Saturday, March 17, 2012

CHURCH OF ENGLAND DIOCESES VOTE ON ANGLICAN COVENANT

Three out of five dioceses voting March 17 voted against the Anglican Covenant.  Two voted for.  


Chester For 
Bishops For: 3,  Against: 0,  Abstained: 0
Clergy   For: 22,  Against: 14,  Abstained: 5
Laity     For: 26,  Against: 23,  Abstained: 5
Ely  Against
Bishops For: 1,  Against: 0,  Abstained: 1
Clergy   For: 16,  Against: 23,  Abstained: 1
Laity     For: 19,  Against: 19,  Abstained: -
Liverpool  Against
Bishop James has spoken against the covenant in his presidential address before the covenant debate.  
Bishops For: 0,  Against: 2,  Abstained: 0
Clergy   For: 10,  Against: 26,  Abstained: 1
Laity     For: 8,  Against: 28,  Abstained: 5
Norwich For
Bishops For: 3,  Against: 0,  Abstained: 0
Clergy   For: 26,  Against: 10,  Abstained: 0
Laity     For: 19,  Against: 15,  Abstained: 1
St. Albans  Against
Bishops For: 2,  Against: 0,  Abstained: 0
Clergy   For: 21,  Against: 31,  Abstained: -
Laity     For: 17,  Against: 44,  Abstained: - 
Summary
Dioceses for the Covenant to date: 12
Dioceses against the Covenant to date: 20
therefore:
For the Covenant to succeed 11 more dioceses must vote in favour
For the Covenant to fail 2 more dioceses must vote against
There are 12 dioceses yet to vote.
Dioceses voting next Saturday:
  • Blackburn
  • Exeter
  • Guildford
  • Lincoln
  • Oxford
  • Peterborough

After that, London votes on 29 March (Thursday) and Manchester on the 31st. Southwell and Nottingham vote on Thursday 12 April, Chichester on 21st, with Newcastle and York bringing up the rear on 28 April.

 My thanks to Paul Bagshaw at Not the Same Stream.  The information above is lifted from his blog.

 Alan Perry at Comprehensive Unity crunched the numbers to give us the percentages.
Total figures for the 32 dioceses that have voted show the following breakdown:

Bishops: 80.7% for, 11.3% against, 8.1% abstentions
Clergy: 44.8% for, 50.7% against, 4.5% abstentions
Laity: 48.1% for, 47.0% against,  4.9% abstentions

Support continues to drop among the bishops. A majority of clergy is against the Covenant, and less than a majority of laity is for (though a slim plurality of laity is for).

Overall: 47.4% for, 47.8% against, 4.8% abstentions
Overall (clergy and laity only): 46.6% for, 48.7% against, 4.7% abstentions

A growing plurality of the overall vote is against the Covenant. 

7 comments:

  1. Thanks for collecting these stats together and providing this positive news.

    There's one error: "For the Covenant to succeed 12 more dioceses must vote in favour" can't be right.

    Thanks & blessings

    Bosco+

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Bosco. I made the correction. The number should be 11.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ciss, I've sometimes seen myself as obsessed with the covenant, but what a folly it would be to inflict the pernicious document on the Anglican Communion.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Do we have any ideas which way different dioceses might vote?

    Bosco

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not really. Our efforts to predict are predictably wrong. Synods are as their bishops are finding out, not real predictable! :-)

      We think, those of us on this side of the aisle, that the numbers are encouraging, and we are deeply grateful for the thoughtful efforts of synod members regardless of how they vote. But we must await events.

      FWIW
      jimB
      member: NO Anglican Covenant Coalition

      Delete
  5. Bosco, I see Jim beat me to an answer, but I could not have enlightened you further.

    ReplyDelete

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