Gordon Brown and the bishops
As part of a comprehensive today, Gordon Brown to remove the executive from the appointment of Anglican bishops. Instead, Parliament will approve episcopal appointments. Last week, some commentators suggested that the new prime minister (the son of a Scottish Presbyterian minister) would go even further and remove politicians entirely from the appointment of bishops, thus allowing the Church of England to select its own leaders without political interference. Presumably the Church would have welcomed that more far-reaching change in constitutional arrangements.
Comments
i dont know why brown settled for this, he should have done the right thing and removed politics from the process. it makes a mockery of those MPs who criticise church leaders when they get involved in a political discussion.
And, to complete the equation, that the church would not be involved in the running of the country.
actually if you read the green paper he has gone all the way - ie not given this power over to Parliament as the initial report suggested (how would that work???) but simply removed the PMs discretion to choose one of two names submitted, and settled for simply asking for one name and pssing it on to HRH.
Hear hear, John Wright.