In the Daily Telegraph George Pitcher has written an article headlined Rowan Williams will not be driven out of office which is in fact about the Manchester report. It also rather debunks most earlier reports. (And it is not written by the newly appointed religion specialist.)
…As ever, the truth is somewhat different. Deeply considered (and, I might say, deeply boring) documentation has been published at Church House, morsels are torn from its body and partially digested, and those with corners to fight duly back into them, barking.
The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, as chair of the numbingly named Legislative Drafting Group, has offered up a typically chewy tome.
In it, far from proposing a church like a Victorian playground, with gates marked in stone for Boys and Girls, he offers three approaches to the introduction of women bishops: a simple change in the law with no alternative arrangements for those who demur; legislation that would make some special arrangements for those “unable to receive the ministry of women bishops”; and, finally, legislation that would create structures for these conscientious objectors.
The group is at pains to say that it’s not offering a recommendation, but analysing the pros and cons of each approach.
To infer from this that the church is set to split itself along gender lines is, at best, ambitious. But what is important is the difference between what is said in this report, which is dull, and what is perceived to have been said…
The Times has some letters.
Added to the clause: Those in conscience who cannot accept the ministry of women, should be added “and those men ordained by them.” This is no longer a female discrimination issue.
That is why the apartheid solution is appalling.
The “theological commission” of FIF should be challenged…will you recognise male bishops, who were ordained as priests by women and consecrated with their participation.
JUST SAY NO TO APARTHEID.