Later this week the Church of England General Synod will begin debate women bishops. Teacher, and General Synod member, Justin Brett gives an extensive lesson on how the debate is structured, and where the major turning points are. It’s too good to excerpt. If you want to understand the debate as it unfolds, read Brett’s lesson now.
(From the official Outline Agenda it appears that Saturday is the major day of debate on Women in the Episcopate.)
Christina Rees has written A Response to the Archbishops’ Amendments. She concludes:
To submit these amendments, which have not been discussed before by the Revision Committee, is to take them out of the careful process and puts the Synod in the position of voting on something that has not been subject to the same degree of scrutiny that all the other submissions have been subject to. As several people have observed, this is reminiscent of the process surrounding the passing of the Act of Synod in November 1993, when General Synod was presented with proposals it had not had time to debate before in Synod or in the dioceses. The Act of Synod was presented as a solution by the bishops and General Synod was put under immense pressure to pass it. If nothing else, we should have learned from that experience, that if something does not make theological sense, don’t do it.
H/T Thinking Anglicans.