Thinking Anglicans

Opinion – 2 October 2021

April Alexander ViaMedia.News General Synod: The Challenge of Voting in Women Bishops

Christopher Landau Church Times Is the BBC committed to religious news?
“The corporation’s slowness to appoint a new Religion Editor does not inspire confidence”

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Is the Iwerne Movement a Cult?

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Kate
Kate
2 years ago

I hadn’t realised that 4 of the 14 CNC votes are people who don’t believe ANY woman should be a bishop. That’s obviously not OK.

Janet Fife
Janet Fife
Reply to  Kate
2 years ago

No, and it’s not representative of the Church generally, either – let alone of the nation as a whole.

Kate
Kate
Reply to  Janet Fife
2 years ago

I think it shows that a compromise solution for same sex relationships isn’t an option.

Mary Hancock
Mary Hancock
Reply to  Kate
2 years ago

The vision of both groups (those opposed to any change re same sex relationships in the C of E AND those who favour a positive change in the status quo) walking away from the C of E is an interesting one that has just occurred to me…

David Lamming
David Lamming
Reply to  Kate
2 years ago

April Alexander’s article is biased and/or wrong in several respects: First, the legislation that enables women bishops to ‘leapfrog’ into the House of Lords over longer-serving male bishops when vacancies occur—the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015—had to be an Act of Parliament, not a Measure passed by General Synod, since it governed the membership of the Upper House. Parliament was not “incensed about a whole bench of exclusively male bishops in their midst” as Alexander alleges. Rather, as the official explanatory notes to the Act explain: “... the Archbishop of Canterbury, after consultation with the Lords Spiritual and others, requested… Read more »

Mark Bennet
Mark Bennet
Reply to  Kate
2 years ago

The CNC gets made up of central members and diocesan members. In each part the nomination/voting process is designed to give a spread of candidates. It is relatively easy for any substantial group in the Church to secure a blocking minority (as so often in the Church of England) with a certain amount of organisation and determination. It is part of what makes the CofE collectively such a conservative organisation.

Tim Chesterton
2 years ago

Regarding April Alexander’s piece: this is not my church and not my synod, so it’s probably not my business to comment, but I do have mixed feelings on the issue of candidates for a General Synod making commitments ahead of time as to how they will vote. (NB: I’m not saying they shouldn’t declare their [current] beliefs; I’m commenting on them being asked to state a commitment ahead of time to vote a certain way.) Here’s my hesitation: if everyone going to GS has already decided how they are going to vote, what room is there for the Holy Spirit… Read more »

Last edited 2 years ago by Tim Chesterton
Mark Bennet
Mark Bennet
Reply to  Tim Chesterton
2 years ago

The issue is people who have decided how they will vote, but don’t tell voters what they have already decided.

Tim Chesterton
Reply to  Mark Bennet
2 years ago

My issue was with April Alexander’s strategy of asking potential synod members to make a commitment to vote in a certain way, if elected. I’m really not sure why a person who has made that kind of commitment would bother to join in a prayer for the guidance of the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the synod. They aren’t open to the possibility that the Holy Spirit might change their mind.

Father Ron Smith
Reply to  Tim Chesterton
2 years ago

I think you are right here, Tim. However, have you thought of the possibility that some people – often anti-liberal – will deliberately withhold their strong position from being made obvious at the time of voting. They would call this ‘A Strategy’ – but perhaps they think they know the mind of the Holy Spirit already and are not open to “What the Holy spirit is (really) saying to the Church”.

Tim Chesterton
Reply to  Father Ron Smith
2 years ago

Ron, I don’t disagree with that. I have been that person. When it comes to something we feel very strongly about, how many of us can truly entertain the possibility that we might be wrong, and the Spirit might be leading us to a different conclusion?

I say this as a person who took more than fifteen years of thinking and praying to change my mind about the issue of same-sex marriage.

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