Lucy Harrison
Edmund Burke famously said that for evil to triumph it was only necessary for good people to do nothing. Our society faces many issues about the quality of our life together, how we care for those in need, and what we need to do in order to establish a more equitable and sustainable society.
Local councillors are people who give their time and energy to trying to help us work at these issues in our own neighbourhoods. The privilege of living in a democracy means that each of us can play a part in deciding upon the priorities that should be pursued.
As people who are called to care about the quality of life of all God’s children, Christians need to take a lead in expressing our views and using our votes.
I would encourage all of us to look at the issues being debated in our own locality, to assess the aspirations of each candidate, and to exercise our precious right to vote. Our communities need people to stand up for Christian values – fairness, especial concern for the stranger and the needy, challenge to policies which might benefit only particular groups rather than seeking to bind together better all citizens and their concerns.
Jesus paid taxes. Paul called for positive support for good government. We need to play our part - in times of such political apathy this might mean that our voice can be especially significant, as a witness and a model of responsible citizenship.
Vote – and avoid the danger of the forces of chaos flourishing because good people did nothing.
The Capability Procedure enables the bishop to address, through a fair and transparent process, the problems that arise when clergy fail, for whatever reason, to perform their duties to an acceptable standard. The procedure is designed to be supportive and to give clergy the time, training and resources they need to improve. If in the last resort an officeholder is removed under this procedure, he or she will have the right to bring a claim of unfair dismissal to an independent employment tribunal.
Copies of the Code of Practice and the guidelines can be obtained from https://www.churchofengland.org/search-results?keys=common+tenure
It is important to note that the purpose of the capability procedure is improvement. It is also appropriate to draw your attention to the words in Part I Introductory note of the Code of Practice (Page3) which makes it clear that it is expected that most performance related matters will be identified and addressed informally without engaging the procedure. Nevertheless there will be times when informal steps will not be appropriate and in these instances the procedure will be used.
The Diocese undertakes to train all those who will be involved in capability panels so that they may properly fulfill the requirements of the procedure and the principles that underlie it. Further detail of the Diocesan approach may be found in Section 9 of the Clergy Handbook (Common Tenure)
