The House of Laity, meeting in Church House, Westminster today, rejected a motion of no confidence in its Chair, Dr Philip Giddings, with 47 voting for the motion and 80 voting against.
The motion was brought by Mr Stephen Barney, a lay canon of Leicester Cathedral, who said he had lost confidence in Dr Giddings as Chair of the House of Laity following Dr Giddings’ speech in the debate on women bishops legislation in November. In a letter to all members of the House of Laity before the debate, Mr Barney said, “Whatever we decide, I hope it will contribute to resolving this issue in the long term, for the flourishing of all.”
After the vote, Dr Giddings told the House: “Mr Chairman I am grateful for that vote of confidence but I need to, in a sense, take my medicine. There are clearly a substantial minority of the House who do not have confidence in me. I intend to continue in office but I shall take careful advice from colleagues about how we proceed from here. And in particular I think we need to have some kind of debate about what are the expectations of chair and vice chair in matters of this kind. I hope and pray that we can now put this behind us and the temperature can be lowered and that we can seek to work together for the sake of God’s mission to this country.”
MEDIA REVIEW
From BBC News –
Lay members of the Church of England’s ruling synod have defeated an unprecedented motion of no confidence in their chairman, Philip Giddings.
Dr Giddings, who chairs the general synod’s House of Laity, had angered some supporters of women bishops.
He spoke against the legislation allowing women bishops when it was defeated by the general synod in November.
The House of Laity defeated the vote of no confidence by 80 votes to 47.
The proposed legislation needed to gain two-thirds majority support in each of the synod’s three houses – bishops, clergy and laity – but fell short by six votes in the House of Laity.
The motion of no confidence, proposed by Canon Stephen Barney of the Diocese of Leicester, said Mr Giddings’ speech against the women bishops legislation was “a significant contributor to the reputational damage the Church of England is already suffering at the hands of the press”.
After the vote, Mr Giddings said there was “clearly a substantial minority of the house who do not have confidence in me” and that he would take “careful advice” from colleagues about his future.
“I hope and pray that we can now put this behind us and the temperature can be lowered, and that we can seek to work together for the sake God’s mission to this country,” he added.
In the November debate, Dr Giddings had said that the existing proposals for women bishops were unwise and would exclude traditionalists from the Church, saying: “I do believe that we can find a better way.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21082447http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21082447
The Independent –
Dr Giddings responded to the motion by saying that he was speaking on behalf of the minority who opposed the introduction of female bishops, rather than representing the whole House of Laity. “My case was, and is, that the Church of England can ill afford to alienate those who are opposed on grounds which have a long and honourable tradition within our own church and the church more widely,” he said. “My point was that whether we agree with them or not, we should make every effort to accommodate them within our church and its leadership.” He said the Church of England needs to find a way to achieving what most people want – “to have women bishops without losing those who have conscientious objections to that development”.
Emotions ran high during the open section of the meeting, which had been called especially to debate the issue of Dr Giddings’ position. Some claimed Canon Barney wanted to make a “scapegoat” of Dr Giddings. Debrah McIsaac, from the Salisbury diocese, added that the motion of no confidence could be “interpreted as vindictive action” and further damage the reputation of the Church of England.
There was anger too from Joanna Monckton, from the Lichfield diocese, who expressed “disbelief at the un-Christian behaviour” in calling the meeting. “This is the most cruel way of treating anyone, let alone a senior Christian, who has every right to vote in the way that he did,” she said. “It is merely showing the world how divided we are,” she added.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/women-bishops-church-leader-dr-philip-giddings-wins-confidence-vote-8457955.html