What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • 10 questions arising from the misogyny of a “headship” bishop

    Plans were announced last night to appoint a new bishop in the Church of England who will specifically believe that women are subordinate to men to minister to, encourage and represent those in the Church of England who believe this, ie that men have been given headship over women by God, to be true.  (This isn’t a joke, this is real).

    This had been planned for some time and was part of the deal whereby that church agreed to open the Episcopate to candidates who happen to be female.

    It rather neatly proves some of the terrible things I was saying about the Church of England earlier in the week to be true.

    On this occasion, I take no pleasure in being right.

    The following questions arising from the misogyny of a “headship” bishop should now be raised:

    1. To Members of Parliament: Are you really comfortable with 1 million children being educated every day by an organisation with these values?
    2. To candidates in the next election: Will you support the disestablishment of the Church of England because organisations which behave in this way should have no privileged place in parliament?
    3. To the Archbishop of Canterbury: Do you realise that this makes you personally look like a misogynist too as suffragan appointments are always personal to the bishop involved?
    4. In the General Synod of the Church of England: …. and if people ask for a bishop with racist views to represent them, will we do that too?
    5. To the BBC: Why are you not covering this story as a major news item?
    6. To those who serve in Church House, Westminster: Why do progressive changes to the Church of England have to go through years of debate at General Synod and regressive ones don’t?
    7. To Primates around the communion: Why is this novelty and abuse of the episcopate acceptable when the appointment of a man who happened to be gay was so unacceptable?
    8. To the Prime Minister at Prime Minister’s Question Time: Does the Prime Minister share the concerns of many in this country that the Church of England is institutionalising misogyny.
    9. To the silent Church of England Bishops who believe themselves to be liberal: How do you sleep?
    10. To the first woman to be consecrated as bishop in the Church of England: Was it worth it on these terms?

     

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4 responses to “Diversity Champions”

  1. Kenny Avatar
    Kenny

    We’re in there at 101 I think.

    Reply
  2. Kelvin Avatar
    Kelvin

    Well, wishful thinking, Kenny, but I don’t think we are.

    Reply
  3. Rosemary Avatar
    Rosemary

    Tell you what, while we tackle discriminaton on the basis of gender – and that may take some time – how about taking age discrimination head on? Because I am totally sick of being discriminated against because of my age when I know if I did not ned to give it, I might easily get the job otherwise. It is just an idea in somebody’s head …. like sexual orientation. How we do the job matters – not how young or how straight we happen to be.

    Reply
  4. kelvin Avatar
    kelvin

    Yes Rosemary. In this area, at least, there is some progress to report in the church. We are just in the business of removing some age discrimination from the Code of Canons. We’ve been urged to do so on the grounds that that’s what employers who want to avoid prosecution do.

    I kind of wish we did things because we thought they were right rather than because we fear prosecution. It has alwas seemed rather odd to me that the same people who say that clergy are not employed in one breath insist we remove age discrimination on legal grounds in another.

    Reply

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