Diocese in Europe Measure Clergy Discipline (Amendment) Measure - Ecclesiastical Committee Contents


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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