With the introduction of an electronic voting system at the General Synod in York, it is possible to put names to numbers.
The 14 bishops who voted for the Bishop of Winchester’s motion, including the reaffirmation of the Lambeth 1998 resolution that both sides in the argument on women priests and bishops are ‘loyal Anglicans’ were the Archbishop of Canterbury, the bishops of Blackburn, Bradford, Chichester, Exeter, Europe, London, Rochester, Southwell and Winchester, together with the suffragans of Birkenhead, Burnley, and Dover, and the Bishop of Beverley. Those suffragans must have done so knowing that as a result they would never become diocesan bishops.
Orthodox clergy and laity will also wish to know which 31 bishops voted against, unable or unwilling to allow them to be recognized as loyal Anglicans. They were the Archbishop of York, the bishops of Bath and Wells, Bristol, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Derby, Durham (though Tom Wright did vote against the final substantive motion), Gloucester, Guildford, Hereford, Leicester, Lichfield, Lincoln, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Oxford, Peterborough, Portsmouth, Ripon, St Albans, St Edmundsbury, Southwark, and Wakefield. The suffragans were Basingstoke, Dorking, Dudley, Hulme, Huntington, Willesden and also the episcopal Dean of Windsor. No surprise there, save for the Archbishop of York.
These figures suggest that those who hold traditional views on ministry are now, apparently, not regarded as loyal Anglicans by two-thirds of the diocesan bishops of the CofE present and voting at the Synod.
Only 7 bishops voted for the most extreme amendment, asking for a Single Clause Measure with no formal provision, but again there were no surprises: Bath and Wells, Bristol, Derby, Hereford, Liverpool, Portsmouth, and of course Southwark.
On the final substantive motion, a Single Clause with a Code of Practice, the same bishops who voted for the Winchester amendment voted against, with the exception of Canterbury who abstained, and Bradford and Southwell who voted in favour. The Bishop of Durham also joined the Noes.
George Austin