I have already reported on what happened in Wakefield when they voted on the Covenant at Diocesan Synod on the 12th March. I hadn't realised that Hereford had been due to vote on the Covenant at Diocesan Synod on the 5th March. In the same way that I could find nothing on the Wakefield website, I can also find nothing on the Hereford website, although they have written an item on "Women Bishops - Join the Debate". Where is the debate about the Covenant? It is strange really, because it is such an important piece of legislation.
In the event, Bishop Anthony Priddis presented the case for why the Covenant should be accepted, but no one was invited to explain the counter argument. Hence, the people of the Synod were concerned and adjourned the debate so that more opinions could be gathered and presented.
This seems very sensible indeed to me, and it may well be what happens in Lichfield tomorrow. My understanding is that the Lichfield synod only have one hour to listen to a presentation from Bishop Graham Kings on why the Covenant should be approved, have the debate and cast the vote. This leaves them very little time to have a decent debate, possibly only twenty minutes, and they will not have had the benefit of hearing both sides.
I am even more impressed with the claim on the Lichfield website that 'Lichfield Diocese could be first to adopt Anglican Communion Covenant' - how did they know that Hereford would adjourn it and Wakefield would reject it? On a more serious note, good for them for actually having something to do with the Covenant on their website - it needs to be communicated.
3 comments:
Thank goodness someone realised that any proper debate must have both sides argued properly. To my shame, being retired I tend to let much of the contentious stuff wash over me nowadays without taking as much notice as I should, but I truly hate the idea of being signed up to such an illiberal thing as the Covenant.
I'm presuming that none of these early voting dioceses sent the Covenant to their Deanery Synods for debate and comment. Southwark has done just that, and our vote is scheduled for March next year. Probably will be one of the last ones as the deadline is late March or early April (I forget which).
It's astounding that the Bishops don't seem to want to present a balanced debate on the subject. I expect that Southwark's debate, when it comes, will be a humdinger. Straw polls/fingers in the wind seem to indicate a "no" vote but we still don't know how our new Bishop will come down on the issue. I shall be fighting on Bishop's Council for a robust even-balanced presentation and debate.
As someone in Hereford Diocese, who wasn't at Dios.Synod, it does look like this will make it's way down to Deanery level and we will have our debate/vote in October at the earliest and probably March 2012!
Who knows what will happen by then!
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