Church of England Synod, February 9th, 2006

GS 1605 House of Bishops’ Women Bishops Group – Report to the General Synod

Agenda Item 16

Amendment by Robert Key (Salisbury 407)
(b) consider that an approach along the lines of a simple enabling measure with an enforceable code of practice merits further exploration as a basis for proceeding;

THE WAY FORWARD ON WOMEN BISHOPS

My only excuse for such a precocious start to my life on Synod is that I speak with no baggage and a fresh view.

I also get the feeling that people are trimming their ideas on how we should proceed because of what they think might happen over the road in the Palace of Westminster – and I think they may be wrong.

I am a Member of the Ecclesiastical Committee. I perceive that members of that committee know that the great upheaval was to allow women to be ordained. The next step, to the episcopate, should be easier.

I have served in the House of Commons for nearly 23 years and I am sure that most MPs on all sides will say to us, ‘What kept you?’ Most MPs regard the ban on women bishops as an issue of justice, discrimination and equality. In November last year 130 MPs responded to a poll. 100 were in favour of women bishops (77%) and only 5 were against.

We are so grateful to the House of Bishops for their Report and for the care they have taken with this matter. As the Archbishop of Canterbury said to us on Tuesday, we’ve had 400 years to think about it – but we haven’t been here before.

My amendment suggests that we need not be quite so timid as to settle for Transformed Episcopal Arrangements and sympathy. I suspect that ‘deep down’, most of our Bishops would prefer a single-clause Measure. We should not tie the Bishops’ hands a moment longer.

I found Tuesday’s debate pretty depressing. There is a place for inward-looking self-examination. But when does that become self-indulgence? It is self-indulgent to make a decision about the role of half the human race, in our Church where one quarter of our priests are women – and half our ordinands – in an Anglican Communion where two-thirds of the Provinces have women priests and one third allow women bishops - on the basis that we should not take a decision in principle until we have made all the detailed arrangements to look after those who have decided not to travel with us.

That is wrong. Of course we’ll look after those who remain opposed. That is a given. That is a default position. That is a matter of trust we must all accept.

Please do not let us lose our nerve lest we discomfort our brothers and sisters in the Church of Rome. In 2003 our Church of England ordained 493 men and women. In the same year, The Roman Catholic Church ordained 52 men in Great Britain, just 17 in Ireland, 103 in France and only 456 in Italy. Only in Poland were more Christians ordained than in England.

Bede told us that the English nation is the child of the Church. Successive generations have seen our Church informed, modified, ignored, enlarged and renewed.

Queen Elizabeth I’s Reformation settlement was pure genius. Our Church is tolerant of a wide diversity of faith and practice. It is alert and responsive to changes in public mood and opinion. There can never be any permanent settlement. We must not be held back by those who are tired of progress or tired of the people of England – who are abandoning us because we will not move forward in faith with them.

Most Christian theologians have taught that men are superior, women inferior. Call it sacramental assurance, headship, collegiality, maleness – call it what you will, dress it up in ecclesiology and it all comes to the same thing: “Woman – thou shalt not pass.”

What do the people out there, think of all this? Most young people are not impressed by ‘maleness’. Nor is anyone who has witnessed at first hand the ministry of women and the power, dignity and charisma of our woman spiritual leaders. Just come to Salisbury Cathedral and you’ll know what I mean.

The God I worship, in whom I live and move and have my being, is a 21st Century God. How can He bear to see our reluctance to move on? Why do we so often lack courage? Because it is much easier to say ‘no’.

Where, in all this – where in our debates – is the joyful celebration of the success of women priests? It should be cause for dancing in the aisles – be it, in my own city, at the joyful, extrovert, extravagant, handclapping, hugely successful St Paul’s Church – or in the very different and equally uplifting optimism and celebration of excellence in the Mother Church of our Diocese.

The danger is that we sideline ourselves from God’s people and God’s purpose and reach for the comfort-zone of old stories, old beliefs, yesterday’s Church. Too often we let Him down by saying ‘no’. Today it is time to say, ‘yes’.