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Almost half the lay members who voted against female bishops were women Almost half the lay members who voted against female bishops were women
(about 7 hours later)
Almost half the Church of England lay members who voted against a measure that would have paved the way for female bishops were women, new data shows. Almost half of the lay people who voted against legislation to allow female bishops in the Church of England were women, according to figures released on Monday, as senior members of the church were urged to speed up reform or risk consigning it to years of ignominy and irrelevance.
According to voting records released on Monday, 33 of the 74 General Synod lay members who caused the long-awaited legislation to fail were women – most of them affiliated with the conservative evangelical group Reform or the traditional Anglo-Catholic movement Forward in Faith. Voting records released by Church House showed 33 of the 74 General Synod lay members who last week caused the long-awaited measure to fail were women and most of them are affiliated to the conservative evangelical group Reform or the traditional Anglo-Catholic movement Forward in Faith.
The measure, which needed a two-thirds majority in each of the three houses of the synod, was passed comfortably in the house of bishops and clergy but lost in the laity by six votes. 132 lay members voted in favour. Susie Leafe, a member of Reform, insisted the strong showing from female lay members was not surprising. She co-ordinated a petition against the measure which was signed by more than 2,200 women. "This is not an issue of sexism. It is an issue of theological conviction – and conviction crosses across the genders," she said. "So, as I read the Bible, I am convicted that men and women are equal and different. I am not surprised at all."
The three bishops who voted against the measure were shown to be John Goddard, the bishop of Burnley, Geoffrey Rowell, the bishop of Gibraltar in Europe, and Martin Warner, the Anglo-Catholic bishop of Chichester. At his enthronement on Sunday Warner admitted the vote had had a "damaging effect" on the church. The legislation, which needed a two-thirds majority in each of the synod's three houses, was passed comfortably in the house of bishops and clergy but scuppered in the laity by just six votes.
The details of Tuesday's vote came as the church was warned it faced a "major constitutional crisis" over female bishops and must embrace an "urgent and radical" new strategy in order to see women in the episcopate by 2015. In spite of fears that some advocates of women bishops had contributed to its failure out of a belief that it made too many concessions to their opponents, the records showed the vote was comprehensively blocked by a powerful combination of conservative evangelicals and traditionalist Anglo-Catholics.
An internal memo written for the archbishops by William Fittall, secretary general of the church's governing body, says the blow dealt to morale in the church – particularly among female clergy – is "severe" and steps need to be taken in July to pass new legislation. The three bishops who voted no were also from the Anglo-Catholic wing of the church: John Goddard, the bishop of Burnley, Geoffrey Rowell, the bishop of Gibraltar in Europe, and Martin Warner, the bishop of Chichester. Two others abstained. At his enthronement on Sunday Warner admitted the vote had had a "damaging effect" on the church.
"We have to do so because time is not on our side," says the memo, seen by the Times. "Parliament is impatient. Unless the Church of England can show very quickly that it's capable of sorting itself out, we shall be into a major constitutional crisis in church-state relations, the outcome of which cannot be predicted with confidence." Amid calls from MPs to intervene in the crisis if the church cannot sort it out on its own, the Archbishops' Council meets on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss how to avoid what has been described as a "major constitutional crisis".
The archbishops' council, the church's executive leadership body, is due to discuss the crisis when it meets on Tuesday and Wednesday. But an initial decision on how to solve the increasingly pressing problem is not expected to be taken until the house of bishops meets in December. In an internal memo the secretary general of the synod, William Fittall, urged the church to pursue an "urgent and radical" new strategy in order to see women in the episcopate by 2015. If it did not, he warned, it could face a collision with the state, "the outcome of which cannot be predicted with confidence".
Fittall's memo, titled Women in the Episcopate – Where Next?, urges church leaders to take into account the tide of anger and incredulity in parliament that met last week's failed vote. He suggests ploughing ahead with simpler legislation that would have no provision for opponents and could, he says, be put to the vote when the synod meets in York in July. According to the Times, Fittall outlined a plan which would see the church plough ahead with simpler legislation that would have no provision for opponents. It could, he said, be put to the vote when the synod meets in York in July.
"There will be renewed calls now for a much wider, simpler legislative approach that confines itself to removing the current prohibition on the consecration of women while leaving provision for those opposed to that development to be made as a matter of policy and choice rather than law," he writes. Observers questioned how, when a measure that made provisions for opponents of female bishops failed to muster the required two-thirds majority, a more radical measure paying less attention to their position could be expected to get through synod. A Church of England spokesman would not comment on the memo.
"In weighing how best and how quickly to proceed, the [archbishops'] council needs to take very seriously both the degree of parliamentary anger and the desire of many in the church to circumvent the synod because of the perception that it is not properly representative of wider church opinion." One of the most senior female clerics in the Church of England said a balance needed to be struck between rushing and waiting years for the issue to come up again. "I think that, in order to regain our credibility in our society, we have got to act – not too hastily, we have got to take time to listen to each other," said Jane Hedges, canon steward of Westminster Abbey and archdeacon of Westminster. "But we cannot just say that it is alright to sit back and wait for all this to go through a process that will take another 15 years or whatever."
Observers on Monday questioned how, when a measure that made provisions for opponents of female bishops failed to muster the required two-thirds majority, a more radical measure paying less attention to their position could be expected to get through the synod. The answer, say some, lies in the fact that some of the lay members who voted against may have done so out of objections to the measure rather than to female bishops. A full list of how individuals voted is expected to be released by the church on Tuesday. The records of Tuesday's vote illustrated big differences in allegiances between dioceses. While some, such as Bradford, Hereford and Norwich, had a unified yes vote, with their bishop, clergy and laity all backing the measure, others, such as London, Guildford and Blackburn, had a strong novote among their lay people. In Chichester, one of the two dioceses to reject the measure earlier this year, six of the seven lay representatives voted against.
The details also gave succour to critics who say the house of laity has become profoundly unrepresentative. In Rochester two of the three lay members, and one of the clergy, who voted against the measure come from the same evangelical parish.