The Prime Minister is no longer to have a say in the appointment of Church of England bishops. But according to the Sunday Telegraph this new freedom is making some of the state church’s leaders anxious. They fear it may bring to an end their church’s undemocratic privileges in the government of the country.
The cause of the anxiety was a decision by Prime Minister Gordon Brown that he would no longer choose which of two nominees for bishop presented to him by the Anglicans should get the job. In the future just one name will be submitted and this will be forwarded to the hereditary head of state for approval. This reform was given overwhelming approval by the Anglican synod.
The newspaper reported one Anglican commissioner who criticised the reform as making an unusually frank admission of his church’s unwarranted power. Peter Bruinvels, a church commissioner, member of the church’s synod and form Conservative legislator said “we are weakening our constitutional place at the heart of decision making and influence . . . it could be the first step on the road to disestablishment”.
Peter Giddings, the chairperson of the church’s mission and public affairs council told the Telegraph that the government had assured his church that it would not be disestablished. He claimed that the privilege of being state church gave the minority denomination a unique ability “to serve the nation and be a church for everyone”. Twenty five bishops, all male, are entitled by Britain’s feudal constitution to seats in the legislature where they take part in the government of the country without accountability to the people.