NEWS STORY: Church of England bishops seats safe in House of Lords reform proposal

c. 1999 Religion News Service LONDON _ The position of the 26 most senior bishops of the Church of England as”members of right”of the House of Lords will not be abolished under the British government’s proposal to reform the upper house of the British parliament. The proposal, made public Wednesday (Jan. 20), also suggests that […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

LONDON _ The position of the 26 most senior bishops of the Church of England as”members of right”of the House of Lords will not be abolished under the British government’s proposal to reform the upper house of the British parliament.

The proposal, made public Wednesday (Jan. 20), also suggests that representatives of other churches and faiths may be added to the existing representation by the Church of England prelates.


The reform proposals also serve to undercut speculation about moves to disestablish the Church of England, which is so embedded in the country’s legal framework that any attempt to disentangle it would involve more parliamentary time than any government seems prepared to devote to the issue.

Instead, the Labor government plan suggests a continuation of the trend of the last 80 years during which the Church of England has gained more and more control over its own affairs.

Currently, parliament continues to retain at least nominal control over the church’s internal legislation and its bishops are still officially appointed by the prime minister of the day. But the appointments are done on the basis of nominations put forward by a church committee.

Reform of the House of Lords is expected to take place in two stages, beginning with the removal of the 759 so-called”hereditary peers.”The Labor government of Prime Minister Tony Blair, however, has said that if the House behaves itself and does not obstruct government business it would be willing to accept a proposal that some 90 hereditary peers would continue as members until the second stage.

Secondly, there would be a reconstituted upper house in which members could be nominated, directly elected, indirectly elected, or a combination of these various methods.

Besides the 759 hereditary peers the House of Lords also includes 510″life peers”nominated by successive prime ministers since the office of life peer was introduced in 1958.

In its white paper setting out the proposed reforms the government said it did not propose any changes in the first stage of its reforms in the Church of England’s representation.”The bishops often make a valuable contribution to the House because of their particular perspective and experience,”the paper said.”To ensure that contribution remains available, the government proposes to retain the present size of the bishops’ bench, which we accept is justified … (and which) makes it possible for the Church (of England) to ensure its perspective is represented on all occasions when it would be particularly valuable.” But, recognizing the importance of the Lords reflecting more accurately the multicultural nature of modern British society in which there are citizens of many faiths and of none, the government said it is looking for ways of increasing the representation of other religious traditions.”In particular, there is a case for examining the position of the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland, which is an established church but has never had representation as of right in the second chamber,”said the white paper.”However, at least during the first phase of our reforms, other religious representation will not take the form of providing regular representation such as is enjoyed by the Church of England,”the plan said.”Nonetheless, considering if there is a way of overcoming the legal and practical difficulties of replicating that regular representation for other religious bodies should form one of the issues for examination in longer term reform of the Lords”_ to be considered by a Royal Commission which is to report by the end of this year.


The government’s proposals have been welcomed by the Church of England. Church officials said the church looks forward to offering its views to the Royal Commission and it welcomes the encouragement of broader representation from the United Kingdom’s different faiths in a reformed House of Lords.

The Church of Scotland’s top official, the Rev. Finlay Macdonald, said the denomination also welcomed the white paper’s specific mention of the Church of Scotland’s position.”We would expect at the appropriate time that we would be involved in discussions regarding the future shape of the House of Lords and the role, if any, of the Church of Scotland in it,”he said.

DEA END NOWELL

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