenland towns like Wisbech, March and Littleport are very different from Cambridge and its satellites.
I would love to find out by whom ‘Carlisle is known to be on the bones of its backside’…
… as far as I ‘know’ and I think I’m qualified to judge) it hasn’t run a budget deficit in 18 years, including thru the pandemic.
Perceptions from afar can be very strange, Derek. Some of us in Ely Diocese might be capable of a much more nuanced comparison!
Who is the ‘I’ at the beginning of the third paragraph?
It is a statement from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Chair of the CNC for Ely.
“Together with the Archbishop of York and others, there will also need to be a period of reflection on the implications of this decision on the Church of England more generally.”
That sentence suggests to me that this is more than a local issue. My theory is that the deadlock in the CNC reflects the deadlock in Synod, indeed in the Church as a whole, between progressive and traditional parties.
I wonder if this was an issue of some members of the CNC not being willing to appoint a woman.
Rumour has it a prominent female evangelical Bishop was put forward by central members of the CNC for Carlisle. The local representatives were not keen as they wanted someone who was less divisive and prominent when it comes to current ‘hot potatoes’.
Carlisle, apart from a very small number of parishes of a strong evangelical or catholic tradition, is overwhelmingly small rural parishes and small market towns. It needs a bishop who understands fairly traditional Church of England life and the mix of farming tourism and incoming retirees. My guess is that the sound and fury of General Synod largely passes them by. Low church in Carlisle usually doesn’t mean evangelical but unfussy and traditional.
nay lad that rumour’s well off the mark … it’s common knowledge in the diocese that none of the candidates were appointable on grounds that they couldn’t tell the difference between a Herdwick and a North Country Mule, or pronounce Torpenhow properly.
Isn’t this just an expression of how divided we are as a church?
Presumably that is why Welby says “there will also need to be a period of reflection on the implications of this decision on the Church of England more generally.”
If we repeatedly can’t find a candidate who can hold the confidence of 10 out of 14 members of a CNC then we are in significant difficulties.
Other Dioceses are vacant or upcoming!!!!
Are the names known of the Central CNC members who were involved in this case? Will they be the same next time?
I should be interested in Anthony Archer’s take on this situation, as he sometimes posts here, and has a lot of experience in this area. He previously pointed out that he thought “8 out of the 12 elected to the CNC are broadly conservative. That could have serious implications for the future shape of the House of Bishops… forget any candidates who might be thought to be revisionist. Think US Supreme Court. As to Canterbury (which will come up during the next CNC quinquennium), the new standing orders will make for a most difficult commission.” This problem should not be… Read more »
Work for who exactly? When processes are circumvented trust breaks down. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Archbishop steps down within a year. He is increasingly presiding over deadlock. Management is one thing, but this situation requires leadership and he is not leading. Perhaps this is something he will reflect on.
The point of having two thirds agreement on bishops and doctrinal change is that ordinaries and the doctrines of the church have to be able to function for the whole church. The fact that we are so divided as to not be able to live with the same ordinaries or doctrines means that we need to seriously consider structural reorganisation so that traditionalists and progressives are able to have different ordinaries and different doctrines (regarding LLF) while somehow being in the Church of England. Failure to do this will just lead to more dysfunction.
I’m sorry, but religious organizations with different ordinaries and doctrines are, by definition, different churches. What defines the difference between the Anglican and Methodist denominations other than their ecclesiology and doctrine, for instance?
It’s not an anomaly that major decisions can’t pass by 50.01%. In 1179 the Third Lateran Council brought in the requirement for popes to be elected by a minimum of a two-thirds of cardinals “because through wicked and reckless ambition the church has often suffered serious division”. (Canon 1) It remains a normal situation in many legislatures and some company boards that the most major decisions require a super majority: it “encourages organizations to find consensus and collaborate in good faith”. Robert’s Rules of Order lays out a number of scenarios in which a two-thirds majority is considered more appropriate… Read more »
If Anthony Archer’s comment above that 8 out of the 12 CNC members are conservative is true then it should have been possible to reach an agreement on a conservative candidate with the support of the 2 Archbishops. This implies that either or both Archbishops did not vote for a conservative candidate or that the conservative CNC members were divided.
“8 out of the 12 CNC members are conservative” – the 12 central members are elected as 6 pairs. One of each pair sits for a given vacancy. So on any particular vacancy, assuming this analysis is correct, then 4 of the central 6 are conservative. Then there’s the diocesan 6 whose stance will reflect the diocesan vacancy-in-see committee. Plus the two archbishops.
No, the General Synod elected 12 central members in pairs – i.e. 6 x 2. Each pair decides who will serve on each CNC. My analysis (widely shared) is that four pairs are conservative. See my post below. Each CNC (except for Canterbury and York) has six central members and six diocesan members, plus (usually) the two archbishops.
It’s pretty dire, but I am not surprised. It is all about LLF. Nothing else matters in the minds of the (normally) 66% of current central members (4) being traditionalists who only need to find one other ally amongst the diocesan representatives to veto a nomination. It is clear the Ely CNC got only to eight or nine votes. It clearly wasn’t more than nine. It is of course the exact antithesis of Professor Oliver O’Donovan’s magisterial report, Discerning in Obedience, relevant extracts of which are read out in the CNC (usually at the first meeting). There is scant discernment… Read more »
I suspect we’ll see a lot more of this given the current climate. It’s ridiculous the process of appointing a Diocesan is so secretive, and constructed in such a way that a single issue group can successfully veto appointments. I can’t believe in Carlisle and Ely none of the shortlist were perfectly able and qualified to do the job!
Am I right in thinking that the process in Wales and or Scotland would at this point be referred to the Bench of Bishops to make the appointment as they felt to be in the best interests of the Church? Would this be a comparatively easy change to be enacted in the CoE? Could it attract widespread support, or would it be blocked (by those who wish to split off anyway)?
Thank you Anthony. I find it so hard. My own experience of vocation discernment comes from the religious houses, who undertake such a careful and deeply prayerful discernment process. The thought that the discernment of a vocation might be politicised just seems so sad. I know vocation discernment carried out by two convents changed my life and I will be forever grateful. It was tender, honest, sometimes raw. But I always trusted those tasked with digging deep and praying even deeper.