It has become clear that the Preparatory Committee for the Episcopal Vacancy in the Diocese of Glasgow & Galloway will be unable to present a short list of a minimum of three names from which a new Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway could be elected by the Electoral Synod. A meeting of the Electoral Synod will be held on 27 July 2019 at which the Preparatory Committee will report. As a result of the fact that the Preparatory Committee is unable to present a shortlist, the right of election will, in accordance with Canon 4, lapse to the College of Bishops (as an Episcopal Synod) on 1 August 2019.
In preparing to exercise their right of the election, the Bishops will meet with the Electoral Synod on 27 July and then meet with the Preparatory Committee and Cathedral Chapter on 20 August. The Bishops have also set time aside in the autumn to meet with potential candidates and to pray together.
In a letter sent to Electoral Synod voting members across the diocese the Most Rev Mark Strange, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church and interim Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway said “I am very conscious of all the work that has been undertaken to discern the type of bishop being sought by the diocese. The College will meet with the Preparatory Committee, the Cathedral Chapter and the Electoral Synod to listen and to pray and to help move the process forward.
“Following this discernment, the College of Bishops will invite people for interview and then meet to pray and to elect a new bishop.
“I would also like to call a day of prayer across the diocese on Saturday 3August and would ask for people to gather at churches to pray for this process.”
This worked out so very well the last time . . .
Well, the SEC could teach lessons to any church looking for a convoluted method of selecting bishops virtually guaranteed to produce the result preferred by the college of bishops. And the college of bishops itself is given numerous opportunities to foul up the works- any of which will result in the election being moved from the electoral synod to the College of Bishops. To wit (various quotes from numbered paragraphs of SEC canon 4- election of bishops to vacant sees):
4.5 “All preparations for the meeting of the Electoral Synod shall be the responsibility of a
Preparatory Committee, comprising the Primus as Convener; one other bishop,
nominated by the College of Bishops; five members of the Provincial Panel for Episcopal
Elections chosen by the Standing Committee of the General Synod (of whom at least two
shall be laity and at least two shall be clerics, and including both members from the
diocese concerned); and two further lay and two further clerical members chosen by the
Diocesan Synod.”
4.8 “All meetings of the Preparatory Committee shall be in private, and at all meetings the
proceedings shall be confidential, with the exception of the declaration of the list of
names of candidates. All documents submitted to or produced by the Committee shall
be regarded as confidential to the Committee, with the exception of the list of names of
candidates, following the declaration of that list in terms of Section 18 below.”
4.10 “Prior to the meeting of the Preparatory Committee at which the list of names of
candidates is agreed, the College of Bishops shall have been consulted. The name of any
person who is not agreed as acceptable by the College of Bishops may not be included in
the list of names of candidates. The reasons for such decisions shall be recorded in the
minutes of the College of Bishops, which minutes shall be confidential. Such members
of the Preparatory Committee as are bishops shall be charged by the College of Bishops
with informing the Preparatory Committee of the unacceptability of any proposed
candidate. ”
[That is, before the committee meets to select candidates, the names of all potential candidates are submitted to the College of Bishops for approval- note, no one has even been nominated yet]
4.11 “…In the event of the Preparatory Committee failing, for
whatever reason, to produce the list of names of candidates by this date, the Convener
of the Electoral Synod shall convene a meeting of the Synod, by the means described in
Section 18 of this Canon, at which the reasons for the failure shall be explained and a
new date fixed by which the Preparatory Committee shall have produced the list of
names of candidates. Should the Preparatory Committee again fail to produce the list by
the new date, the Convener of the Electoral Synod shall convene a meeting of the
Electoral Synod, at which the election shall be declared void. Immediately after such
declaration, the Primus shall issue a fresh mandate, in terms of Section 4 of this Canon.”
There follow 17 more canons that apply to the calling of the electoral synod, the voting, various time limits, limits on the number of votes to be taken, and essentially, the outcome of any delay or variance from the stipulations of the canons result in the College of Bishops choosing the new bishop.