Saturday, February 21, 1998

'Sexist' church of England condemned in own yearbook

By MARTIN WROE / London Observer Service

LONDON -- An astonishing attack that condemns the running of the Church of England as secretive, sexist, unjust and hypocritical is to be published as the preface to the Church's official 1998 Yearbook.

Dr. Christina Baxter, principal of St. John's Theological College, Nottingham, and chair of the House of Laity in the General Synod, criticizes the "secretive" way bishops are chosen by the Crown Appointments Commission for "breeding mistrust of the system."

She attacks the fact that bishops are not interviewed, do not submit a CV or references, and that their dioceses have no way of telling what policies they will pursue.

Baxter's article has delayed publication of the yearbook and recalls the controversy over Crockfords Clerical Directory in 1987, when Dr. Gareth Bennett of Oxford committed suicide after being revealed as the anonymous author of a preface that attacked then-Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie for appointing bishops from the "liberal ascendancy."

In the article, a copy of which has been obtained by the London Observer, she writes of the system of appointing bishops: "This may be unjust and is certainly not the kind of system which would commend itself in education, for instance, where teachers would be indignant if they were told that they were to be appointed on the basis of information gathered without their knowledge."

Last week, the Church's General Synod agreed on far-reaching changes to Church management but ignored the appointment of bishops. Baxter predicts it will be forced to change.

"One may wonder whether a Prime Minister who has been elected on a platform of open government will want to continue this system."

Five years after the ordination of women to the priesthood began, Baxter also attacks institutional sexism in the Church, observing that "when the national Church looks to make appointments of senior lay people ... women are notable for their absence."

The 1998 Yearbook was due out weeks ago but has been delayed by Church officials, while Baxter has come under intense pressure to tone down her criticism.

Baxter's critique of episcopal appointments is acutely embarrassing, given the continuing fiasco over the appointment of a successor to David Sheppard as Bishop of Liverpool. Six months after his departure, it is understood that the Crown Appointments Commission's recommendations to the prime minister have been rejected.

There is also a delay in appointing a new Bishop of Southwark. One theory is that the prime minister wants the Church modernized, and is looking for better candidates.

"The way I was appointed was bizarre and anachronistic," one senior bishop admitted. "It has to be reformed."

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)