| SUPPORTERS and opponents of women bishops in the Church of England confronted each other in the media this week, as the General Synod prepared for its marathon debate in York.
But strong hints that hundreds of clergy might leave the Church unless they were guaranteed legal safeguards were made this week — and dismissed by those in favour of change.
At a press conference on Monday organised by Women and the Church (Watch), the Dean of Southwark, the Very Revd Colin Slee, said that if priests opposed to women were going to leave, they would have left already. “They have had 14 years to decide.” The threat was “scaremongering”, he said.
Canon Lucy Winkett, Precentor of St Paul’s Cathedral, told the press conference that women bishops were “logically inevitable”. Supporters were prepared to concede a code of conduct that would help the objectors. But, she said: “We are drawing the line at legislative provision. . . We would rather wait than go forward with legislative provision for those who cannot in conscience accept their leadership.”
Christina Rees, chair of National Watch, who chaired the meeting, said she would consider not voting for the legislation if it included legal provision for the objectors. Ruth McCurry, a member of the Group for Rescinding the Act of Synod, said it was time that bishops showed they were trustworthy by administering the proposed code of conduct fairly. People should trust their bishops, she said, a sentiment echoed by Mrs Rees when she appeared with the Rt Revd Martyn Jarrett, the Bishop of Beverley, on BBC Radio 2 next day.
Bishop Jarrett was one of 11 serving bishops and 1333 clergy who signed a letter to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, published on Monday. The letter pleads for legal protection for the objectors. If the Synod decided to go ahead “without at the same time making provision which offers us real ecclesiastical integrity and security, many of us will be thinking very hard about the way ahead”.
The letter was the initiative of the three Provincial Episcopal Visitors, the Rt Revd Andrew Burnham, the Rt Revd Keith Newton, and the Rt Revd Martyn Jarrett; the Bishop of Fulham, the Rt Revd John Broadhurst; and the Master of the Society of the Holy Cross, Prebendary David Houlding. It was published on Monday on the Forward in Faith website. Among the signatories were 21 bishops, 458 incumbents, and 90 assistant curates.
Just over 500 of those who signed are retired clergy, but only 70 were “inactive”, said Forward in Faith. The director of Forward in Faith, Stephen Parkinson, commented: “The rural church would fall apart but for the retired clergy.”
The letter warns that, if the Church of England moved to ordain women to the episcopate, the signatories’ “ability to continue to minister in the Church to which we have been called will depend on provision being made to allow us to do so with the same theological integrity which we have been able to hold on to since 1994”.
The letter was not written “in a spirit of making threats”. The writers wanted to make plain their concerns over what might happen if provision was not made for them “to flourish and grow”. “Your Graces will know that the cost of such a choice would be both spiritual and material,” they write.
Bishop Jarrett told the BBC on Tuesday that the Church should create three new dioceses to look after clergy and parishes opposed to women in the episcopate. Failure to do so would create for him and for many of the signatories a “crisis of conscience”, he said.
He said a code of practice would be “whittled away”. The 1993 Act of Synod was already under attack in a “war of attrition.”
Canon Gavin Ashenden, who supports women bishops, said on Tuesday that he had signed the letter because he believed that, without safeguards, there would be “theological cleansing”.
www.forwardinfaith.com
Comment by Mary Tanner |
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