Church of England to Choose Own Bishops

The Telegraph reports that Prime Minister Gordon Brown has elected to allow the Church of England to “choose its own bishops for the first time since Henry VIII.”

The reform—one of the biggest changes in the relationship between Church and state since the Tudor king fell out with the Pope—will reopen the fraught issue of disestablishment.

It will also dismay many Anglicans that such a major reform could have been announced with so little consultation or public debate.

Mr Brown was at pains yesterday to minimise the fuss by overtly supporting the Church’s established status, a constitutional arrangement supported by most churchgoers.

His announcement is nevertheless bound to refuel the demands of a vociferous minority for all ties to be cut between Church and state, including the right of bishops to sit in the Lords.

The row will surface next week when the General Synod meets in York as a debate on senior ecclesiastical appointments is already on the agenda.

Read the whole article.

HT: SermonAudio

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