THE
P RTAL
April 2018
Our Window
in the CofE
Page 24
Anglican
News
The Revd Paul Benfield
G eneral Synod
met for two and a half days in February at Church House Westminster. After the
usual preliminaries, we heard a presentation and then a debate on the report ‘Discerning in Obedience:
A Theological Review of the Crown Nominations Review.’
This report was commissioned by the Archbishops
in 2016 and was led by the Revd Professor Oliver
O’Donovan. It was a wide-ranging review of the way
the CNC operates in nominating diocesan bishops.
Among recommendations made were that diocesan
vacancy-in-see committees should start work before
a vacancy occurs and its members should have more
preparation, in particular to ensure good representation
of the diocese. There is always a tension between local
needs and national needs and the report suggests ways
of discerning whether candidates have acquired the
necessary theological culture to be not only a diocesan
bishop, but also a member of the House of Bishops. on the joint working party which was recommending
the proposals, whilst others had grave reservations. In
essence it is proposed that the Methodist Church should
take episcopacy into its system by the Presidents of the
Methodist Conference being episcopally ordained by
Anglican bishops.
Question time included many questions on
safeguarding and, in particular the Carlile Report
into the matter of the allegation against Bishop Bell,
but answers were in the main not very elucidating.
We returned to safeguarding on Saturday with a
presentation about recent developments, followed by
questions. This, the report argues, is a bearable anomaly. But that
anomaly would last for over 40 years. Furthermore, it
is not clear what meaningful oversight the presidents
and past presidents of the Methodist Conference
would have. They would seem to be bishops solely for
the purpose of ordaining presbyters.
We were told by the Archbishop of Canterbury that
the next few months would be difficult for the Church
of England as the Independent Inquiry into Child
Sexual Abuse started oral hearings. This has proved
to be correct as the Inquiry began a case study into
the Diocese of Chichester and has heard oral evidence
from those involved in the Diocese in the past and
present, including the former and present diocesan
bishops.
Perhaps the most controversial matter discussed
was the proposal that the Church of England and
the Methodist Church should recognise each other’s
orders. Schemes involving relations between the
Methodists and Anglicans often seem to place Catholic
Anglicans on opposite sides of the argument. Older
readers will remember the unity schemes of the 1960s
and 1970s which saw Eric Kemp and Graham Leonard
with different views and this time two well known
Catholic members of Synod – Bishop Jonathan Baker,
Bishop of Fulham and Fr Thomas Seville CR served
When presidents or past presidents ordain future
presbyters, those presbyters would be ordained in
the apostolic succession. However, it is proposed that
those current Methodist ministers (who have not been
ordained by bishops) should be deemed to have been
so ordained.
There was clearly concern in many quarters that the
motion welcoming the report might be lost (or only
just passed) and so the Bishop of Portsmouth moved an
amendment inviting ‘the Faith and Order Commission,
in consultation with the Methodist Church, to explore
and elucidate further the relationship between
episcopal ordination and eucharistic presidency, as this
touches on the full visible unity of our two Churches’.
This was accepted, allowing the main motion to be
passed (though with many Catholics and others voting
against it). It remains to be seen wh en the work requested
will be done and whether anything will come back to
the July Synod which meets in York on the second
weekend in July. Meanwhile the Methodist Conference
in Nottingham will be discussing the report on the first
weekend in July. It is possible that it does not receive an
enthusiastic reception there because many Methodists
are suspicious of bishops.
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Geoffrey Kirk is unwell.
We wish him a speedy recovery.