THE CHURCH of England yesterday moved a step closer to ordaining women as bishops after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, warned against dropping the issue into the “difficult basket” and further delaying resolution.
After almost two decades of infighting, posturing and politicking over the issue among traditionalists and liberals, a fragile peace has emerged, with both sides accepting that local arrangements should be made for Anglicans wanting to exempt themselves from female leadership.
At the meeting in York of the General Synod, the ruling body of the Church of England, more than 370 of the 480-strong membership voted in favour of diocesan bishops being able to decide what provisions should be made for traditionalists.
It was not what the conservative evangelicals or Anglo-Catholics wanted. But after four days of bloody noses and bruising debates, it was all that was left.
Representatives from Women and the Church, the campaign group for greater equality and inclusivity for female clergy, said it was delighted with the outcome.
Its chair, Rev Rachel Weir, said concerns about sacrifice and accommodation had been heard.
“This overwhelming majority gives us a strong mandate to take this compromise to the dioceses, and it stands a very good chance of staying in the legislation.”
Traditionalists opposed to the compromise nevertheless supported it, fearing that the legislation would contain no provision for them at all.
On Saturday, the synod rejected their demands for extra dioceses and access to a class of male bishop who had never ordained a woman.
The Rev Rod Thomas, from the evangelical group Reform, said: “We were happy to vote for the compromise. Unless it got through, there would have been no proper basis for the dioceses to decide what sort of provision should be made. As long as that compromise is there, the issue will stay live. We would have been left with a single clause measure [with no provision]. One option was to join our opponents.”
He denied traditionalists had capitulated to the strong liberal sentiments of the Synod, or that their fight was over.
“It does not mean that we will vote for this legislation when it comes back to Synod in two years time. We will vote against it.”
Earlier in the day, the Archbishop of Canterbury made an impromptu presidential address calling for a cessation of hostilities between factions.
He asked them to work in the interests of “those who will be taking different decisions from our own, different paths from our own”, and urged them to resist any procedural devices wrecking or stalling the legislative process.
“It’s very tempting at times of stress and difficulty, such as we have been through in the last couple of days, to think: ‘We’ll drop it in the difficult basket.’ I don’t really think that’s an option.”
Leading evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics made last-ditch attempts to stall the legislation, asking for more time, but members shouted down their pleas.
In a few weeks, the archbishops of Canterbury and York will send the draft legislation to the Church of England’s 43 dioceses for discussion and scrutiny.
The process, which can take up to two years, does not allow them to substantially change it, but they can propose major amendments, which would then be debated and voted on at General Synod.
There is a chance the draft legislation could still fall without majority approval at regional level or at General Synod in 2012. If it is approved then, the first women bishops would be appointed in 2014.
The air turned sour in the chamber when a fractious, prolonged discussion broke out over whether clergy leaving the Church of England over the ordination of women as bishops should receive financial compensation.
More than 500 clergy have left the Church of England since the 1990s, when Synod agreed to allow women into the priesthood, receiving payouts totalling £27.4 million (€32.6 million). Some of them later returned to the fold.
In 2008, about 1,300 clergy threatened to leave if Synod removed legal obstacles barring the ordination of women as bishops. – (Guardian service)