PROPOSALS to reform the CNC must have included its current members, and imputations in regards to the unfairness of the method were off the mark, some observers of Wednesday’s House of Bishops meeting said (News, 18 September).
On Thursday, the longest-serving central member of the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC), Christina Baron, criticised the bishops for not consulting CNC members before drawing up proposals.
“The way during which these proposals got here forward with none consultation, without even any notice, has made all of the elected members of the CNC very offended,” Ms Baron said.
The message to CNC members gave the impression to be, she said, that their work “is just not respected, is just not valued, that we usually are not taken seriously”.
The proposals were developed by the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, as chair of the six-person Advisory Group for Appointments and Vocations, and were approved, with some reservations, on the House of Bishops meeting on Wednesday.
Ms Baron, a CNC member since 2017, said that there have been “a lot of things that might be improved” in regards to the process.
She favours removing the key ballot, and reducing the bulk needed for a nomination — each proposals recommend by Bishop Mullally. But the way in which during which the proposals had come forward “without consultation” meant, she thought, that it might be harder to get the General Synod to approve them.
“The proposals have succeeded in uniting the elected members of their dismay, anger and unhappiness with the House of Bishops and with the committee that’s written this report,” she said.
Difficulties in securing agreement within the CNC lie behind the proposed changes, after recent failures to appoint recent Bishops of Carlisle and Ely. In the paper setting out the proposals, Bishop Mullally wrote that it was “widely considered that National Church politics could also be impacting CNC processes” (News, 12 September).
This was reiterated during Wednesday’s debate: “Let us please acknowledge that LLF is on the centre of this,” the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Martyn Snow, said, referring to the Living in Love and Faith process that has introduced blessings for same-sex couples. Opponents of those have threatened to develop a “parallel province” within the C of E (News, 27 June).
Asked whether she thought that the present disagreements within the Church were affecting the nominations process, Ms Baron said that she thought that “LLF was behind loads of our minds loads of the time, and might be until the Church of England has come to a settled view.”
Ms Baron emphasised that, although serving on the CNC was a “privilege”, it was also exertions and very time-consuming; nevertheless it felt as if this wasn’t being recognised by the Bishops.
“I’m not complaining in regards to the burden: I’m saying ‘Hey, we’re working hard: how about saying thankyou?’” she said.
In her closing remarks on Wednesday, Bishop Mullally confirmed that the following stages of consultation would come with CNC members.
ON FRIDAY, a former Bishop of Willesden, the Rt Revd Pete Broadbent, suggested that the reforms were using “the pretext of accelerating diversity” for a “power grab by the Archbishops”.
After Wednesday’s debate, Bishop Mullally said: “There is an absence of diversity on the CNC, including gender, race, and theology, which has led to a lack of trust in the method.
“Restoring trust would require the method to be competent, consistent, stuffed with integrity, and compassionate. Ultimately, we’d like to revive confidence on this discernment process under God.”
But, on Friday, Bishop Broadbent wrote on the Thinking Anglicans blog that “a more diverse episcopal House (and College) is a extremely necessary goal,” but “I’m unsure you possibly can get there by this mechanism without addressing the failures of the bishops on safeguarding, on LLF process, on ‘strategy’.” He also referred to “bullying that takes place inside the House”.
Of the present central members of the CNC, elected in July 2022, seven are women, and just one is UKME/GMH (of minoritised-ethnic/global-majority heritage).
Among the overall of 12 who were elected in July, two aren’t any longer members: one has been ordained, and is due to this fact not capable of represent the House of Laity, and one other as resigned. Both were UKME/GMH. Their departure has brought the proportion of white members up from 75 to 90 per cent.
In the General Synod in July, changes were agreed in order that, if there was going to be no UKME/GMH presence at a CNC meeting, someone might be co-opted (Synod, 12 July).
In addition to 6 central members — one from each of the pairs, and split equally between members of the Houses of Laity and Clergy — six representatives from the diocese also sit on the CNC, along with the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.
Of the six diocesan bishops nominated since probably the most recent election of central members, five have been white, and one UKME/GME. In total, 4 have been men, and two have been women.
In her opening remarks on Wednesday, Bishop Mullally said that the Archbishops’ Secretary for Appointments, Stephen Knott (News, 6 January 2022), had asked her to relay to the House of Bishops troubling feedback that he had received about trust in the present process.
“People routinely ask him: ‘Will this be a good process for me? . . . Is it price submitting papers? Can you assure me that this is absolutely a means of discernment?’”
Mr Knott’s reply, she said, was to say: “I hope and pray that it’s, but my fear is that it is just not.”
Mr Knott couldn’t be on the meeting himself because he was having fun with a “well-earned break”, Bishop Mullally said.
The observers on the meeting included almost the entire suffragan bishops, and a number of other current and former CNC central members and Church House employees and members of the general public.
One observer, who didn’t need to be identified, spoke to the Church Times of being shocked by Bishop Mullally’s relaying of Mr Knott’s comments, and suggested that they risked leaving the Church with a less diverse bench of bishops. “He’s undermining the very reason for being of the CNC. Instead of promoting the flourishing of the entire Church of England, he’s saying to potential bishops: ‘Don’t trouble, mate.’”
