Bishop of St Albans: "Men and women equal as bishops"

|TOP|The Bishop of St Albans has voiced his support for the ordination of women bishops, debated last week in the Church of England General Synod.

According to the St Albans Observer, the Rt. Rev. Christopher Herbert voiced the belief that it is anomalous that women should be disallowed from becoming bishops when the Church already ordains women priests.

He went on to stress the unique and vital role of women in the Bible urging that they be ascribed equal value to men in the church.

"The very beginning and continuation of Jesus' life depended on his mother, Mary, and his resurrection was witnessed by women; they were obviously fully a part of Jesus' life,” said Rev. Hebert.

"God identifies with men and women equally and calls men and women equally.

|QUOTE|"Every generation has to look at the Bible afresh and think through what the Bible means to them."
Last week the introduction of women bishops into the Church of England seemed to move a step closer after the General Synod overwhelmingly offered its support to a compromise plan on the issue.

Thursday at the Synod saw discussions continue, and a debate led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams result in just one member of the Church’s ruling body stand in opposition to proposals that could see women bishops introduced by 2012.

Overall, 348 members of the Synod backed the call for “further exploration” of the compromise proposal issued by Dr Williams. Therefore, the Church will now undertake further investigations of how exactly the proposals to allow parishes to opt-out of the care of women bishops can be implemented.

The proposed scheme has been titled Transferred Episcopal Arrangements (TEA), and is seen as a compromise that will welcome women bishops without completely isolating those against the plans.

|AD|Dr Williams, the spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, told that the Church was in “uncharted territory”, but that keeping the status quo was not an option.

He continued, “We are all in schism, as somebody said many years ago. It is not a question of legislating for schism or providing for schism or whatever - we are there already.

“A question is how we handle it prayerfully, mindfully and decently, and, I would add, hopefully.”

Bishop Herbert voiced scepticism over the proposal of the so-called “flying bishops” to cover parishes that do not accept women bishops, saying that the idea may be “difficult.

He added: “I could work but it needs a lot of thought.”
Synod also called on the Government for more funding to maintain the 16,000 parish churches and 43 cathedrals across Britain in urgent need of repair.

Bishop Christopher said: "I would hope that the Government and nation will recognise that cathedrals are very important for heritage reasons but just as important for the work they do in their communities. We receive the least money of all the countries in Europe for church buildings yet they are very heavily visited. I hope the Government will support these buildings rather than asking individuals to fund them it is a huge amount to ask of those who go to church to keep the buildings up."