C of E General Synod – Summary of business conducted on Wednesday 9th February 2011

2 comments on “C of E General Synod – Summary of business conducted on Wednesday 9th February 2011”

1. Pageantmaster Ù† says:

   February 10, 2011 at 6:04 pm

   Now this February Synod is over, I am alarmed by the parallels I see with what has been going on in the Anglican Communion with what is going on with the Church of England, and in particular this meeting of Synod.

   In the Primates’ Meeting, Rowan Williams unilaterally co-opted the Archbishop of York [whose public statements have been supportive of liberals] to represent England as an additional Primate, thereby giving England two primatial representatives at the PM, and the British Isles, five.

   In addition in England, the ABC has handed over his day to day responsibilities to his appointee in the diocese of Canterbury, the Bishop of Dover.

   There has been quite a bust up in the General Synod in the last few days as the House of Bishops appointed the Bishop of Dover to the Business Committee of Synod. This is the crucial committee which determines which matters are debated by Synod, and in what form. Synod refused to endorse the attempt to confirm the Bishop of Dover as Chairman of the Business Committee, which as you can imagine would be a huge concentration of power in another Rowan appointee in breach of the rules. It was in any event, not only an unhealthy concentration of even more power in the Archbishop of Canterbury and his staff, but nevertheless, the refusal by Synod made no difference, as the Bishop of Dover continues as acting Chair of the Business Committee.

   I suspect his involvement goes some way to explaining:

   1. the shortened Synod meetings this time, and those planned for the future;

   2. the left wing bias of the program given to Synod, including an item ‘clarifying’ removing the bar on divorcees, and those married to divorcees, being appointed bishops [opening the way for screaming liberal Nick Holtam of inclusive church St Martins-in-the-Fields, whose wife is a divorcee, to be pushed by Rowan into the House of Bishops as some indicate he wishes to, joining the other Inclusive Church and Affirming Catholic appointments promoted by Rowan Williams];

   3. the amount of time given to presentations to Synod, and the consequent reduction of time available to deliberate and do what Synod is there to do: make decisions democratically;

   4. the provision of right-on matters for Synod to get excited about and to distract it from important business, such as the time devoted to debating banning clergy from belonging to the extreme right-wing political parties like the BNP, notwithstanding that there is no evidence of support for such loonies by the clergy of the Church of England. The cynical might see parallels with the distraction at Dublin from pressing matters in the time devoted to castigating “bigots” led by the ABC in producing statements related to the murder of Mr Kato in Uganda, which has turned out to be not at all the homophobic execution claimed by the left and trumpeted precipitately by the ABC; and

   5. the emasculation and diminishing of Synod as an independent body of bishops, clergy and laity, and the increasing manipulation of it by the ABC, and his henchmen.

   In short, the ABC appears to be doing in the Church of England, exactly what he did to the Communion Instruments, and most recently the Standing Committee and the Primates’ Meeting of the Anglican Communion. The Bishop of Dover affair at Synod, follows another Synod rebellion over another appointment attempt in breach of standing rules on the first day.

   The evidence is that the ABC is engaged in a power grab to himself, while subverting all representative governance in everything he is involved with, both in the Communion and in the Church of England – it is sociopathic, and destructive of both institutions and horrifies people like me who believe in representative democratic governance and the rule of law.

   It is like sadly watching the Roman Republic being turned into an Imperial domain.

2. MichaelA says:

   February 11, 2011 at 2:31 pm

   Pageantmaster,

   Look on the bright side – Augustus left the governship of the richest provinces to be squabbled over by the Senate. He only took about one third provinces important to security (which just happened to be all the ones where legions were stationed).

   Rowan might be hopeless at reconciling the orthodox, but now it looks like he is demonstrating some real talent in another area. Maybe he will throw his Synod a bone or two, now and then, to keep them quiet.