Guildford Group sets out proposals for women bishops in UK

A Church of England group is proposing a way forward aimed at both permitting women to become bishops - should General Synod vote in favour of this - and of preserving the maximum amount of unity within the Church.

The group, chaired by the Bishop of Guildford, the Rt Revd Christopher Hill, was set up by the House of Bishops to assess a range of possible options first put forward in 'Women Bishops in the Church of England?' a report produced by a group chaired by the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Revd Michael Nazir-Ali in November 2004.

Today's publication of the Guildford Group's report follows a vote in General Synod in July 2005 to set in train the process for removing the legal obstacles to the ordination of women bishops.

Having reviewed the options over the past 12 months, the Guildford Group is recommending a way forward known as Transferred Episcopal Arrangements.

Transferred Episcopal Arrangements (TEA) are intended to meet the essential needs of those who could not accept that women should be bishops, while avoiding the creation of any new jurisdiction, diocese or province within the Church, according to Women in the Episcopate: the Guildford Group Report, which will be debated by General Synod in February.

"When we started," says the Rt Rev Christopher Hill, who chaired the group that encompassed a wide range of viewpoints, "we did not know whether we would be able to produce an agreed assessment of the options. But the process of working and praying together has brought us closer to each other.

"It has also enabled us to identify a way forward which, we believe, has the potential both to permit the admission of women to the episcopate and preserve the maximum degree of communion across the Church of England."

In the introduction to the report, Bishop Christopher continues: "We do not minimise the difficulty of the choices now facing the Church. There is no course of action, including the status quo, that is free of pain and risk."

The other members of the Guildford Group are the Rt Rev Pete Broadbent, Bishop of Willesden, the Rt Rev Nicholas Reade, Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Rev Dr John Saxbee, Bishop of Lincoln, and the Ven Dr Joy Tetley, Archdeacon of Worcester.

Some proposed options were firmly opposed on both sides of the debate and the Group decided to examine the three main options in depth. It considered a 'single clause' measure with a code of practice; transferred episcopal arrangements; and a third province of the Church.

The report argues that a 'single clause' measure would not address the central issue of conscientious non-recognition of women bishops, and that a third province would go too far in the direction of creating separate structures which could be seen as representing significant schism. This, says the report, leaves the Church with a 'stark choice'

of not pursuing the ordination of women bishops for some considerable time or considering some form of transferred episcopal arrangements.

Under Transferred Episcopal Arrangements as illustrated in the report, parishes opposed to women priests and women bishops could opt, by resolution of a Special Parochial Church Meeting, for the Diocesan Bishop to request the Archbishop of the Province to arrange for episcopal ministry to be provided by a Provincial Regional Bishop (PRB).

The PRB would exercise jurisdiction over such a parish in certain matters, while the diocesan bishop continued to exercise jurisdiction in others. This is similar to the way in which area bishops exercise functions on behalf of their diocesan bishop. The PRB would be authorised to act in relation to pastoral care (including ministerial review), sacramental and disciplinary matters and to act on behalf of the diocesan bishop in respect of patronage, appointments and ordinands.

In other respects, the parish would be subject to the normal diocesan structures and procedures, including the faculty jurisdiction, and so remain for administrative purposes as part of the geographical diocese.

Jurisdiction, says the report, would be shared in a similar way to a priest sharing the cure of souls with the bishop. At the same time, TEA would incorporate the present provisions for parishes opposed to the ordination of women, allowing abolition of those provisions in their present form. This would remove, in all parishes except those in TEA, all legislative discrimination that potentially exists where a woman priest is not now in post.

The question for now, the report acknowledges, is whether the disadvantages of TEA are outweighed by the potential the Group believes it offers. They conclude that it could be made to work and that it merits serious consideration by the General Synod.

A majority of the House of Bishops has also agreed that the approach merits further exploration.

"In essence," says the report, "TEA recognise that communion in the Church always falls short of that fullness which will come only with the fullness of the Kingdom. It is complicated and untidy. But we believe this is how the Church really is. TEA is an honest acknowledgement of our frailty and division in this hugely significant area of our life. We believe TEA is the most inclusive and realistic way forward. It will allow a continuing inter-relationship between those for and against women bishops: at the same time, in its attempt to hold together as many as possible in the highest possible degree of communion, it does not compound the sin of schism."

The Report will be discussed at next month's sessions of the Church of England's General Synod. Women in the Episcopate: the Guildford Group Report, priced £6.00, is available from Church House Bookshop, 31 Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BN, tel. 020-7898 1300, e mail bookshop@c-of-e.org.uk , or on the web at: www.chbookshop.co.uk (mail order available). It can be read on the web at http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/gensynod/agendas/gs1605.rtf .