Churchmouse shares a letter from Bishop Broadbent, a member of the committee charged with bringing legislation on Women in the Episcopate to the General Synod. The committee has had a lot of criticism for not producing anything for the February Synod:
There’s a lot of completely ill-informed comment about all this. What people refuse to hear is that the Revision Committee was not given a remit with which it had to comply; that’s not how it works. At Revision Stage, every single option (we received 300 submissions) has to be considered, including those options that Synod did not vote for. People may not like this way of working, but that’s how it operates. The Committee has therefore worked through all the options systematically, considering each in turn, and gradually ruling out each option that didn’t command a majority.
The other factor is that each person who has submitted a proposal for revision is entitled to attend the committee in person and argue their case. Listening to each representation takes time, and we then have to inquisite the proposals being made. A majority of those representations came from those in favour of the ordination of women as bishops.
We’re drafting law here, so we have to get it right. Those who are familiar with Parliamentary process will know that Government often imposes a guillotine on consideration of a Bill. Arguably this makes for bad law, as later clauses in legislation don’t get properly argued over and revised. The guillotine option isn’t open to Synod; and impatience with proper scrutiny simply won’t serve us well in the long run.
So, please, have some understanding of those hard-pressed officers of Synod who work for the Church and have been writing, drafting and re-drafting to try to get something coherent to get to Synod. And respect a democratic process that seeks to give a voice to everyone who’s entitled to be heard. There’s a lot of intolerance about listening to opponents of the legislation, and it doesn’t do those of us who support women bishops any favours to seek to bulldoze those opposed.