At this week’s Church of England General Synod, the issue over women bishops has been brought to the forefront of discussions once again.
The Church’s plans to allow women bishops were criticised as discriminatory by a series of speakers. Current proposals would allow parishes to take advantage of an opt-out scheme, deciding whether or not they would like the parish would like to be put under the care of women bishops.The plans have been created in the way they have, in the hope that they are satisfactory to both sides of the debate, and so can be used as a way of maintaining in the strained Church body.
The Church of England’s General Synod is taking place in Central London over this week, and members that have voiced their support for female bishops have also now said that the ‘opt-out’ plans would devalue the role of bishops.
Originally, the ‘opt-out’ plans were laid down in the Guildford Report for the House of Bishops, and they would mean all bishop appointments would be legally opened to women. Although no exact date was set, it was thought that women bishops were a possibility as early as 2012.
The proposals continued discussing that parishes rejecting female bishops would be able to instead opt for the care of a group of male bishops under a plan known as Transferred Episcopal Arrangements (TEA).
However, a number of speakers spoke out against this scheme. Christina Rees, of Royston, Hertfordshire, a synod member from the St Albans diocese, urged the church to "do better".Rees said, “For the past two years, there have been 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 another for clergy who are female,” according to the Guardian newspaper.
“Pretty soon, we won't be able to promote the mission-shaped church with any integrity. How would we like to explain the TEA proposals to the young people we are trying to draw into our churches?” she continued.
