On 13 February, Synod considered The Gift of Authority. This document was drawn up by ARCIC, The Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission. The Gift of Authority recommends that the Church of England acknowledges the Pope’s claim to universal supremacy and submits to his alleged teaching authority.The final, amended, Synod motion reaffirms the desire of the Church of England to achieve full visible unity and speaks approvingly of ARCIC and of the ideal of unified authority.
But then Synod hesitates. It demands that, “the contested claim of universal, ordinary and immediate jurisdiction for the Bishop of Rome be resolved,” and tells ARCIC to deal with this issue properly!
Moreover synod goes on to tell ARCIC that The gift of Authority’s treatment of the teaching authority of the Bishop of Rome is not sufficiently clear. It requests that ARCIC clarify in what sense this is ‘a gift to be received by all the churches’.”
The Church of England, for all its faults, is yet not quite ready to surrender.
Taking its lead from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the General synod of the Church of England, meeting 9-13 February, avoided taking sides in the homosexual debate which is rapidly unpicking the seams of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Everyone has been told to wait for Archbishop Eames of Armagh who is chairing a Commission on the matter. His Commission will not take sides in the homosexual debate but merely indicate how it thinks the Anglican Communion can be held together.
Meanwhile the Communion is rapidly falling apart. Neither the Archbishop nor the Synod have a clue what to do but the Eames Commission, which will not now report until the beginning of next year, is providing them with a much needed excuse to justify their inactivity.
ISSUES IN HUMAN SEXUALITY
Later Synod ‘took note of’ the bishops’ report, Some Issues in human Sexuality, which sets out the various views on the subject as if they were of equal validity. Three pro-homosexual amendments were rejected, but, as the rev David Phillips of Church Society observes, this appears to be part of a strategy to keep discussion of this issue going until the church changes its stance. Synod agreed to study and reflect on the reports findings, as if they had not done so too long already.
Subsequently, Synod failed to make a clear stand for the exclusivity of marriage but approved it and expressed sympathy for those whose relationships are not based on marriage.’
‘Forced celibacy’
Sister Rosemary of the Community of the Holy Name spoke up for the homosexuals: “It is time we found out what God is doing with our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters,” adding that, “the current Anglican position, that of forced celibacy, is a cruelty equal to that of forced marriage”.
The Revd Paul Collier of Southwark diocese, openly stated that he was homosexual. He criticized the working group for not sufficiently consulting homosexuals. He wanted future publications to show that the Church had “talked with us, not about us,” adding that it had failed to take account of gays and lesbians as Christians.
The Rev David Banting of Chelmsford said that the assertiveness of homosexuals “led to widespread disturbance and schism in the Anglican Church around the world,” and accused them of ignoring biblical rules out of convenience.
A DUBIOUS COLLECT
One of the new Collects in Common Worship, which is the latest replacement for the Book of Common Prayer, runs as follows: “God our father, in love you sent your Son, that the world may have life. Lead us to seek him among the outcast and to find him in those in need for Jesus Christ’s Sake.”
The Rev David Phillips, General Secretary of Church Society and General Synod Representative for St Alban’s Diocese comments that there were concerns in the General Synod that this would suggest salvation by works. Also, that it represents the, “liberal nonsense that we do not take the message of Christ to others but must encounter him amongst others”. It was nevertheless approved.
Gender Neutral titles
This move would have required that several pieces of legislation should be revised to remove words such as chairman and replace it with chair. An amendment that was accepted by the proposes from Birmingham Diocese was passed to provide that no past legislation would need to be revised but rather in all future legislation of the synod gender neutral titles would be used.
The Daily Lectionary and calendar were debated. Some wanted to cut out some passages from the lectionary because people are embarrassed by them – the requirement that women be silent in churches was particularly mentioned.
The Ordinal (Ordination Service) was amended making a greater distinction between bishops and priests (presbyters) than Scripture allows.
The Church Commissioners proposed reducing the funding of Bishops and Cathedrals.
Clergy pay and conditions
In 1976 the Church of England consolidated and equalized the system of payments to clergy. The assets of many parishes had previously been used to pay the stipends of their own clergy. In lieu of this the Commissioners gave a guarantee that a payment would be made from the income of the funds transferred to all these parishes. Under this new Measure that guarantee will be broken. There was some resistance to this change on the grounds that it is breach of trust but it went through all the same.
The Clergy Conditions of Service report was discussed in response to the government requirement that the Church provide adequate employment protection to all clergy. The initial phase was to look at clergy without freehold.
The question was whether clergy would end up being employed and if so by whom. The report advocates extending employment rights to all clergy whilst still making them office holders which involves the concept of ‘common tenure’ (i.e. the appointment being normally until retirement age). This was generally well received and will now go forward for legislation.
