18 January 2013
The House of Laity, meeting in Church House, Westminster today,
rejected a motion of no confidence in its Chair, Dr Philip
Giddings, with 47 voting for the motion and 80 voting against.
The motion was brought by Mr Stephen Barney, a lay canon of
Leicester Cathedral, who said he had lost confidence in Dr Giddings
as Chair of the House of Laity following Dr Giddings' speech in the
debate on women bishops legislation in November. In a letter to all
members of the House of Laity before the debate, Mr Barney said,
"Whatever we decide, I hope it will contribute to resolving this
issue in the long term, for the flourishing of all."
After the vote, Dr Giddings told the House: "Mr Chairman I am
grateful for that vote of confidence but I need to, in a sense,
take my medicine. There are clearly a substantial minority of the
House who do not have confidence in me. I intend to continue in
office but I shall take careful advice from colleagues about how we
proceed from here. And in particular I think we need to have some
kind of debate about what are the expectations of chair and vice
chair in matters of this kind. I hope and pray that we can now put
this behind us and the temperature can be lowered and that we can
seek to work together for the sake of God's mission to this
country."