The Guardian, Lizzy Davies, Friday 6 July 2012
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| Vote on women bishops – Rachel Treweek, archdeacon of Hackney, says: 'I think it is very unlikely that I would press the "yes" button because of that place of integrity' |
The
Venerable Rachel Treweek, archdeacon of Hackney, will leave east London for
York tomorrow with mixed feelings and a heavy heart. This weekend's gathering
of the General Synod was supposed to be historic: the moment at which the
Church of England would finally, after decades of struggle and division, pass
legislation that permitted women to become bishops.
Instead of
rejoicing, however, Treweek and many other supporters of the cause now find
themselves in a very peculiar position. The legislation they fought so hard for
is due to be presented for final approval and, if it is passed, the church
could see women consecrated to the episcopate by 2014.
But Treweek
is hoping for an adjournment and is dreading the possibility that the final
vote will be held. Because, if it comes down to it, she will vote against.
"I
cannot tell you – even sitting here now, I can feel it – how painful that
feels," she says, in the low-lit quiet of St Anne's church in Hoxton.
"I feel I have to hold the line of my integrity. It would be very easy to
say: 'Oh, let's all just vote in favour and get this through.'… But I think
it's very unlikely that I would press the yes button because of that place of
integrity."
Until May,
the draft legislation on female bishops met with the approval of people such as
Treweek. A two-clause measure that sought to open the episcopate to women at
the same time as providing for those who remain adamantly opposed to the idea,
it had been approved by 42 of 44 dioceses (although not, to her chagrin,
Treweek's own: the diocese of London voted against).
Although a
compromise, it was viewed by many to be the least bad one in a church where
fudges are a standard vehicle for change.
Then it all
started to unravel. In May, the House of Bishops made two amendments to the
legislation, one of which supporters say would enshrine discrimination against
women in law. It is this clause – the now infamous 5(1)c – which prompted a
group of senior female clergy to write to members of the General Synod
expressing their "deep dismay" and hope that an adjournment would be
reached that would allow for the offending passage to be looked at again.
"I've
spent quite a long time trying to make myself feel it was voteable for so that
we could just get on with things," said the Rev Dr Miranda
Threlfall-Holmes, chaplain at University College, Durham, of 5(1)c. "For
the last few weeks, I've been really very upset – prone to bursting into tears.
"But I
feel a bit calmer now. I've realised I just can't do that; I haven't got that
dilemma any more. It's just completely unacceptable to institutionalise
discrimination against women in that way."
The
objections to clause 5(1)c are complex. Supporters of female bishops had
accepted long ago that provisions should be made for those evangelicals and
Anglo-Catholics who, for different reasons, view a female bishop as a
theological impossibility. The draft legislation allowed for parishes to
request alternative bishops.
But,
according to a formidable coalition of senior female clergy, the legislation as
it now stands is a compromise too far which in effect legitimises
discriminatory beliefs.
Clause
5(1)c stipulates that a new code of practice being drawn up should include
official guidance on how to ensure that "the exercise of ministry by those
[alternative] bishops and priests will be consistent with the theological
convictions" of the parish which has objected to a woman.
Its
defenders say that this wording is merely making explicit what was already
implicit in the draft legislation. But others says it is enshrining in law the
very prejudices against which supporters of female bishops have battled so
long. It would, they say, create a two-tier system in which not only women, but
men who ordained women or who had themselves been ordained by women, would be
considered second rate.
Not
everyone, even fellow supporters of the cause, agrees with them; they have been
accused of nit-picking at a crucial stage, and exposing the Church of England
to yet more censure for its slow-moving decision-making.
But those
opposing the amended clause are undeterred. "I've had a certain amount of
emotional blackmail from some people ringing me up and saying: 'You've got to
vote for it because otherwise what will the general public think?'" says
Threlfall-Holmes.
"But
the sense I've had from the [Durham] students and also from people in the pews
… is very much that the last thing they will understand is if we vote for
discriminatory legislation."
Treweek,
who admits she was "quite naive" about the future of women in the
church when she was ordained in 1994, two years after legislation allowing
female priests was passed, says it is partly because of that that she feels so
strongly about women bishops now.
"It
has taken this long and I didn't think it would take this long and I don't want
us to ever have to revisit this," she says. "I want to get it right
now. I don't want to get something in legislation which means in 10 years' time
we're having to come back to this.
"This
is the moment for getting it right. And if that means it has to take longer,
then that's where I'm sitting at the moment."
If, as is
looking increasingly likely, there is an adjournment in the debate on Monday,
the legislation would go back to the House of Bishops in September and would
return to Synod at a later date. Hilary Cotton, strategy co-ordinator of
campaign group Women and the Church (Watch), says she would like to see the
bishops ask senior female clergy for their opinion on the wording of future
amendments.
If there is
not an adjournment and the vote goes ahead, Cotton says she will take no
pleasure in either result.
"It's
a joyless position at this stage and that's a tragedy," she says, sitting
with Sally Barnes, also of Watch, in the cafe at St Martin in the Fields in
central London. Barnes shows off pictures of Watch's tea towel, emblazoned with
the words: "A woman's place is in the House … of Bishops."
She has,
like many people, been campaigning on the issue of women in the Church of
England for decades – in her case, since 1979. "And we were nearly
there," says Cotton.
New female
dean appointed
A woman has
been confirmed as the new dean at the city's minster. The Very Rev Vivienne
Faull, 57, was previously the first woman appointed to a cathedral deanery when
she became dean at Leicester in 2000. She is expected to take up her post at
York Minster in September.
Faull said
she was delighted to have been nominated and added: " It is of course
daunting to move from one of the smallest to one of the largest
cathedrals." The dean, who studied at St Hilda's College, Oxford, has
risen to become one of the leading female clergy in the church since her
ordination in 1994. She has been a member of the General Synod representing deans
of cathedrals since 2004.
There are
only three other female deans running cathedrals in England.
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