“OVERSEERS” to supply pastoral support to Evangelicals who oppose the introduction of blessings for same-sex couples were commissioned in a service in London on Friday.
The move is a component of the “alternative spiritual oversight” being co-ordinated by the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC). It announced its intention to accomplish that late last yr (News, 18 November 2023).
One of the 20 overseers commissioned at All Souls’, Langham Place, on Friday is the previous Bishop of Willesden, the Rt Revd Pete Broadbent. On Monday, he told the Church Times that being an overseer was “not pretending to be a bishop”.
Instead, the job involved being “a senior friend”, offering advice and prayers where they were requested, and “helping people who find themselves fascinated about leaving to remain within the Church of England”, he said.
The lead bishop for Living in Love and Faith (LLF), the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Martyn Snow, was asked on Radio 4’s Sunday programme whether the commissioning of overseers amounted to the beginning of a “church inside a church”.
“I don’t see it that way,” he said, and characterised it as “an alternate support structure . . . and we’ve had loads of those historically, in a single form or one other.
“I actually don’t wish to overplay what they’re doing, while at the identical time taking very seriously their concerns,” he said.
One of the brand new overseers, a former Suffragan Bishop in Europe, the Rt Revd Henry Scriven, likewise looked as if it would play down the importance of the CEEC’s step, saying that he “didn’t see it as a massively big deal” by way of its impact on the present structure of the Church.
Honorary assistant bishops, similar to Bishops Broadbent and Scriven, are already permitted to conduct confirmations and ordinations, but only with the permission of the relevant diocesan bishop. Both emphasised that the newly created overseers weren’t intended to supply an alternative to such facets of episcopal ministry.
The liturgy and accompanying notes used at Friday’s service made this clear, with a press release that “this liturgy makes no pretence to be a service of ordination or consecration”.
Bishop Broadbent, who was the chief creator of the liturgy, said “nothing we have now done is in any way non-canonical: it’s all throughout the parameters of the Church of England’s existing structures.”
Those being commissioned were asked to assent to a variety of charges, including: “Are you determined to carry to the religion revealed within the Holy Scriptures, and to show it faithfully within the face of all distortions and error?” and “Will you accept and minister the discipline of this Church, and respect authority duly exercised inside it?”
Only two out of the 20 overseers commissioned on Friday were women. Bishop Broadbent said that the CEEC is hoping to deal with the gender imbalance, and were committed to providing overseers from a spread of traditions throughout the Evangelical movement, including complementarians, who don’t allow women to take leadership positions.
The overseers were chosen after a technique of interviews and references, he said. All of them had undergone safeguarding checks, and the bulk have never been bishops. Only certainly one of the overseers is a serving C of E bishop: the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, Dr Rob Munro (News, 9 December 2022), who ministers to complementarian parishes across the country.
The recent arrangements for spiritual oversight are a “stop gap”, Bishop Broadbent said, pending “structural differentiation” within the Church — a step which the CEEC says is crucial, especially within the aftermath of last week’s General Synod vote to proceed with stand-alone services of blessing for same-sex couples (News, 8 July)
After the vote, the national director of the CEEC, Canon John Dunnett, said: “We are committed to remaining throughout the Church of England, and hope that the bishops will come to the table to barter an appropriate settlement” (News, 10 July).
On Friday, Canon Dunnett said that the vote in Synod had been a “watershed for a lot of within the Church of England.
“The blessing of same-sex partnerships and further possible provision for same-sex marriage — including allowing clergy to enter a same-sex marriage — mean that there are clergy and congregations who now regard themselves as in impaired fellowship with those bishops who’ve supported these innovations.”
The Alliance, an umbrella group which comprises representatives of the CEEC together with figures from New Wine, Holy Trinity Brompton, and other groups, including Forward in Faith, released a press release last week expressing the view that the Synod vote amounted to “a decisive moment”.
“We need a structurally secure space for the over 2000 clergy supporting the Alliance, and the churches they represent (some 37% of total C of E church attendance and 57% of attendance of those under the age of 18),” the statement read — although the shape on the organisation’s website for registering one’s support states: “We won’t assume you speak on behalf of your whole church.”
