Australia’s Ban on Women Bishops Divides the Anglican Church

The debate of women bishop consecration in the Anglican Church has been reignited in Australia as a "fair answer" was given through a vote on Tuesday night.

Anglicans are seemingly divided into three main positions. Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics oppose women bishops; liberals want them without any reservations, and the middle position wants women bishops but with a provision for parishes that cannot accept them.

The Bill that suggested the consecration of women bishops was submitted to the General Synod. In a historic vote on Tuesday, the Bill surprisingly passed in the House of Bishops, with 17 of 23 votes, but failed in both clergy (63 yes, 43 no) and laity (67 yes, 39 no). This meant that just over 61 per cent of delegates had agreed with the move. The Bill was then turned down as it failed to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority in the Church’s three decision-making bodies; the Houses of clergy, laity and bishops.

Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen, who led the opposition, expressed his sympathy for those who voted for women bishops. Archbishop Jensen, stressed that the objections do not arise from motives such as misogyny or authority of the clergy. He told the General Synod that it was based on the principle and the practice in relation to the Bible and the unity of the Church.

Archbishop Jensen said it was a good result. He firmly believes that the decision is an affirmation of God's word and there is something that God is teaching them.

Immediately after the vote, supporters of women bishops continued to insist that they would carry on fighting for the move. Gippsland Bishop Jeff Driver, the Chairman of the special committee on women bishops said, “We are sitting here with a lot of grief. There is a pastoral task for the Church now.”

Muriel Porter, a Melbourne laywoman who worked on the "Women in the Episcopate" legislation said denying women’s admission to the most senior level of ministry sent a message of sexism to the current female priests.

Despite the fact that the Bill of women bishop consecration has failed to pass, and 23 bishops across the country have indicated they will abide by the synod’s decision, some information revealed that the names of women priests were already being put forward as potential bishops in some dioceses like Perth, Adelaide and possibly Canberra/Goulburn.

Acknowledging that it may involve some legal issues in case a woman is ordained as a bishop against the Church’s decisions, Bishop George Browning of the Canberra/Goulburn diocese is now seeking legal consultant.

Bishop Browning expressed his concern, “I need to uphold the integrity of my own diocese which is very strongly in favour, and have a significant number of women performing excellent ministries who are now capable of being bishops. It is wrong of us not to try our very best to proceed for them.”

Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen said he feared if a diocese decided to unilaterally appoint a woman bishop it could cause a rift in the Church.

The first woman priest in Australia Anglican Church was ordained in 1992 by Archbishop Peter Carnley of Perth. The General Synod of that year in Sydney later approved in two sessions the ordination of women as priests. For its English counterpart - the Church of England - the first woman priest was ordained in 1994 and now the Church is also under the schism whether to consecrate women bishop or not.

Dating back to the history of Anglican Communion, Li Tim-Oi became the first woman ordained as an Anglican priest in Hong Kong in 1944.

Archbishop Peter Watson from Australia noted that the Church should have a consistent standard concerning the women ministries - if women should not be bishops, nor should they be Church wardens or priests or sit in synods. In his opinion, leadership of the Anglican Church has already been diffused and shared, consecration of women ministers for higher positions in the Church will be a next natural step.