The Church of England has announced its plans to continue its push to introduce women bishops. The plans come out despite severe warnings from a range of commentators that the move could split the Church.
According to a leaked report to The Times newspaper, the Church is looking to consecrate its first women as early as 2012.The leaked report is in the form of a 69-page document that sets out how the Church should proceed in the immediate future, and the proposals will be up for discussion among bishops this week at a meeting in Leeds, reports The Times.
If approved, the proposals will then move forward for discussion at next month’s General Synod.
Also in the document, the current “flying bishops”, bishops assigned the task of caring for opponents of women bishops, will be withdrawn. In their place will be a new hybrid, states The Times – ‘Provincial Regional Bishops’ (PRB).
However, it is thought that a number of rebel bishops are looking to disrupt the process of bringing women bishops about, and that they are looking to delay the entire process by a further 5-10 years.
In particular, many Church experts have felt that the Church’s ordeal over homosexuals in the Church and in general society has left it so weak and frail that the extra weight of bringing in women bishops would clearly break the Anglican Communion at its roots.The Times report that the documents will be published publicly next week, and that they warn of “significant implications” in the aftermath of women bishop consecrations. It also states that allowing women bishops would also allow the Church to reveal its participation of the “sacrificial graciousness of God’s love.”
Within the proposals, women would even be able to be appointed as the Archbishop of Canterbury, as well as the Archbishop of York; the two highest positions within the Church of England.
The proposals indicate that if a diocese or province would not accept a women Archbishop of Canterbury, that the Bishops of London or Winchester would undertake the archiepiscopal duties.
New regional bishops would work under a new system entitles ‘Transferred Episcopal Arrangements’, within which the Episcopal functions of a woman diocesan bishop, such as ordinations and confirmations, will be transferred directly to a PRB where parishes chose to opt out of her care.
However, those opposed to the move are planning an emergency rally in London at the end of January, with more than 2,000 clergy, laity and bishops expected to turn out at Westminster Central Hall to voice their protests.
Women in the current day Church account for sixteen percent of full-time clergy and most hard-line opponents of women in the Church left after the first women was ordained in 1994, therefore, it is thought that such a widespread exodus would not be expected this time round.
Currently more than 1,000 of the total 13,000 parishes of the Church of England have passed resolutions that ban the appointment of women into the position of vicar.
