Sheffield debacle shows CofE needs to promote more traditionalists, campaigners say

Sep 18, 2017 by Jill

by Harry Farley, Christian Today:

The Church of England is being called to address a ‘deficit’ in the number of traditionalists in senior positions after a review into why one bishop felt forced to step back from a promotion.

The Bishop of Burnley, Philip North, from the CofE’s Anglo-Catholic wing, was appointed Bishop of Sheffield in February only to withdraw from the appointment in the wake of fierce criticism over his opposition to women priests.

An investigation by Sir Philip Mawer into events surrounding his resignation was published on Friday. It said the Church needed to revisit a compromise settlement made in 2014 to try and hold together those who support and reject women’s ordination.

But a conservative grouping within the CofE, of which North is a part, said the Church should respond by appointing more traditionalists to senior positions to ensure a full spectrum of views is represented.

‘In the last three years – and indeed for some time before that – no priest who publicly espouses the traditional catholic position on holy orders has been appointed as an archdeacon, dean, or residentiary canon in the Church of England,’ a statement from Forward in Faith’s chair the Bishop of Wakefield, Tony Robinson, said.

Read here

See also: Ban conservative Bishops until we have gender equality, Church told, by Harry Farley, Christian Today

and C of E Sleeping with the Enemy: Gavin Ashenden and Kevin Kallsen on ‘mutual flourishing’, Anglican Unscripted