Anglicans vote to permit female bishops

The Church of England has ruled that women should be able to become bishops, but there will be further discussions in the dioceses, and another synod vote by next year before they can be ordained.

Traditionalist Anglicans who opposed the move had sought exemptions from serving under female bishops as well as guaranteed access to male alternatives. However, the General Synod of the church decided that female bishops should be able to decide the identity of any bishop entering their dioceses and would also be able to dictate the functions these bishops could carry out.

While supporters of the ruling celebrated a breakthrough, some traditionalists left the room in tears. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams Archbishop of York John Sentamu had put forward the compromise plan, which would have allowed parishes unwilling to serve under a female bishop to call upon the oversight of a male alternative bishop, serving in a kind of 'joint jurisdiction' over those parishes.

The proposal gained a majority of votes in the synod as a whole, but failed because Anglican clergy, apart from the bishops and the laity, defeated it by five votes.

Reverend David Houlding, a leading member of the Catholic Group on the General Synod, said he felt traditionalists had run out of options, and would soon be having to make "hard decisions" about their future.

He said in an interview, "I am staying in the Church of England for the time being until I am driven out. I am not going willingly, I will only go if forced. The more this goes on in this manner, the more it seems as if the door is shutting."

However, Christina Rees, a member of the General Synod and chairwoman of Women in the Church, said July 12 decision was "very, very good news."

The Episcopal Church of the US, a constituent member church of the Anglican Communion, has had female bishops for several decades and its current presiding bishop is a woman. In addition, it has placed V. Gene Robinson, a openly homosexual man, as a bishop as well.

Numerous Anglican clergy and laity have left the Church of England in recent years, citing disagreement over the ordination of women to the priesthood and bishoprics.