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C of E moves closer to accepting women bishops
-08/02/06
The Church of England edged closer to consecrating its first woman bishop yesterday.
After a three-hour debate, the General Synod agreed to “take note” of a report by a House of Bishops working party intended to smooth the path towards women bishops and archbishops by making concessions to opponents.
Speakers on both sides of the debate said that the proposals could increase disunity, institutionalise sexism and damage the Church’s image.
The divisions are expected to become sharper during another debate tomorrow in which the Synod will have to decide how to proceed over the next six months.
Under the proposals, drawn up by a working party headed by the Bishop of Guildford, the Rt Rev Christopher Hill, all bishops’ posts would become legally open to women, possibly by as early as 2012.
But parishes that rejected female bishops would be able to opt instead for the care of a male traditionalist bishop.
Bishop Hill said his group was steering a middle course by looking for “a structural solution, though not a separate structure”.
The report was supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who will lead tomorrow’s debate.
Tomorrow the general synod will debate whether to accept the recommendations of the working party report, and therefore to move one more step towards a firm decision at its next meeting in July.
That decision will be the culmination of a 30-year debate since the church decided in 1975 that there were no fundamental theological objections to women’s ordination. Even so, some in the synod warned yesterday that the decision should not be used to pre-empt the decisions of other churches which remain opposed to ordaining women.
This week Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, head of the Catholic church in England and Wales, expressed caution about welcoming Anglicans for conversion, as his predecessor did in 1994 after the CofE’s original decision. The Rt Rev Christopher Hill, Bishop of Guildford, whose working party recommended the establishment of Teas – transferred episcopal arrangements – which would enable parishes opposed to women bishops to be administered by like-minded male bishops, said: “We already know both the pain and the complexity of non-recognition of women’s ministry … These are not intended pre-emptive strikes, rather to recognise areas for continued discussion.”
The proposal exasperates supporters of women’s ordination for discriminating between clergy by gender and annoys some opponents for not giving them their own separate province.
Christina Rees, one of the women’s campaigners, said: “Please do not build new walls. For the past two years we have had equal numbers of men and women being selected for ordination training and it won’t be that long before it becomes visibly and damagingly apparent that the church has one rule for clergy who are male and one for clergy who are female.”
But Jane Bisson, from Jersey, told the synod: “It’s enough to bring you to tears to see the church that I have loved for a very long time tearing itself apart all for the sake of the female of the species.”
The theologian Anthony Thiselton of Nottingham told the synod: “We may passionately believe that women should, or should not, be bishops, but we will not actually know until the last judgment.”
Related Searches(UK visitors only)
Church of England
Women Bishops
General Synod
Archbishop of Canterbury
Anglicanism
House of Bishops
Inclusive Church
Affirming Catholicism
Bishop of Guildford
C of E moves closer to accepting women bishops
-08/02/06
The Church of England edged closer to consecrating its first woman bishop yesterday.
After a three-hour debate, the General Synod agreed to “take note” of a report by a House of Bishops working party intended to smooth the path towards women bishops and archbishops by making concessions to opponents.
Speakers on both sides of the debate said that the proposals could increase disunity, institutionalise sexism and damage the Church’s image.
The divisions are expected to become sharper during another debate tomorrow in which the Synod will have to decide how to proceed over the next six months.
Under the proposals, drawn up by a working party headed by the Bishop of Guildford, the Rt Rev Christopher Hill, all bishops’ posts would become legally open to women, possibly by as early as 2012.
But parishes that rejected female bishops would be able to opt instead for the care of a male traditionalist bishop.
Bishop Hill said his group was steering a middle course by looking for “a structural solution, though not a separate structure”.
The report was supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who will lead tomorrow’s debate.
Tomorrow the general synod will debate whether to accept the recommendations of the working party report, and therefore to move one more step towards a firm decision at its next meeting in July.
That decision will be the culmination of a 30-year debate since the church decided in 1975 that there were no fundamental theological objections to women’s ordination. Even so, some in the synod warned yesterday that the decision should not be used to pre-empt the decisions of other churches which remain opposed to ordaining women.
This week Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, head of the Catholic church in England and Wales, expressed caution about welcoming Anglicans for conversion, as his predecessor did in 1994 after the CofE’s original decision. The Rt Rev Christopher Hill, Bishop of Guildford, whose working party recommended the establishment of Teas – transferred episcopal arrangements – which would enable parishes opposed to women bishops to be administered by like-minded male bishops, said: “We already know both the pain and the complexity of non-recognition of women’s ministry … These are not intended pre-emptive strikes, rather to recognise areas for continued discussion.”
The proposal exasperates supporters of women’s ordination for discriminating between clergy by gender and annoys some opponents for not giving them their own separate province.
Christina Rees, one of the women’s campaigners, said: “Please do not build new walls. For the past two years we have had equal numbers of men and women being selected for ordination training and it won’t be that long before it becomes visibly and damagingly apparent that the church has one rule for clergy who are male and one for clergy who are female.”
But Jane Bisson, from Jersey, told the synod: “It’s enough to bring you to tears to see the church that I have loved for a very long time tearing itself apart all for the sake of the female of the species.”
The theologian Anthony Thiselton of Nottingham told the synod: “We may passionately believe that women should, or should not, be bishops, but we will not actually know until the last judgment.”