LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL SYNOD:
COMMENTS AND EXPLANATIONS ON THE DIOCESE IN EUROPE MEASURE
INTRODUCTION
1. The Legislative Committee of the General Synod,
to which the Measure entitled the Diocese in Europe Measure has
been referred, has the honour to submit the Measure to the Ecclesiastical
Committee with these Comments and Explanations.
2. The Diocese in Europe Measure confers a new
power on the Church Commissioners for England and Archbishops'
Council to make payments to the Diocese in Europe, modifies the
application of the National Institutions Measure 1998 and amends
the Constitution of the General Synod set out in Schedule 2 to
the Synodical Government Measure 1969. It also makes a consequential
repeal of section 3 of the Diocese in Europe Measure 1980.
BACKGROUND TO THE MEASURE
3. The Diocese in Europe ("the Diocese")
was created in 1980. It is a diocese of the Church of England,
and is treated for purposes of representation on the General Synod
as a diocese in the Province of Canterbury. However, it is necessarily
different in many ways from all other dioceses. It is not governed
by English law, although by virtue of the Constitution of the
Diocese the canons and other ecclesiastical law of the Church
of England are applied to it (so far as applicable, and subject
to certain modifications and exceptions). Save for certain very
limited purposes the body of statute law applicable to the Church
of England does not apply to the Diocese.
4. Most pertinently by way of background to this
Measure, the Diocese is not part of the Established Church (because,
outside England and Wales, it is not "by law established")
and does not have geographical "parishes" (it has chaplaincies
instead), and therefore the power of the Church Commissioners
for England ("the Commissioners") and the Archbishops'
Council to make payments under section 67 of the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners Act 1840 for "additional provision…for
the cure of souls in parishes where such assistance is most required"
does not extend to the Diocese.
5. By section 4 of the Diocese in Europe Measure
1980 power was conferred on the Commissioners to make payments
to the Diocese for the stipend, expenses and housing of its bishop
and any suffragan bishop. Neither the Commissioners nor the Archbishops'
Council has any other power to make payments to the Diocese in
Europe.
6. Until 2001, the Diocese made payments to the
Archbishops' Council as a contribution to national Church of England
costs. Since that date the payments have been waived to recognise
that the Diocese does not receive any mission development funding
(a funding stream which commenced in 2002). If the Diocese receives
payments in future under this Measure, the question of its contributions
to the Archbishops' Council will need to be reconsidered.
7. Subsequently, the Diocese requested that differences
in eligibility for support from the Commissioners' funds between
the Diocese and all other dioceses be reviewed. Initially the
request was for support for the costs of archdeacons, but in the
course of discussions on the subject this was widened to a more
general power for the Commissioners and the Archbishops' Council
to make payments to the Diocese. Before bringing a proposal to
General Synod, consultation took place with the Inter Diocesan
Finance Forum the membership of which includes the Chair and Secretary
of all Diocesan Boards of Finance, who supported the grant of
wider powers to make payments to the Diocese. This proposal became
section 1 of the Measure.
8. No decision has as yet been taken about the
actual level of future funding for the Diocese.
9. Article 8 of the Constitution of the General
Synod (set out in Schedule 2 to the Synodical Government Measure
1969) provides that certain Measures, Canons and schemes may not
be finally approved by the General Synod unless they have been
approved by a majority of the dioceses at meetings of their diocesan
synods.
10. When the Diocese was established it did not
have a diocesan synod. Therefore, the General Synod's Article
8 procedure provided for the decision of the Diocese to be made
by the bishop's council and standing committee of the Diocese
rather than (as is the case for the other dioceses) its diocesan
synod. Now that the Diocese's diocesan synod is well established,
the Diocese has requested that the Article 8 procedure in relation
to the Diocese be amended to bring it into line with that for
the other dioceses. The Diocese is satisfied that it can cope
with the practical implications of such a change, including the
possibility of increased costs and the need to schedule diocesan
synod meetings to enable the timetable for any Article 8 business
to be met. The Measure therefore provides for the diocesan synod
rather than the bishop's council to be the consenting body for
the purposes of Article 8 references. Section 2 of the Measure
deals with this.
11. The Committee is invited to find the Measure
expedient.
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