London PCC’s criteria for accepting a bishop went too far, Sir William Fittall decides
by Madeleine Davies, Church Times:
A PCC’s rejection of episcopal ministry from a bishop ordained by the Archbishop of Canterbury, on the grounds that the Archbishop has consecrated women as bishops, is based on a theology of taint that the traditional Catholic bishops of the C of E have “firmly rejected”, the Church’s Independent Reviewer, Sir William Fittall, has judged.
His decision, published on Friday, concerns a grievance against the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, brought by the PCC of St George’s, Headstone, after it rejected both of her suggestions for episcopal oversight. The grievance is unjustified, Sir William writes.
His decision, which refers to the Thirty-Nine Articles as well as the Bishops’ Declaration, also relies on the historic understanding that parishes “do not have the right to pick and choose or to substitute their own judgement for that of the wider church”.
While PCCs can request episcopal oversight from a male bishop (under paragraph 26 of the House of Bishops Declaration that accompanied the women-bishops Measure), the Bishop is not under an obligation to meet other demands, he says.
“It cannot have been the intention of paragraph 26 to legitimise any and every conceivable theological conviction relating to gender and ministry and I do not believe that to be its effect,” Sir William writes.
In 2016, the PCC of St George’s passed a resolution under the Declaration requesting that episcopal ministry be entrusted:
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