The House of Clergy is the middle house in the tricameral

Church of England General Synod The General Synod is the tricameral deliberative and legislative organ of the Church of England. The synod was instituted in 1970, replacing the Church Assembly, and is the culmination of a process of rediscovering self-government for the Church ...

legislature. It consists of representatives of the ordained clergy of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

Composition

The House of Clergy comprises ordained members of the Church of England below the rank of bishop. Members are elected by their fellow clergy to represent their individual Dioceses at their regional

Diocesan Synod In the Anglican Communion, the model of government is the 'Bishop in Synod', meaning that a diocese is governed by a bishop acting with the advice and consent of representatives of the clergy and laity of the diocese. In much of the Communion the b ...

. Members are obliged to retire when they reach 70. The House of Clergy, like the

House of Bishops The House of Bishops is the third House in a General Synod of some Anglican churches and the second house in the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

and

House of Laity The House of Laity is the lower house in the tricameral General Synod of the Church of England legislature. They are responsible for representing the laity of the Church of England in the legislature. They are indirectly elected every 5 years by me ...

, hold veto power over all proposed

Church of England Measures __NOTOC__ This is a list of Church of England Measures, which are the legislation of the Church of England. Some of these measures may have been repealed. Since 1970, Measures have been made by the General Synod; prior to then they were made by i ...

and reports. An example of this was when the House of Clergy vetoed a report on homosexuals and same-sex unions. It comprises the Lower Houses of the

Convocations of Canterbury and York The Convocations of Canterbury and York are the synodical assemblies of the bishops and clergy of each of the two provinces which comprise the Church of England. Their origins go back to the ecclesiastical reorganisation carried out under Arc ...

Election

Elections to the House of Clergy take place every five years with by-elections held to fill any vacancies that may arise between elections. In practice the members of the House of Clergy are identical to the members elected to the

. In order to be elected to the House of Clergy, the person must be an ordained member of the Church of England. A clergyman or women must be elected by the

Deanery Synod In the Church of England and other Anglican churches, a deanery synod is a synod convened by the ''Rural Dean'' (or ''Area Dean'') and/or the Joint Lay Chair of the Deanery Synod, who is elected by the elected lay members. It consists of all cler ...

of the area which includes the parish that they are licensed to work in, to the

. From there, they must be elected by the members of the Diocesan Synod to the House of Clergy. In 1987, following the decision to allow ordination of women as

Deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

s in the Church of England, women became eligible for election to the House of Clergy for the first time. Members can also be co-opted and with a limited number being appointed. Membership consists of three elected representatives by each Diocese in the

Province of Canterbury The Province of Canterbury, or less formally the Southern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces which constitute the Church of England. The other is the Province of York (which consists of 12 dioceses). Overview The Province consist ...

and the

Province of York The Province of York, or less formally the Northern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces making up the Church of England and consists of 12 dioceses which cover the northern third of England and the Isle of Man. York was elevated to ...

including the extraprovincial

Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe The Diocese in Europe (short form for the Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe) is a diocese of the Church of England. It was originally formed in 1842 as the Diocese of Gibraltar. It is geographically the largest diocese of the Church of England and th ...

and the

Diocese of Sodor and Man The Diocese of Sodor and Man is a diocese of the Church of England. Originally much larger, today it covers just the Isle of Man and its adjacent islets. Today, the bishop's office is in Douglas and the cathedral is in Peel. The diocese is ''not ...

(which only elects one member). Other members elected include one for the Universities of

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, one jointly for the Universities of

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county *Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...

and

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

, four elected by the other Universities split between Canterbury and York and six Deans elected from

Cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

s, plus either the

Dean of Jersey The Dean of Jersey is the leader of the Church of England in Jersey. He is ex officio a member of the States of Jersey, although since the constitutional reforms of 1948 the Dean may not take part in parliamentary votes. The Dean acts as the chap ...

or the Dean of

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

. The appointed ''

ex officio An ''ex officio'' member is a member of a body (notably a board, committee, council) who is part of it by virtue of holding another office. The term '' ex officio'' is Latin, meaning literally 'from the office', and the sense intended is 'by right ...

'' members are the three senior

Chaplains A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intelligence ...

of the

British Armed Forces The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, s ...

, the

Chaplain-General of Prisons The Chaplain-General of Prisons is the head of the Church of England's chaplaincy to prisons. He is also an ''ex officio'' member of the House of Clergy of the General Synod. Chaplains-general :''Smith was the first chaplain-general.'' *1946-1961 ...

and two members selected by the

Anglican religious order Anglican religious orders are communities of men or women (or in some cases mixed communities of both men and women) in the Anglican Communion who live under a common rule of life. The members of religious orders take vows which often include ...

References

{{Reflist, 30em

Composition

Election

References

See also