A Bill dealing with the election of Bishops in the Church of Ireland passed its first and second stages at General Synod in Dún Laoghaire this afternoon (Thursday May 12).

The 2015 General Synod welcomed the principles, analysis and approaches to the election of bishops outlined by the Commission on Episcopal Ministry and Structures and requested that the Commission bring a Bill to the 2016 General Synod. The Bill allows for either a member of the House of Bishops or a Bishop of another province of the Anglican Communion to be elected as Archbishop of Armagh.

Facilitators would be appointed to work with diocesan episcopal electors in preparing a diocesan profile and statement of needs for each diocese when a vacancy arises.  The number of Bishops in an Electoral College would be reduced by three to two (one from each province), sitting alongside the President (normally the Archbishop of the province in which the vacant see is located).

At its first meeting, the Electoral College’s business will include nominations and directions to the Shortlisting Committee with a view to producing a shortlist of three to five persons. The second meeting will consider the report of the Committee. The Electoral College may, at that point, proceed to an election or accept additional nominations to be referred to the Shortlisting Committee, with a new shortlist to be considered at a third meeting of the College. If any person receives a simple majority of the votes of members (present and voting) in each order, their name will be put to the College alone to determine whether it reaches the two–thirds majority (in each order) required for election.

The Bill was proposed by the Revd Stephen Farrell who said there was a lot of detail in these proposals but much remained familiar.  “We have stuck close to our vision and principles document, seeking to maintain a balance between diocese and wider church and between clerical electors and lay electors. We have sought to safeguard the dignity of all those considered for episcopal appointments… I would say that the contents of this Bill amount to evolution rather than revolution.  The aim has been to help episcopal electoral colleges to discern God’s will for the Church and to choose Bishops for the Church, as they are charged to do,” he stated.

Seconding the Bill, Mrs Ethne Harkness stated that the Church of Ireland was an Episcopal church, led by Bishops and governed by Synod which gave the church strength and adaptability. “Because all of us place a high value on the role of Bishops in the life of the Church, it is important to ensure that the processes involved in selecting Bishops and Archbishops are the best we can have,” she explained adding that the changes to the process will enable the Episcopal electors carry out their work. She said that the House of Bishops would continue to elect the Archbishop of Armagh.

At committee stage, the Bill was considered in detail.

An amendment was proposed by Mr Keith Roberts (Cork, Cloyne and Ross) that no member on the selection committee from outside the vacant see shall serve more than twice and never consecutively on a shortlisting committee.

He said that he only had a problem with one small part of Bill No 1 regarding the shortlisting committee. The committee would have eight members – four clergy and four lay – two clergy and lay from the vacant see and two clergy and lay from the other dioceses. He suggested that four people from outside the vacant see could have a lot of influence on the election of bishops for a considerable length of time and his amendment would deal with this. The amendment was seconded by the Dean of Cork.

Responding to the proposed amendment, Mrs Harkness said the issue had been discussed by members of the commission and they were opposed to the amendment. She said the amendment would create two categories among the electoral college – some who were eligible for a committee and some who were not. She said the members of the committee had a specific task of enquiry and they would be directed by the college on how to carry out that task. They should not be seen to be going in for any particular diocese, rather they were acting for the whole church. She said that the commission had left the some of the procedure to be decided by the college itself. She said it would make sense to try the new system for a few elections and identify how the system could be further improved, either in this respect or some other way. But we didn’t see the need to introduce this particular change at the outset.

The amendment was carried by members of Synod.

Bill No 1 passed its first and second stages. It will go to its third and final stage on Saturday morning.