The Vicar of Bray finds woman bishops debate 'irrelevant' Times Online

Under thundery skies, churchgoers in Bray, Berkshire, had more pressing things to worry about than the collapse of the Anglican Communion. Their medieval church is falling down.

Renowned as the parish of the vicar who swapped sides more often than he changed his cassock during the Reformation, the 700-year-old walls of St Michael's church crumbled a little more as its bells rang out over Bray yesterday morning.

But the debates in York, which have rocked the foundations of the Communion, seemed distant, with only a glancing mention during the service in a simple prayer: “Help those at the Synod to unite rather than divide.”

Jim Tucker, 61, in charge of the church's coffers, said that the subjects unravelling the fabric of the Communion are not relevant to regular Anglicans. “Church politics passes over the head of somewhere like this, and quite right too,” he said. “We understand the issues, and they're important, but they don't justify the kind of behaviour and language that's being touted around. We have a huge job to do here, we're raising a lot of money to keep a very famous church standing.” Vicky Henley, 41, a classroom assistant, agreed as she sipped her coffee after the service. “As a Christian in everyday life it's not something I'm concerned with. I don't know what the arguments are and I know nothing about it.”

John Seymore, 74, a retired managing director who has worshipped in Bray for 39 years, said that talk of schisms and flying bishops had no effect on his life. “It all goes on over our heads. It just does not worry me. There are more important things to concentrate on, like the normal business of the Sunday service, the amount raised for the church fund at the open gardens day, and the publishing of the banns of marriage.”

Alex Tan, a 31-year-old religious studies teacher, and her fiancé, Simon Ward, 31, a lawyer, flew in from Australia to hear their banns read in the church, where they will marry later this year. “The church in Australia is a lot more liberal and far less traditional in its approach,” Ms Tan said, adding that any church should be “inclusive, not exclusive”.

Kenneth Rivers, 81, said that too much unity was a dangerous thing for Christianity. “At 81 you stop worrying about things, but with all these attempts to get everyone together you are not going to be able to distinguish between anybody. There aren't going to be differences between Christians and anybody else.”

Worshippers at Bray were not all singing from the same hymn sheet. Matters dominating the Synod in York were of significance for some.

 

The Vicar of Bray finds woman bishops debate 'irrelevant' Times Online