WOMEN IN THE EPISCOPATE

The November 2014 group of sessions saw the culmination of the legislative process leading to the opening of the episcopate to women.

The report on the Synod's proceedings published in the January 2015 edition of this Journal reported how, following the failure of the previous legislative process in November 2012, fresh legislation had been introduced into the Synod in November 2013 and taken forward so expeditiously as to enable final approval to be given to it in July 2014.

The new legislation was deliberately simpler than that which had failed to secure final approval previously. The Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure authorised the making of a canon allowing women to be consecrated as bishops, repealed the Priests (Ordination of Women) Measure 1993 in its entirety and made a clarificatory amendment to the Equality Act 2010. Amending Canon No 33, which was made on the authority of the Measure, revoked the gender-specific provisions for the ordination of women as deacons and priests previously contained in Canons C 4A and C 4B and amended Canons C 2 and C 4 so as to make new provision, in gender-non-specific terms, for both the consecration of bishops and the ordination of deacons and priests – so allowing women to be consecrated to the episcopate as well as being ordained priest or deacon.

The legislation did not itself set out any arrangements for those unable to accept women's ordained ministry. Those arrangements are instead contained in the House of Bishops’ Declaration on the Ministry of Bishops and Priests.Footnote ¹ The arrangements it contains do not have the force of law; however, they include expectations that, where a parish signals that it wishes to take advantage of the arrangements, its needs will be reflected both in relation to episcopal ministry (through the provision of suitable pastoral and sacramental care) and in relation to priestly ministry (including in the decisions of diocesan bishops and patrons in relation to appointments). The Declaration includes five ‘guiding principles’ which set out the context in which the arrangements made under the Declaration will operate. In support of the arrangements contained in the Declaration, the Amending Canon also introduced a new Canon C 29, which required the House of Bishops to make regulations prescribing a procedure for the resolution of disputes arising from those arrangements.

Following the July 2014 group of sessions, the parliamentary stages for the Measure were completed very quickly. Having been found expedient by the Ecclesiastical Committee in July, the Measure received parliamentary approval (following debates on the floor of both Houses) and then, in October, the Royal Assent.

It was accordingly possible for the remaining steps in the legislative process to be completed at the November 2014 group of sessions, when the Synod enacted the Amending Canon and the House of Bishops made the Declaration on the Ministry of Bishops and Priests (Resolution of Disputes Procedure) Regulations under Canon C 29. As a result, the new arrangements all came into effect from 17 November 2014.

The Regulations make provision for the appointment of an Independent Reviewer to determine grievances brought by parochial church councils (PCCs) in respect of actions and omissions under the Declaration. The Independent Reviewer can also inquire into concerns raised about any aspect of the operation of the Declaration. The archbishops have appointed Sir Philip Mawer to the role of Independent Reviewer; by August 2015 he had already produced two reports in relation to concerns raised with him.

OTHER LEGISLATION

The three groups of sessions saw the Synod completing a varied range of other legislative business before its dissolution in July in advance of the quinquennial elections. A number of the items of legislative business were the result of dioceses and Synod members taking the initiative by calling for changes to the Church's legal framework, generally in order to relax requirements now thought to be overly restrictive.

The Ecclesiastical Property Measure, given final approval in November, arose from a private member's motion calling for legislation to amend the Parochial Church Councils (Powers) Measure 1956 so as to permit certain PCCs to acquire and hold property without having to vest it in the diocesan authority. The Measure amends the arrangements for the holding of property by PCCs (though not in the way originally proposed), giving them and parish trustees greater freedom by removing the need for the diocesan authority's consent for the bringing of legal proceedings and for disposals at a consideration falling below an amount specified in or determined by an order made by the Archbishops’ Council and approved by the Synod. In July the Synod approved such an order, setting the threshold above which approval is needed at the lesser of £250,000 or the PCC's income in the previous year.

Amending Canon No 35, enacted in July, was the result of a Synod resolution passed on a motion from the Southwell and Nottingham Diocesan Synod calling for the amendment of Canon B 12 and the regulations made under it so as to allow decisions on who may be authorised to distribute Holy Communion to be taken at parish level and to allow those authorised to include children admitted to Holy Communion under the Admission of Baptised Children to Holy Communion Regulations 2006. The Amending Canon simply taking the form of a paving provision, regulations having the effect sought by the diocese were introduced and approved at the July group of sessions.

A further piece of legislation directed at simplification was the Care of Churches and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction (Amendment) Measure, which received final approval at the November group of sessions. The Measure was intended to take a stage further the reform of the faculty jurisdiction begun in July 2013, not least by giving the Ecclesiastical Rule Committee a new power to establish a nationally applicable list of minor and routine works which can be undertaken without a faculty, subject to meeting certain conditions. The Measure having received Parliamentary approval and the Royal Assent, advantage was taken of the new powers to make the Faculty Jurisdiction Rules 2015, which were approved by the Synod in July.

Finally in this area, the Synod also gave approval in July to the Diocesan Stipends Funds (Amendment) Measure. It will enable diocesan boards of finance (DBFs) to exercise in relation to the capital account of their diocesan stipends funds the same power that charity trustees generally have under the Trusts (Capital and Income) Act 2013 to invest on a ‘total return’ basis, if they think that such a resolution is in the interests of the charity. The effect of the Measure will accordingly be to enable DBFs to allocate returns on their investment, whether those returns are capital gains or income, either to the income account or to the capital account – subject to the need to comply, in the normal way, with the obligation of charity trustees to balance the interests of present and future beneficiaries of the fund.

In a quite different area, the Synod also gave final approval in July to the Safeguarding and Clergy Discipline Measure and Amending Canon No 34. Both give effect to proposals of the Archbishops’ Council developed in the light of the recommendations of the commissaries appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to carry out the visitation in relation to safeguarding in the Diocese of Chichester. The package of changes made by the Measure and the Amending Canon is a complex one. Some are intended to make the disciplinary processes under the 2003 Measure more effective – for example, by allowing complaints to be made more easily in relation to cases of historic abuse by removing the normal time limit for bringing a complaint where it concerns sexual misconduct against children or vulnerable adults. Other changes are designed to reduce the potential for abuse, for example by enabling a bishop to require a cleric to undergo a risk assessment and by modernising and extending the provisions for disqualifying churchwardens and other officers who are on barred lists or convicted of relevant offences, and allowing them to be suspended if they are arrested for such offences.

As regards secondary legislation, in addition to the items referred to above, in July the Synod also approved amendments to the Ecclesiastical Offices (Terms of Service) Regulations with a view to adding to the classes of fixed- and other limited-term appointments for which provision is made in the Regulations an additional category of ‘interim post’ capable of lasting for no more than three years, with the possibility of an extension for a further term. In deciding whether to designate a post as an ‘interim post’, the bishop is required to have regard to any guidance issued by the Archbishops’ Council – that requirement being inserted with a view to ensuring that this new category of post is not used in such a way as to subvert what is essentially intended to be the exceptional nature of fixed- or limited-term appointments under common tenure.

This particular legislative change represents the first fruits of the ‘Simplification’ Task Group’ established by the Archbishops’ Council. Substantially more legislation arising from the work of that group can be expected to be introduced in the opening groups of sessions of the next quinquennium, a report from the Task Group having already proposed changes in a number of areas.