THE Church of England took the first step at the General Synod meeting in Westminster yesterday towards the consecration of women bishops.
The first are now expected to be consecrated before the end of the decade, opening the way for a woman Archbishop of Canterbury within a generation.
The process to remove the legal obstacles preventing the ordination of women to the episcopate is expected to begin in earnest at the next synod meeting in York in July.
The Bishop of Rochester, the Right Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, who chaired the working party that examined the theology of women bishops, said that the evidence from the Bible and the Church Fathers indicated clearly that women exercised leadership in the early Church.
“No one reading the history of the Church can fail to be impressed with the apostolate exercised by faithful women down the centuries,” he said.
Advertisement
Regarding the timing of the debate, he said: “There are those who feel that, as a matter of justice, women priests should now be eligible for episcopal appointments and the Church’s credibility is being damaged, both among her own members and in the world, because of the bar on women being bishops.
“There are others, however, who argue that now is not the right time. The Church is facing a number of serious issues which threaten to divide it. Is this really the time to introduce another cause of division?”
Christina Rees, from St Albans, Hertfordshire, the chairman of Watch, the successor to the Movement for the Ordination of Women which has campaigned for women bishops, said: “Contrary to what some say, by having women and men ministering together at all levels we will not be conforming to the world, but we will be most truly counter-cultural, showing what authentic equality is in a way that the world does not.”
The first women priests were ordained in 1994, two years after the synod voted to ordain them but 19 years after it agreed, optimistically, that there were “no fundamental objections to the ordination of women to priesthood”.
The intervening period was spent debating the many fundamental objections that subsequently emerged.
Advertisement
The move towards women bishops is expected to take far less time because most of the fundamental objectors have now left the synod, if not the Church. More than 720 priests have resigned, with 424 qualifying for compensation that cost the Church £26 million, the synod was told.
Their loss has been more than outweighed by the ordination of several thousand women, of whom more than 1,200 are now in stipendiary posts. In addition, 1,000 parishes, less than one tenth of the total, have passed a resolution stating that they will not accept a woman priest.
Any decision to ordain women bishops will have to incorporate a means of enabling such parishes to remain within the Church.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, moving the motion that the synod should debate the matter in July, said: “The starting point is of course that there remain deeply held divergent views on the underlying issues.”
He disclosed that the Church’s bishops have set up a group, chaired by the Bishop of Guildford, the Right Rev Christopher Hill, which will meet for the first time this week to examine the options for the legislation that will need to take into account the views of opponents as well as supporters.
Advertisement
The Ven Joy Tetley, Archdeacon of Worcester and one of the women most likely to be ordained a bishop, is to be consultant to the group.
Dr Williams said: “The balance is not easy between undue haste and undue delay.” He called for “mutual prayer and patience and mutual understanding” as the bishops examine the practical options ahead.
Rachel Beck, 24, from Sheffield, said that most people were amazed that the Church was exempt from sex discrimination legislation. She said: “The fact that the Church has no women in the episcopate appears to most people outside it as strange and archaic.”
The Archbishop added: “These are . . . sensitive and deep, far-reaching issues. They are indeed about what kind of Church we think we want to be.” He faces an even more difficult debate today on homosexuals in the Church.
THE PATH TO A BROADER CHURCH
Advertisement
July 2005: General Synod to start legislative process to remove obstacles to women being ordained bishops
January 2006: House of Bishops reports to General Synod on various options, such as making space for opponents
February 2006: Lawyers begin drafting legislation
July 2006-February 2008: Draft measure and canon introduced to synod, followed by revision and reference to diocesan synods
July 2008-February 2010: Legislation goes before synod for final approval, requiring a two thirds majority in each house. The measure then goes before Parliament for scrutiny, including by the Ecclesiastical Committee. It then goes for Royal Assent
Advertisement
Easter 2010: Possible ordination of the first woman bishop