Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Church of England to vote on appointment of female bishops


Reverend Sally Hitchiner crosses her fingers outside Church House in advance of a vote on woman bishopsThe Church of England's General Synod will vote later today on whether to appoint women bishops.

The houses of bishops and clergy are expected to support the move with the necessary two-thirds majority.

But it is thought that among lay members the vote could be very close.

Current Bishop of Durham and next Archbishop of Canterbury Reverend Justin Welby urged the synod to set aside their differences and take all views into account before .

The Bishop of Durham told the synod he was "deeply committed" to seeing that concessions to opponents of women's ordination were carried out.

He said the Church needed to show it could "manage diversity of view without division - diversity in amity, not diversity in enmity."

Twenty years after the introduction of women priests, the issue continues to divide traditionalists - among those on the Church's evangelical and Anglo-catholic wings - from reformers.

Remaining divisions in the synod centre on whether concessions - under which parishes objecting to women bishops can request to be placed under a stand-in male bishop - go far enough, or too far.

If backed by the synod, the legislation would then make its way through Parliament and could lead to the first women bishops being ordained by 2014.