From 2000 to January 2013, he served as Prolocutor of the Lower House of the Convocation of York and also as a member of the Crown Nominations Commission and the Archbishops' Council.
In February 1718 he clashed with George Stanhope in the lower house of Convocation; Stanhope was prolocutor of the house, and interrupted Tenison who was about to read a speech in favour of Hoadly by reading the formula proroguing the sitting.
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Stanhope, George, A Letter from the Prolocutor to the Reverend Dr. Edward Tenison, Archdeacon of Carmarthen, 1718
From the 1540s the presiding officer in the House of Commons became formally known as the "Speaker", having previously been referred to as the "prolocutor" or "parlour" (a semi-official position, often nominated by the monarch, that had existed ever since Peter de Montfort had acted as the presiding officer of the Oxford Parliament of 1258).