THE recent Clergy Conduct Measure (CCM) received final approval from the General Synod on Wednesday afternoon to switch the much-criticised Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM).
The Measure passed overwhelmingly in all three houses of the Synod, with no votes against and only three recorded abstentions.
Members warmly welcomed the unconventional overhaul of clergy discipline, especially the brand new minor grievance track and protections against vexatious complaints.
Various speakers, including the Archbishop of York, said that the CCM would help to rebuild trust within the workings of the Church of England.
Canon Kate Wharton (Liverpool), a member of the steering committee for the Measure, reminded the Synod of the numerous changes being introduced by the CCM, which might divide complaints into three pathways, depending on the severity of the allegations.
There would even be streamlining of bureaucracy, the abolition of the 12-month cut-off date for serious misconduct, the mixing of safeguarding professionals into the method, higher protections against vexatious complaints, and more information-sharing between dioceses and provinces. Deposition from Holy Orders had been reintroduced for probably the most serious offences.
“To say we’d like to implement these reforms looks as if an understatement in light of recent events,” Canon Wharton concluded. “The current system is sick, and we’d like a healthier one to take us forward.”
Many contributors to the talk spoke of the terrible toll that the CDM had taken on clergy who had been unfairly accused and dragged through a years-long stressful and sophisticated judicial process.
Amanda Robbie (Lichfield) said that her husband now suffered from lifelong health problems due to stress of a vexatious grievance against him. Rebecca Hunt (Portsmouth) told members that she knew of 1 priest who had a grievance made against him for not visiting a parishioner while they were in hospital.
The recent grievance track available under the CCM should keep minor disputes out of an “inflexible and cruel” tribunal process, Canon Wharton said, in addition to protect clergy from complaints arising from pastoral breakdown or doctrinal differences.
The full details of how the CCM would work in practice are still to return, including a definition of the excellence between misconduct and serious misconduct, and can be debated during July’s Synod meeting, when the CCM’s rules and code of conduct are as a consequence of be brought.
Members nodded through some minor amendments that might bring those clergy working for Royal Peculiars into formal disciplinary proceedings for the primary time.
When the Measure got here to a vote for final approval, it was carried in all three Houses: Bishops 25-0, with no recorded abstentions; Clergy 128-0, with one recorded abstentions; Laity 145-0, with two recorded abstentions.
