Progress of Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure This paper is produced for Chelmsford Diocesan Synod to put the November 2012 vote in General Synod in its historic context, and to report what has happened since. The wider implications of the vote in the immediate aftermath and subsequently are still becoming apparent and are not, therefore, addressed in this paper

1975 General Synod declared there are no fundamental objections to ordaining women as priests A General Synod motion called for legislation to enable women to be both priests and 1978 bishops. This was passed by the Bishops and Laity but not by the Clergy 1987 Women were first ordained as deacons in the 1988 The first woman bishop in the Anglican Communion was consecrated in ECUSA 1994 Women were first ordained as priests in the Church of England General Synod passed a Private Member’s Motion from Archdeacon Judith Rose requesting July 2000 the Bishops to initiate theological study into women in episcopate. In response, the House of Bishops set up a working party with the in the chair General Synod took note of the Rochester Report, which set out the theological arguments February on either side but did not come to any conclusion. It voted to set in train a process for 2005 removing the legal obstacles to women bishops. In response, the House of Bishops set up a new working group with the Bishop of in the chair. Summer Elections for a new Quinquennium of General Synod 2005 General Synod debated the Guildford report which looked at three main options for the way forward, and agreed that an approach, along lines of Transferred Episcopal February Arrangements (TEA) plus a Code of Practice, merited further exploration. The House of 2006 Bishops set up the Guildford and Gloucester Working Group which reported in June 2006. This clarified aspects of TEA and suggested Special Episcopal Oversight (SEO) and possible further models. The House of Bishops was unable to endorse either approach General Synod passed two motions from the House of Bishops stating (i) that admitting women to episcopate was consonant with faith of the church; and (ii) setting up a legislative July 2006 drafting group to draw up a draft Measure and Canon. The House of Bishops set up a working group with the in the chair In the light of the Manchester Report, which set out three options for legislation, General Synod passed a motion from the House of Bishops affirming the wish of the majority for there to be women bishops; and that special arrangements be available within existing July 2008 structures for those not able to receive ministry of women as bishops or priests; these to be in a statutory national code of practice. The drafting group, with the Bishop of Manchester in the chair was to produce draft legislation on this basis After many revisions and debates over two years, the text of the draft legislation was settled July 2010 and referred to the dioceses Summer Elections for a new Quinquennium of General Synod 2010 The draft legislation was debated in Chelmsford Diocesan Synod. The motion was carried: Bishops Clergy Laity 2 for 44 for 44 for 4 June 2011 0 against 11 against 16 against 0 abstentions 5 abstentions1 1 abstention A following motion was lost (see below)

1 NB ‘abstentions’ throughout this paper refer to the number of people who recorded an abstention. There is no obligation to record an abstention if a person does not vote. Some who are at a debate abstain by simply neither voting nor recording an abstention, and some abstain by staying away

General Synod Business Committee reported that the draft Measure and draft Amending Canon were approved in forty-two dioceses and not approved in two dioceses. In total: Bishops Clergy Laity 75 for 1,503 for 1,664 for 13 against 461 against 489 against 4 abstentions 50 abstentions 72 abstentions Following motions asking the House of Bishops to reconsider the amendment brought by February the Archbishops in July 2010 were passed by six dioceses and lost in four. 2012 Following motions calling for Amendments to Confer Jurisdiction were passed in 5 dioceses and lost in 27 (including Chelmsford). One diocese called on Synod not to amend the Measure. Three dioceses passed motions about the Code of Practice After debating two of these following motions, the General Synod requested the House of Bishops, when considering possible amendments to the Measure, not to amend it substantially The House of Bishops met and agreed to insert two extra clauses into the Measure. One in Section 8 spelled out the distinction between authority that is delegated from a diocesan bishop and authority that is derived from their ordination as bishops; the other, in Section 5, May 2012 added to the list of things the Code of Practice must do, namely, guidance on the selection by the diocesan bishop of male bishops and priests the exercise of ministry by whom is consistent with the theological convictions as to the consecration or ordination of women on grounds of which PCCs have issued Letters of Request By the July synod, it was apparent that the additional clause in Section 5 was unacceptable to a significant number of those supporting the Measure, including women clergy in senior July 2012 positions and the synod voted by a large majority to adjourn the final approval debate to allow the House of Bishops time to reconsider their clause in Section 5 The House of Bishops met and agreed to substitute a new clause in Section 5 which required September the Code of Practice to include guidance on the selection by the diocesan bishop of male 2012 bishops and priests in such a way as respected the grounds under which PCCs have issued Letters of Request General Synod resumed the final approval debate that had been adjourned in July. Under its standing orders, on a final approval debate anyone who wishes to speak must be called. By the time that no one was standing to speak well over a hundred members had done so in a debate lasting over seven hours. At the end of the debate, the motion was put and the voting was as follows November Bishops Clergy Laity 2012 44 for 148 for 132 for 3 against 45 against 74 against 2 abstentions 0 abstentions 0 abstentions Since the Measure required a two-thirds majority in each of the three houses, and did not achieve that majority in the house of Laity, it fell In the aftermath of the November synod, the Archbishops’ Council met and decided that a process to admit women to the episcopate needed to be restarted at the next meeting of November the General Synod in July 2013. There was agreement that the Church of England had to 2012 resolve this matter through its own processes as a matter of urgency. The Council therefore recommended that the House of Bishops put in place a clear process for discussions in the New Year with a view to bringing legislative proposals before the Synod in July. The House of Bishops met and decided to set up a working group drawn from all three December houses of Synod, to draw up fresh proposals to put before the synod in July 2013 which 2012 would enable women to be consecrated as bishops. The working group produced a consultation paper inviting responses from Synod members February by 28 February 2013 http://churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2013/02/consultation- 2013 document-issued-by-working-group-on-women-bishops-legislation.aspx Chelmsford Diocesan Synod is asked to take note of this report at its meeting on 2 March 2013