THE narrow defeat of the women-bishops draft Measure in General
Synod has prompted calls for the process of electing
members to be changed.
The campaign group for women bishops WATCH said that the voting
among the laity showed that "there was a considerable discrepancy
between the local and national voting patterns.
When the
legislation was debated at diocesan level, it achieved more than a
two-thirds majority among lay people in 37 of the 44
dioceses.
"In Guildford, for instance, 70 per cent of lay members voted in
favour at diocesan level, but three of the four General Synod
members voted against. Had the General Synod members representing
six dioceses chosen to reflect the views expressed by their
diocesan synods, the Measure would have passed."
Canon Rosie Harper, a member of the House of Clergy (Oxford),
said that people in her parish felt "completely betrayed" by the
fact that four of their lay Synod representatives had voted against
the Measure, when the vast majority in the diocese was in
favour.
She said that there would be "much lobbying for change in
the system" governing how the House of Laity was elected. She
suggested that the process of electing members of the House of
Laity should be reformed: instead of deanery-synod representatives'
electing them, everyone registered on a parish electoral roll
should be eligible to vote, she said.
Ruth McCurry, a spokeswoman for GRAS (the Group for Rescinding
the Act of Synod), speaking in a personal capacity, said that
deanery-synod representatives often did not have "personal
knowledge" of those who were standing for the House of Laity of the
Synod. Different groupings had succeeded in getting people elected
in the House of Laity.
"We need a system where the electorate know each other, and that
points to diocesan synods doing the electing [of General Synod lay
representatives] instead of deanery synods, because they know the
people in their diocese."
Nevertheless, the Revd Jon Marlow, Priest-in-Charge of St
Pancras's, Plymouth, who studied synodical governance at
theological college, wrote on his blog on Sunday: "As it stands, the electorate
of General Synod lay reps is directly representative of every
church in the country, and there is no other body than deanery
synods of which that is true."
Introducing "any sort of proportional representation" to the
process of electing members of the House of Laity would "only seek
to increase the influence of the larger churches", he argued.
Elsewhere on the blog, Mr Marlow wrote: "The important thing to
realise about General Synod members is that they are
representatives, not delegates. Members are elected from and by
their peers, and entrusted with making a decision on our behalf.
They are not sent with a mandate: they are elected to think for
themselves."
There have also been calls for lay supporters of women bishops
to stand at the next General Synod elections in 2015.
The Revd Stephen Kuhrt, who chairs the Evangelical group
Fulcrum, said: "The next elections for General Synod in three
years' time may well turn into a virtual referendum on the issue
[of women bishops], meaning that a very different House of Laity
will surely be elected. It is vital for lay people in the Church of
England to wake up to their responsibility to get people elected to
General Synod who will properly represent them."
Mr Kuhrt said that Charismatic Evangelical leaders, who were
mostly in favour of women's leadership, "recognise the greater
responsibility they need to have in speaking out on such issues.
The excuse of 'not wanting to do politics' is not good
enough."