WATCH’s proposal to abolish the ‘House of Bishops Declaration on the Ministry of Bishops and Priests.’

The Church of England is a church in which women can be ordained as deacons, priests and bishops. It is also a church in which provision is made to protect the convictions of those in the Catholic and Evangelical traditions who cannot accept that it is theologically legitimate for women to be priests and bishops and who are therefore unable in good conscience to accept their priestly or episcopal ministry.

This position is set out in the ‘House of Bishops Declaration on the Ministry of Bishops and Priests’ which accompanied the legislation passed by the Church of England to allow women to become bishops.[1]

The campaign group Women and the Church (WATCH) is now calling for the Church of England ‘to find a generous way to bring the Declaration and its arrangements to an end.’ [2]The question that arises from this call is what would replace it. WATCH have not yet spelled this out in any detail, but their direction of travel is indicated by their explanation of what they see as the problem on their ‘Not Yet Equal’ website. This states:

‘The Church of England, with its 26 seats in the House of Lords, has exemptions under the Equality Act 2010, giving it the legal power to discriminate against women.

Did you know that the Church uses this power to allow churches to:

·      say ‘no’ to female priests applying to be their vicars?

·      say ‘no’ to female priests blessing the bread and wine in services?

·      have a special male bishop if their bishop is female or is a man who has ordained women as priests?

There is no requirement for churches to be transparent about these things, so often people attend churches, and support them financially for many years, without knowing that they are churches that discriminate against women.

Many large inner-city churches, such as All Souls Langham Place and St Helen’s Bishopsgate in London, St Andrews the Great in Cambridge, and St Ebbe’s in Oxford, do not allow a woman to be their vicar.

One in 12 bishops in the Church of England do not fully accept women as priests or church leaders.

The appointments system for diocesan bishops is skewed so that only two out of the last 11 appointments have been women.

And the situation is getting worse.

Every year more and more clergy are appointed who don’t recognise female priests or actively restrict women’s leadership.’ [3]

If that is the problem, then presumably the ‘generous’ solution would have to involve prohibiting the ordination to the episcopate of anyone who cannot accept the ordination of women as priests or bishops, abolishing the current system of Provincial Episcopal Visitors (the ‘special male bishops’) serving Catholic and Evangelical parishes unable to accept the ordination of women as priests or bishops, prohibiting parishes from not allowing women to be incumbents or serve as priests, and prohibiting the appointment and ordination of clergy who cannot accept the ordination of women as priests or bishops.

This in turn would mean the end of the Church of England’s commitment to the ‘mutual flourishing’ of both those supportive of the ordination of women as priests and bishops and those who oppose to it. It would mean that those unable to accept the ministry of female bishops and priests would have to change their theological position, or act in a way that they believe to be contrary to God’s will, or leave the Church of England.

In New Testament terms there are two fundamental problems with this approach.

The first is that it goes against the principle set out by Paul in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8 that a Christian who believes that certain things are permitted under the new covenant should respect the conscientious scruples of other Christians who believe that these things are not permitted, and not put them in a position where they are led to act in a way that they believe to be contrary to the Christian faith: ‘for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin’ (Romans 14:23).

The second is that it involves some members of the body of Christ saying to other members of the body of Christ ‘I have no need  of you’ (1 Corinthians 12:20). In this specific case it means those who support the ordination of women as priests and bishops saying to those who do not: ‘We have no need of you in the Church of England.’ This is a breach of that love for others without which, as Paul insists in 1 Corinthians 13, anything else that Christians do is of no value.

A further problem is that what WATCH is calling for sets a very problematic precedent with regard to the eventual outcome of the LLF process in the Church of England. If there are now those who are proposing the abolition of the arrangements solemnly entered into to enable the flourishing of those who hold to a traditionalist position on the ordination of women, then what is to say there will not equally be those a decade or so down the line who propose the abolition of whatever safeguards are put in place to enable the flourishing of those who take a traditionalist position on marriage and human sexuality?  What guarantee do traditionalists with regard to marriage and human sexuality have that the Church of England will not sooner or later say to them ‘We have no need of you?’ just as WATCH is proposing that the Church of England should say ‘We have no need of you’ to those who cannot accept the ordination of women as priest and bishops.

This is where the CEEC’s proposal for provincial settlement as the outcome of the LLF process comes into the picture. Such a settlement would enable both positions in the current discussions over marriage and human sexuality to get what they want and in a settlement that would give them a guaranteed place in the Church of England that those who take the opposite position would be unable to abolish.

So what does this all mean? It means that the Church of England should reject the WATCH proposal and that it should begin a serious discussion of how a provincial settlement to the current divisions over marriage and human sexuality would work.

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[1]  House of Bishops Declaration on the Ministry of Bishops and Priests at:https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/hob-declaration-on-ministry-of-bishopsand-priests.pdf.

[2]  Women and the Church, WATCH says, ‘It is time for the Church of England to find a generous way to bring the arrangements set out in the 2014 settlement to an end’ at: https://womenandthechurch.org/news/watch-says-it-is-time-for-the-church-of-england-to-find-a-generous-way-to-bring-the-arrangements-set-out-in-the-2014-settlement-to-an-end-2/.

[3] Women and the Church, ‘Not Yet Equal Campaign’ at https://womenandthechurch.org/campaign/.

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