Mission Creep: The Five Guiding Principles and the Curious Incident of the Vanishing 2020 Statement on Episcopal Consecrations

This paper examines the way episcopal consecrations have been conducted since the first woman was consecrated as a bishop in the Church of England in 2015. It scrutinises the ‘mission creep’ of the Five Guiding Principles as they have been used to support increasing segregation in sacramental arrangements in the consecration of bishops. The paper argues that the principle of ‘mutual flourishing’ has come to be privileged over the rest, despite the House of Bishops’ Declaration clear injunction that all Five ‘need to be read one with the other and held together in tension, rather than being applied selectively’. It traces ways they have been invoked that were never envisioned by many who supported them as part of the ‘package’ for the passage of the Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure in 2014. In the end, the paper calls for transparency and theological scrutiny of their interpretation and application – it does not call for their abolition.