Getting the Bishops you Want

Here's a suggestion to resolve the current Church of England dilemmas over women priests and bishops, and respecting people's integity while ensuring that all bishops are genuinely equal.

It's relatively simple, and it also gives power to the grassroots. And it fits in with my own ideas on how the Early Church might have worked - but that's just a happy co-incidence.

And it comes out of the reflection that in many ways the Church of England is the sole relic of the mediaeval patterns of governnment and land-ownership, with its earldoms and local baronies echoed by dioceses and archdeaconries. So let's deal with that while we're at it.

Let parishes choose their own bishops.

Now, I'm not suggesting some kind of free-for-all here. Bishops would still be properly chosen and consecrated when they were down on numbers. But all the suffragans and assistant bishops would be made equal to the diocesans ensuring that every diocese had a good selection of them. In some of the smaller dioceses a bit of merging might be required - but I'd suggest four or five bishopes, like the European constituencies.

Parishes could then choose which of their regional bishops they wanted to follow. If they disagreed strongly with their current bloke (or bloke-ess) they could pick another one from the available pool. And when a bishop retired or decided they wanted another posting, that bishop's parishes would get a say in the successor.

You can see the advantages. When bishops were showing vision, they'd get extra parishes opting in. (I'd suggest a certain amount of performance-related pay in this, but I realise that's not very Anglican). If any bishop dropped below a certain threshold - say 20 parishes - they could go "on the bench" until somewhere else wanted them.  And no parish would have to accept a bishop whose liberal, conservative or agnostic views, or gender or sexuality they didn't agree with.