Sir, We support the initiative to promote unity and our common life and mission within the Church of England called Better Together.
The Church of England finds itself in a difficult place as it approaches the General Synod in July and the debate on the ordination of women to the episcopate. There remains, frustratingly for us all, a clear lack of consensus on the best way to proceed.
We believe that two principles, long accepted by the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion, remain at the heart of this debate. The first is that it is the will of the majority that women be ordained as bishops.
The second is that a way must be found to respect the minority who are unpersuaded that this is a theological development which they can, in conscience, embrace. Recognition of this conviction must benefit the Church of England as a whole.
This debate is grounded on sincerely held theological convictions. As the Archbishop of Canterbury said, this is not simply a matter of opinion but of obedience: obedience to Scripture, to Tradition, to the wider consensus of the universal Church.
On the one hand there is the majority wish of members of the Church of England, voicing, perhaps, the perceived norms of wider society around issues of equality.On the other hand, our attention is being called to the mind of the Church catholic East and West. This is that “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church” of which, in its Declaration of Assent, the Church of England claims to be a part.
As bishops committed to furthering the mission of the Church of England to all the people of this nation, we are also deeply mindful of our vocation to be guardians of the faith and to work for the full visible unity of the one Church of Jesus Christ. We pray for consensus and a way forward.
We are wholeheartedly committed to honouring those women whom the Church of England calls to the ordained ministry. We ask, too, for that proper respect for conscience which will continue to allow all traditions in our Church to flourish without detriment to one another.
The Right Rev Geoffrey Rowell, Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe;
The Right Rev Jonathan Baker, Bishop of Ebbsfleet;
The Right Rev Martin Warner, Bishop of Chichester;
The Right Rev Nicholas Reade, Bishop of Blackburn;
The Right Rev Norman Banks, Bishop of Richborough;
The Right Rev John Ford, Bishop of Plymouth;
The Right Rev John Goddard, Bishop of Burnley;
The Right Rev Martyn Jarrett, Bishop of Beverley;
The Right Rev Tony Robinson, Bishop of Pontefract;
The Right Rev Mark Sowerby, Bishop of Horsham;
The Right Rev Peter Wheatley, Bishop of Edmonton