Chances of Women Bishops gaining recognition remains low

The debate over the consecration of women bishops in the Church of England has been reignited as a report has been revealed which proposes the banning of women archbishops.

The report was prepared by Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, who has carried out a three-year inquiry on the topic. Among the eight proposals, three of them have been accused of being sexist.

They propose:

- To allow women to become bishops but not archbishops of Canterbury or York;

- To deny women the chance to have their own dioceses;

- To require women be part of a team with at least one male bishop to chaperone them.

Christina Rees, a leading General Synod campaigner for women bishops, said, “This is insulting to women and to all members of the Church of England. Some of the options present an underlying attitude that can only be understood as coming from a patriarchal viewpoint and verging on misogyny. This is the theology of taint.”

For the other five proposals, there are three options of splitting the Church which only have male or female ministers. Only one would give women a full right to be appointed to every post in the Church. And one would see the Church retain the status quo where women are allowed to be ordained only as priest or deacons.

Nazir-Ali especially warned that if the Church opted for straight equality for women bishops, it may have to bear the high cost of losing many traditional evangelists and splitting of the church. “This would be an extremely grave situation,” he said.

Nazir-Ali, 55, who was born in Karachi, is seen as an evangelical and part of a 15-strong working party which began work in 2001 in the face of continuing pressure from pro-women factions to allow the consecration female bishops.

The report will be presented to the General Synod and debated early next year. A bitter battle seems to be emerging which is similar to the one that occurred 10 years ago when the ordinations of the first women priests took place in 1994.