Church of England press release
Meeting of the House of Bishops, 13 December 2021
13/12/2021
The House of Bishops met remotely via Zoom for its final meeting of 2021 on Monday 13 December.
The House agreed with the current direction of travel of the proposed changes to the Standing Orders of the House of Bishops, which will permit UK Minority Ethnic / Global Majority Heritage (UKME/ GMH) to attend as observers. The House agreed to delegate the drafting and approval of the proposed changes to the Standing Committee of the House of Bishops.
The House was then addressed by the Bishop of Huddersfield in his capacity as the lead Bishop for Safeguarding and the Interim Director of Safeguarding. The House approved revisions of the guidance Safeguarding Children, Young People and Vulnerable Adults, discussed at the last meeting of the House, which will come into effect at the beginning of July 2022.
The House then went on to take note of a report by the Triennium Funding Working group on Financial Planning for Ministry Support.
The House then turned its attention to preparations for discussions with diocesan secretaries at a joint informal meeting scheduled for February. The House noted the outline and proposed approach.
The House was then addressed by the Bishop of London in her capacity as chair of the Living in Love and Faith (LLF), Next Steps Group. The House was invited to reflect on issues raised in an interim report on a set of responses to the Living in Love and Faith resources. The House took note of the interim report.
The meeting closed in prayer.
Good to see some helpful movement on improving UK Minority ethnic representation in the House of Bishops.
I wonder if Colin Coward ever got a response to this letter, on a similar theme (see final para.)
http://www.unadulteratedlove.net/blog/2021/11/12/ca-england-call-for-appointment-of-six-members-of-lgbtiq-community-to-the-house-of-bishops
‘Googling’ on <house of bishops standing committee> took me here:
https://www.churchofengland.org/about/leadership-and-governance/general-synod/bishops-information-house-and-college-bishops#na
It seems somewhat ‘light’ in parts, eg names of Standing Committee members, and somewhat in need of updating, eg ‘Decisions’.
I see wordings there which might be helpful (precedent??) regarding UKME/GMH ‘observers’ (participation?) (and LGBTIQ). I note also the delegation to the Standing Committee to both draft and approve:
The House agreed to delegate the drafting and approval of the proposed changes to the Standing Committee of the House of Bishops.
This ‘interim report’ on LLF: is it somewhere in the public domain?
There was a meeting of the LLF Next Steps Group on 24 November 2021 reported here. It includes this: Interim Report on Responses to the Living in Love and Faith Questionnaire The meeting welcomed an interim report on the Living in Love and Faith Questionnaire. Respondents have generally found the course positive with their understanding deepened. The story films and book proved consistently positive, with almost 75% of respondents saying they would recommend the course and over 80% saying they have shared the information with others. The Next Steps Group encouraged ongoing efforts to increase the response rate by the end… Read more »
That may well be it; doesn’t sound like there’s much data yet, let alone much idea of what it may show. Wonder what steps are being taken to increase the response rate, and what that rate currently is?
I think the Questionnaire can only be completed by those completing a LLF course. That means that the responses automatically discount those who choose not to take part. In that context, I would expect the LLF organisers to be concerned that a quarter of those who took part in the course would not recommend the course to others.
Simon Dawson, it may not surprise you to know that no, I did not receive a reply to the letter written on behalf of Changing Attitude England to the Next Steps Group on 11 November 2021 proposing “that as soon as possible, and in order to allow a truly radically inclusive discussion of the LLF process, its outcome and its next steps, six members of the LGBTQIA+ community should be appointed to the House of Bishops and to the Next Steps Group.” CAE will be pursing this proposal with both the Next Steps Group and the House of Bishops. Those… Read more »
Perhaps the lack of actual engagement by the H.of B. on the LLF situation may be equal to that of Roman Catholic Bishops around the world who are slow (reluctant?) to engage with their people on the issue of ‘Synodality’. Issues of justice are often last to be either discussed or acted upon by Head Office.
Just to follow up on Helen King’s point. Can any of the episcopal readers of TA tell us where we can read this interim report on LLF? I’m glad the House ‘took note’. Might we know what they ‘took note’ of?