As the English House of Bishops met to discuss the Church of England’s future, a Synod insider revealed that plans are already in place to provide ‘flying bishops’ for those who cannot accept women bishops.The bishops gathered in London earlier this week with a series of momentous debates to be thrashed out, on topics including women bishops, complementary or ‘flying’ bishops, Anglican governance, and the broken state of the Communion following the divisions in The Episcopal Church.
The agenda for the discussions is supposedly kept private, but several of the debates have already spilled out into the public domain.
An anonymous bishop revealed last weekend that flying bishops would be provided for those who could not accept the authority of women bishops. Synod lay member, Paul Eddy, has now confirmed to Religious Intelligence that the reports were true, although he was not at liberty to reveal the identity of the Bishop.
He said the Church was preparing to offer oversight for traditionalists who could not accept the authority of women bishops: “It will happen, there’s no doubt about it. That’s why we need to stop playing politics with it, and actually unite and do something about it.
“There are conversations going on already, I know at least 12 parishes and two key dioceses where people have come together and have already sorted out the oversight.”
The House of Bishops was also charged by General Synod to consider the relations of different authorities providing Anglican Governance. Many in the Synod are infuriated by the bishops’ lack of respect for the decision in July to follow the Code of Practice option, rather than the complementary bishops, and feel this demonstrates the failure of the Church’s decision-making procedures.
Last week three bishops addressed the failings of General Synod, and the Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Rev Nicholas Reade, advised that the decision on women bishops should ultimately be made only by the House of Bishops.
The Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, a clergy member of Synod for London, said: “They are meant to be our leaders, so my hope is that they will put away their own interests and think about what is good for the Church, not what is good for them and their tradition.
“If the Church is mad enough to go down this route [of complementary bishops], what is stopping every other issue group within the church from saying ‘we’re black, only black people will understand us, we want our own bishops and diocese’? This is nonsense.”
Mr Eddy said Ms Hudson-Wilkin was scaremongering, and that an advantage of the complementary bishops measure was that it would also provide a useful structure for pro-gay groups as they advanced their cause.
Vivienne Goddard, a Blackburn lay member of General Synod, had collected nearly 9,000 signatures from lay women who were opposed to women bishops, said she was hoping for a rescue package: “As far as I’m concerned I’m hoping the House of Bishops will come up with some way of changing the decision that Synod made in July.
“If ever there is to be a reasonable solution which will hold the Church of England together, then the bishops have got to come up with some alternative, otherwise the only alternative is to beat it all at the end, which should happen anyway, as they’ve never had a two-thirds majority in the House of Laity.”
Mr Eddy thought it likely the bishops also discussed his Private Member’s Motion asking Synod to explicitly acknowledge its mission to convert Muslims to Christianity. He said: “Most members of synod have been concerned at the way that so far my Private Member’s Motion has been sidelined. I would be surprised if the bishops can’t grasp the nettle.”
The London meeting also saw bishops who had taken opposing positions in regard to the recent deposition of the Bishop of Pittsburgh, Robert Duncan, come face to face for the first time since. The number of pressures and divisions present in the House of Bishops has fuelled fears that they will not be able to unite and provide the necessary leadership.
Mr Eddy said: “The Anglican Church is Episcopally led and Synodically governed. I think Synod will be happy to govern once we’re Episcoapally led, but we’re not.”
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(Source: RI)