GRAS, trust and the question of assurances

According to a front-page article in the Church of England Newspaper today, no promises made to opponents of women’s ordination in 1993 have been broken since then.

The claim comes in a paper (downloadable as a pdf) by Revd Rosalind Rutherford, which is published on the website of GRAS, the Group for Rescinding the Act of Synod.

Unfortunately, it illustrates precisely why there is so much mistrust around this issue at present. It also illustrates an astonishing lack of self-awareness.

Rosalind Rutherford’s paper seems to take the line that if the word ‘promise’ wasn’t actually used, and if the undertakings were not made in or through the General Synod of the Church of England, they don’t count. Thus, for example, she quotes Archbishop Carey’s statement to the Ecclesiastical Committee regarding the Act of Synod that, ‘it is our intention for this to be permanent and we are not thinking of rescinding it.’ This might appear to most people to be in the nature of an assurance, if not a promise. ‘However,’ she comments dismissively, ‘this remark was not made to Synod’ (5).

This whole approach rather overlooks the fact that legislation affecting the established Church is debated and approved by Parliament, and at the time it was quite clear that Parliament sought watertight provision for traditionalists.

Thus in a debate which took place on the eve of the meeting which actually passed the 1993 Episcopal Ministry Act of Synod, Lady Saulton of Abernathy stated in the House of Lords, “I myself asked the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury whether it was envisaged that the Act of Synod would operate in perpetuity or whether it would be in the nature of a temporary measure which would cease to operate at some future date. He replied that it was the intention that it should be permanent and that they were not thinking of rescinding it or anything like that. Then he added the caveat, ‘with the goodwill of the House of Bishops’. He went on to say that of course anything could happen in the future.”

As we now know, the Archbishop's ‘anything’ is precisely what happened. Moreover, it is clear from Rosalind Rutherford’s paper that this ‘anything’ will reduce, rather than increase, the present provision. At the end, she quotes an unnamed member of General Synod as stating ‘recently’ that in 1993 ‘we were too accommodating’. Clearly that is a mistake which is not about to be repeated.

What takes the proverbial biscuit, however, is the assertion in the paper that, ‘if the current proposals are agreed, the very provisions which the House of Bishops was trying to put into place in [the 1993 Act of Synod] will become part of legislation’ (3). Or again,

‘what was promised [by Archbishop Carey] for “as long as is needed” was episcopal oversight clearly exercised in full cooperation with the Diocesan who would retain jurisdiction, not a totally separate oversight defined by being uncorrupted by having ordained women. It could be argued that the current legislation is making good that commitment ...’ (Emphasis added)

The argument throughout Rutherford’s paper is that the problem since 1993 has been not that the Act of Synod was necessarily bad, but that the PEV’s operated in a way that exceeded what was intended. However, I may be missing something here, but is not this being said by someone on behalf of the Group for Rescinding the Act of Synod? And does not the word ‘rescind’ mean to revoke, cancel or repeal, as it says in my dictionary? And is there not some contradiction between ‘making good’ a ‘commitment’ and working for a number of years to ‘revoke, cancel or repeal’ the very administrative provision that expresses that commitment?

Forgive me, but given the express intention of GRAS not to make the same mistake of being ‘too accommodating’ this time round, it is hard not to question the self-awareness, indeed the integrity, behind such a statement.

John Richardson
15 September 2011

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GRASed up: the betrayal of a commitment

The proposal from the Group for Rescinding the Act of Synod to give ‘Conscientious Objector’ status to existing clergy who do not believe in women’s ordination, whilst excluding any new candidates for the ministry from the ranks of Christians who take the same view, raises for me an interesting question: was not the Anglican Church with an all-male priesthood which voted to allow woment to be ordained more tolerant than that which now has a mixed priesthood of men and women?

The question is not at all artificial. It is freely acknowledged, not least by some of those in GRAS, that the Church of England would not have voted to ordain women in 1992 if there had not been a legal provision for those who did not agree. This provision is partly provided within the 1993 Priests (Ordination of Women) Measure itself.

However, the General Synod, reflecting the mind of the Church, realized that even this was not enough. The inclusion of this provision was a clear admission that the question was not settled, despite the majority vote to allow women to be ordained. And so a further provision was made in the Act of Synod, without which it is quite possible that the Measure itself would not have received parliamentary approval.

In other words, the ordination of women was achieved in 1993 as the result of a deal. Calling it a political deal may be too pejorative. Rather, it was a recognition that, just as there were those persuaded that women could be ordained to the priesthood, there were those who were not. The outcome was, on the surface, an honourable arrangement —an agreement to differ, but to allow movement.

Now, the impression is given that this was, after all, only on the surface. Some of the supporters of women’s ordination have reneged, insisting that what is not the case —that the issue is settled —should be treated as if it were true. From henceforth, no argument will be brooked.

Frankly, this suggests either a dishonesty amongst those who argued for women’s ordination in the early 1990s, or a betrayal of a past commitment.

Either way, we should look and learn. Anyone who imagines that a Church which ordains and blesses those in active gay relationships will have room for those who don’t twenty years later is living in a fool’s paradise.

Revd John P Richardson
29 November 2007

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