FEARS that radical proposals to streamline the Church of England's organisation were being rushed through the church's legislative machinery too quickly were expressed yesterday.
The General Synod narrowly defeated an amendment to introduce legislation implementing these proposals from May until November. Draft legislation will now come before the Synod at its next meeting in July.
The chief element in the proposals is the creation of an Archbishops' Council presided over by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and consisting of up to 19 members in all, nine of whom would be elected by the General Synod. This new body would act as a kind of cabinet to oversee the church's business.
The Synod was also warned by two members who were also MPs that the proposals threatened the present relationship between church and state.
Mr Michael Alison, who as Second Church Estate Commissioner answers questions in the House of Commons about church matters, thought these monthly parliamentary questions would "atrophy and disappear" if the proposals were adopted in their present form.
Sir Patrick Cormack also believed the proposals would disturb the "delicate balance" of church and state. "There is a real danger that we could drift into disestablishment," he said.
But these fears were dismissed by the Bishop of Durham, Dr Michael Turnbull, who chaired the commission which published the proposals last September. They had undertaken extensive consultation with parliamentarians from the Speaker downwards and "nowhere did we hear that our proposals threatened in any sense the present church/state relationship," he said.
Dr Turnbull said they had taken a great deal of trouble not to disturb this partnership but instead to make it even more effective.
Meanwhile, a report published, yesterday shows no Church of England bishop reads tabloid newspapers or listens to the pop station Radio 1 and some do not even own a television. However, fewer bishops now come from a public school background 60 per cent compared to 85 per cent in the 1960s.
The report shows more bishops believe the church should speak out on abortion than on unemployment. At the same time more, than half of the bishops do not believe adequate answers are given to moral problems in family life.