No white smoke in Aberdeen - What is in Kelvin's Head?

Despite all our candle-lighting of last evening, the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney has been unable to elect a new bishop today. That will be frustrating for many people. I feel for all the candidates in these elections. They are very publicly exposed to scrutiny in what is a pretty unkind process.

That process begins all over again within a week. It will be another couple of months before they get another chance to cast their votes. If they cannot agree the next time, it will fall to the College of Bishops to appoint a new bishop for Aberdeen. What happens if the College of Bishops cannot agree (which does seem at least a possibility these days) I’ve no idea. Perhaps the General Synod gets called in to revise Canon 4.

I can hear the Canon Lawyers of the church sharpening their quills even now.

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3 responses to “No white smoke in Aberdeen”

Simon Sarmiento

16/12/2006

It’s a very misleading headline that the SEC press office has used. The voters WERE ABLE to elect a new bishop but they CHOSE not to do so. The headline, when I first read it at GadgetVicar led me to suppose that something had intervened to prevent them meeting, you know a breakdown on the railways or some such.

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Mark A D Miles

16/12/2006

I saw this on the SEC website and Ruth’s too. I find it disappointing too. Poor candidates! I wonder if the new committee will choose some of the same candidates.

Sometimes I just wish there was an Anglican Pope who could just choose. lol

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Kenny Macaulay

16/12/2006

Aye well! Some of us remember Frederick Goldie’s election in 1972. Same problem! The tabloids went wild about our inability to elect a bishop and Canon 4 was tossed about for years afterwards to try to avoid this happening again. It obviously didnae work!

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3 responses to “No white smoke in Aberdeen”

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