Rother Valley MP Jake Richards was drawn 11th in the House of Commons ballot for private Member’s bill this week and has said that he will introduce a bill to legalise assisted dying. Ballot bills get priority over other private Member’s bills for the limited amount of debating time available on private Member’s Fridays, and the first seven ballot bills in the draw are most likely to get a day’s debate.
The Religion Media Centre reports that Mr Richards, a family law barrister until elected as MP, would seek “to reform our archaic assisted dying laws, working with Dignity in Dying and others”. There have been several failed attempts to introduce the law in England and Wales, here; Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill was read the first time in the Lords on 26 July 2024, but a date for its second reading has yet to be announced.
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has released its interim report, having commissioned an English “Citizens’ Jury” to hear evidence on assisted dying, vote on the issue and make policy recommendations. Whilst welcomed by Dignity in Dying and others, its methodology has been questioned by Christian Concern.
Bishops to discuss difficulties in CNC processes
Within a relatively short period of time, the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) has twice been unable to reach the level of consensus required to make a nomination of a diocesan bishop (Carlisle, December 2023; Ely, July 2024). The Church Times reports that “Faith in the CNC process has deteriorated to the extent that candidates across a range of traditions are refusing to have their names added to longlists”.
Mindful of these issues, the operation of the CNC is to be considered by the House of Bishops at its meeting on Wednesday 18 September 2024 at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, HB(24)A6; the proposals on which it is asked to express its views are outlined in HB(24)30. On 11 September, General Synod members were sent an email which included the following additional information:
“House of Bishops
The House of Bishops will meet on Wednesday 18 September at St Hugh’s College Oxford to consider proposals for reform of CNCs. The paper and agenda will shortly be available on the House of Bishops section of the website. This will follow on from a meeting of the College on this topic at which all bishops will be able to speak. The House of Bishops Standing Committee has agreed that this part of the meeting should be open to the public and press, subject to limitations in the room, to observe. Priority will be given to central members of the CNC but if General Synod members wish to attend they are asked to notify synod@churchofengland.org and seats will be allocated on a first come, first served basis”.
The CNC meetings for the See of Coventry were held on 26 June and 11/12 September 2024, although the outcome has yet to be announced. Given the present delays, the “elephant in the room” is the appointment of the next Archbishop of Canterbury. With regard to Archbishop Welby’s appointment, whilst the CNC was expected to inform the Prime Minister of its first and second choice following its meeting in September 2012, its inability to agree upon the second name resulted in an impasse, which was only resolved in November 2012.
Following the changes to the Membership of the CNC for the See of Canterbury in July 2022, GS 2260, the Anglican Communion will have a greater say in choosing the next Archbishop of Canterbury. Justin Welby is due to retire on 6 January 2026, although where there are special circumstances which make it desirable that he should continue in that office after that date, the Monarch may authorise the continuance in office for up to one year.
Kaya Burgess of The Times comments further here: Secret ballots scrapped in new plan to select bishops, and the Church Mouse comments here: Proposals for reform of episcopal appointments to be debated.
Reforming weddings law?
In answer to a written question from Julia Buckley (Shrewsbury, Lab) to the Secretary of State for Justice asking “when her Department plans to publish a response to the Law Commission report entitled Celebrating Marriage: A New Weddings Law, published in July 2022”, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Alex Davies-Jones, said this:
“We are aware that the Law Commission made recommendations for wholesale change of weddings law in July 2022. We will take the time as a new Government to properly consider this issue. We will set out our next steps on our manifesto commitment to strengthen rights and protections for women in cohabitating couples in the near future.”
Which perhaps suggests that the MoJ is going to prioritise giving rights to cohabitants over wholesale weddings law reform.
Merger of Roman Catholic dioceses in Wales
On 12 September 2024, Pope Francis announced the merger of two of the three Roman Catholic dioceses in Wales. The Diocese of Menevia is to be merged with the Archdiocese of Cardiff to form the Archdiocese of Cardiff-Menevia. Archbishop Mark O’Toole has been appointed archbishop and bishop of the two dioceses united in persona Episcopi, as metropolitan archbishop of the new archdiocese. The announcement includes statistical data on the former dioceses and the new archdiocese.
Quick links
- Ecclesiastical Law Association: Judgments: links to all 1385 consistory court judgments on the ELA website, as at 10 September 2024.
- Ecclesiastical Law Association: Judgments for 2023: as revised on 10 September 2024.
- Sarthak Gupta, EJIL: Talk!: ECtHR’s Veil of Ignorance: Intersectionality and Indirect Discrimination in the Belgian Headscarf Ban in School: a critical note on the judgment in Mikyas and Others v Belgium [2024] No 50681/20 on the potential for indirect discrimination inherent in blanket bans on religious symbols, which we noted here.
- ICLR: Recent case summaries: a selection of recently published WLR Daily case summaries (10 September 2024).
- The Church Mouse: Proposals for reform of episcopal appointments to be debated.
And finally…