Bishop's Letter - September 2010
Bishop's Letter
with Bishop Martin Wharton
The meeting of the July General Synod agreed to send the draft legislation on the Ordination of Women as Bishops to the Dioceses for consideration. Our own Diocesan Synod will consider it next year and I hope every Deanery Synod will have the matter on its agenda too. We will soon be recommending a process and a timetable for our Diocesan considerations. It will be necessary for the majority of the English Dioceses to approve this legislation before the General Synod can begin the concluding stages and come to a final vote.
My own view is that the Church of England will be enriched by women in the episcopate. The gifts and graces which women have brought to the ordained ministry seem self evident to me and to many others in the Church.
I am convinced that in ordained ministry, it is our humanity which is more important than our gender. What is also evident to me is that many of those who are opposed to the ordination of women in our Church nevertheless, believe it is right for the Church of England to ordain women to the episcopate. They see it as an inevitable consequence for a Church which ordains women to the diaconate and to the priesthood. Yet, they also seek appropriate provision for those who cannot accept that this is a legitimate development in the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
This is why there has been such a focus on what provision should be made to enable those who are, in conscience, opposed, to remain with integrity within the Church of England. I have come across few people who do not want some such provision to be made. But, what should it be?
A Code of Practice is still to be worked out. But it will ensure that a woman bishop will delegate her authority to a male bishop for pastoral and sacramental care for parishes which cannot accept her authority. It also means that the parish concerned would have to recognise the apostolic authority of the woman bishop in order to make this request. This is what some of the opponents find so difficult.
This is also why our Archbishops proposed an amendment at the Synod which suggested a co ordinate jurisdiction deriving from the Measure itself. It would not have impaired the jurisdiction of the woman bishop, but, required her (and male bishops too) to work with an Episcopal colleague, in order to provide pastoral and sacramental care for every parish within the Diocese. It was this amendment which was carried by majorities in the House of Bishops and House of Laity, but fell by 5 votes in the House of Clergy at the General Synod. The Archbishops made it clear that it was not a test of loyalty to them.
I long to see women as bishops in our Church, but, I also want us to be a Church that honours and includes the minority who do not believe this to be the will of God. Our world, as a whole, does not treat minorities well. May the Church of England show that we are able to do so, as we take the next step towards the ordination of women to the episcopate.