The Lead

Thinking Anglicans has a roundup of the latest news and commentary on the vote for women to serve as bishops in the Church of England. The process still has years to conclude whether or not women will ever be bishops in the CoE.

Clergy who are opposed worry about their future regardless of the choice they make: will they find a new position, what about the loss of their pensions and housing? will Rome be a place of welcome? Those who support women in the episcopacy are dismayed at the length of time until it might happen: will the CoE be just another anachronistic sect left in the dust of history?

The timeline for the process - thanks to Chris Hansen in CoE:

First, each Diocesan Synod (there are more than 40 dioceses in the Church of England, including Sodor and Man but not Wales or Scotland, of course) must debate and vote on the issue. Two-thirds of the diocesan synods must approve it.

Second, when that hurdle is cleared (which is expected to happen) the matter will go back to General Synod, where it will finally have to be approved by 2/3rds majorities in each house (Bishops, Clergy, and Laity). There are two spanners (as they say) in the works: first, General Synod elections happen in September/October this year. The anti-woman party will exert maximum effort to elect members who are opposed to woman bishops. Second, the majorities for passing the question to Diocesan Synods were less than 2/3rds in most cases in the current Synod. It is possible that the question will fall at the second hurdle. What would happen then is anyone's guess. If the anti-women bishops forces go over to Rome now, they will not be able to influence this vote. So, there may not be be an exodus until this vote has been won by proponents of women in the episcopacy.

Third, as with any General Synod bill, it passes to Parliament for approval before being approved in the name of the Queen and promulged to the Dioceses. At that point, the legislation comes into effect.

There was an effort when woman deacons and priests were approved to block the legislation in Parliament. It did not succeed under that Conservative government and most would be surprised if it succeeded under the current Coalition government of Tories and Liberal Democrats. Most Church legislation is nodded through according friends in England.

The process described above will immediately begin and continue through 2010 and 2011. The final Synod vote will probably come in 2012, followed close on by submission to Parliament if Synod finally approves it. This will be dealt with in 2012, and if approved, will probably come into force in 2013 or 2014. The first woman bishops will probably be suffragans and not consecrated until 2014 at the earliest.

UPDATE: Last session reported by Church of England here

Correction: Only half the Diocesan Synods need to approve it, and each by simple majorities. Some may vote by House (you need 10 members to stand and request a vote by Houses) but most will just vote by majority of those present.

Comments (7)

No wonder they move so slowly! This idea of having dioceses approve Synod's decisions sounds like the Presbyterian polity here in the States. Don't think the C of E quite "gets" (or wants) "representative democracy" where elected reps can make binding decisions (i.e. laws...canons...) for the whole.

Posted by Chris Epting | July 13, 2010 11:52 AM

The English system seems more truly representative than ours.
We elect 'deputies,' not 'representatives.' Our deputies are in no way obligated to take into account the folks back home.
In the English system, the grassroots opinion is given a voice and a vote.
Dennis Bosley

Dennis Bosley

Posted by Dennis Bosley | July 13, 2010 12:20 PM

Dennis, you play a semantics game. The representatives in the US House of Reps vote their conscience as well. There is plenty of evidence from polling that they often vote against the majority opinion of "the folks back home" whom they "represent."

Ann, MP expressed, when I questioned the next two steps the legislation must pass, that once the majority of folks see that it passed Synod, that it is what Synod wants, that they will get on board with it and it will pass the next two steps as well.

Posted by Däˈvēd Äyān | David Allen | July 13, 2010 1:13 PM

I'd like to see more of the indaba model being used in synodical processes. Truth is that, at the end of the day, not so many people can volunteer to be representatives in larger gatherings because not everybody can spend days away from hope (especially lay delegates and non-stipendary clergy).

So I wonder if resolutions and proposals started with discussions among common folk, following a consensus approach, before they are reported to diocesan instances and then provincial ones. I wonder if that would work.

Posted by Luiz Coelho | July 13, 2010 2:03 PM

"days away from hope" actually means "days away from hoMe"

Posted by Luiz Coelho | July 13, 2010 2:04 PM

Despite the threats, I don't think those opposed to women bishops will stampede their way out of the Church of England any time soon. The threats do get tiresome, though.

June Butler

Posted by GrandmèreMimi | July 13, 2010 2:52 PM

Keep in mind that there are two substantial camps against women in the CoE. There are the Anglo-Catholics who protest on sacramental grounds, and Evangelicals who protest on their biblical grounds. The Evangelicals *certainly* aren't heading to Rome. Furthermore, not all of the Anglo-Catholics are either. So--despite a few high-profile folks and some number being thrown around, the actual exodus from the CoE for Rome probably won't have as much impact here as others would have you believe.

Too, we need to keep in mind that there are Anglo-Catholic and Evangelicals who don't have these issues with women bishops. Neither group is monolithic...

Posted by Derek Olsen | July 14, 2010 9:55 AM

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