Collegiality? For all the muddle, the CofE's not a bad starting-place

The story goes that an Archbishop of Canterbury - which one, we had better not name - is speaking to a fellow-bishop and bemoaning the fact that he has virtually no authority to make anything happen. 'Your Grace,' replies the other bishop, 'You must remember that the Church of England is not one Church, but 43 separate dioceses.' A priest is in the room, overhears the conversation and interrupts: 'My Lords, the Church of England is not 43 dioceses, but 16,000 parishes.'

Pope Francis has spoken about his desire for the Catholic Church to be more collegial. He and his eight-member Council of Cardinals met this week to discuss reforming the way the Church is governed. I'd like to share a few insights about the dispersed nature of the Church of England's governance and ministry. Whenever I have been called onto Newsnight or the Today programme to talk about some aspect of the Church of England's life I often had to give some sort of brief summary of how we make decisions and of just how complex, but strangely beautiful, it is.

On the one hand, those who wish to knock us say that we got rid of one Pope and replaced him with 16,000. But on the other, we have a system of governance where there are such built in checks and balances that decisions over matters of, say, real doctrinal significance demand a consensus that holds together disparate diversity within a worshipping harmony. And even our doctrine is held in worship. Lex orandi lex credendi is written on the Anglican heart.

The aim is not agreement. That has always been a very over-rated goal. But neither is the aim acquiescence to any single authority. Rather, our consensual way of agreeing things provides a boundary within which our disagreements can be held and our different traditions flourish.

Recent discussions over women bishops, and no doubt discussions in the future over same-sex marriages, will stretch this unity further. But while there are some in the Church of England who having got rid of the Pope wanted to replace him with a King, and others with a Bible, and still others with a Synod, what we actually have is a not quite written down anywhere set of protocols and habits, synodical processes and episcopal rights, which means that when we do move forward, very few are left behind, and when we do stand still, it is because we are waiting for our friends.

Pope Francis has spoken about his desire for bishops to be more collegial. In the Church of England this is how we muddle along - and not just bishops, clergy and laity have an equal voice in our synodical structures. There is perhaps an Anglican wisdom here that we are too English to shout about: if you want people to share your vision, ask them to help you design it.

Right Revd Stephen Cottrell is the Anglican Bishop of Chelmsford