The House of Bishops of the Church of England met for three days this week, and afterwards issued this press release.
House of Bishops Oct 30 – Nov 1, 2023
01/11/2023
The House of Bishops has held its annual autumn residential meeting, spending time in prayer and discussing matters including the war in Gaza, safeguarding, finance, youth evangelism, and Prayers of Love and Faith. The meeting was held at Cookham, Berkshire.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, updated Bishops on his recent visit to Jerusalem and led a discussion on the war in Israel and Gaza. The Bishop of Southwark, Christopher Chessun, the Church of England’s representative on the Holy land Coordination Group, led a time of prayer.
The House then discussed proposals for a National Redress Scheme for victims and survivors of abuse, ahead of draft legislation coming to Synod this month.
Bishops also heard updates on the Safeguarding Programme arising out of the recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) Inquiry Report on the Anglican Church.
This included Recommendations One and Eight, covering diocesan safeguarding officers and national safeguarding standards and audits as well as information sharing and the national casework management system.
Bishops also spent time reflecting on their recent decisions about the process of introducing Prayers of Love and Faith and discussed the upcoming meeting of Synod.
On Tuesday bishops heard updates on Diocesan finances and clergy retirement housing support. They also discussed the operation of the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015, which ensures that vacancies on the Bishops’ Bench in the House of Lords would be filled first by female diocesan bishops for 10 years or until parity is achieved.
The House reviewed guidance for good practice in praying for others, including a briefing document on conversion therapy.
Bishops also engaged with ongoing work to meet the challenge of ensuring that a church with a flourishing children, youth, and families’ ministry is within reach of every child or young person in England.
On Wednesday bishops considered questions around interventions in public life.
During the three days bishops attended the local parish church, Holy Trinity, Cookham, for services of morning prayer and Holy Communion.
We’re busy doin’ nothin’
Workin’ the whole day through
Tryin’ to find lots of things not to do
We’re busy goin’ nowhere
Isn’t it just a crime
We’d like to be unhappy, but
We never do have the time
“Bishops also engaged with ongoing work to meet the challenge of ensuring that a church with a flourishing children, youth, and families’ ministry is within reach of every child or young person in England.” “ongoing work” ? “flourishing children, youth, and families’ ministry” ?? Is this a meeting of a supermarket chain or a Christian Church ? There is another way and I urge you to watch. An inspiring Anglican Bishop who addresses Welcome and Inclusion without a descent into the dead hand of top down managerial speak. https://youtu.be/0Hs02oFQGB8?si=ycGn9XZncviFQ9E4 Will there even be a Church of England in twenty years… Read more »
Yes, I noticed that menacing sentence as well. I hadn’t heard that that was a declared objective, let alone ‘ongoing’, but it is no surprise. I wonder how it is to be implemented – by parachuting in a team of enthusiastic evangelists to a struggling parish, or by adapting yet another warehouse for the purpose.
One could extrapolate by suggesting that, when the accelerating demographic disaster really hits us and the funds run out, those churches will be the only ones supported to survive.
I do hope ‘lessons will be learned’ from how dedicated hubs of work with young people can go badly wrong
Actually I think the ultimate retrenchment will be onto cathedrals and cathedral-like churches. They seem to be holding up the strongest. I can see a model of periodic “pilgrimage” to a cathedral supported by house churches and some sort of provision for marriages and funerals.
I agree, Kate, that what you suggest would-be a preferable model of retrenchment, and is happening already to some extent, with more churches becoming ‘Minsters’ and taking a leading role in their areas. But I don’t think that’s what our leaders want to see – they remain fixated on a youth-oriented model, despite some of the disasters that have occurred with that approach.
It’s disappointing that the bishops’ statement on the war in Gaza and surrounding events does not include a call for the end of the military occupation of the West Bank, settlement expansion and land seizure which is one of the more significant decades long factors that western political and church leaders seem content to collude with and overlook.
“Also gravely concerning are the reports of rising numbers of Palestinians killed in the West Bank by inhabitants of settlements which are illegal under international law.”
What exactly is the issue here? That Palestinians are being killed at all, that the numbers are rising, or that they are being killed from settlements which are illegal under international law?
To me, the whole thing reads more like a Students’ Union Composite than a serious attempt to help.
I urge you to watch this.
https://youtu.be/0Hs02oFQGB8?si=ycGn9XZncviFQ9E4
Murdered Palestinians and Israelis are not equivalent to a Student Union composite motion. They were someone’s father or mother, dearly loved child or brother and sister.
As Bishop Cherry points out in this important address, Christians are called open to love and welcome the stranger, especially if the stranger is different or “the other”. We are all children of a loving God.
Christians are also meant to distinguish between right and wrong and murder, ethnic cleansing and colonialism are always morally wrong without exception.
A Christianity without love is a dead thing.
That murder and ethnic cleansing are always wrong was the point I was trying to make, very poorly I see. Murder is wrong. Whether the murderer’s place of abode is legal or illegal is neither a mitigating factor nor an aggravating factor. That illegal settlement is happening is an important issue in its own right, of course it is. But linking it together with a statement about murder blunts the impact of both. When I said “the whole thing” I was referring to the Bishops’ Motion and the manner in which it had been composed, not the terrible situation in… Read more »
Interesting they found time to discuss the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015. The Act says nothing about parity. It is a time limited provision which expires in May 2025. I doubt the Government would agree to extend it, by tacking an amendment onto another bill, given present relationships. And the evidence is that the Church of England (aka the CNC) has hardly taken advantage of the provision over the last eight years or so, although I did try. Sorry. Still only seven women diocesans, one a Lord Spiritual ex officio.
The press release above says “for 10 years or until parity is achieved”. I read that as meaning it would go on for more than 10 years if parity had not been achieved? Is my perception wrong? Has the press release been designed to be ambiguous, so people like me will not realise the legislation runs out – if indeed it does…
The “until parity is achieved” bit is not in the Act. The Act specifies that priority is given to women during “the 10 years beginning with the day on which this Act comes into force”. A subsequent clause says that “This Act comes into force on the day Parliament first meets following the first parliamentary general election after this Act is passed”. The Act received the Royal Assent on 26 March 2015, and the next general election was held a few weeks later on 7 May. Parliament first met on 18 May 2015 (according to Wikipedia), so if correct that… Read more »
Here is a link to the Act. The press release is ambiguous, but either way wrong. It could mean 10 years or until parity, whichever comes first, or it could mean whichever takes longer. However, as Anthony says, the Act says absolutely nothing about parity.
Extrordinary as it may seem,they made that bit up. Presumably somebody hoped to mislead somebody, including people like you, and people like me. How very odd.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/18
I suppose that “parity” could be interpreted as meaning not parity between the numbers of male and female bishops in the Lords, but parity of opportunity. In other words, parity is the point where the seniority of women bishops will get them into the House without them needing to take priority over men. That’s a possible interpretation, and it is something that might have been expected to be achieved after 10 years of women diocesan bishops, given the average length of an episcopate and the average time a bishop spends in the Lords. (Whether it actually has been achieved is… Read more »
I doubt it will ever be 50:50. Witness the Scandinavian Churches. But like Anthony Archer I anticipated more women diocesans by now. We will see what the next crop of vacancies ( a fair number ) yields.
My concern is that with the new CNC arrangements (which have absolutely not achieved what ++Cantuar wanted) the first elections of central members under those arrangements has produced a materially more conservative slate of members. I was pleased (and not surprised) to note the nomination of Debbie Sellin to Peterborough, but also note that she comes from a more conservative stable. Following a slight hiatus in ‘ready now’ women candidates for diocesan bishoprics, there are now a number of women candidates who I would vote for in a nanosecond, but they might not find favour (indeed probably won’t) with the… Read more »
So the more conservative central CNC members will ensure conservative appointments for the 5 current and 2 coming vacancies. I guess the suffragans amongst the 44 have effectively ruled themselves out of a diocesan see, and the diocesans amongst the 44 ruled themselves out of Canterbury.
Re your first sentence, that is what I fear. Re your second, signing these ‘letters’ is fraught, as it can never be removed from the file, and therefore needs to be explained. Of course the diocesans won’t have knowingly ruled themselves out for translation to Canterbury, but my answer is similar. Would a conservative CNC (with probably at least one or more conservatives from the AC) nominate them? The list of diocesans certainly includes some whom I would expect to be at least on a longlist for Canterbury, if not a shortlist.
So “for 10 years or until parity is achieved” might mean “for ten years or (to put it another way) until parity is achieved”.
If so, this is another instance of them trying to put too much into one sentence.
In short ‘yes’, but I would like to think that it was carelessness and with no intention to mislead: simply written by someone ‘not up to speed’ as to the exact wording of the Act which does not say anything remotely like this. Incidentally the Act does not contain any provision for extending the period.