The Church of England has dropped plans to create a new charity to unify two national church bodies after the move failed to gain parliamentary approval.
The church’s national assembly last year voted in favour of plans to replace the Archbishops’ Council and Church of England Central Services – which oversees a wide range of the church’s national functions – with one new charity called the Church of England National Services.
This new charity would also take over the non-investment functions from the Church Commissioners and most of the Offices of the Archbishops at Lambeth and Bishopthorpe Palaces.
But a letter this month to General Synod members says the measure has been dropped after the Ecclesiastical Committee, a parliamentary body made up of MPs and peers that considers reform proposals from the General Synod, deemed it to be “not expedient”.
The letter, sent by William Nye, secretary-general of the Archbishops’ Council and the General Synod, says the committee had concerns including the potential scope of the new charity’s order-making powers, aspects of the financial accountability framework and safeguarding.
“Following an informal meeting with members of the Ecclesiastical Committee in January to explore these issues, members of that committee made clear that their primary concern was in relation to safeguarding, which it felt should be prioritised ahead of further engagement with governance reform,” the letter says.
“At a meeting in early March, the Legislative Committee considered two options: (i) to seek to reintroduce the measure to the General Synod with amendments, or (ii) report on its withdrawal at this stage.
“In light of the Ecclesiastical Committee’s expressed position, and the absence of clarity that amendments would resolve its concerns, the committee concluded that reintroduction at this time would not be a simple or straightforward matter.”
The letter says: “While this is disappointing news, we respect the decision of the Ecclesiastical Committee, which is committed to a constructive scrutiny process and seeks to promote trust in the Church’s governance.
“The trustee bodies affected are now being invited to review potential non-legislative opportunities to progress governance work over the coming months while the work on the future of safeguarding structures is progressed.”