Having voted in favour of the principle of having women bishops on Saturday, Synod today spent all morning debating the process for bringing this about. Several amendments, three of which were accepted, were proposed to the original motion. The motion refers to Canon A4, and the text of this is given below the motion and result of the final vote. Details of the original motion and the amendments are below the fold.
The motion as put to Synod (with text added by amendments shown in bold) was.
That this Synod, endorsing Resolution 111.2 of the Lambeth Conference 1998 “that those who dissent from, as well as those who assent to the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate are both loyal Anglicans” and believing that the implications of admitting women to the episcopate will best be discerned by continuing to explore in detail the practical and legislative arrangements:
(a) invite dioceses, deaneries and parishes to continue serious debate and reflection on the theological, practical, ecumenical and missiological aspects of the issue;
(b) invite the Archbishops’ Council, in consultation with the Standing Committee of the House of Bishops and the Appointments Committee, to secure the early appointment of a legislative drafting group, which will aim to include a significant representation of women in the spirit of Resolution 13/31 of the Anglican Consultative Council passed in July 2005, charged with:
(i) preparing the draft measure and amending canon necessary to remove the legal obstacles to the consecration of women to the office of bishop;
(ii) preparing a draft of possible additional legal provision consistent with Canon A4 to establish arrangements that would seek to maintain the highest possible degree of communion with those conscientiously unable to receive the ministry of women bishops;
(iii) submitting the results of its work to the House of Bishops for consideration and submission to Synod; and
(c) instruct the Business Committee to make time available, before first consideration of the draft legislation, for the Synod to consider, in the light of any views expressed by the House of Bishops, the arrangements proposed in the drafting group’s report.
The motion, as amended, was carried on a show of hands.
Canon A4
A 4 Of the Form and Manner of Making, Ordaining, and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons
The Form and Manner of Making, Ordaining, and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, annexed to The Book of Common Prayer and commonly known as the Ordinal, is not repugnant to the Word of God; and those who are so made, ordained, or consecrated bishops, priests, or deacons, according to the said Ordinal, are lawfully made, ordained, or consecrated, and ought to be accounted, both by themselves and others, to be truly bishops, priests, or deacons.
7 CommentsGeneral Synod members are invited to the Sung Eucharist at York Minster on the Sunday morning of its meeting at York, and most go. The Archbishop of Canterbury preached this sermon at the service this morning.
UPDATE
BBC report on the Archbishop’s sermon
1 CommentInformation about and audio files of Saturday morning’s business can be found on the Church of England website: General Synod – Summary of Business Conducted on Saturday 8th July am.
0 CommentsSynod had the first of its two debates on Women in the Episcopate today (Saturday) morning. The Archbishop of York proposed the motion:
‘That this Synod welcome and affirm the view of the majority of the House of Bishops that admitting women to the episcopate in the Church of England is consonant with the faith of the Church as the Church of England has received it and would be a proper development in proclaiming afresh in this generation the grace and truth of Christ.’
The two amendments below were proposed to the motion but both were clearly defeated on a show of hands.
Leave out the words “welcome and affirm” and insert the word “note”.
At the end insert the words “and note the possible ecumenical implications of such a development in light of the contributions of the representatives of other Churches who took part in the presentation at the February 2006 group of sessions”.
A vote by houses was taken on the main motion. Whilst the motion was very clearly carried in each house, the majority in the House of Laity was a little short of the two-thirds that will be required at final approval of the measure that will actually allow women to become bishops.
Here are the detailed voting figures.
| for | against | |
| bishops | 31 | 9 |
| clergy | 134 | 42 |
| laity | 123 | 68 |
The questions to be answered at this month’s sessions of General Synod have been published. You can download them as an rtf file or read them online. They are scheduled to be answered on Friday 7 July between 8.30 and 10.00 pm.
We have already published the outline agenda, and links to other Synod papers.
5 CommentsAnglican Communion Institute Initial Observations on General Convention
Jim Naughton Conflicted people in a conflicted Church
Telegraph Jonathan Petre Anglican Church on brink of schism
Associated Press Rachel Zoll Episcopal Delegates to Adopt Resolution
Nick Knisely the center of the Episcopal Church found its voice on Tuesday evening
23 CommentsA statement from a group of bishops dissenting B033 read by Bishop Chane [the Bishop of Wsashington DC] A Statement of Conscience
“We, the undersigned Bishops of this 75th General Convention, in the confidence of the Gospel and out of love for this great Church, must prayerfully dissent from the action of this Convention in Resolution B033 (on Election of Bishops).”
“Any language that could be perceived as effecting a moratorium that singles out one part of the Body by category is discriminatory.”
Anglican Communion Network General Convention Actions Inadequate
“The responses which the Convention has given to the clear and simple requests of the Lambeth Commission, the clear and simple requests indeed of the Anglican Communion, are clearly and simply inadequate.”
signed by 13 bishops
Mary Ann Sieghart comments in The Times Women bishops and gays? That’s the church for me
Some articles from the press
Guardian Stephen Bates US Episcopal church offers compromise to avoid Anglican expulsion
BBC US Church eases gay bishop stance
The Times Ruth Gledhill and James Bone Our Mother Jesus . . . a sermon by US church’s new head
Updated to add
Andrew Brown comments in the Guardian Fear and loathing in Anglicanism
General Convention 2006 closes at 6pm local time today. The House of Bishops and the House of Deputies will meet in joint session after the 9 am Eucharist to consider a resolution responding to the Windsor Report.
Here is Jim Naughton’s commentary on what it may or may not be able to do about Windsor before everybody goes home.
Some further articles from the press and the blogs:
Guardian Stephen Bates Pressure on Williams as US church ponders gay bishops
Associated Press Rachel Zoll Episcopalians Reject Ban on Gay Bishops
Times Ruth Gledhill What happens next at TEC GenCon?
9 CommentsThe Church of England held its press briefing for next month’s General Synod yesterday. So far we have only found one item published as a result of this. Despite its title this does cover other Synod topics, such as women bishops.
Times
Jenny Booth and agencies Couples to gain wider choice of wedding churches
The proposals on marriage law were picked up by the Telegraph last week.
Jonathan Petre Church wedding rules may be eased
The CofE’s own news item on the Synod agenda is Key debates on women bishops, Faithful Cities report, further education, and major legislative proposals on agenda for General Synod.
Our links to the agenda and papers are here.
Tuesday evening update
A few more articles that mention the Synod agenda
The Mercury (South Africa) First female bishop ‘will not influence England’
Christian Post (USA) Episcopal Election of New Leader Highlights Anglican Rifts
Guardian Episcopal Choice Highlights Anglican Rifts
Papers for next month’s sessions of the General Synod of the Church of England are starting to appear online and are listed below. The list will be updated as more papers become available. [last update – Wednesday 2.45 pm]
Agenda
Outline Agenda
Friday 7 July
Saturday 8 July
Sunday 9 July
Monday 10 July
Tuesday 11 July
Special Agenda I – Legislative Business
Special Agenda V – Financial Business
Papers
(with the days on which they are scheduled to be debated or otherwise considered. Where no day is given there will only be a debate if a member requests one.)
GS 1597A Draft Dioceses, Pastoral and Mission Measure (Saturday)
Part I (pages 1 to 15); Part II (pages 16 to 30); Part III (pages 31 to 45); Part IV (pages 46 to 59)
GS 1598A Draft Amending Canon No 27 (Saturday)
GS 1599A Draft Vacancy in See Committees (Amendment) Regulation (Saturday)
GS 1597-9Y Report by the Revision Committee (Saturday)
GS 1611 Faithful Cities: The Report of the Commission on Urban Life and Faith (Monday)
See also here
GS 1613 Report by the Business Committee (Friday)
GS 1615 Archbishops’ Council Annual Report
GS 1616 Draft Church of England Marriage Measure (Saturday)
GS 1616X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1617 Legal Officers (Annual Fees) Order 2006
GS 1618 Ecclesiastical Judges, Legal Officers and Others (Fees) Order 2006
GS 1617&18X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1619 Parochial Fees Order 2006
GS 1619X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1620 Church of England (Legal Aid) (Amendment) Rules 2006
GS 1620X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1621 40th Report of the Standing Orders Committee
GS 1622 The Draft Clergy Discipline (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Order 2006 (Saturday)
GS 1622X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1623 Annual Report of the Archbishops’ Council Audit Committee
GS 1624 Church Accounting Regulations (Saturday)
GS 1624X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1625 Scheme Amending the Diocese in Europe Constitution 1995 (Saturday)
GS 1625X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1626 Care of Cathedrals Rules 2006
GS 1626X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1627 Church of England Funded Pensions Scheme (Amendment) Rules 2006
GS 1627X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1628 Pushing Further: Report by the Board of Education (Friday)
GS 1629 Ninth Assembly of the World Council of Churches (Sunday)
GS 1630 Women in the Episcopate: note by the Presidents (Monday)
GS Misc 826 Women in the Episcopate: Report to the House of Bishops from the Bishops of Guildford and Gloucester (Monday)
GS Misc 827 Resources for Reflection on the subject of Women Bishops in the Church of England (Monday)
GS 1631 Clergy Terms of Service (Monday)
GS 1632 The Archbishops’ Council’s Draft Budget for 2007 (Sunday)
GS 1633 Appointed Members of the Archbishops Council (Saturday)
GS Misc 824A Married Couple’s Tax Allowance: note by Mrs Monckton (Tuesday)
GS Misc 824B note by the Mission and Public Affairs Council (Tuesday)
GS Misc 825A Carbon Dioxide Emissions: note by the Diocese of Southwark (Sunday)
GS Misc 825B note by the Mission and Public Affairs Council (Sunday)
Church Commissioners’ Annual Report 2005 (Sunday)
0 CommentsUpdate Saturday 17 June
The rtf file of the outline agenda linked below has been replaced by this html version.
——
The outline agenda for the July 2006 group of sessions of the General Synod is now online here and is copied below.
There is also a draft forecast of business for 2007 here.
July 2006 Agenda
Times of sessions (unless otherwise stated): 9.30 am – 1 pm, 2.30 pm – 6.15 pm, 8.30 pm – 10 pm
Friday, 7 July
4 pm
Prayers, introductions, welcomes, progress of Measures, presentation of officers (Deputy Prolocutors and Pro-Prolocutors)
Business Committee report
Further Education
8.30 pm
Questions
Saturday, 8 July
9.30 am
Prayers
Presidential Address (by the Archbishop of York)
Appointments to the Archbishops’ Council
Legislative Business: Church Accounting Regulations 2006
Women Bishops: theological principle
2.30 pm
Legislative Business: Dioceses, Pastoral and Mission Measure: Revision Stage
8.30 pm
Legislative Business: Church of England Marriage Measure: First Consideration
Sunday, 9 July
2.30 pm
Pensions: presentation, followed by questions
Budget
Church Commissioners’ Annual Report
Southwark Diocesan Synod Motion: Carbon Dioxide Emissions
8.30 pm
WCC Assembly: presentation
Archbishops’ Council Annual Report: deemed approval
Audit Committee Annual Report: deemed approval
SOC item: deemed approval
Monday, 10 July
9.30 am
Prayers
Women Bishops: Next steps
2.30 pm
Commission on Urban Life and Faith Report
8.30 pm
Clergy Terms of Service: presentation by Professor David McClean, followed by questions
Tuesday, 11 July
9.30 am
Prayers
Legislative Business
Private Member’s Motion: Married Couples’ Tax Allowance
Not later than 1 pm
Prorogation
Jonathan Wynne-Jones in a Telegraph article Church leaders ‘back to square one’ as talks on women bishops fail writes:
The Church of England’s plans to allow women to become bishops are in disarray after its leaders failed to reach agreement on how to introduce the historic reform.
and
22 Commentsthe House of Bishops will ask next month’s General Synod for more time to work out a mechanism which they hope will prevent the Church from descending into civil war over the issue.
Full transcripts of the proceedings at February’s meeting of General Synod are now online. There are separate files for each half day and there are links to them here on the Church of England’s website, and here on mine.
0 CommentsThe awaited ECUSA report on Windsor has been published. You can download One Baptism, One Hope in God’s Call The Report of the Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion as a 444k pdf file.
This, and other papers for General Convention 2006 can be downloaded from this page.
The official press release is here.
An html copy of the wording of the resolutions (only) is here.
PDF files containing preliminary translations into Spanish and French of the summary, and the resolutions can be found here.
10 CommentsUpdate March 2011 Comments on this article are now closed, but see Church Representation Rules 2011.
Church House Publishing has just issued the 2006 edition of the Church Representation Rules. The rules are not online (but perhaps they ought to be) and the published edition does not list what has actually changed since the previous (2004) edition. The changes are in Statutory Instrument 2004 No 1889, the legal instrument that put them into effect. As this will make little sense without (and probably even with) reference to the old version of the rules I give a summary of the changes below the fold.
422 CommentsThe results of the clergy elections for the Archbishops’ Council have been announced:
Archbishops’ Council: Clergy members elected.
This completes the current round of elections to the Council; a complete list of members can be found here.
0 CommentsGeneral Synod meets from 6 to 9 February 2006. Links to the online agenda follow together with a list of papers mentioned in the agenda. Links are made to available online copies. This list will be updated.
The Business Committee’s forecast of future business is copied below the fold.
The Church of England’s own list of papers is here and here is a press release on the agenda.
Agenda
Monday 6 February
Tuesday 7 February
Wednesday 8 February
Thursday 9 February
Questions
Papers
GS 1596A Admission of Baptised Children to Holy Communion Regualtions
GS 1596Y Report by the House of Bishops (included in GS 1596A)
GS 1601 Mutual Expectations: The Church Of England And Church Colleges/Universities Report By The Board Of Education
GS 1603 Report By The Business Committee
GS 1604 Ethical Investment: Report By The Ethical Investment Advisory Group
GS 1605 House Of Bishops’ Women Bishops Group: Report To The General Synod From A Working Group Chaired By The Bishop Of Guildford.
GS 1605A Note by the Presidents
GS 1606 Seeds In Holy Ground: A Future For The Rural Church?
GS 1607 Into The New Quinquennium
GS 1609 Hospital And Health Care Chaplaincy
GS 1610 The Church’s Built Heritage Annex 1 Annex 3
GS Misc 801 Pushing At The Boundaries Of Unity: Anglicans And Baptists In Conversation
GS Misc 807 Ecumenical Responses To Women Bishops In The Church Of England?
GS Misc 808 Bicentenary of the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade
GS Misc 812A Private Member’s Motion – Readers – A background note by Nigel Holmes
GS Misc 812B Background Paper from the Ministry Division Annex
GS Misc 813 The Human Genome: Background note from the Diocese of Guildford
Other papers circulated to Synod members
Summary decisions of the most recent meeting of the House of Bishops (January 2006)
0 CommentsThe report of the House of Bishops’ Women Bishops Group (the Guildford Report) is released today and is online here. The report’s principal conclusions are copied below the fold.
This morning’s BBC Radio 4 Today programme carried an interview with Christina Rees and the Bishop of Fulham about the report. Listen to it with Real Audio (6m 03s)
Update
The official press release on the Guildford Report is here. Note that this includes the introductory remarks made at the press conference (scroll down).
Important related document:
Note by the Presidents (GS 1605A) is here. An html copy is here.
More Updates – initial press reports
BBC partial transcript of the interview mentioned above
BBC Compromise plan on women bishops
BBC video report (2 minutes) Church compromise on women bishops
BBC Robert Pigott Anglicans get women bishops plan
Reuters Paul Majendie Anglicans could have woman spiritual head
Press Association Martha Linden Door opens for first female Archbishop of Canterbury
Guardian Stephen Bates Church seeks compromise over women bishops
The Times Ruth Gledhill ‘Tea time’ report on women bishops sets up Synod battle
Also, an earlier report by Jonathan Petre in the Telegraph that seems pretty accurate in the light of today’s press conference: ‘Robust’ meeting ends with bishops stalling at letting women join their ranks
There are two press releases today from the Church of England about church attendance.
New attendance figures show mixed picture for church-going
Figures just released by the Church of England for 2004 show a mixed picture for trends in church attendance.
Regular Sunday church attendance fell by one per cent – largely offsetting a similar increase the previous year. But weekly and monthly churchgoing held steady and the number of children and young people at services rose by two per cent.
The new statistics confirm that more than 1.7 million people attend Church of England church and cathedral worship each month while around 1.2 million attend each week – on Sunday or during the week – and just over one million each Sunday. …
The full statistics are here.
Churches packed for Christmas past
Reports from across the Church of England suggest Christmas 2005 was a cracker for church attendance.
An opinion poll suggesting increasing numbers are attending church services at Christmas has been backed up by anecdotal evidence gathered from across the Church of England. In the specially-commissioned survey released last month, pollster ORB found that 43 per cent of adults were expected to attend a church service over the Christmas period.
It wasn’t just the queue snaking from the doors of King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, where the annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols again saw hundreds attempting to get a seat; all over the country, churches experienced a growth in the number of people seeking an opportunity to worship. …
The survey results are here, and the original press release here.
1 CommentThe outline agenda for the February 2006 group of sessions of the General Synod is now online here and is copied below.
Sitting times: 9.30 am to 1 pm and 2.30 pm (3.00 p.m Monday) to 7 pm (5.30 p.m. Thursday)
Monday, 6 February
Afternoon
Prayers, welcomes, progress of Measures
The appointment of the Chairs of the Business Committee and the Appointments Committee
Business Committee Report
Dates of Groups of Sessions: July/November 2008
Presentation on ecumenical responses to the Rochester Report
Presentation on Pensions Issues
Ethical Investment
Tuesday, 7 February
Morning
Holy Communion
Women in the Episcopate: report of the Guildford Group
Afternoon
Rural Affairs and the Church of England
Anglican/Baptist Conversations
Church Colleges/Universities and the Church of England: Mutual Expectations
Wednesday, 8 February
Morning
Prayers
Legislative Business
Reader Ministry: Private Member’s Motion
Into the New Quinquennium
Afternoon
Human Genome: Guildford Diocesan Synod Motion
Bicentenary of the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade: Southwark Diocesan Synod Motion
Hospital and Health Care Chaplaincy
Thursday, 9 February
Morning
Prayers
Women in the Episcopate
Afternoon
The Church’s Built Heritage
Questions