Monday, March 26, 2012

NZ similar to England re voting on Covenant?

Alan Perry offers an analysis of voting for/against the Covenant in the C of E synods (to date) which is on Thinking Anglicans.

Interestingly, the "overall" voting works out like this:

"Overall: 48.1% for, 47.2% against, 4.7% abstentions


Overall (clergy and laity only): 47.3% for, 48.1% against, 4.7% abstentions"

The general overall voting includes an overwhelming "for" vote by bishops. Either way the voting is close, so the  Covenant has not been defeated there by a large margin when counting individual votes. (Yes, it has been defeated overwhelmingly on diocesan votes - I am not trying to pretend there is some hidden victory here). In other words, the Covenant has sufficient strength in its case to draw significant support in England, but also significant weakness in its case to draw significant opposition.

Interestingly, the diocesan vote in NZ's Pakeha dioceses (the ones closest to England in make up ... indeed we have many ex-English residents among our clergy and laity) is 3-3 to date (with Christchurch's vote to come on 21 April 2012). However  cannot I give the votes in NZ re individuals in each house in each Synod.

2 comments:

Father Ron Smith said...

Peter, your expert mathematical brain is playing tricks on you. No matter how much you try to spring a victory for the Covenant in the Church of England, the process has determined; it really is 'dead in the water'.

I'm looking forward to the debate in our synod. I hope to be speaking against your proposal for the affirmative. I may not have a vote but I still have speaking rights.

Peter Carrell said...

Hi Ron,
Well I hope when you speak in Synod you speak to actuality and not to your own interpretation of matters. In your response here you are missing my point: I specifically said there was not a hidden victory for the Covenant so my maths has not led me astray. My point is that focusing on the defeat of the Covenant in the C of E can obscure the fact that support for it, measured by percentages of votes across all voting dioceses, is almost even. You might also note that I am not relying on my own mathematical expertise but on that of Thinking Anglicans!