he Archbishops of Canterbury and York have appointed the Rt Rev Donald Allister, Bishop of Peterborough to succeed the Rt Rev Christopher Hill, Bishop of Guildford, as Chair of the Council for Christian Unity. Bishop Christopher will be stepping down at the end of June 2013 after a five-year term of office. The Bishop of Peterborough has been a member of the Council since 2006.

Read it all.

Marriage is not the property of the Government nor is it the property of the Church, the Rt Rev Tim Stephens, Bishop of Leicester, reminded Parliament in a response to the Government statement on equal marriage in the House of Lords, today.

While the forms and legalities around marriage had evolved over time, he said, one fundamental feature had remained the same throughout: that marriage is a union of one man and one woman, a social institution that pre-dates both Church and State and has been the glue that has bound countless successive societies together.

The Bishop asked for assurances that, for example, teachers would not be disciplined for upholding traditional religious teachings and that proper time would be given for consultation.

Read it all.

The House of Bishops of the Church of England met yesterday and today at Lambeth Palace and considered the implications of the General Synod’s recent rejection of legislation to enable women to become bishops. The House had the benefit of participation in its discussion of the Very Rev Viv Faull, the Venerable Christine Hardman, Dr Paula Gooder, and Mrs Margaret Swinson, who had all previously served on the Steering Committee or Revision Committee for the legislation.

The House expressed its ongoing gratitude and appreciation for the ministry of ordained women in the Church of England, and its sadness that recent events should have left so many feeling undermined and undervalued. Effective response to this situation is a priority on which all are strongly agreed.

The House acknowledged the profound and widespread sense of anger, grief, and disappointment…

Read it all

It is worth noting that at no stage of the proceedings has there been a two-thirds majority in the House of Laity in favour of the proposals. After traditionalists repeatedly told the Synod that the proposed Code of Practice simply was not an adequate response to the substance of their theological objections to women bishops, it should have come as no surprise that the legislation was defeated. Advocates of women bishops should have realised that, much as they might have wished it otherwise, the Synodical process did what it was designed to do: ensure that major changes cannot be made without consensus, and that the majority cannot exercise tyranny over a substantial minority.

Instead, those of us who in good conscience voted against the measure have been collectively subjected to an outpouring of vitriol, bile, misrepresentation, and contempt, including (I am sorry to say) in some cases from other members of General Synod, through the media and social networks. Suddenly, there are cries that the House of Laity is unrepresentative of the laity at large, that the system is “broken,” and even that Parliament should intervene to impose women bishops on the church. Opponents of the measure are told that we have damaged the Church of England; we are caricatured as “extremists” and worse. We are threatened with a “single-clause measure” next time around, without even a Code of Practice to provide for those who cannot accept women as bishops. If ever there was a question whether legislative provision was really necessary ”” whether what was required was, after all, just more generous mutual trust ”” such an aspiration seems hopelessly naïve now.

Read it all.

In a spooky, dare I say, godly coincidence, two of the world’s important religions obtained new leaders in the past fortnight. What makes the coincidence seem so like divine providence is that both leaders started their vocational life not fired by the sacred but as industrialists.

The Coptic Church is now led by Pope Tawadros (Theodore) II, who ran a pharmaceutical factory until he saw the light. Former oil industry executive Justin Welby, meanwhile, was selected to be enthroned in March as the Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Anglican Communion.

Both had late onset religious conversions….

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/blogs/godless-gross/a-tale-of-two-leaders-20121203-2apyg.html#ixzz2EbKcRdl9

Read it all.

Britain’s senior Anglican bishops will be tweeting their Christmas Day sermons for the first time this year.

The Archbishop of Canterbury and the archbishop-designate, as well as clergy and congregations around the UK, will be celebrating the birth of Jesus in a campaign making use of social media.

Worshippers in the Church’s 16,000 parishes are being encouraged to tweet on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Read it all.

The following letter to the House of Bishops of the Church of England has been sent jointly by four organisations, Inclusive Church, Modern Church, Progressive Christianity Network and the Centre for Radical Christianity…..

We, the undersigned, deeply regret that the House of Laity of the General Synod of the Church of England failed to reach the two-thirds majority required to pass legislation enabling women to be ordained Bishop. This was a huge disappointment delivering a devastating blow to the Church of England and undermining its credibility among the people of the nation it seeks to serve. It is a missed opportunity to see women and men sharing fully in the mission, ministry and leadership of the Church of England. Other Anglican provinces have found a way of doing so and been enriched by the ministry of both male and female bishops as a consequence.

There is overwhelming support for women bishops in both the church and throughout the country. We have been discussing this issue for a generation and working on the details of this compromise legislation for over ten years. Almost 73% of General Synod members voted in favour of women bishops, challenging the legitimacy of a voting process that is able to frustrate the mandate of forty-two out of forty-four Diocesan Synods. This decision may be legally binding, but it carries no moral authority, undermining the process of representation the Synodical system is supposed to enshrine….

Read it all.

Campaigners who want to see a fresh Measure to admit women to the episcopate at the General Synod next July may be disappointed, two bishops have suggested….

On Tuesday… the Bishop of Dover, the Rt Revd Trevor Willmott, suggested that the House “ought to be able to share with people a process” at the Synod in July. “That will lead in due course to fresh legislative proposals.”

Also this week, the Bishop of Chester, Dr Peter Forster, called for a “concentrated period of reflection”. There were “good reasons” why the legislative group and Synod had not pursued a single-clause Measure or “stronger safeguards”, and “the greatest problem would be if we started the process quickly and ended up with another mess.”

Read it all.

After the General Synod failed to give Final Approval to the draft legislation on the ordination of women to the episcopate, I had hoped for a period of calm, prayer and reflection all round; and perhaps some sense of regret, on the part of the proponents of the Measure, that they had not got the legislation right. Of course, as we now know, this was very far from the case: instead, a media furore, and a sense from some quarters that those who had voted against the Measure need to be punished in the future for daring to step out of line.

We need to say very clearly, that we understand, and deeply regret, the pain, hurt and anger felt on the part of many women clergy and their supporters; that we value the huge contribution of ordained women to the life of the Church of England; and that we recognise the gifts which God has given in and through their ministries.

However, we also need to challenge some errors and misunderstandings which have been widespread since the vote was taken….

Read it all.

The parliamentary reaction to this week’s synod vote tells a powerful tale. Wearing his Garrick Club tie, the Second Church Estates Commissioner answered questions from MP’s, all of whom expressed amazement and moral repugnance about the official and institutionalised sexism of the Established Church. (note to overseas readers ”” The Garrick Club is an exclusive Gentleman’s club in the West End).

The Garrick Club Tie Gaffe (if such it was) underlined an important aspect of the problem: the Church claims to be far more than a private organisation like a golf club, masonic lodge, or Gentleman’s London hang-out. It claims to be good news for everyone, and the fury of our legislators when they see it acting as though it were a private club, disconnected from society, was unmistakable….

Read it all.

Members of the Church of England’s ”˜parliament’ are attempting to oust one of its most senior figures following the defeat of legislation to allow women bishops.

In a dramatic move, members of the General Synod’s House of Laity have secretly called an emergency meeting so they can hold a vote of no confidence in their Chair, Dr Philip Giddings, who spoke forcefully against the reform.

They believe that, if Dr Giddings is forced out, the move could help Church leaders get around the rules and bring back the legislation before a new Synod is elected in three years’ time.

Read it all.

Devon’s new bishop has been officially consecrated in a ceremony conducted by the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Right Reverend Nick McKinnel – the former rector of the Minster Church of St Andrew in Plymouth – was ordained as the Anglican Bishop of Crediton at Southwark Cathedral.

The appointment was announced by the Diocese of Exeter in October.

Read it all.

In the fallout [over the recent vote on Women Bishops], the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, in an interview with this newspaper, urged Justin Welby, the incoming archbishop, to push through reform regardless, and there were mutterings in the Shadow Cabinet of changing the law so the Church would no longer be immune to charges of sexual discrimination. Hitchiner, though, “shocked” and “sad” as she was, and critical as she is of the overrepresentation in General Synod of people “on the more conservative end of the spectrum”, and the disproportionate amount of airtime they were given “to go back to discussions that were being held 20 years ago about why they felt uncomfortable with the idea of women priests”, says that she is wary of tampering with the system: “I think we stuck to the system and nothing went wrong. That’s the most frustrating thing. I would be happier in the long run without changing the system, without making special arrangements.”

The appointment of women bishops is, she thinks, an “unstoppable train. It is bound to happen.” She feels torn, she says. “As a feminist I believe that women shouldn’t be held back from anything. Women have worked very hard, whether they’re religious or not, to make sure that is the case. But having said that, I also think that if the Church is dictated to by society or the State it ceases to be a church.”

Read it all(requires subscription).

The Bishop of Norwich has today called for an end to the current self-regulation in light of the publication of the Leveson Report. The Rt Revd Graham James, who sits as a member of the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications and is the Church of England’s lead spokesman on media and communications policy, today commented on the need for a genuinely independent body which “must have as one of its primary tasks the protection of citizens from unfair and damaging portrayal in the press and give them a proper chance of redress. When members of the general public are unfairly traduced in a major press story, it is not a necessary consequence of press freedom but an abuse of it.”

In an article on the Leveson Report to be published in the Church Times next week, Bishop Graham says: “The Leveson Report must surely bring the era of self-regulation to an end. We do need a genuinely independent body able to investigate the practices of the press without the trigger of a complaint bringing it into action. It must be properly resourced by the industry itself but that doesn’t mean it needs to build a large bureaucracy.”

Read it all.

Prebendary [Rod] Thomas said on Monday that Reform would like the talks to be chaired by the Archbishop-designate, the Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd Justin Welby. “We feel very much that Justin Welby has been put by God in this place with a unique set of gifts to help us resolve this problem; he has our complete trust in seeking to move forward.”

Campaigners for women bishops who are angry at the outcome of last week’s vote have, however, indicated that they will press for a single-clause Measure, without provision for traditionalists enshrined in it.

The Rt Revd John Gladwin, a former Bishop of Chelmsford and the honorary vice-president of WATCH, said that opponents of the Measure had “blown up the bridge to any compromise solution”. The “only . . . route” that could now be taken, he said, “is the route which removes all discriminatory provisions from the life and ministry of the Church”.

Read it all.

The Church of England is to rush through legislation to consecrate women bishops after the defeat last week at the General Synod in London.
The Archbishops’ Council, the executive of the established Church, met behind closed doors this week to discuss the crisis. In a statement at the end of the two-day meeting, it said: “Many council members commented on the deep degree of sadness and shock that they had felt as a result of the vote and also of the need to affirm all women serving the Church ”” both lay and ordained ”” in their ministries.
“The council decided that a process to admit women to the episcopate needed to be restarted at the next meeting of the General Synod in July 2013 … The council therefore recommended that the House of Bishops, during its meeting in a fortnight’s time, put in place a clear process for discussions in the new year with a view to bringing legislative proposals before the synod in July.”

Read it all (requires subscription).

WOMEN BISHOPS MEASURE FAILS IN THE HOUSE OF LAITY – THEREFORE FAILS OVERALL

This post will be updated regularly – Last updated November 28th at 4:00 PM GMT, 11:00 AM Eastern. Links to all T19 posts to do with this topic are here

UPDATE Wednesday 28th
Joint Press Statement From The Chairmen Of The Catholic Group And Reform
CofE: Statement on the Conclusion of the Meeting of the Archbishops’ Council November 2012
Dr Robert Morris: Women as bishops: should Parliament intervene? – legal analysis of relationship of church and state
Peter Ould: The Dys-Established Church
[There is a great deal of heat being generated at the moment in the aftermath of Synod, but not much light, so updates here will be selective]
Result of Women Bishops Vote was:

Bishops: For 44; Against 3; Abstained 2 – Passed in this house
Clergy: For 148; Against 45; Abstained 0 – Passed in this house
Laity: For 132; Against 74; Abstained 0 – Failed in this house

The Measure not having been approved by a 2/3 majority in each of the three houses, failed. Listen to Audio Part 1 and Part 2 and Vote

[See below for full details of Synod debates, reaction and Audio links where the debates can be listened to again]

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[Update Friday 23rd – Veteran ex-Minister, Member of Parliament and Synod Frank Field says his advice to Reformers to take account of and deal with needs of objectors was ignored and led to failure of Women Bishops measure, and Bishop Tom Wright criticises ‘get with the program’ as a basis for church decision-making.

[Update Thursday 22nd – new items today include: press and other coverage from the last day of Synod yesterday; a Summary report from the Church Media Department; and see also the report from the Second Church Estates Commissioner to Parliament today and the ensuing debate]

UPDATE WITH PRESS AND OTHER REACTIONS ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 23rd
Frank Field MP says Failure down to Reformers not meeting objections, against his advice – for UK readers only, the Newsnight interview with Frank Field can be watched here from 27 until 35 minutes in
Bishop Tom Wright: It’s About the Bible, Not Fake Ideas of Progress
The Atlantic: The Church of England Still Won’t Allow Female Bishops: Good for Them

For more UK Press coverage see Church of England Briefing, Anglican Mainstream and Thinking Anglicans

UPDATE WITH PRESS AND OTHER REACTIONS ON THURSDAY NOVEMBER 22nd
There is a pretty wide coverage of UK press articles from the Church of England here
Also press and other reaction is available on Anglican Mainstream and Thinking Anglicans

Telegraph: Editorial: Leave the Church Be and David Cameron is bullying the Church over women bishops, just as he will do over gay marriage; also Cranmer Mr Speaker ‘guides’ Labour MPs on Church of England equality

Sir Tony Baldry, Second Church Estates Commissioner in Parliament, answered a Parliamentary Question today and there was an ensuing debate in the House of Commons which can be watched here and the Hansard transcript is here and see also this BBC Report [h/t Thinking Anglicans]

STATEMENTS AND RESPONSES TO VOTE
Archbishop of York
Archbishop Wabukala of Kenya and Chairman of GAFCON
Church of England Evangelical Council
Church Society Together 4Ward campaign
Evangelical Alliance
Forward in Faith
Reform
The Catholic Group in Synod
Society of St Wilfred and St Hilda bishops

Affirming Catholicism
Fulcrum
WATCH

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The Church of England General Synod took place between Monday November 19th and Wednesday November 21st 2012. Tuesday 20th was set aside for The Women Bishops debate. Synod agreed to meet next in 2013 on 5-9 July and 18-20 November.

You can listen to the live Audio stream here, and here are links to the Timetable, Agenda, and Papers. Summary Reports of each day’s business are available here and audio podcasts of the debates and votes here

Other Reports: Evangelicals Now – [Church Society], Thinking Anglicans, Anglican Mainstream, Church Times

Tweets: Main link for Synod is #Synod. Other tweets worth following may include:Church of England, Church Times, +Pete Broadbent and Ruth Gledhill [Times]

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 21st
Wednesday Outline Agenda:
8:30 AM [London, 3:30 AM Eastern – not broadcast] Emergency House of Bishops Meeting
9.30 AM [London, 4:30 AM Eastern] Worship
Archbishop of Canterbury’s Presidential Statement on Yesterday’s Women in the Episcopate Vote and Audio
Diocesan Synod Motion: Southwell and Nottingham: Amendment to Canon B 12 and Regulations [GS1881A and GS1881B Distribution of Holy Communion] Audio of Debate
Private Member’s Motion: John Freeman: Living Wage [GS1882A and GS1882B Payment of by church bodies] Audio of Debate
Dates of groups of sessions in 2013

2.30 PM [London, 9:30 AM Eastern] Farewells
Youth unemployment [GS1883 and I am one in a million leaflet] Audio to this point
Farewell to the Archbishop of Canterbury Audio for the rest of the afternon session
Contingency business: Report of the Standing Orders Committee [GS 1884]

Wednesday Session Report – Audio for the debates can be listened to on the links above.

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 20th – WOMEN BISHOPS DEBATE

Vote Result on Motion 501 to approve Women Bishops in the Church of England under the current proposed provision:

The Measure not having been approved by a 2/3 majority in each of the three houses, fails. The consequential following motions 502 and 503 were not debated.

The Archbishop of York informed Synod that the issue may not be considered again in the duration of the life of this Synod until 2015; unless named officials of Synod decide otherwise

Afternoon Session Vote Report from the Church of England Media Center here and Audio of the Afternoon debate and vote may be listened to again here

Morning Session Report and Morning Session Audio

Tuesday Press Coverage
The Church of England has a useful roundup of today’s UK press coverage here

Tuesday Agenda
Holy Communion [Sermon by the Archbishop of Canterbury Audio]
Draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure and Draft Amending Canon No.30
501 Draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure (GS 1708D) ”“ Draft Measure for Final Approval (resumed debate)
502 Draft Amending Canon No. 30 (GS 1709C) ”“ Draft Amending Canon for Final Approval
503 Draft Petition for Her Majesty”Ÿs Royal Assent and Licence (GS 1709E) ”“ for Adoption
[See also Reconsideration of Clause 5(1)(c) by the House of Bishops (GS1708-09ZZZ)]

MONDAY NOVEMBER 19th:
Summary Report and all Audio files
Worship and formal business [Greeting by the Archbishop of Canterbury] Report by the Business Committee Audio
Anglican Consultative Council meeting: presentation and questions Audio
Anglican Communion Covenant: Report on the Reference to Dioceses Audio
Questions Audio

The links and reports from the last Synod in February are here

Bishop Cragg was laid to rest in the Oxfordshire churchyard of Holy Trinity, Ascott-under-Wychwood, where he and his wife had lived in their retirement. In the church, a tapestry hangs inside the west wall. We were told this had been a gift from Bishop Cragg because he did not like preaching to a blank wooden wall.

He himself had woven a number of the panels while waiting at stations and airports during his long missionary career. Prayers were led by Canon Christopher Lamb, himself a missionary in Pakistan, and specialist on inter-faith relations, whose doctoral studies were on Bishop Cragg’s theology. The Bible reading was chosen by Bishop Cragg himself ”“ 1 Peter chapter 4: “He who has suffered in the body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.”

Read it all.

Women Bishops – The Way Ahead

The Chairmen of the Catholic Group in General Synod and the conservative Evangelical group Reform, who called for talks to break the deadlock over legislation to enable the consecration of women as bishops, have received acknowledgement of their request from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.

Canon Simon Killwick (Catholic Group) and Prebendary Rod Thomas (Reform) have today further pledged themselves to do everything they can to ensure the speedy and safe passage of fresh legislation through the General Synod.

They said, “If agreement can be reached at round-table talks on fresh legislation which provides clearly and fairly for all members of the Church of England, there is no reason why fresh legislation should not be fast-tracked through the Synod before the next elections in 2015.”

The Synod’s Standing Orders only prevent the reconsideration of the same legislation during this period.

“It has never been our intention to prevent the consecration of women as bishops; our concern has always been for legislation which also made clear and fair provision for the substantial minority,” the Chairmen concluded.

The legislation which failed last week in the Synod would have had devastating consequences for the diversity and mission of the Church of England, had it been passed. We want the Church of England to continue to be a broad and comprehensive national Church.

Canon Simon Killwick

Prebendary Rod Thomas

(Chairman of the Catholic Group in General Synod)
(Chairman of Reform)

Read it all

“In its discussions the Council decided that a process to admit women to the episcopate needed to be restarted at the next meeting of the General Synod in July 2013. There was agreement that the Church of England had to resolve this matter through its own processes as a matter of urgency. The Council therefore recommended that the House of Bishops, during its meeting in a fortnight’s time, put in place a clear process for discussions in the New Year with a view to bringing legislative proposals before the Synod in July.”

Read it all

When the Church of England scuttled plans to allow women bishops on Nov. 20, incoming Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby called it “a very grim day for women and their supporters.”

Now, that grim day is turning into a church-state nightmare for Britain’s established church.

Read it all.

The key political and constitutional problem is that, although the Church of England now behaves largely as if it is a voluntary society, it remains nonetheless part of the state. The Queen as head of state is ”˜Supreme Governor’ of the Church, must be in communion with it, holds the title Fidei Defensor and ”“ nominally ”“ appoints its senior clergy. The Archbishop crowns and anoints the new sovereign, and the Church conducts important public ceremonies and rituals effectively in relation to the UK as a whole. The Church’s courts remain courts of the land, although they lost their public law jurisdictions in the 1850s. Twenty-six bishops continue to sit in the House of Lords ”“ each nowadays actually appointed by a private, unaccountable committee of the Church itself.

These are high matters and could be addressed again by Parliament. However, whatever the degree of change made, none could procure the appointment of female bishops unless Parliament legislated directly to that end. In other words, disestablishment could not by itself resolve the particular question of female bishops. On the other hand, what disestablishment could do would be ”“ a very different matter ”“ to permit the state and Parliament to wash its hands of Church of England affairs altogether.

Since nothing so far suggests that Parliament contemplates such a rupture, it follows that the Church must be allowed to deal with the present crisis itself. Whether in doing so it strengthens the case for a radical review of remaining church/state ties is another question.

Read it all.

The next Archbishop of Canterbury has described his shock at discovering the truth about his father’s secret life.

In his first interview since becoming the incoming leader of the Anglican Church, Bishop Justin Welby revealed the struggles he had faced as a teenager at Eton, nursing his alcohol-dependant father whose behaviour had become increasingly erratic.

Since the age of three, Justin had been brought up alone by his businessman father, Gavin Welby, a divorcee. But he had no idea of his father’s remarkable life story, which The Sunday Telegraph has pieced together for the first time.

Read it all.

The Church of England is facing a “major constitutional crisis” as a result of the fiasco last week over women bishops, according to an internal document written for the archbishops by one of their most senior staff.
The Established Church must take steps in July next year to consecrate women bishops and vote them through by 2015, otherwise it risks the matter being taken out of its hands by Parliament, the secret memo says. It is to be debated behind closed doors this week by the Archbishops’ Council.
The memo, a hard copy of which has been handed to The Times, is intended for the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and the council members.

Read it all (requires subscription).

Lord Carey, who first opened the priesthood to women, spoke of his “anger” and “distress” at the General Synod’s failure to allow women into the episcopate despite overwhelming support.
And he voiced support for an overhaul of Synod structures after a bloc of opponents in the House of Laity succeeded in killing off the measure after a tortuous 12-year process.
He was commenting after the Church of England’s representative in Parliament, Sir Tony Baldry, warned that it was in danger of being seen as a “sect” and claimed that it had hamstrung its own attempts to resist the plans for gay marriage.

Read it all.

The Venerable Norman Russell said the vote against the draft women bishops’ measure in the Church of England house of laity should not have come as a surprise.

He said: “In key votes in Synod over several years, the House of Laity, many of whose members are keen to honour the breadth of the Church of England, has consistently resisted giving a two-thirds majority to proposals which would not give traditional Anglo-Catholic and conservative evangelical clergy and congregations a secure future in the Church of England.

“Many of those who voted against these particular proposals are, like myself, in favour of women bishops, but not at any price….

Read it all.

Herein lies the rub, I think. The legislation before Synod on Tuesday was already a “compromise”, in the original sense of that word. That is to say, it was a co-promise: an agreement that together we would move forward mutually, not severally.

It was this that the Synod had set its mind to. That the Church lost sight, so early, of a simple one-clause measure, is a real tragedy. And it was this failure of leadership, ultimately, that led the Church inexorably and slowly to Tuesday’s result.

Read it all.

Persuading the Archbishops and prolocutors to permit the re-introduction of legislation will be the easy part. More difficult, as we have said before, will be the task of lighting on a formula that has a greater chance of success. Tuesday’s debate was full optimistic assurances that this could be done. History suggests otherwise. There are no new arguments to be found. What must change is the habit of demanding that concessions are made solely by the other side. The one straw at which to grasp is the pledge heard in the Synod from those opposed to women bishops that they will engage in discussions more willingly. There are also signs of this outside: for example, when someone emailed “Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia” to her contacts, a recipient, another opponent, gently upbraided her: “I honestly do not take any joy in what some will call a ‘victory’. . . Somehow, out of this mess – for that is what it is – there could well be a chance for both traditions to sit round a table and find some sort of agreement.” This must be the urgent prayer of all.

Read it all.

Although it was carried in the House of Bishops by 44 to 3, with two abstentions, and in the House of Clergy by 148 to 45, with no abstentions, it was lost in the House of Laity. Here, there were 132 votes in favour, 74 against, with no abstentions; the Measure thus fell by six votes. Across all three Houses, 72.6 per cent of Synod members voted in favour of the legislation.

This result came despite strong support for the Measure from the Archbishop of Canterbury and his designated successor, the Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd Justin Welby.

Read it all.

Protections for conservatives were “insufficient”

The Church needs to speak not with one tongue, but with many tongues as it always has. Legalism and intolerance are bad Christianity, but they are what the proposed Measure was very likely to increase. We were told over and over again that provision was being made for those who reject women clergy and bishops. But this was simply untrue. It was a lie. These minorities had sought arrangements on which they could rely. But instead what they had said they needed had been consistently rejected – or, when the Archbishops made some effort to achieve a compromise that would work for them, neither Archbishop managed the process of promoting what they were proposing at all well. That was how the Church arrived at this situation fraught as it was with dishonesty and illusion. That the vote went against the Measure despite the immense pressure placed on the Laity should suggest that what was being proposed was seen as a serious problem. It was defeated by a coalition that included many lay people who want there to be women bishops but not by dishonest inadequate means that were demonstrably not fit for purpose.

Read it all