Forward in Faith has now had the opportunity of examining the 1,333 signatories to the Open Letter in some detail and, in the interests of transparency and in order to correct mis-information given elsewhere, sets out below some salient facts.

¨       The letter has been signed by twenty-one bishops; eleven of these are in office and a further two serve as incumbents, as well as Honorary Assistant Bishops.  Of the remaining eight, six serve as Honorary Assistant Bishops, one ministers episcopally only on occasion and one is now, sadly, inactive.

¨       458 of the signatories are incumbents (or of incumbent status); 90 signatories serve as assistant curates, of whom just over half are stipendiary.

¨       Amongst the signatories are at least seven permanent women deacons.

¨       Of the retired signatories, only 70 are inactive.  The remainder all minister to some degree, according to their age and situation, often taking significant degrees of responsibility, particularly in rural areas.

¨       The aggregate years of service remaining to those signatories who have yet to retire amounts (to age 70) to 12,335 years.  (Based on a 48 week year, and a 40 hour week, this would equate to a total of 23,683,200 man/woman hours.)