Word: synods
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...only been for the past four decades that women were permitted to sing in parish choirs. So when the General Synod of the Church of England convened a historic session last week in Church House at Westminster Abbey, supporters of a motion to allow women priests had reason to worry. After all, a similar proposal had failed in 1978. Archbishop of York John Habgood, who favored the change, was calling it "deeply divisive." Another liberal, Bishop Hugh Montefiore, had prepared a half-a-loaf amendment to authorize a 20-year "experiment" with women priests that could thereafter be halted. Then...
...priests can be ordained, and while that step is now likely, it is not a sure thing. Legislation to implement last week's decision must pass a majority of local dioceses and then survive the crucial test: win a second approval again by all three houses of the synod, this time by two-thirds majorities. Last week only 57% of the synod priests voted yes. The change in the state-established church must also pass both houses of Parliament, which "always take a very reactionary line on ecclesiastical things because they don't really understand them," says Monica...
Divorced Anglicans, like divorced Roman Catholics, are denied a church wedding should they wish to give marriage another go. But with Britain's divorce rate now one in three, the Church of England's General Synod last week decided that the second time around deserved a bit of help. By a vote of 254 to 145, it gave provisional approval for divorced individuals to be married in church after their cases have been reviewed and approved by the local Bishop and parish Priest. The proposal now goes to the church's 44 dioceses for comment before...
John Paul designated penance as the topic for last October's synod of bishops, not only because he stresses the sacrament's importance but because its practice nowadays is in a state of flux and confusion. Theologians disagree over what sort of sins require absolution, and whether young children should confess before making their First Communion, as the Vatican desires, or a few years later when they may have a better understanding of the nature of sin. A majority of U.S. parishes now offer face-to-face confession with a priest as an alternative to the austere, anonymous...
...before the vote, the Most Rev. Robert Runcie, the Archbishop of Canterbury, convoked an extraordinary session of the synod of the Church of England to denounce "this barbaric punishment" that forces the state to "take the role of God." The six Catholic bishops of Northern Ireland expressed their opposition to the death penalty. In an act of blatant provocation on the morning of the vote, the I.R.A. staged its most devastating attack of the year in Northern Ireland. Four members of the Ulster Defense Regiment were killed by a land mine that destroyed their Land Rover...