The vote to consecrate women as bishops seemed likely to succeed after a key intervention today by a leading conservative Evangelical early on in the debate.
Dr Philip Giddings, chairman of the House of Laity, said a better way had been found than that which had been proposed in November 2012, but the package still did not meet the needs of everyone in the Church. He said: “The key for me is that this package is adequate.”
This was because of the requirement for adherence to the House of Bishops’ guidelines. For many, the new package still did not give the level of protection that Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics were asking for.
But in a significant intervention, given the respect in which he is held by traditionalists and Evangelicals, he said he would vote for the legislation in spite of his reservations.
The Bishop of Rochester, James Langstaff, urged the synod to weigh “carefully” the consequences for morale and the Church’s witness to the nation if the legislation were to fail once again. If the legislation were voted down, the synod would be seen as “frustrating” the view of the wider Church, he said.
Yesterday synod voted to make less mention of the devil during baptisms after he was deemed too much of a “cartoon-like character” and expelled from a new text.
Meeting in York, the General Synod on Sunday gave initial approval to new texts, which will not replace existing rites but merely exist alongside them, to go forward for revision.
Instead of asking parents and godparents to “reject the devil and all rebellion against God”, the service asks them to “reject evil”.
The Bishop of Sodor and Man, Robert Paterson, told the synod that feedback from families who had taken part in baptisms suggested they remembered the symbols and actions more than the words used.
“For many people, the devil has been turned into a cartoon-like character of no particular malevolence.
"The problem is helping people with little doctrinal appreciation to understand what we mean by affirming that the devil is a defeated power.” He said the words had been changed in order to “encapsulate what we mean by a broken and restored relationship with God.”
A report for the Church's Liturgical Commission said that clergy frequently found themselves conducting baptisms for 'un-churched' families for whom the existing wording “can seem complex and inaccessible".
Meanwhile synod also approved a measure to allow clergy to “dress down” and exchange the robes and other vestments worn at Morning and Evening Prayer and Holy Communion for more casual clothing.
Already, many clergy, especially Evangelicals and some liberals, eschew clerical collars and other more formal clerical outfits for plain trousers and shirts, with or without ties, especially at non-Eucharistic services.
But technically they are currently in breach of canon law, which currently prescribes a surplice or alp with scarf or stole at Holy Communion, morning and evening prayer.
Revd Christopher Hobbs, from the London Diocese, whose private member’s motion calling for draft legislation to be drawn up was approved by the synod, insisted it was not a “charter for shell suits, or jaffa cakes and Coke”.
He said he was merely suggesting that where a bishop and church council agreed, robes need not be worn, such as a “fresh expression” of church in a school or café, a small, intimate meeting on a stifling summer night, or because the cleric feels robes are a barrier in communicating the Gospel.
But a female chaplain at York University, Dr Rowan Williams, warned that young people attach a "huge amount of meaning" to what they wear. "If religious vestments are a barrier to mission, we are wearing them wrongly," she said. "We don't need to get rid of them, we need to consider what the symbols are."
The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, cautioned: "The canon is already very, very permissive. So when you are amending it from mandatory to occasional, look carefully at what it is you are amending."
At the opening of the synod meeting, Church of England leaders drew on Catholic doctrines in an attempt to frame a neighbourly discourse of love and respect in advance of the crucial final vote on women bishops on Monday.
The Archbishop of York John Sentamu invited the leading US Evangelical Jim Wallis, a spiritual adviser to US President Barack Obama, to address synod members and then preach on the “Uncommon Good”. Wallis, whose wife Joy Carroll is a former member of the synod and was among the first women to be ordained priest, defined the concept of the common good as “all responsible for all”.
Mr Wallis in particular praised Pope Francis, who he said had transformed the conversation with young people, not by trying to be superman, but simply by being “vicar of Christ” and doing and saying what people think Christians are supposed to do and say.
Citing St John Chrysostom, he said the most perfect definition of being a Christian was doing the common good, because that was what loving your neighbour consisted of. Wallis contrasted this with the “dysfunctional” political climate in Washington. He criticised modern politics and markets. “Don't trust politics or the market, which are riddled with sin,” he said, and warned that the power of sin must not be under-estimated.
He said the theology of the church he grew up in was in effect “save a few people from hell and judge all the others”.
“Loving our neighbour is what will restore our credibility as a Church.” Otherwise the next generation will simply move on from religion. “Religion makes a big mistake when its primary posture is to protect itself and its own interests. God is personal but never private.” The privatisation of faith had led to people walking away, he said.
Before preaching at the synod Eucharist at York Minister, Mr Wallis spent the afternoon and evening addressing and taking part in workshops with members of the synod, on the eve of the all-important vote on women bishops.
“The common good has become quite uncommon. That’s a tremendous problem and, for us, a great opportunity,” he said. “Our life together can be better. Ours is such a shallow and selfish age and we are in need of conversion.”
He praised the Church of England for the amount of work it is doing on the subject.
He said the largest growing affiliation in the US is now “none”.
“I call them the nones. I love the nones. I love the other nuns too.” Most of the nones believe in God. “They just don’t want to affiliate with religion because of what we have or have not done.”
This presented an opportunity to shake up public life as well as for evangelisation. “Because what they are attracted to are those who are doing something to change their communities.”
Although it was not on the agenda, discussions outside the official chamber at York were dominated by the subject of assisted dying after a surprise intervention by a former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, who wrote in yesterday’s Daily Mail that he had changed his mind on the issue. Lord Carey will now back Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill on its Second Reading in the House of Lords this week. At the same time, Archbishop Welby wrote in The Times of why he could never support assisted dying and believes the Bill is “mistaken and dangerous”.
The Church of England, which has consistently opposed the Bill and called for the status quo to be maintained, shifted its stance in response. The Bishop of Carlisle, James Newcome, called for a Royal Commission which he said would allow the "important issue" to be discussed at length. He said the bill should be withdrawn to allow the inquiry to take place. Lord Falconer rejected his plea.
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