The General Synod of the Church of England began its February group of sessions this afternoon.
Here is the official summary of the day’s business.
General Synod – Summary of business conducted on Monday 7th February 2011 PM
This includes links to audio recordings of the debates.
One item of business was this follow-on from the debate on the Anglican Communion Covenant held in November 2010.
Mr John Ward (London) moved:
‘That this Synod resolve that final approval of the Act of Synod adopting the Anglican Communion Covenant shall require the assent of two-thirds of the members of each House present and voting.’
Following debate, and a division by Houses, the motion was lost. Here are the voting figures.
ayes noes abstentions Bishops 4 32 2 Clergy 82 92 1 Laity 66 112 0
We will be reporting on some of the questions and answers separately.
Of course the CofE establishment voted down any attempt to require a supermajority. They are terrified at the prospect of keeping their fraudulent scheme alive, and the more people they have to fool, the harder that will be.
I’m trying to read the runes on this vote to get a sense of the mood of the Synod on the Covenant. This motion was lost in the House of Clergy by only a small margin. I’m not sure now how the final vote will add up because on the basis of these figures if there were to be a simple majority required in the whole Synod it wouldn’t go through and in any case the House of Clergy could easily reject it by a simple majority. A lot will depend on the diocesan synods, it’ll only take a few… Read more »
It’s worth mentioning now that there will be no roll-call published of this vote. That’s because the electronic voting system failed, and the vote had to be taken manually, i.e. by members walking through doors past tellers who counted the numbers but did not record the names. This is how all votes used to be taken. William Fittall remarked later in the proceedings that every time ACNA is mentioned in synod (this happened at two points today, one before the failure and one after) the electronic voting system fails. CORRECTION: I have now listened to the recording, and I misheard… Read more »
It seems a bit bizarre to vote by Houses on this motion NOT to vote by Houses on the substantive motion. Which motion is the more significant?
All we like sheep…
So is this monstrosity to be rammed through w/ a simple majority vote?! Say it ain’t so… (And God bless TEC!)
The final vote on the Covenant will undoubtedly be taken by houses (with a simple majority required in all three). It only requires 25 members to force such a vote.
“It’s worth mentioning now that there will be no roll-call published of this vote. That’s because the electronic voting system failed, and the vote had to be taken manually, i.e. by members walking through doors past tellers who counted the numbers but did not record the names. This is how all votes used to be taken.”
How about counting the legs that pass by and dividing by two?
Do the tellers not KNOW who these folks are? They could wear nametags on their ankles …
It seems that the English GS mentions ACNA more often than it would be mentioned at the Canadian GS or the TEC General Convention. Why? There must be agents-provocateurs(euses) in the room.
“William Fittall remarked later in the proceedings that every time ACNA is mentioned in synod (this happened at two points today, one before the failure and one after) the electronic voting system fails.” – Simon Sarmiento – Perhaps this reflects the effectiveness of the dissentient community within the Communion. ACNA’s very existence might cause the failure of more than just the lights at the English General Synod. If the Church of England were ever to grant them ‘Room at the Table’ the failure rate would be even more catastrophic. I noticed that most of the House of Bishops were against… Read more »
I have corrected my earlier comment about what William Fittall said. See above.