Does the vote in General Synod yesterday suggest that evangelicals haven't been as involved in the structures of the church as they should have been?
If I have understood the minutes correctly (I was getting on with ministry not at the meeting!) it would seem, for example, that our own deanery synod has vacancies for reps to the dioceasan synod. If evangelicals put themselves forward and no one else did, surely we'd have more influence?
I can see the case for getting on with gospel ministry in my little patch and not wasting time on all this political stuff, but if we do that, apart from failing in our wider responsibilities to others, sometimes something comes along we don't like - like a woman bishop of our diocese.
Or perhaps evangelicals are already as fully represented in General Synod as our numbers allow? I'm surprised the liberals seem to be able to out-vote the evangelicals and the anglo-catholics so dramatically?
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
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5 comments:
Is it time for some serious study of the way Marxists captured people and institutions? We probably have some things to learn from them
Certainly we have been a bit too ostrich-like, but there's more.
1. It's not just about Synod. So long as the PM appoints Bishops, any numerical strength of evangelicals will be insufficient. The House of Bps is stacked full of men amenable to the spirit of the age (because political appointees). If there's anything they really want to stop, they call for a vote of synod in houses, and the failure in any one house (Bps) overrides the wishes of clergy and laity.
2) There really is a time issue in the sort of involvement required. It's not just sitting on Diocesan Synod and General Synod, and maybe being Rural Dean. If you really want to make changes, we need lots of people appointed to Synod Appointments Cttee(praise Go for Sarah Finch at St Helen's), Business Cttee, Crown Appointments Commission etc. To get onto those and stay on them is a huge time commitment and distraction from parochial ministry. There are so many papers to read, meetings to attend (all in London), and working parties to sit on. In my 2 years as AOCM Chair (fairly low-level, but membership of sub-cttee of Archbishops' Council, and Hind Report Working Party), I reckon it cost me (averaged out) 1 day a week. It's a high cost, even for those who see the importance of it.
Yes.
Mt, Garry North has some thoughts on the value of always turning up to the meetings, helping to put out the chairs etc. and accepting responsibilities. Power tends to go with responsibility.
Neil, yes, though didn't the powers that be recently produce a report that said that conservative evangelicals were relatively under-respresented in senior positions and that more should be appointed? Maybe they'll tend to be "don't rock the boat" types, but that might be okay.
How many evangelicals apply for jobs like Archdeacon?
Maybe it would be reasonable to think that many of our clergy should give a day a week to things that aren't their direct parochial responsibility such as study, a chaplaincy, societies such as Reform, conferences, camps, synod etc. depending on gifting and responsibility. This could hardly be seen as short-changing the parish since most clergy work 6 days a week and well over 40 hrs a week and one would hope there would be certain cross fertilization benifits.
There was such a report. However, on the flip side, there is still opposition to appointing diocesan bishops who oppose the ordination of women (let alone consecration).
A conservative evangelical recently applied for Archdeacon of Norwich, but the Bishop said he wanted a young woman to join the senior staff, so appointed his chaplain.
As well as the time, there is the sort of jobs one is expected to do. So even where diocesan bishops do have significant incumbency experience, they have usually also been bp's chaplains, diocesan comms officers, DDOs etc., not that I'd be unhappy to be a DDO under a decent bishop.
Or indeed a bishop's chaplain or diocesian communications officer?!
Or under a bishop who left you alone?
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