The House of Keys has voted to both remove the Bishop’s vote and affirm its support for the Diocese of Sodor and Man.
Members backed a LegCo report which examined the historical and constitutional role of the Bishop.
That report concluded that “the loss of the bishop’s vote makes it likely that the Church of England will consider the future of a separate Diocese of Sodor and Man.”
Rob Callister warned the decision could have “consequences for the island’s future, its identity and its place in the history books”.
However, his later bid for an indefinite adjournment, which Speaker Juan Watterson said would effectively kill the bill, was defeated by members.
An amendment by Chris Thomas, which committed the Keys to “celebrate the unique and important history” of the Bishop and “strongly support the continuation of a separate Diocese,” passed with strong support.
Identity
Several members linked the Bishop’s role to Manx identity. Jason Moorhouse MHK stated, “the role of the bishop is viewed by many as key to island life, key to tradition and key to where we are today.” Tim Glover MHK added the Diocese is “something that makes us stand out from the rest.”
However, proponents of removing the Bishop’s vote argued the decision should be separate from the Diocese’s future.
Lawrie Hooper, who brought the private members’ bill to remove the vote, said: “If Tynwald decides that they would not support the removal of the Diocese, that is entirely up to Tynwald.”
Joney Faragher also challenged the premise that tradition alone was a valid argument, asking, “why the Church of England values its vote in our parliament so highly that it would consider ending the diocese”.
During the debate on the vote itself, Chief Minister Alf Cannan said he would support adjourning the vote and argued that the Bishop “does actually have as much of a mandate as any member of that Legislative Council”.
However, David Ashford rejected such calls saying members needed to make a decision.
Mr Hooper added: “We have debated this bill to death. It has gone around and around with the same debate, in fact, about seven times now, and nothing’s changed.
“None of the arguments have changed, none of the information has changed, we don’t know anything now that we didn’t know at the start of the process.”
The Keys eventually voted to back the LegCo amendments to the bill, which will remove the vote either the day after the tenure of the current Bishop Patricia Hillas ends or on the fifth anniversary of its Royal Assent, by a vote of 18-6.