Maggi Dawn » bishops

women priests equated with child abusers…

maggi dawn — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:15:59 +0000

synod blogged

maggi dawn — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:18:33 +0000

The papers have been reporting constantly on the discussion of women bishops at synod. As ever, the headlines tend to sensationalise the issues, and – even skew the impression gained from even the most balanced reportage. I do not believe that the Archbishops have lost their authority, for instance – it’s one of the glories of Angliscanism that, unlike older and younger versions of Christianity you are allowed – even expected – to disagree with authority figures and say so out loud. the point of Synod is not to prove you are climbing the greasy pole, but to try to discern the mind of the Church and the leading of the Spirit.

I daresay the Archbishops are disappointed that their idea didn’t fly, as will be those who voted with them. But the ABC himself told Synod “this is not a test of loyalty” – in other words, let the idea be tested, don’t just vote for it because we are the Archbishops. Disagreeing with authority needs doing graciously and with humility. But true authority will hear disagreement, not react like a toddler. I think the ABC and the ABY showed true leadership by allowing their idea to be tested, rather than manipulating the system.

There has been much commentary in the week folllowing, among which one of the most useful is Ed Beavan’s summary in the Church Times (scroll down for a useful panel on what happens next in the process)

I’ve collected some blogs that have reported or commented on synod at the weekend. If you have links I’ve missed, please add in the comments.

My posts, here, and here

the voice of sanity on Jeremy Fletcher’s new blog

Nick Baines wondered out loud whether any useful parallels could be made with narcissitic personality disorder. and follows up today with more nuance on the use of the language of power and victimhood

Bishop Alan Wilson says it’s time for faith

Andrew Brown reports a triumph

good in parts prays and hopes

Revd Lesley Fellows celebrates the Eucharist

church mouse gathers up the news

peter ould hopes that the measure might yet be stopped.

thinking anglicans (several posts and updates from the floor of synod)
church times blog

and more (thanks, commenters):

sue blogging from york has some great perspective on the issues

dodgy liberal

gen-syn blog

and a word from nancy on the eve of synod
ruthie gledhill recorded Bishop Tom’s valedictory:

Bishops: are they human? I hope so

maggi dawn — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:16:59 +0000

Who is acceptable to be a Bishop? not only is it on the cards that we might have women bishops sometime soon, but the Church is now considering allowing divorcees or husbands of divorcees to be appointed. About time too, in my opinion. Although I’m not sure quite how new this is – if my memory serves me correctly Mark Santer (former Bishop of Birmingham) married a divorcee. I’m all for making sure that Bishops are people who are worthy of respect – people whose lives are a non-stop disaster zone wouldn’t be a good choice. But I’d SO much rather have someone who has survived a few battles than someone for whom life has always just gone swimmingly. The best of our leaders in the Church have a few scars. And the tightly kept rules sometimes lead to people living a lie – there are a few people in senior positions in the church whose marriages have proved impossible, who quietly live separate lives. How is that better than being divorced?

women, bishops and synod

maggi dawn — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:07:44 +0000

Next month sees the proposals drawn up by the revision go back to Synod for its revision stage. The simplest way forward would be a single clause measure, which would enable us to have women in the Episcopate without any discrimination at all. But the revision committee has listened closely and carefully to all points of view, and compromises have been made in their proposals to attempt to hold differing views together.

It seems there is a broad consensus that the proposals are good, although there are also a few vocal and determined detractors. The debate is no doubt going to be intense at Synod this time round. But it must, surely, be time to move forward.

bishops in hotel with naked woman

maggi dawn — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:14:58 +0000

So the Bishops are meeting to discuss, once again, the ramifications of letting women into their House.

Turns out that a hen party is staying in the same hotel as the Bishops, and around midnight a naked and very inebriated woman locks herself out of her room and sets off the fire alarm. One very flustered Bishop has to retire to his room for a minute to think what to do, and then runs back out to give her his dressing gown.

The comment afterwards? “It would have been a good thing if we’d had a woman bishop there to spare our blushes.” A comment in good humour, of course, and it makes a good headline (see here and here).

I guess that must have cheered up some lengthy and laborious committee meetings for the Bishops. (Although I trust they are not really rehearsing the old chestnut that we need women in the church to minister to other women…)

Women bishops (and related issues)

maggi dawn — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:17:09 +0000

A series of papers has been put online at WATCH, concerning the ongoing debate about women becoming bishops in the church of england.

Here’s a clip from the latest one, by Rev’d Canon Jackson:

“Can we stand back a moment and remember: What is the fundamental question? The Church is trying to resolve one of the most fundamental questions of all – What is the nature of a human being? and, more specifically:

(a)Which human-beings can be regarded as normative, or representative, of humanity as a whole and thereby are capable of receiving the grace of ordination, for sacramental ministry?
(b)Which human beings, in God’s determined order of creation, may be assigned authority to lead human society and human institutions and thereby are capable of fulfilling a role of headship?
(c) In relation to both of these, can women do so, or not? i.e. has God assigned these roles in the created order differentially among human beings according to their gender, or not?These are fundamental ‘first order’ issues, because neither women nor men can control what gender is assigned to them at birth, nor can they in any sense be held responsible for it. As Maude Royden summed it up, “I was born a woman and I can’t get over it”.

Read the rest here

Blogging Bishops

maggi dawn — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 07:58:35 +0000

two or three years back there were so few bishops who blogged that the ones that did had some kind of mini-celebrity status. As if those "old, grey men" were amazingly cool, or unusually young, for a Bishop.

Well, as an inveterate blogger myself, and older than quite a lot of Bishops, I'm happy to say that blogging has caught on among the episcopate. And a jolly good thing too – we find out what they think about everyday issues, what movies they see, what music they listen to, what is their idea of a good night out, and even what supermarket they prefer.

Hear hear for blogging bishops. Here's a few.

Alan Wilson

David Chillingworth

David Thomson (Huntingdon)

David Rossdale ( Grimsby)

Tim Ellis

Nick Baines