A Joint letter to the House of Bishops Concerning the Matter of Women Bishops by 4 Different Groups

Posted by Kendall Harmon

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.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • CoE Bishops • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Women • * International News & Commentary • England / UK

2 Comments
Posted December 7, 2012 at 3:30 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Pageantmaster [KJS to Coventry] wrote:

4 Different Groups - Oh my!

Actually it is the same small group of ne’re-do-wells wearing 4 different hats, although the ‘Centre for Radical Christianity’ was a new one on me, but just turns out to be just a few people in a Sheffield parish church who are part of the Modern Church [peoples union].  Still full marks for bravado and bigging yourselves up although there is just a whiff of the deceptive alleged Divinity School which KJS purported to be dean of operating out of her parish Sunday School.

It has been pretty appalling reading the bile coming out of WATCH and Affirming Catholicism towards the excellent House of Laity who decided they wanted to do the Christian thing and keep the Church of England together.  They have been bitching like there is no tomorrow, threatening depositions, parliamentary takeovers, and blowing up General Synod, presumably in a rerun of the Gunpowder Plot.  I read reports of exactly the same sort of vicious threats and harrassment happening about five years ago when there were a substantial number of Camp Allen dioceses and bishops still in TEC, who were attacked, marginalised and given the legislative run around by the TEC activists.  I have had a horrible sense of deja vu seeing this happen in the Church of England.  Well, we have seen this week with the total moral and canonical collapse of the Episcopal Church where that leads.

Our bishops are meeting this weekend.  Will they cave to the TEC activist Christina Rees and her Trotskyist agitators and the four or five different hats they claim the right to wear?  Will they have the courage to stand up to parliamentary interference in the church and marriage?  Will they align themselves with the tiny imploding Episcopal Church and its vicious persecution of Christians [whatever the cost to TEC’s canons and its integrity]?  Will we too become the Church of Goodwin Proctor?  Or will our bishops choose Christ and His lifegiving path and align themselves with the majority Anglican Communion which is vibrant and growing in spite of the best efforts of North American liberals?  We cannot sit on the fence any longer.  Will any of them demonstrate they still have the gonads to express support for the wonderful diocese of South Carolina and its bishop Mark Lawrence, and to register their disapproval of the TEC Presiding Bishop’s conduct?  I would like to think so.

I don’t know the answer to these questions, but I will pray for them, as they meet for what must be one of the more challenging meetings they have had.

December 7, 7:41 pm | [comment link]
2. Katherine wrote:

The bishops do need prayer.  I pray the Holy Spirit will be among them and that they will listen.

December 8, 11:25 am | [comment link]
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