Sometimes it is almost too painful watching the Church of England. Currently the blogsphere and twitterscope are full of reports of the decisions which are supposed to go on behind closed doors with regard to the nomination of the Bishop of Southwark. The short version is that Jeffrey John was apparently on the list. His name was leaked. There was a fuss. His name is no longer on the list.
However, we are also being treated to a commentary on Rowan Williams’s temper and the suggestion that he personally vetoed Jeffrey John’s nomination. I don’t even know whether that is possible. In any case, I’d prefer not to believe it, I think. It was bad enough that +Rowan laid down his friend for his life the first time around when Jeffrey was nominated to be suffragen bishop of Reading. If he really has become someone who would lay down the same friend for his life twice, it is too ghastly to contemplate for long.
Now, its straight off to General Synod for the Archbishop, where he is sponsoring an amendment to the measure allowing women to be nominated for the Episcopate which would make them second-class bishops forever.
I hope the English Synod says no to this and does so clearly and decisively.
With regard to who gets to choose who is on the list to become Bishop of Southwark, we need to remember that it is David Cameron, who appears to be a good Anglican (ie one who turns up sometimes) and may know a thing or two about the Church of England which some Prime Ministers have not. It could still be that whatever names are suggested to him are rejected in favour of a fresh list. This one could run on for a bit, I’d say.
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