Beloved, let us love one another

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. (1 John 4:7)

Today, the Church of England's General Synod meets for 3 days; on the agenda for tomorrow is a debate and then a vote on "final approval" of the measure that could see women become Bishops in the Church of England.

Briefly, for the benefit of those who have not followed these things, the debate is not really about whether or not we are to have women bishops; the debate is over how those who do not agree with this step should be treated. When women were allowed to become priests in 1992, considerable care was taken to ensure that those who did not accept this move should still have a full and treasured place in the Church of England. There is a will to have something similar this time around, although the details of it are debatable. Some feel that what is on the table provides that honourable place; others feel that this provision has been relegated to an easily changed (and yet to be seen) code of practice, and that there needs to be recognition of the theological integrity of these people.

For what it's worth, my view is the latter; I don't believe that the provision is anywhere near sufficient. I argued at our Deanery Synod earlier in the year for this; since then, the House of Bishops have changed things (in my view) to weaken the provision further.

However what has been bothering me for some time is the way this debate has been conducted. The campaign to vote in favour of this has been headlined by "No More Waiting". That sets the tone as one of impatience. Last week, 327 clergy (myself included) signed a letter to The Times arguing that the provision is not yet fit for purpose. In response, the Independent reported today that over 1000 clergy have signed a letter to that paper "demanding" (the Independent's choice of phrase) women bishops.

(That letter is another matter. We could discuss the poor exegesis that a few Bible texts get. Incidentally, the hallmark of whether your viewpoint takes account of all the biblical data is not whether you can find some texts that argue your case, but whether you can show how the texts employed by the opposing viewpoint also do. You can prove anything by being selective We could play the game of identifying duplicate signatories. But that's not the point.)

The point is that, sadly, although the tone of the letter is polite, the tone of the Independent's reporting is about right for most of the debating I've seen and heard on this. Reading reports of previous General Synod sessions, of our own Diocesan Synod session, and having attended our own Deanery Synod, "demand" is the tone of it. Read the letters pages in the church press over recent weeks, follow a few key people on Twitter, and the timbre is one of demanding what "I" am entitled to.

The Church of England needs to decide whether to have women as bishops, and whether this is the right way to do it. There's a right decision and a wrong decision, and it may be that my own position is not the right one. But we should be far more concerned about the way the debate has been conducted. That matters far more, and frankly is indicative of some far deeper, far more worrying problems in the Church of England. If this is how we speak to one another and of one another, if this is how we regard the deeply felt needs of fellow Christians, then something is profoundly wrong. That is not a partisan comment - both sides of the debate have some repentance due here.

People on both sides have claimed that making the other move from the one they campaign for would impact the church's witness. Jesus said that "by this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (1 John 13:35) Biblical love is laying down something I am truly entitled to for the good of someone else. If we're concerned about a negative impact on the church's witness, then this is what we must sort out first of all.

What we've been hearing sounds more like this:

"What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?" (James 4:1-4)

... than it does like this:

"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:4-8)

So I think the Church of England needs to go to Jesus' brother, James, for a prescription from the doctor:

"Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you." (James 4:8-10)

Lord, have mercy.