Divorcees may become bishops despite protests

Members of the General Synod, the Church’s national assembly, rejected attempts to formalise arrangements in church law for the vetting of divorced and remarried candidates for bishops’ posts.

Candidates’ marital history will instead be investigated by a diocesan bishop with admission to the “preferment” list of potential bishops subject to confirmation by an archbishop.

The Rt Rev Graham James, Bishop of Norwich, said there was no legal bar under Church law to consecrating clergy as bishops who are in “further” marriages or married to divorcees with a partner still alive.

But the Rev Jonathan Frais, from Bexhill, in the Chichester Diocese, expressed dismay the Church was debating the issue during National Marriage Week. “I confess I am one of those who find a real discomfort when anyone in a senior teaching role in the Church is not an example of best practice,” he said.

The Rev Angus MacLeay, from Sevenoaks, Kent, also urged “considerable restraint” and caution on the issue.