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by Hattie Williams, Church Times
Director responds to WATCH campaign to overturn provisions for clergy opposed to the ordination of women
THE new campaign by Women and the Church (WATCH) to abolish the provisions agreed in 2014 for clergy opposed to the ordination of women does “not bode well for any settlement emerging for evangelicals” opposed to blessings for same-sex couples, the Director of Forward in Faith has said.
At its annual conference last week WATCH announced plans to see a motion brought to the General Synod asking members to consider “whether it is right for the 2014 House of Bishops’ Declaration on the Ministry of Bishops and Priests to continue in perpetuity and, if not, to set a date for it to come to an end”.
Forward in Faith is a traditionalist membership organisation which advises and supports parishes that have passed a resolution under this House of Bishops’ Declaration.
In a statement published on Friday, its Director, Tom Middleton, suggested that the provision “explicitly references the roles of the wider Anglican Communion and indeed of the church universal. This is demonstrably, therefore, a matter of ecclesiology rather than of gender per se.
“While such opposition represents a minority viewpoint in the Church of England, it reflects the practice of by far the greater part of the church universal. As result, we should in fact be defined by being in favour of something . . . rather than being opposed to something.”
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